android tv News - Page 9 of 11 - CNX Software

December 26, 2016January 19, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

SmartHomy Hybrid TV Box with DTV Tuner Triples as a Game Console & Home Automation Gateway (Crowdfunding)

SmartHomy Homy Player is a TV box running Android TV that includes an ATSC, DVB-T2/C,DVB-S2, or ISDB-T tuner, is said to be powerful enough to be used as a 3D gaming platform, and serves as a security system and home automation gateway using Z-Wave, Bluetooth, WiFi and IR blaster to control your things. Homy player specifications [Updated on January 19th, 2017]: SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core Cortex A53 processor with Mali T820MP3 GPU System Memory – 3 GB DDR3 Storage – 32 GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2, HDR, CEC Audio Output – HDMI and optical S/PDIF Video / Audio Capabilities – 10-bit 4K H.265 @ 60 fps, HD audio pass-through, Dolby Digital & DTS licenses DRM – Widevine Level 1, Microsoft PlayReader, Netflix license Digital TV Tuner – DVB-S2 (satellite), DVB-C/T/T2 (Cable/Terrestrial), ATSC, and ISDB-T Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, […]

December 20, 2016December 20, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Second Generation NVIDIA Shield Android TV Box Photos Leaked Ahead of Launch

NVIDIA Shield Android TV box may have launched in the first part of 2015, but even at the end of 2016 it’s still one of the best Android TV boxes with a powerful Tegra X1 processor, 3GB RAM, 4K video support, HD audio pass-through, the fastest GPU found in TV boxes so far, Netflix HD & 4K certified, and more. The company is allegedly preparing to launch a new model, and some photos have been leaked to Android Police. The design of the box looks basically identical to the new model, but it comes in two different sizes maybe because of extra ports and internal storage, and the game controller has been re-designed with a mix of triangular shapes. What we don’t know are the specifications. The company may have done a simple refresh, keeping Tegra X1 processor, increasing the memory and storage capacity, and possibly adding some extra interfaces, […]

October 17, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ZTE ZXV10 B860H is an Another Android TV Media Player based on Amlogic S905X Processor

It looks like Xiaomi Mi Box (US) will have some competition, as ZTE is about to introduce their ZXV10 B860H TV box at Broadband World Forum 2016 in London. The device will run Android TV on a quad core Amlogic processor, which can only be Amlogic S905X, the same processor used in the Xiaomi box, since VP9 is now a requirement for Android TV operating system, and HDR is part of the specifications. ZTE ZXV10 B860H “Android TV” box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X (-H?) quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2, CEC, HDR10 and HLG HDR Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 & H.265 MP-10 up to 4K @ 60 fps, H.264 AVC up to 4K @ 30 fps, […]

June 7, 2016June 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Android TV 6.0 Ported to Raspberry Pi 3 with 2D/3D GPU Acceleration, but no Hardware Video Decoding (Yet)

Google might be working on Android or Brillo for Raspberry Pi 3, with a new repository created in AOSP, meaning that, if that’s Android, you won’t probably get the Google Mobiles Services by default, but those can be side-loaded to get access the the Play Store, Youtube, etc… In the meantime, a group of developer have been working Android 6.0 TV port for Raspberry Pi 3. That’s the same team who worked on previous images for Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 boards using “peyo” port, and that did not have any support for 2D/3D graphics acceleration, nor hardware video decoding. But they’ve made some improvements for their Android TV 6.0.1 release for Raspberry Pi 3, as 2D/3D GPU acceleration is enabled using the Mesa drivers, and Kodi user interface, game emulators, WelGL in Chrome browser all work relatively well using 1280×720 frame buffer resolution as you can see from […]

May 19, 2016May 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Box Comes to the US with Android TV 6.0 Running on Amlogic S905X Processor

Xiaomi Mi Boxes have been available in China for a couple of years, and the only way to ship them to the rest of the world was to purchase via Chinese e-retailers. Xiaomi and Google have now worked together to bring Mi Box with Android TV 6.0, instead of the usual Chinese MIUI TV interface, to the US, and possibly to other countries. Xiaomi Mi Box (US) specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X-H quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF and 3.5mm audio jack Video Codecs – VP9 Profile-2 & H.265 MP-10 up to 4K @ 60 fps, H.264 AVC up to 4K @ 30 fps, H.264 MVC up to […]

March 15, 2016February 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Rippl-TV V2 Android 5.1 TV Box Features an Android TV-like Launcher, Supports Widevine L1 DRM

The maker of Rippl-TV media player are back with Rippl-TV V2 featuring Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor coupled with 1GB RAM and 8GB flash, but the most interesting part of this device is probably on the software side with support for two launchers: Rippl-TV and an Android TV-like launcher, as well as support for Winevine L1 DRM allowing for HD playback of online video services such as Netflix, and Google Cast. [Update: While the company confirmed support for L1 DRM, a trusted third party has claimed that L1 DRM is currently buggy on Amlogic S905… Update 2: The company replied and there’s still a bug with Netflix TV app] Rippl-TV V2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor up to 2.0 GHz with penta core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to 750Mhz+ System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD […]

March 10, 2016March 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Android N Developer Preview Released with Multi-Window Support, PiP, Background Apps Optimizations…

Google has just released an early developer preview of Android 7.0 N (Nutella?) before the OS officially launched later this summer with new features such s multi-window support, TV recording, Picture-in-picture, bundled notifications, and efficiency improvements. So let’s have a look at some of improvements: Multi-window – A new manifest attribute called android:resizableActivity is available for apps targeting N and beyond, allowing your activity to be launched in split-screen modes on phones and tablets. In addition, activities can also go into picture-in-picture mode on devices like TVs by setting android:supportsPictureInPicture to true. Direct reply notifications: Initially an Android Wear only features, the RemoteInput notification API has now been added for smartphones and tablets, and allows user to reply directly within the notification shade. Bundled notifications – The Notification.Builder.setGroup() method can be used to bundle notifications from the same app together. Efficiency Improvements – Doze has been further improved to save […]

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Nvidia Shield Android TV vs Apple TV vs Roku 3 vs Fire TV vs Nexus Player – Video Capabilities and Features Comparison

Since Nvidia released the Shield Android TV box, I’ve heard several people saying Nvidia raised the bar and even disrupted the TV box market by bringing a powerful HTPC and gaming console to the market for just $199. The company has now released OTA 2.0 firmware that improves HTPC capabilities, including under Kodi and Plex, and the box supports for 10-bit HEVC, H.264, and VP9 @ 4K, and audio pass-through for HD audio codecs such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master. As part of the release announcement, Nvidia also compared the Shield TV media capabilities to the ones of other US centric media players, namely Apple TV (2015), Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV (2015), and Nexus Player. Since it comes from Nvidia, it was also going to show the Shield TV in a good light, but I’m very surprised to see that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Roku would ship a […]