h.265 News - Page 31 of 33 - CNX Software

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Review of Realtek RTD1195 Based M-195 Android Media Player

M-195 is one of the new low cost Android media players based on Realtek RTD1195 processor featuring two Cortex A7 cores, and a Mali-400MP2 GPU, but providing high speed interface like USB 3.0, and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as 4K video decoding and output, including the latest H.265 / HEVC video codec. So before testing, I was expecting the box to be mainly interesting as a media player, and even maybe NAS, as Android performance for other tasks would be similar to Allwinner A20. I’ll already taken pictures of M-195 and its “902” board, so today we’ll find out how the device performs. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve used both the provided IR remote control, and Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse in this review, simply because I needed to press the Home button to come back to the Launcher from time to time, and the Home button on […]

November 24, 2014November 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Unboxing of M-195 TV Box Powered by Realtek RTD1195 Processor

Realtek RTD1195 is a dual core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400 GPU, supporting fast interfaces such as USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA, as well 4K video decoding (including H.265) and output, and HDMI input. Despite all these features, it can be found in ultra low cost Android media players, so I was eager to find out if it’s as good as it looks on paper. Thanks to GeekBuying which sent me M-195 TV box, I’ll soon be able to find out. Today, I’ll list the technical specifications of the device, and take pictures of the device and the board, before doing a full test early next month. M-195 specifications Hardware specifications as listed in the user’s manual and GeekBuying: SoC – Realtek RTD1195 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC + SD […]

November 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Handbrake 0.10 Supports H.265 and VP8 Video Encoding

HandBrake is an open-source video transcoding tool that I use each time I upload a video on YouTube, simply because it will let me crop the beginning or end of a video as needed, can make web optimized videos, has an easy to use user interface, and greatly reduces the size of the video shot with my camera. HandBrake 0.10 has now been released, and it adds H.265 and VP8 encoding support via respectively x265 v1.4 and linbpx, as well as QuickSync video support, but the latter only in Windows. There are also various other changes include OpenCL accelerated scaling. Handbrake is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu operating systems. It’s part of Ubuntu repository, but if you want the latest version, and support for MPEG-4 (m4v), you’ll need to install it from a PPA:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

I’ve tested with the video I shot yesterday, to see if I […]

November 18, 2014December 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments

MK808B Plus Android HDMI TV Stick Based on Amlogic S805 Sells for $36

You can get a cheap an decent H.265 capable Android TV box for less than $50 with MXQ S85, but MK808B Plus may be the cheapest H.265 capable player on the market, as the Amlogic S805 based Android TV stick sells for just $35.99 on Aliexpress including shipping (promotion valid for 6 days). [Update: Apparently the seller “changed his mind”, and nobody could actually buy for $35.99, so the best option is with GeekBuying for $39.99, also a promotion for the first 1,000 pieces or 10 days whichever comes first] [Update Dec 9, 2014: Promotion for $29.99 on Gearbest with MK808BCN coupon valid until January 9, 2015]. MK808B Plus specifications: SoC – Amlogic S805 quad core ARM Cortex A5 @ 1.5GHz with quad core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, […]

November 18, 2014December 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

MINIX NEO X6 Media Hub Review

Last week-end, I took a few pictures of MINIX NEO X6 media hub, and had a look at the company’s firmware and forum support which indeed seems to be good. Today, I’ve completed the full review of MINIX NEO X6, and I will compare it to two of its lower priced competitors: MXQ S85 and EM6Q-MXQ. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions The IR remote control works fine, including continuous up ad down pressing, but I switched to using Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse for convenience. I’ve connected an Ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, a micro SD card, a USB hard drive, and a USB hub with two RF dongles for my air mouse and gamepad, a USB flash drive, and a UVC webcam. I’ve connected the power, pressed the power button on the side of the box, but nothing happened at first… You have to press the button one […]

November 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Unboxing of MINIX NEO X6 Android Media Hub

MINIX is a Hong Kong company known for its NEO series Android media players, which are a bit more expensive that the company, but the hardware and especially support is supposed to be better, justifying the higher price. I had never tried it a MINIX device, but thanks to Tinydeal I now have MINIX NEO X6 powered by Amlogic S805 quad core processor, with 1GB RAM, and 8GB eMMC, so I’ll soon be able to find out if the praises for the company are justified, or simply hyped. Today, I’ll take some pictures of the devices, and try to open it to check out the hardware, before writing a full review in a few days, and compare it a much cheaper device like MXQ S85. MINIX NEO X6 Unboxing Photos The parcel was sent by Singapore Posts so it took a couple of weeks to be delivered. The device is […]

November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SPMC 13.3.3 Release Adds H.265 Video Playback and Android TV Support

SPMC (Semper Media Center) is a fork of XBMC for Android with some modifications, that you can easily install from Google Play or Amazon AppStore. The latest version is particularly interested as it adds H.265/HEVC codec support for platforms such as Rockchip RK3288, and Amlogic S805/S812, and other SoCs making use of MediaCodec API and libstagefright should also work, including Realtek RTD1195 and Hisilicon K3V2. This version is also the first to support Android TV based on Android 5.0 Lollipop. SMPC 13.3.3 Changelog: Preliminary support for h265 (including RK3288) Preliminary support for Android TV Allow sleep and Daydream to kick in (e.g. on Amazon Fire TV) Add setting to scrape all videos, even if they failed Add “sd” & “hd” to the advanced settings of libstagefright (and mediacodec) for fine tuning Allow fullscreen on Jelly Bean Hide irrelevant video & audio settings Another possible fix for start crash Make the […]

October 28, 2014October 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ARM Unveils Mali-T800 Series GPUs, Mali-V550 VPU, and Mali-DP550 Display Processor

ARM has just announced several new Mali media IP: three Mali-T800 series GPUs (Mali-T820, Mali-T830, and Mali-T830) based on Midgard architecture, as well as Mali-V500 video accelerator, and the Mali-DP550 display processor. Mali T800 Series GPU The new Mali T-8xx GPUs are based on the same Midgard architecture used in Mali T-6xx and T-7xx GPUs, but deliver better power efficiency thanks to technologies such as ARM Frame Buffer Compression (AFBC), and Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC) for imput bandwidth reduction, as well as Transaction Elimination and Smart Composition. ARM provided some performance and energy-comparison between T800 and T600 series (but strangely nothing against T700): The Mali-T820 GPU is optimized for entry-level products, achieving up to 40 percent more performance density compared to the Mali-T622 GPU. The Mali-T830 GPU delivers up to 55 percent more performance than the Mali-T622 GPU. The Mali-T860 GPU provides higher performance and 45 percent more energy-efficiency […]