Giveaway Week Winners Announced

Regular readers will know that I organized a giveaways last week, with Linux and Android based TV boxes and TV dongles based on Amlogic, Rockchip, and Telechips processors, a total of 8 devices with a combined value closed to $1,000 if purchased new. I’ve now selected all the winners, and send the devices, so it may be nice to list them in one post, even I announced each individual winners in the comment section of each contest. Without further delays, let’s go through the winners and their country of residence, with links to the original individual winner announcements: Jynxbox M1V2 Pure Linux Richard, USA (Facebook contest) Pavlos, Greece (Comment contest) Mele X1000 – Vedas, USA Measy U2C – Umaar, Germany Matricom Gbox Midnight MX2 – Starsolaris, Ukraine Beelink A9 – Alcides, Brazil Jynxbox Live – Greg, Canada Tronsmart Prometheus – Roberto, Portugal All parcels have been sent today by Airmail […]

Giveaway Week – Tronsmart Prometheus Android STB

The last product for this giveaway week will be Tronsmart Prometheus, and Android TV Box with hardware specifications very similar to Gbox Midnight MX2, namely an Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, HDMI and AV output, optical S/PDIF output, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity and 3 USB ports. My first review had Prometheus run Android 4.1 firmware, but since a firmware update meant it was one of the first Android media player that could run Android 4.2 and XBMC, I also decided to write an updated review, in which I found the firmware to be responsive and stable, XBMC to work as expected except for a few videos (RMVB, MPEG-2)  and more critically audio/video sync issues, but these have been fixed in a subsequent firmware update. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. I can’t find the HDMI cable, so it won’t be included in the […]

Giveaway Week – Jynxbox Live TV Streaming Box

The sixth prize of this giveaway week on CNX Software will be Jynxbox Live. It’s a standard Android TV box based on Rockchip RK3066 dual core processor, except it has software that normally allowing live streaming of about 300 TV channels around the world, and sells at a steep price compared to Android media player based on similar hardware. However after installing the Live TV app, which is not included when the box ships, possibly due to legal reasons, I could only load 10 TV channels, and none of them would play. I’m not exactly sure why, maybe their server is blocked from Thailand, as other users reported the box worked just fine. There’s no Google Play store pre-installed in the box, only Jynx Market with a limited number of applications, so you may have to install another market (Amazon, Yandex, Google Play..) by yourself. To enter the draw simply […]

Giveaway Week – Beelink A9 Quad Core Android TV Box

Beelink A9, the same hardware as Tronsmart A928, will be the fifth box given away this week, and the only quad core device. This Android media player is powered by Rockchip RK3188-T Cortex A9 processor, and comes with 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC Flash, HDMI video output, optical S/PDIF output, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and three USB ports. What got me interested in this device was the released of Android 4.4 SDK, which turned out not to be that useful based on feedback from the community. Nevertheless I got the device and reviewed it last December. I found two critical issues with the firmware: Bluetooth not working, and mediocre Ethernet performance. Apart from that, the firmware was very stable, Wi-Fi performance decent, and features I tested worked as expected. Firmware updates are infrequent. The latest official version dates from January, and there’s a finless one with a 1080p kernel and […]

Giveaway Week – Gbox Midnight MX2 Android Media Player

The fourth prize for this week is Matricom Gbox Midnight MX2, an Android TV box powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core processor with 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, HDMI and AV output, optical S/PDIF, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and 4 USB ports. The company had specifically worked on the XBMC port at the time, and I found it did a pretty good job. I tested the device in May of last, and I found the firmware to be very stable and responsive, and XBMC works as expected, supporting most video files without issues, except some MPEG-2 had aspect ratio issues,, RMVB files would make XBMC exit, and WebM 1080p could not be played smoothly due to software decode for this particular codec. It could decode all high-end audio codecs such as DTS and Dolby just fine. I did have problems with composite and component outputs but it must have been fixed now. […]

Giveaway Week – Measy U2C Android TV Dongle

Measy U2C, aka B12, will be the prize for day 3 of Giveaway week. It’s an HDMI & AV TV dongle powered by Rockchip RK3066 SoC with 1GB RAM, 8GB flash that happens to feature a 2MP camera for video conferencing as well. It’s running Android 4.1.x Jelly Bean. When I reviewed Measy U2C at the beginning of last year, I had some issues with USB mouse and keyboard support, the firmware could have been more stable, and the Antutu scores seem a bit on the low side, but Wi-Fi and video playback were both very good. It has received one or two firmware update since then, which may have fixed some of the bugs.  The last firmware update must have been in April or May 2013, so it has not been a device greatly supported. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: […]

Giveaway Week – Mele X1000 Blu-Ray Navigation Android TV Box

For day 2 of Giveaway Week, I’ll list Mele X1000, an higher-end Android 4.4 Kitkat TV box with a metallic enclosure, and powered by Telechips TCC8935 dual core Cortex A9 SoC with 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, HDMI and AV outputs, an external SATA connector, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, as well as a few USB ports. The selling point of this box is that it can handle Blu-Ray navigation in XBMC. Since my review of Mele X1000 in March, the company has released new firmware via OTA updates, so the box has certainly improved. At the time of the review I found the hardware build to be of high quality, Wi-Fi performance to be really excellent, that it indeed supported Blu-ray ISO, and provided lots of advanced settings for video playback, but I could notice some unstabilities, XBMC was not pre-installed, SAMBA and NFS were not working, and some videos could not […]

Giveaway Week – Jynxbox M1V2 Pure Linux XBMC

When Theaterinabox sent me a Jynxbox M1V2 for review, I was a little surprised to actually receive two. The reason was that I got one for review, one for giveaway. But since I need to drive to the post office anyway, I’ll just giveaway both, and actually start a giveaway week giving 8 different boxes to my readers starting today with the two Jynxbox M1V2, then one a day until Sunday. Let’s talk about the device a bit more. Jynxbox M1V2 is one of the few Linux based XBMC available on the market. It’s based on Amlogic AML8726-M3 Cortex A9 processor, with 1GB RAM and 2GB flash, with several XBMC add-ons pre-installed. You can read my review to get the detailed specs, and pictures. The conclusion of my testing was that the user interface was pretty smooth considering the low end processor, Wi-Fi was excellent, and I was pleasantly surprised […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC