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October 17, 2014October 17, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Mini PC Polls: Networking Connectivity, Video and Audio Outputs

It’s always interesting to find out how people use their devices, and I recently discovered Google+ support Polls as Droidmote posted a poll to find out whether people used Wi-Fi or Ethernet with their mini PCs, and I followed up with polls about video and audio outputs. Around 50 people have answered to each poll up to now, so even if it may not representative, let’s have a look at the results so far. About half of the people are connected via Ethernet, and the other half are using Wi-Fi after 43 votes. Wi-Fi is normally more convenient, but may not be as reliable, and for users playing high bitrate videos Ethernet is a must, unless you find buffering enjoyable…. After 58 votes, most people still connect their mini PC to a Full HD television via HDMI, with a few connecting it to a 4K UHD TV, and nobody using […]

October 6, 2014January 26, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments

Can Rockchip RK3288 Android TV Boxes Play Videos at True 4K UHD / 2160p Resolution?

[Update 2: Now that I have a 4K TV, I’ve redone the test myself, and Rockchip RK3288 can play 4K videos properly. The mistake was to use Software decode in MX Player which renders to the framebuffer instead of the video buffer. Visit the post entitled 4K Output and Video Playback Capability Tested on 6 ARM based mini PCs and Boards for details.] [Update 1: The post has now been updated, after it was clear one of MX Player options was misunderstood. The conclusion remains the same] Over the last few years there have been complains about Android TV boxes decoding 1080p video, rendering them to a 720p frame buffer, and upscaling them back to 1080p resolution for video output, so you ended up playing 1080p videos at a real 720p resolution. I never investigated the issue in details, and thanks to new media players now coming with a 1080p […]

September 26, 2014September 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Test Your 4K Device True Resolution With a 4K UHD / 2160p Video Test Pattern

Now many products are sold on the market advertising 4K video output, but how to test and check if it just a lie with only part of the system support 4K (e.g. physical video output), but the rest of the system makes you lose quality? When I worked on DVD players, we had some special DVDs with video pattern allowing us to test different video quality. You can read about different video test patterns in “AVSHD 709 DVD document“. There are also some expensive equipments such as DVDO AVLab TPG – 4K Test Pattern Generator that generate test patterns to calibrate video equipments, but if all we want to do is to check the resolution has not been tempered with there must be a cheaper and easier way. After having a discussion about this issue on Google+, Dan Car decided to create a 2160p (3840×2160) test pattern image with some […]

September 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Marvell Announces Quad Core ARMADA 1500 PRO 4K STB SoC with HEVC 10-Bit Support

Marvell has just announced a new member of its ARMADA 1500 family of multimedia processors with ARMADA 1500 PRO 4K (88DE3214), a quad-core ARM processor (12K DMIPS), with a Vivante GC3000 GPU, and Qdeo video processor supporting 4K (UHD) output and HEVC 10-bit codec. These processors will be used in smart TVs, set-top boxes (STB), over-the-top (OTT) boxes, thin-client devices, etc.. Details are scarce, but ARMADA 1500 PRO 4K could be an evolution of the ARMADA 1500 PRO processors with four Cortex A9 cores as shown above, but with a different GPU, 4K and HEVC support, and possibly some extra features for DRM. The key features mentioned by the company are as follows: 3840×2160 (UHD) at 60 frames per second 10 bit HEVC Video Decode Up to 12K DMIPs Quad Core ARM CPU Multi-core GPU, 8 shader Vivante GC3000 GPU Robust Security Engine – Security features include Trusted Rendering Path […]

September 9, 2014December 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Review of Kingnovel K-R68 (R6) Android Mini PC

I’ve already listed specs, and shown a few pictures of Kingnovel K-R68 (R6) Android media player based on the latest Rockchip RK3288 quad core processor. I’ve now gone through all my usual tests, so today, I’ll write the review, going through the user interface, testing video playback, reporting one various performance benchmarks including network and storage performance, tested most hardware features, and played a few games. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions Albeit there’s an infrared remote control with the device. I’ve not used it all, especially, as we’ll see below the default user interface is the stock Android home screen. As usual, I’ve connected an RF dongle to use Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse. Before powering up the device, I’ve also connected an HDMI cable, a USB hard drive, and an Ethernet cable. Albeit there’s a power button, the device will boot automatically as you connect the power adapter, […]

August 27, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

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, […]

August 19, 2014August 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

Review of Probox2 EX Quad Core Android TV Box and Remote+ Air Mouse

Probox2 EX is an Android TV box powered by Amlogic S802-H processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC, an hardware very similar to MINIX NEO X8-H, and an upgrade to the Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite and Shenzhen Tomato EM8 / Enybox M8 TV boxes I’ve reviewed previously, with more storage (16GB vs 8GB), dual band Wi-Fi, and S802-H instead of S802 for hardware DTS and Dolby audio decoding. I’ve already published an unboxing post for Probox2 EX, so today I’m going to test the firmware, including overall performance and stability, video playback, gaming, and most hardware features, as well as Remote+ air mouse with audio and gaming capabilities, which comes with the device. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve found two AAA battery to insert into Remote+ air mouse, connected an HDMI cable, an Ethernet cable, the Wi-Fi antenna, the RF dongle for Remote+, and the power adapter to […]

August 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

UyeSee T1H 4K Android TV Box Features USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI In

Shenzhen UyeSee Technology, a company specializing in audio / video products, has announced UyeSee T1H Android TV box powered by Mstar MSO9810 quad core processor, with 1 to 2GB RAM, 8 to 32GB eMMC flash, and featuring high speed ports such as Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0, as well as HDMI In supporting PiP (Picture-in-Picture) thanks to the dual decoder found in the processor. T1H is not the first Mstar 9810 STB I mention here, as Kaiboer already has a few models with Q5, Q6, and F5, but the latter focuses on the Chinese market, whereas Uyesee plans to expand to oversea markets, and the firmware is available in English, and other languages supported by Android, too. UyeSee T1H specifications: SoC – Mstar MSO9180 quad core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.5GHz with a quad-core ARM Mali-450 MP2 GPU @ 500MHz. System Memory – 1GB to 2GB DDR3 @ 1866MHz? Storage […]