kodi News - Page 22 of 35 - CNX Software

April 21, 2016 by Karl Johnson - 5 Comments

Matricom G-Box Q2 Android TV Box Review

Another guest review from Karl, this time, with Matricom G-Box Q2 Android 5.1 TV box based on Amlogic S812 processor. First Impressions Today I will be reviewing the G-Box Q2 by Matricom. This is a follow up device to the popular G-Box Q. The first day I plugged it in and did some basic first impressions I thought it was laggy…..but after using it and setting up the way I am accustomed to using it…I found it very fast and responsive. From the time power is applied to launcher is loaded is about 33 seconds. The software seems solid and I ran into only minor issues. It got very respectable scores between 38000 and 42000 on Antutu. The box does have a lot of software that I am not a fan of, but these can be easily uninstalled. The launcher that comes with it is ok but I prefer a […]

April 18, 2016April 18, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Box 3 Enhanced Review

We’ve already taken Xiaomi Mi Box 3 Enhanced TV box apart in the unboxing and teardown post, and after changing the language to English, seen the performance is excellent thanks Mediatek MT8693 hexa-core processor, so I’ve done further experiments and tests with the device, and will report my findings in this review. Settings and Power Handling and Consumption Mibox 3 Enhanced boots reasonably fast I can get to the user interface within 30 seconds. We’ve already the main GITV user interface in previous posts, but I had not gone through the settings yet. There are eight main sections: Display Resolution settings – 3840×2160 @ 60/50/SMPTE24/30/24 Hz, 1080p @ 60/50 Hz, 720p @ 60/50 Hz, Scale and position – For overscan adjustment Sound Button sounds – On/Off Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format – PCM/Raw data (actually used for HDMI audio pass-through) System_update – MIUI TV firmware OTA update Device & Bluetooth – […]

April 10, 2016April 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Zidoo X9s Android 6.0 TV Box Features Realtek RTD1295 Processor with SATA 3.0, HDMI 2.0a Output and Input

Zidoo has been busy this year, after releasing Zidoo X5 and Zidoo X1 II in Q1 2016, the company is about to launch Zidoo X9s Android media recorder and player, successor of Zidoo X9, powered by Realtek RTD1295 quad core Cortex A53 processor, and be one of the first TV box to run Android 6.0. Zidoo X9s preliminary specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1295 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC + micro SD slot + SATA 3.0 interface (external?) Video I/O – HDMI 2.0a output, AV output, and HDMI input (recording and streaming up to 1080p @ 60 Hz) Audio I/O – HDMI in and out, 1x S/PDIF output Video Playback – HDR, 10-bit HEVC/H.265 up to 4K @ 60fps, H.264 up to 4K @ 24 fps, VP9 up to 4K @ 60 fps, BDISO/MKV, etc… automatic frame […]

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Review of U4 Quad Hybrid Android Set-top box with DVB-T2/C and DVB-S2 Tuner

U4 Quad Hybrid is an Android 4.4 satellite, cable and terrestrial TV receiver powered by HiSilicon Hi3796M V100 quad core Cortex A7 supporting video decoding for H.264 and H.265 up to 4K @ 30 Hz. I’ve already taken a few pictures of the device and the board and tuner, shown how to easily configure another device or computer to stream live TV from this Android TV box, so today, I’ll write more about the Android and DVB parts both in terms of features and performance in the full review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve started by connecting USB peripherals and cables: USB 3.0 hard drive to USB 3.0 port, USB keyboard, and RF dongles for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse and Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad, as well as Ethernet and HDMI cables, and the terrestrial and satellite antenna cables. The DVB-T2 connector is using an F-connector, so […]

March 28, 2016April 3, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 238 Comments

OpenELEC (Vitmos OS) for VideoStrong/Venz K1 Plus Android DVB Receiver

Many recent TV boxes with digital TV tuner ship with Android, and run a custom DTV app to watch live TV. However, most ships without Dolby and DTS licenses, so you may end-up without audio for channels broadcasted with AC3 audio only, and if you’ve gotten used to Kodi TV interface previously you may want use it again. One workaround is to have Tvheadend or CESBO media server running in the device, and configure Kodi to use Tvheadend HSTP client to stream the video within your device. I’ve tested such video streaming on U4 Quad Hybrid recently since it’s enabled by default, but there’s no guarantee it would work with all Android DVB receivers. Another options is run version of OpenELEC with support for tuners, such as Vitaley S’ Vitmos 2.0 RC3 for Venz/VideoStrong K1 Plus based on Amlogic S905 processor. [Update: Vitmos 2.0 RC5 for K1 Plus DVB Combo […]

March 25, 2016July 30, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Stream Live TV to Your Computer or Smartphone with U4 Quad Hybrid Android TV Box, Kodi and TVheadend

TVheadend is a streaming server and recorder for Linux, FreeBSD and Android supporting DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C, DVB-T, ATSC, ISDB-T, IPTV, SAT>IP and HDHomeRun as input sources, and while in theory it should be possible to configure any recent Android TV set-top box with digital TV tuners, configuration is complex, and there’s no guarantee the tuner will be recognized. However, the manufacturer of U4 Quad Hybrid has already configured their box to support HTSP clients, so I’ve installed the latest firmware, and given it a try with my Android smartphone running Kodi 15.2 with TVheadend HTSP client, and I could successfully stream live TV (DVB-T2 free-to-air channels) to my smartphone. Once you’ve scanned the channels using DVB-T2 and/or DVB-S2, there’s no other configuration in U4 Quad Hybrid TV box, but you’ll still need to find out your IP address by going to Setup->Network, and WiFi, Ethernet or 3G depending on your […]

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

SPMC 16.1.1 (Kodi 16.1 Android’s Fork) Adds Bluray 3D ISO Playback, HD Audio Pass-through, and Other Improvements

You may remember SPMC (Semper Media Center), a fork of Kodi/XBMC, was released a few years ago to fix some issues with Rockchip processors that would not make it to Kodi mainline code. Koying, the project’s developer, has now forked Kodi 16.1 to add some bug fixes and experimental features, and released SPMC 16.1.1. Changelog compared to Kodi 16.1: Based on Kodi 16.1 HD Audio pass-through (Nvidia Shield AndroidTV + some Amlogic devices such as Minix U1 & Wetek Core at least) Autostart at boot (xbmc.autostart=true in xbmc_env.properties) GUI size setting (Allows 4K GUI on Nvidia Shield) Only give codec priority to Mediacodec (Surface) for 4K Only stop video on minimize for Mediacodec (Surface) “System” screensaver to enable daydream; all other screensavers disable daydream Get removable storage names from system Basic Bluray 3D iso playback (experimental; amlogic) Android TV recommendations and voice search (experimental) SSL enabled MySql Stop video playback […]

March 14, 2016March 17, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

K3 Wintel Windows 10 Keyboard PC Review

GeekBuying sent me K3 Wintel keyboard computer since I was interesting in testing a device in this form factor, and at the time I listed the specifications, and took a few pictures of the device and its internals. I’ve now completed the review, and found it to perform very well for a Bay Trail computer. K3 Wintel Key Computer Setup & System Info But the initial part of the review did not start so well, as I was asked for a license key for the device as went through the initial setup right after selecting my languages and regional settings. GeekBuying clearly states the mini computer comes with a “Licensed Windows 10”, and I could not find any on the device or the user’s guide, which appears to be a near-exact copy of a Windows 10 Lenovo tablet PC user’s guide… So I contacted GeekBuying, and after a few days, […]