Rockchip RK32xx Category - Page 11 of 26 - CNX Software

April 11, 2016April 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Zidoo X1 II 4K Android TV Box (Rockchip RK3229) Review

After skipping MXQ-4K TV box review due to severe issues with video playback, Zidoo X1 II is actually the first device powered by Rockchip RK3229 processor that I’ve fully tested. I’ve already taken pictures of the box, and opened it up to check the board in Zidoo X1 II unboxing and teardown post, and confirmed 4K videos could play pretty well from my USB hard drive using Zidoo Media Center after disabling Media Scanner process. So today, I’ll review other parts of the firmware, as well as video playback with ZDMC 16.0, Zidoo’s fork of Kodi 16.0. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions The device only has two USB ports, and I used one for a USB hard drive, and the other for RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse, a USB keyboard, and the RF dongle for Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad via a USB hub. I also […]

April 7, 2016April 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Rockchip RK3229 Video Playback Take 2 – 10-bit H.264 & H.265, Audio HD Pass-through with Zidoo X1 II

A few weeks ago I tried to play 4K videos in MXQ-4K TV box powered by Rockchip RK3229 processor. The device costs only about $30 including shipping, and it would have been if it could indeed play 10-bit H.265 and 10-bit H.264 videos for that price point, but sadly the results were catastrophic, and most of my 4K videos were unwatchable, either playing in slow motion, or with many slow downs and audio cuts. This happens in all players be it Kodi or Androids Video Player with the worst results occurring when playing from USB hard drive with network share video playback being a bit better. But I have now tested another Rockchip RK3229 based TV box – Zidoo X1 II – and the results are much better, so I also decided to show the results of HD audio pass-through over HDMI too. I played the videos from USB hard […]

March 31, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Unboxing and Teardown of Zidoo X1 II Android TV Box

MXQ-4K, the first Android TV box based on Rockchip RK3229 I received, was a massive disappointment to me as it was unusable to play 4K videos possibly due to CPU throttling and/or poorly optimized USB storage support. So I was eager to try another device based on the latest Rockchip media processor with support for 4K 10-bit H.265 and H.264 video playback, and Zidoo sent their Zidoo X1 II TV box for review on CNX Software. Today, I’ll start by checking the device and the hardware, before testing the firmware later on. Zidoo X1 II Unboxing I got the device by DHL in the usual Zidoo’s white and green package with some icons representing the key features: 4K, 3D, ZIUI user interface, WiFI, 10-bit HEVC… ZDMC is the custom version of Kodi developed by the company, and that makes Zidoo one of the rare companies to respect Kodi’s trademark. The […]

March 22, 2016July 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Rockchip RK3229 based MXQ 4K System Info and Antutu Benchmark

Since MXQ-4K TV box is not working well enough, even after a firmware update, I’ve decided not to do a full review. But since this is the first Rockchip RK3229 device I’ve received, I’ll still share some system information (CPU-Z) and Antutu benchmark results. Rorkchip RK3229 is detected as a quad core Cortex A7 processor between 408 MHz and 1.46 GHz with a Mali-400MP GPU. CPU-Z does not know about it, so it only detect RK3066, meaning the manufacturing process (40 nm) is wrongly reported, and RK3229 is manufactured using a 28nm process. The model us MXQ-4K (rk322x) with the board simply called rk30sdk. They’ve also set the framebuffer resolution to 1280×720 probably due to the limited performance of Mali-400MP GPU. Internal storage is shown to be 3.81GB large, but that’s because I modified the firmware, and it’s now 1.44GB with the latest firmware. Rockchip RK3229 does not support Android […]

March 21, 2016March 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

GearBest 2nd Anniversary Promo Offers Cheap TV Boxes and Routers

GearBest has become fairly popular since it launched two years ago, mostly thanks to aggressive pricing, promotions, and coupons, and the company is celebrating its anniversary with some more discounts with recent TV boxes as low as $23, routers for $12 and up, and other accessories. Some potentially interesting deals include: Chiptrip MXV S805 TV box with Amlogic S805 and Android 4.4 for $29.99 Beelink X2 TV box with Allwinner H3 and Android 4.4 for $26.89 MX4 TV box running Android 4.4 on Rockchip RK3229 for $22.99 Xiaomi Mi WiFi mini 802.11ac router for $28.49 (Update: also found on eBay for $21.70 shipped) oops that’s the Youth Edition, only 802.11n) EasyCast WiFi Display Dongle for $11.99 NEXX WT3020F OpenWrt compatible router for $12.74 Please note that some are flash sales with 100 to 300 pieces, and discounted prices may not be active right now. [Update: Finally, only the flash sales […]

March 21, 2016August 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

MXQ-4K RK3229 TV Box Firmware Update – March 8, 2016

MXQ-4K is one of the first TV boxes based on Rockchip RK3229 processor, and while it promised a lot with regards to high bitrate 4K H.265, H.264 and VP9 videos, it failed it deliver when I tested some videos from a USB hard drive, and its Antutu score varies from 12,000 to 19,000 depending on the ambient temperature… The company has now released a new firmware, albeit without any changelog. The build number is rk322x-eng 4.4.4 KTU84Q eng.hotack.2016.03.08.102208 test-keys meaning it was build on March 8, 2016. There are about three apps for OTA firmware update in the January firmware, but none of them worked, so I had to update firmware using the “USB OTG” method, meaning all your settings and apps will be wiped out, so if you don’t have a backup, be prepare to re-install everything. So first, you’ll need to download the firmware (MXQ-4K_ota_20160308.zip), and extract it. […]

March 15, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linux 4.5 Released – Main Changes, ARM and MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 4.5 on Sunday: So this is later on a Sunday than my usual schedule, because I just couldn’t make up my mind whether I should do another rc8 or not, and kept just waffling about it. In the end, I obviously decided not to,but it could have gone either way. We did have one nasty regression that got fixed yesterday, and the networking pull early in the week was larger than I would have wished for. But the block layer should be all good now, and David went through all his networking commits an extra time just to make me feel comfy about it, so in the end I didn’t see any point to making the release cycle any longer than usual. And on the whole, everything here is pretty small. The diffstat looks a bit larger for an xfs fix, because that fix has […]

March 9, 2016March 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

10-bit H.264 and H.265 Video Playback in MXQ-4K Rockchip RK3229 TV Box

Rockchip RK3229 is an exciting media processor because it’s found in ultra low cost TV Boxes such as MXQ-4K, outputs up to 4K @ 60 Hz, and supports 4K video decoding of 10-bit H.264, 10-bit H.265 and VP9, including videos with very high bitrates (200+ Mbps). That’s the theory, which I’ve put to the test with MXQ-4K TV box. Since the network interfaces of the device are limited to 100M Ethernet and 802.11n WiFi, and some videos are well above 100 Mbps, I’ve decided to test video playback from a USB hard drive instead. I’ve tried the three pre-installed video player apps: Kodi 15.1, “Video”, and “Video Player” , and they all have similar capabilities except Kodi is a little less stable on this device. The system detected my 4K TV (LG ) and automatically set the resolution to 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz, which I used for the remainder of […]