hevc News - Page 9 of 20 - CNX Software

April 7, 2016April 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Rockchip RK3229 Video Playback Take 2 – 10-bit H.264 & H.265, Audio HD Pass-through with Zidoo X1 II

A few weeks ago I tried to play 4K videos in MXQ-4K TV box powered by Rockchip RK3229 processor. The device costs only about $30 including shipping, and it would have been if it could indeed play 10-bit H.265 and 10-bit H.264 videos for that price point, but sadly the results were catastrophic, and most of my 4K videos were unwatchable, either playing in slow motion, or with many slow downs and audio cuts. This happens in all players be it Kodi or Androids Video Player with the worst results occurring when playing from USB hard drive with network share video playback being a bit better. But I have now tested another Rockchip RK3229 based TV box – Zidoo X1 II – and the results are much better, so I also decided to show the results of HD audio pass-through over HDMI too. I played the videos from USB hard […]

April 6, 2016April 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Amlogic S912 Processor Specifications

Amlogic plans to launch at least three new processors for OTT boxes and set-top boxes this year: Amlogic S905X, Amlogic S912, and Amlogic S905D. We already knew Amlogic S905 specifications, but I’ve recently received a document with some more details about Amlogic S912 revealing Mali-T820 GPU, a lack of USB 3.0 support, but still some interesting features such as HDMI 2.0a, 4K VP9, 10-bit H.265, Gigabit Ethernet Mac, and so on. Amlogic S912 specifications with highlights in bold showing differences with Amlogic S905X: CPU Sub-system – Octa core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2 GHz (DVFS) with two CPU clusters one optimized for high performance (big) and the other for low power (LITTLE) 3D Graphics Processing Unit –ARM Mali-T820MP3 GPU up to 750MHz (DVFS) with 3 shader engines supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.03.1, DirectX 11 FL9_3, OpenCL 1.1/1.2 full profile and RenderScript. 2.5D Graphics Processor – Fast bitblt engine with dual […]

March 18, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Telechips TCC898x (Alligator) 64-bit ARM SoC is Designed for High-end 4K Set-Top Boxes

Telechips processors were often found in consumer devices such as Android tablets, mini PCs and TV Sticks a few years ago, but it’s been a while since I have seen a devices based on Telechips. So after seeing an automotive SoC from the company, I decided to visit the company website to check if they were still designing processors for the consumer market, and found TCC898x quad core Cortex A53 processor for “Smart Stick, IP-Client and STB with 4K 60fps decoding” with some interesting features. Telechips TCC898x SoC specifications: CPU- Quad core Cortex A53 processor with NEON, TrustZone, 32KB/32KB L1 cache and 512KB L2 cache MCU – Cortex-M4 micro-controller GPU 2D – Vivante GC420 composition processing core for 4K user interfaces 3D – ARM Mali-400MP2 VPU – Multi-format VPU and 4K VPU with HEVC and VP9 support Memory I/F – DDR3/4 Storage I/F – NAND controller (60-bit ECC), SD/eMMC controller […]

March 6, 2016March 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Zidoo X5 TV Box Review

Zidoo X5 is TV box running Android 5.1 powered by Amlogic S905 processor like so many competing products on the market. I’ve already listed the full specs and taken pictures of the Zidoo X5 case and hardware, so today we’ll see how the device performs against the many Amlogic S905 mini PCs I’ve reviewed so far, and if it fixes some common bugs. First Boot and First Impressions Before starting the media player I’ve connected all cables and made sure to fill the two USB ports with a bunch of peripherals including a 1TB hard drive, keyboard, webcam, and so on. There’s no power button, and the device boots immediately once you connect it to the mains, with a standard boot time being around 40 seconds. The company has used the exact same Zidoo launcher as in their X6 Pro TV box, however they’ve decided to use a 1280×720 framebuffer, […]

February 24, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

AMD Launches Embedded G-Series J Family of Low Power Low Cost Processors with HDMI 2.0 and 4K HEVC Decode

If you want 4K multimedia features like HDMI 2.0 and 4K H.265 video decoding @ 60 fps at a reasonable price point, ARM is basically the only game in town with Rockchip RK3229 and Amlogic S905 TV boxes in the low end segment ($30 to $40) and on the other side of the spectrum SoCs such as Nvidia Tegra X1 used in the Shield Android TV box for around $200. But AMD has now added the J family to its G-series embedded processor with two x86 cores, AMD Radeon GCN core, and multimedia capabilities including HDMI 2.0 and 4K HEVC decoding, with the processors targeting thin clients, IP set-top boxes and TVs, casino gaming, industrial control and automation, digital signage, and communications networks. Key features of AMD G-Series J family processors: 2x “Excavator” x86 cores with 1MB shared L2 cache AMD Radeon R5E graphics (up to 3CUs) with support for […]

February 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

More Details about Rockchip RK3399 Cortex A72 SoC: 4K H.264/H.265/VP9, USB 3.0, PCIe, and DisplayPort

We already knew Rockchip RK3399 was going to be a powerful processor with two Cortex A72 cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz, and four Cortex A53 cores teamed with a Mali-T860MP4 GPU. The processor was also said to support 4K H.265 video decoding up to 60 fps, HDMI 2.0 video output, and Gigabit Ethernet. But the company is now at Mobile World Congress 2016, and has disclosed more details. Some of the newly introduced features include: Multi-media 4K @ 60fps 10-bit H.265/H.264/VP9 video decoder 1080p video encoding with H.264 or VP8 Display HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 1.4/2.2 DisplayPort 1.2 and eDP 1.3 with PSR (Panel Self Refresh) Dual channel MIPI-DSI Camera – 8MP ISP, dual channel MIPI-CSI2 External Interfaces 2x USB 3.0 ports with type-C support PCIe 2.1, 4 lanes, 5Gbps per lane 8 channels TX/RX audio for playback and record Embedded low power MCU for other applications (power control?) […]

February 21, 2016February 21, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Kodi 16 “Jarvis” Release

This morning, I saw Kodi installed from Google Play get an update in one of my Android device, and that means that Kodi 16.0 “Jarvis” has now been released. As usual it’s available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, and iOS, with specific Linux ports for Raspberry Pi boards, and several Freescale/NXP i.MX6 boards such as Wandboard or EzeeCube. You can get the full Changelog in the Wiki, but some of the main changes against Kodi 15 include: Various new features for Live TV and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) Added RDS Radio, FM radio, scheduling recordings of TV shows… Various improvements such as speeding up EPG database access. Added, updated, and improved PVR backend clients addons for all popular third-party external PVR backend platforms: FilmOn, HDHomeRun, Enigma 2, Tvheadend HTSP Client, and so on. Add-ons Framework, API, and Manager improvements Platform Independent Playback improvements : software DTS-HD decode with libdcadec, […]

February 17, 2016June 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 122 Comments

Voyo V3 Intel Atom x7-Z8700 mini PC Review with Windows 10

Voyo V3 is one of the first Cherry Trail mini PCs based on Intel Atom x7-Z8700 quad processor that promises both higher CPU and GPU performance, and more I/O connectivity compared to Intel Atom x5 platforms. I’ve already posted pictures of the device and its guts in the first part of the review, so today in part 2 of the review, I’ll focus on testing how the device perform with its pre-installed operating system: Windows 10 Home. Setup and System Information There’s no much to say about setup for this device, since all you have to do is to connect the cable, and press the button to access Windows 10 desktop. There are however two interesting aspect of the boot process: As you connect the power supply, you’ll see the power button blue LED lit, but it does not mean it has started. I could see the power consumption was […]