Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes looked promising at the end of the summer, but ended up being disappointing, not because of their expected lower performance compared to RK3288, but simply because they could not deliver on their main selling point: 4K H.265 / H.264 video playback, and the sheer number of issues with the first devices selling for nearly the same price as equivalent Rockchip RK3288 devices. Rockchip RK3368 will soon have a worthy competitor with Amlogic S905, which won’t deliver amazing benchmark scores, but looks promising for its 4K 10-bit HEVC video playback, HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2, and historically Amlogic delivers better video playback than Rockchip. The first Amlogic S905 TV boxes should start shipping by the end of the month, and prices are starting very low, just over $40, thanks to competition between the many manufacturers launching devices based on the new Amlogic SoC. That’s why I’ve decided […]
Giveaway Week – Eny M8S Android TV Box
Today, I’m going to give away Eny M8S, an Android media player based on Amlogic S812 processor with 2GB RAM and 8GB NAND flash that runs Android 4.4, and supports H.265 video playback up to 3840×2160 at 30 fps. How does the device perform? Well, I don’t really know because I postponed the review due to many problems including HDMI going on and off, lack of Google Play Store, some power issues, and eventually the box refused to boot. When I finally got a new firmware, I did upgrade it, but so many months had passed, that I postponed the review indefinitely… Having said that, I tested its 4K capabilities later on, and again before this giveaway to reset the box to factory settings, and it booted fine… The box is not abandoned, as the company released a new firmware at the beginning of this month, so the lucky winner […]
Eny EMP01 is a $170 mini Android Projector Powered by Rockchip RK3128 Quad Core Processor
Eny Technology has brought another product to market with EMP01 an Android 4.4.2 mini projector based on Texas Instruments DLP projector – as most other low cost projectors on the market – and Rockchip RK3128 quad core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400MP2 GPU. Eny Eny EMP01 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3128 quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Projector Technology – Texas Instruments DLP Brightness – 100 lumens Contrast ratio – 2000:1 Standard resolution – WXGA 854*480 Throw ratio: 1.19:1 (76″ @ 2 meters) Projector size – 30 to 120″ Aspect ratio – 4:3, 16:9, 16:10 Video Output – HDMI output Video Codec – H.263, H.264, H.265, VC-1, RV, VP6/VP8, Sorenson Spark, MVC, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 up to 1080p Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5,, for earphone, loud speaker Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 […]
List of Rockchip RK3368 Android mini PCs
Last year, Rockchip RK3288 was always going to be popular, since it offered a massive performance upgrade compared to its predecessor (Rockchip RK3188) with Cortex A17 cores replacing Cortex A9 cores, and a Mali-T764 GPU replacing an aging Mali-400MP4 GPU, plus the addition of 4K video output and decoding, as well as H.265 video codec support. So many manufacturers got involved that I decided to write a list of RK3288 TV boxes and sticks. Rockchip RK3368, the company’s new “flagship” processor for 2015, is a bit less exciting despite providing eight 64-bit ARM cores, since Cortex A53 cores are significantly less powerful than the Cortex A17 cores found in RK3288, and the performance of the PowerVR G6110 GPU used in the processor is a bit of an unknown for now. RK3368 might still rank pretty well in benchmark since it comes with eight cores instead of four cores, but I’m […]
Eny EM95 Android Mini PC Runs Android 5.1 on Amlogic S905 Processor
Amlogic S905 is the first 64-bit ARM processor by Amlogic, and comes with four ARM Cortex A53 cores coupled with a Mali-450MP GPU, with S912 to follow later with the same CPU cores, but more powerful Mali-T7xx GPU. With Acemax G9C we already have one company working on an Amlogic S905 TV box, but Eny Technology just informed me they are about to launch two models based on Amlogic armv8 processor: EM95-MXQ, which looks exactly like G9C, and EM95 with a different casing, but very similar specs. Eny EM95 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with quad core Mali-450MP GPU up to 750MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 (Option: 2GB) Storage – 8GB NAND flash (Option: 16GB) + SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with support for CEC and HDCP 2.2 , AV output Video Codecs […]
Eny EKB368 TV Box with Rockchip RK3368 Runs Android 5.1
We’ve had a first glimpse at RK3368 Android TV Boxes when Rockchip showcased X6 TV box during one of their events. However, that box was targeting the Chinese market only, but Eny Technology informed me they are about to launch EKB368 TV box destined to overseas markets. Eny EKB368 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with PowerVR G6110 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.x/2.0/3.x, OpenGL 3.2, DirectX 9.3, OpenCL 1.2 EP, and Renderscript System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 (Option: 1GB) Storage – 8GB NAND flash (Options: 4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB) + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz Audio Output – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6335 by default) USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Power Supply […]
Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC Power Consumption in Android
I’ve already measured power consumption running Antutu and playing a 4K video on Rockchip RK3288 and Amlogic S812 platform, as described in “Power Consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 TV Boxes“, and now that I have an Intel Bay Trail-T mini PC running Android 4.4 with Wintel W8, I was interested in comparing its power consumption to the ARM platform. [Update: I forgot to mention measurements have all been done @ ~5V.] The test normally consists in several steps: Boot the device Run the latest Antutu benchmark Connect a USB hard drive Play a 4K video in Kodi from the hard drive Diconnect the hard drive Power off the device But since the current draw was a little to high at times, I got a few issues with my setup. First, I had to boot twice hence the “Power On 1” and “Power On 2” strings on the chart, […]
M9 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S812 Sells for $63 (Promo)
M9 (aka E8 Plus) is yet another Android media player powered by Amlogic S812 with 2GB RAM and 8GB flash, but it’s currently selling for $62.71 including shipping on Aliexpress from a seller with positive feedback. The offer is valid for 17 hours more. M9 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP6 GPU @ 600+ MHz System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card socket Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K2K @ 30 Hz, AV port Audio Output – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 4k2k H.264, H.265 UHD, HD MPEG1/2/4, AVC/VC-1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10, Audio Formats/Codecs – MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, APE, AC3, AAC etc… Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD pass-through USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – Power […]