Rockchip RK33xx Category - Page 44 of 46 - CNX Software

November 2, 2015November 4, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 262 Comments

Giveaway Week – Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box

Time for another giveaway week that will take place on November 2 – 8, with one device or board given away per day. The first device is Zidoo X6 Pro TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa core SoC with 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash. Zidoo X6 Pro review showed a capable device, and pretty good, although not perfect yet, Kodi 15.1 implementation, however the device tends to overheat pretty quickly leading to very poor performance at times. So the company will have to work on improving thermal management in their firmware, beside fixing a few other bugs. I received two Zidoo X6 Pro samples due to miscommunication: one from Zidoo directly which I used for the review, one from GeekBuying which I’m giving away today, and is basically new, although I’ve quickly tried it to make sure it boots. You can find more pictures on Zidoo X6 Pro unboxing […]

November 1, 2015November 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Rockchip Light Biz OS Improves Android’s Desktop Experience

Android is great for consuming content, but if you’ve ever tried to use it to create content, it can be an hassle, as copy / paste is hard to use, shortcuts aren’t available, and overall the operating system and apps are not designed to work well with a mouse and keyboard. Remix OS is one of the solutions, and Rockchip has been working on improving Android as a desktop replacement for while, starting with multi-window support, and recently they showcased “Light Work OS“. But yesterday Charbax, of ARMDevices.net, uploaded two new videos showing Rockchip Light Biz OS in action, probably renamed from Light Work OS shown a few months ago. The first video is the “official” Light Biz OS video released by Rockchip, which shows the main features including: Based on Android 5.1 with CTS certification Light Biz OS features can be enabled/disabled in Android settings using the Multi-window option […]

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Kingnovel R8 Android TV Box Review (VLC Edition)

Kingnovel R8 is one of the many Rockchip RK3368 based TV boxes on the market, and since I’ve already provided the specs, as well as pictures of the device and board, I’ll carry on with the review today. While I’m usually testing video playback in Kodi, I’ve only spent a short time with Kodi 15.2 on this box, and instead switched to VLC (aka VideoLAN), an another open source media player, and my favorite program to watch videos in my Ubuntu computer. Of course, I’ve also tested most hardware features and performance of the device. First Boot, and First Impressions Since I like to test worst case scenarios, I also make sure I use all the ports of the devices, and connected a USB hard drive, USB RF dongles, USB webcam, and relevant cables to the device before powering it up. Once you connect the power, I recommend you have […]

October 9, 2015October 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box Review

Zidoo X6 Pro is a 64-bit ARM Android TV Boxes based on Rockchip RK3368 processor, promising support for HDMI 2.0 and video decoding up to 4K2K @ 60Hz. While the others I’ve tried so far, such as Beelink i68, are pre-loaded with some version of Kodi 14.2, X6 Pro comes with a modified version of Kodi 15.1. I published pictures of the Zidoo X6 Pro TV box and board a few days ago, and today I’ll review the box’ features, performance, and capabilities. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve connected a USB hard drive to one of the two USB ports, as well as a USB hub with two RF dongles for Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad and MeLE F10 Deluxe air mouse, a USB keyboard, and a USB webcam. I’ve also inserted an Ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, an optical audio cable, a Class 10 micro SD card, as […]

October 5, 2015October 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Zidoo X6 Pro Unboxing and Teardown

There are so many Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes on the market that it’s difficult for products to stand out. But Zidoo X6 Pro might be one of these products bringing a little more, as beside frequent firmware updates, Zidoo’s RK3368 TV box may be the first to officially run Kodi 15.x, while most others manufacturers have decided to stick with Kodi 14.2 in their latest firmware, and the company also released Kodi source code modifications for 7.1 audio pass-through, 3D MVC support, and hardware video decoding in compliance with Kodi’s GPL license. As usual, I’ll start by taking some pictures of the device and board, before writing a full review in the next few days. Zidoo X6 Pro Unboxing I got the following package via DHL, which somehow decided to take my picture as I received the parcel… The package includes some of the key features of the device include […]

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

R8 Android 5.1 TV Box Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

There are lots of Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes on the market, and Kingnovel sent me their latest R8 TV Box for review. I’ll start by listing the specs, then take a few pictures of the device, before taking it apart to checkout the board. R8 specifications Since Kingnovel is a manufacturer – or maybe just a reseller ? -, the specifications are flexible in order to match the requirements of their clients: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz (1.2GHz?) with PowerVR G6110 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 (2GB optional) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (16 or 32GB optional) + micro SD card slot or SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 (RTL8723 module) USB – 3x USB 2.0 […]

September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

A Look at Android and Windows Mini PCs’ Power Consumption in Power Off, Standby, Idle, and Video Playback Modes

I’ve previously measured power consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 based TV boxes using a multimeter. This provides relatively accurate measurements, as well as neat power consumption profiles of devices, but it’s a little complex and time-consuming, so it’s not something I would do for all devices. The easiest way to measure power consumption is to use a kill-a-watt type of device, but my first one broke after only 3 months last year. I purchased a new one recently, so I run run some power measurement tests on several devices. I selected five devices for this test: MeLE PCG01 HDMI stick with Intel Atom Z3735F processor running Windows 10 Zidoo X9 TV box with Mstar MSO9810 running Android 4.4 Open Hour Chameleon TV box with Rockchip RK3288 processor running Android 4.4 Tronsmart Orion R68 Meta TV box with Rockchip RK3368 processor running Android 5.1 Tronfy MXIV TV box with […]

September 17, 2015September 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Zidoo Releases Kodi Source Code Modifications for Rockchip RK3368 and Allwinner H3

Kodi is a popular open source media center, but many companies will not simply install the version released on Kodi.org, and instead modify the source code to bring their own improvements. However most companies never release the source as they ought to as per the GPL license used by Kodi. The good news is that Zidoo released their modifications for Rockchip RK3368 and Allwinner H3. Their modifications include support for 3D MVC,7.1 Channel HD Audio pass through, and HW decoding for Rockchip RK3368, and 5.1 audio pass-through, 4K @ 30 fps, and H.265 hardware video decoding for Allwinner H3. You can read the announcement on Kodi forums for RK3368 (Kodi 15.1) and H3 (Kodi 14.2). Kodi 15.1 source code for Rockchip RK3368 can be found on github (make sure to use zidoo-15.1 branch, and not master). In order to build Kodi yourself, you’ll however need the latest version of Rockchip […]