Kingnovel K-R68 4K Android STB Unboxing

Kingnovel has sent me a sample of their K-R68 Android media player powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash. Today I’ll start by listing the product specifications, before showing pictures of the device and PCBA. A full review will follow in the next few days. Kingnovel K-R68 specifications The box technical specifications as shown in the product manual are pretty standard: SoC –  Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A12/A17 processor @ 2.0 GHz (TBC) with ARM Mali-T764 quad-core 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1, and DirectX11 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 (Optional 4GB DDR3) Storage – 8GB flash (16G/32G optional) + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60fps, 3.5mm AV jack Audio Output – HDMI,  AV, and optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, H.265, RV,.. @ 4K resolution Video Containers – […]

Cloud Media OpenHour Chameleon Quad Core TV Box Boots Android or Linux from SD Card

Cloud Media, previously known  as Syabas, has been selling Popcorn Hour media players based on Linux for several years, but with OpenHour Chameleon the company is about to launch their first Android media player powered by Rockchip RK3288. The device is similar to other RK3288 TV boxes, except it does not come with internal storage at all, and instead boots Android 4.4.2 from a provided 8GB SD card, with later plans to have support for Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu. Another particularity is that they’ll use an aluminum casing for better heat dissipation of the Rockchip RK3288 processor which can get pretty hot… OpenHour Chameleon specifications: SoC –  Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A12 / A17 processor with ARM Mali-T764 quad-core 3D GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – No Internal storage + SD card slot with 8GB card (including […]

Rockchip RK3288 Android 4.4.2 SDK and Schematics Released for Firefly Board

Firefly-RK3288 development board was first announced in July. I still don’t have news about availability nor pricing, but the T-Firefly website launched yesterday. They seem do have a nice Wiki, but unfortunately everything is currently in Chinese, except when you go to the download page. You’ll find firmware upgrade_tool for Linux and Windows, the USB drivers for rooting and firmware update, firmware images (Android 4.4.2, Ubuntu 14.04, and dual boot), the board schematics (PDF), and Android KitKat 4.4.2 SDK with U-Boot, Linux, and Android source code, some documentation, XBMC apk (no source) with H.265 hardware decode support for MP4, MOV and MKV container formats. The SDK is available on Bitbucket. I planned to test it, but unfortunately my network connection is very slow (and unstable) to this server, and I failed to retrieve it with git clone. The company also posted the build instructions in Chinese in their website, but […]

Tronsmart Orion R28 (Beta) TV Boxes with Rockchip RK3288 SoC Feature up to 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, Come with Android SDK

I’ve recently reviewed my first Rockchip RK3288 Android mini PC, UyeSee G1H, and while it’s not catastrophic, the box still have stability issues related to Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, AV video output, Wi-Fi performance and so on. Now Geekbuying has just announced availability of the beta versions of their Tronsmart Orion R28 Android TV box also powered by the quad core ARM Cortex A12/A17 processor. This first batch (180 pieces) is geared towards tinkerers and “ROM makers”, rather than people who just want something that works, and these first boxes will ship with an Android SDK (5.1GB) on a micro SD card. [Update: link to SDK] There will be three models: Orion R28 Pro (8GB flash, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi), Orion R28 Meta (16GB flash, 802.11ac Wi-Fi), and Orion R28 Telos (4GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC, 802.11ac Wi-Fi). They’ve just manufactured the first two models in the first batch, with 90 pieces […]

Review of UyeSee G1H Rockchip RK3288 Android TV Box

UyeSee G1H is one of the first Android TV boxes powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 SoC. I’ve already listed specs, and shown a few pictures of the device and the board in my “UyeSee G1H Unboxing” post, so today I’ll write a full review, checking out the user interface, testing video playback capabilities, network and storage performance, play a few games, check hardware features are working as expected, and runs some benchmarks on the platform. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions There’s an infrared remote control with the device. I’ve inserted a CR2032 battery, and although it works great in the user interface, it becomes useless with Android apps, so instead I’ve opted to use Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse which brings mouse and keyboard support. Before powering up the device, I’ve connected an HDMI cable, the RF dongle for Mele F10 Deluxe, a USB hard drive, […]

Unboxing of UyeSee G1H Android TV Box Powered by Rockchip RK3288

So finally after month of waiting, and various delays, Rockchip RK3288 based Android TV box are finally coming to market. Shenzhen UyeSee Technology is the first company to send me a sample with their G1H Android TV Box, as well as their M2 wireless music streaming receiver, which will be the subject of another post. I’ll list the specifications and show some pictures of the media player and board today, and write a full review in a few days. UyeSee G1H Specifications These are the specifications provided by the company, reformatted in CNXSoft style :): SoC –  Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex A17 processor @ 1.8GHz with ARM Mali-T764 quad-core 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1, and DirectX11 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (2GB Optional) Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (16G/32G optional) + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ […]

$122 MK903V May Be the First Android HDMI TV Dongle Powered by Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Most of currently announced Rockchip RK3288 based Android mini PCs comes in box form factor, rather than in HDMI stick form factor, but I’ve been informed that MK903V is one of the first HDMI stick based on the latest Rockchip quad core Cortex A17 SoC. MK903V specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core CortexA17 @ 1.8 GHz (likely 1.6 GHz or lower) + Mali-T764 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity – dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) with external Wi-Fi antenna, and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6330) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 output (male) up to 4k2k @ 60 fps USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 2x micro USB ports (1x OTG, 1x for power) Misc – Firmware update button (pinhole). Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions […]

How to Upgrade Firmware in Rockchip RK3288, RK3328, RK3399 Android TV Boxes

For some reasons, Rockchip is extremely fond of Windows based firmware tools, and instead of providing a simple SD card method, they’ve continued to use these awful tools to upgrade firmware for Rockchip RK3288, RK3328, RK3399 devices, and other Rockchip based TV boxes. I don’t mean to say these are useless, but they should not be used by end users, unless their device is bricked. Nevertheless, Rockchip has now release version 2.3 of their Android tools for Windows, and GeekBuying has published a guide showing how to do, which I’ll summarize below. Rockchip has also released an updated version for the Linux Upgrade Tool (upgrade_tool) v1.24 that allows you to do the update in Linux. [Update: The latest versions of DriverAssistant (Step 1) and AndroidTool (Step 2) can be found in Rockchip-Linux account in Github] The first thing to do is to make sure you’ve got the latest Rockchip USB […]

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