firmware News - Page 24 of 32 - CNX Software

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

HPH NT-V6 Firmware V1.4.4 (Rockchip RK3288) Fixes Ethernet Performance, Adds Smartphone App

When I first started to review Rockchip RK3288 based TV boxes I noticed several had critical issues with Ethernet including Nagrace HPH NT-V6 and Kingnovel K-R6. The main cons of the Nagrace media player included: XBMC has too many issues: VC1 not supported, H.265 support only partial, audio/video sync issue, some MPEG-2 and XVID videos are skipping frames, some of the 4K videos I used could play properly, etc… Some MPEG-2 file won’t play smooth in either XBMC or MX Player Potential Ethernet issues, confirmed with my Gigabit switch (D-Link DSG-1005A) and 10/100Mbps D-Link router (configured as a switch). Since then SPMC and Kodi must have improved video playback issues, but as late as last month I still got feedback from one person (Mr. B.) complaining about Ethernet on HPH NT-V6, but he finally got an email with a new firmware that is said to fix the Ethernet issues and […]

February 18, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Android 5.0 Lollipop Image for Wandboard Development Boards

Wandboard Solo, Dual and Quad are development boards powered by Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual, and Quad, that have been launched in 2013. I can remember running Android 4.1.2 and Ubuntu on both Wandboard Dual and Wandboard Quad. Fast forward to 2015, the board is still supported, and Android 5.0 Lollipop beta has been released for the three boards, making these one of the few hardware platforms supporting Android Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Lollipop. You can try it out by downloading the image, and flashing it to a micro SD card (8GB or more) as follows: Linux

wget http://www.wandboard.org/images/downloads/wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz
xz -d wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz
sudo dd if=wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img | pv | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=16M

wget http://www.wandboard.org/images/downloads/wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz

xz -d wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz

sudo dd if=wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img | pv | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=16M

Where X is the letter for your micro card which can be found with lsblk command Windows – Download wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz, extract it, and flash to the the micro SD with Win32DiskImager. Insert the micro SD into the micro SD slot on the CPU board, and enjoy! At least in theory… If you have […]

February 4, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Latest Ubuntu 14.10 Image for Tronsmart Draco AW80 Supports Hardware Video Decoding

Tronsmart Draco AW80 is one of the most powerful ARM mini PC on the market thanks to Allwinner A80 octa core processor, and the company also released an early Linux (Ubuntu) image at the end of last year. However, this firmware could not support hardware video decoding nor 2D/3D graphics acceleration. Since then progress has been made, and Tronsmart has just released an image with hardware video decoding. There’s still some work to be done as 4K and H.265 are not supported, and support for Kodi also needs to be implemented. At least for now you should be able to play 1080p video with VLC without issues, and the company also claims online video will play without lags. If you’d like to give it a try, download and extract Draco_AW80_Ubuntu_20150204.zip. Then follow Allwinner A80 firmware upgrade instructions with PhoenixSuit (Windows) or LiveSuit (Linux) firmware tool to complete the process. You […]

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 44 Comments

LG 42UB820T 4K UHD TV Review

After several people often asked me about audio pass-through, and 4K video support on mini PCs, with some suggesting adding a donation button to my website, I decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for an AV Receiver and a 4K TV by asking for donations and selling some samples I used for review. Thanks to the great help of my readers, I managed to get enough money to buy LG 42UB820T on Lazada for 19,610 Baht including shipping (~$600) via 10% coupon I got in a newsletter, as well Onkyo TX-NR636 7.2 channel receiver in a local shop in Chiang Mai (Sahapanich). I’m still waiting for the speakers, so I’ll start by reviewing the TV. This model is sold as 42UB820V in Europe, and 42UB8200 in Hong Kong and probably other markets. I spent a lot of time studying about 4K TV and AV receiver features, and […]

January 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

How to Upgrade Firmware in HiSilicon Hi3798M TV Boxes

HiSilicon based Android TV boxes are not that popular, at least outside of China, but I’ve got one with BFS 4KH featuring HiSilicon Hi3798M processor, and since we could not fix AC3 audio decoding after a factory reset in the firmware I have, the company provided me with a new firmware, and I’ll document the procedure I followed below. Download the firmware, the file should be update.zip. For BFS 4KH, I could get it @ http://pan.baidu.com/s/1kTrCcMr (password: xpef). It includes YouTube and Google Play, but not the Rainbow launcher, nor XBMC, but these can be side-loaded. Now copy update.zip on the root of a USB flash drive formatted with FAT32, and at least 1GB free storage. Connect the USB flash to the USB 2.0 port of the device, as the USB 3.0 port can’t be used for firmware upgrade. In the current firmware, go to Settings->System->Local Update, and select the […]

January 6, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Easily Create an Android Bootable SD Card for Allwinner A80 Devices with PhoenixCard Tool

We’ve already seen how it was possible to boot Linux or Android on Rockchip RK3288 devices from an SD card, which involved getting the stock firmware and running some scripts in Linux. Today, Freaktab member no_spam_for_me found out how to create a bootable SD card for Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta, and other Allwinner A80 devices using PhoenixCard 3.09 tools for Windows (The latest version should be available @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Tools/Flash-firmware-tools/). There may also be a way to use LiveSuit tools for Linux, but this have not been tested. Once you have installed the tools, start it, and load the firmware by clicking on “Img File” button (Here Draco AW80 Finless 1.1 firmware was used). Then press DiskCheck to scan for storage devices, and select your SD card in the drop-down menu “disk” (not sure why it’s blank in the screenshot above), select “Startup !” write mode, and click on the “Burn” […]

December 31, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

WeTek Play Review with Android 4.2.2 Firmware v1.1.1

I had already reviewed WeTek Play Android DVB-S2 STB this summer, but at the time it was still an early sample, so the company asked me to review it again with the latest firmware that includes bug fixes and new features such as WeCloud Antenna IPTV service with over 180 Live TV channels, now that they’ve officially launched WeTek Play with either a DVB-S2 tuner as in my sample, a DVB-T/T2/C tuner, or no tuner at all. You can find pictures of WeTek Play in my unboxing post. As usual the review will include my first impressions, video testing, and various benchmark, but I’ll also have sections for WeCloud Antenna Live TV over IP service, and WeTek Theater for live TV from my satellite dish. OTA Firmware Update But first of all, I’ll test OTA firmware update, as many companies claim to support OTA updates, but you often end up […]