openelec News - Page 2 of 5 - CNX Software

June 21, 2016January 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

WeTek Hub TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

WeTek Hub is the latest TV box by WeTek running Android 5.1 or OpenELEC, with support for Widewine Level 1 allowing Netflix HD in Android as well as Microsoft Playready DRM, and featuring Amlogic S905-H Rev. C processor that fixes video playback issues on some 4K H.265 DVB streams, and includes Dolby and DTS licenses. The company has now sent me a unit for review, and I’ll check the hardware first before reviewing the TV box in a separate post. WeTek Hub Unboxing The device comes in a blue and black retail package showing some of the key features including WiFi, Dolby, DTS, HDMI, and Bluetooth support. The QR Code on the package redirects to http://www.wetek.com/qr/201603, which just looks like WeTek main page. The top cover of the package can slide to reveal more small boxes with the device and accessories. The device ships with a basic IR remote control […]

April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

LibreELEC (OpenELEC Fork) v7.0.0 Released with Kodi 16.1

It’s not always easy to get along in life, and recently this has been true in Kodi developer community and related project, with Koying leaving his role as the main Kodi Android developer, possibly meaning Kodi 17 won’t get an Android port, and more recently several OpenELEC developers, not satisfied with some of the current project developments, decided to fork it, and create LibreELEC. The team of 25 or so members has now released LibreELEC v7.0.0 based on Kodi 16.1 which had also been released a few days ago. The changelog only reads: The 7.0.0 release contains Kodi Jarvis 16.1 (final) and a fix for Verisign SSL certificate changes that impacted Pandora add-on users. It also addresses a bluez crash, a firmware update for Intel Skylake users, and a fix for an Amlogic CEC issue on WeTek Play/Core. Most importantly it also contains our new logo branding. The images are […]

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

HDMI Audio in Linux is Now Working on Cherry Trail mini PCs, OpenELEC 7.0 Image Released

Since Intel has decided not to officially support Bay Trail and Cherry Trail processors in Linux, and focus on other priorities, people who have tried to use HDMI audio in Linux with mini PCs or TV sticks based on the processors have always had issues. There’s a workaround for Bay Trail mini PCs with Linux 3.16 kernel, but so far I’ve never seen a Cherry Trail system working with HDMI audio in Linux. Luckily, Pierre-Louis Bossart has been working on support, and Piotr kasprzak has tried HDMI audio support with OpenELEC 7.0 and a patched Linux Kernel 4.5.1, and confirmed it to be working on Tronsmart Ara X5 Plus and Wintel 10 Pro mini PC powered by Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor. This can also be verified in the kernel log with dmesg:

[    6.417670] had: ******** HAD DRIVER loading.. Ver: 0.01.003
[    6.421553] [drm] mid_hdmi_audio_register: Scheduling HDMI audio work queue
[    6.459006] dw_dmac INTL9C60:00: DesignWare DMA Controller, 8 channels
[    6.485499] dw_dmac INTL9C60:01: DesignWare DMA Controller, 8 channels

[ 6.417670] had: ******** HAD DRIVER loading.. Ver: 0.01.003

[ 6.421553] [drm] mid_hdmi_audio_register: Scheduling HDMI audio work queue

[ 6.459006] dw_dmac INTL9C60:00: DesignWare DMA Controller, 8 channels

[ 6.485499] dw_dmac INTL9C60:01: DesignWare DMA Controller, 8 channels

If you want to try it yourself, you can download the OpenELEC image with the modifications. If […]

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 9, 2016March 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

WeTek Hub Android & OpenELEC TV Box Features Amlogic S905-H Revision C Processor

WeTek has been working not on one, but two four new devices recently. I’ve already covered WeTek Play 2S (previously known as WeTek Play+) based on Amlogic S905 Rev. C , running Android 5.1 or OpenELEC, and featuring digital TV tuners (ATSC, DVB-S2, DVB-T2/C), which should become available in Q2 2016. The company has unveiled another model called WeTek Hub with features closer to the ones found in other Amlogic S905 TV boxes I’ve reviewed so far, except it is based on Amlogic S905-H revision C, comes with Widewine and Microsoft PlayReady DRM, and supports both Android 5.1.1 and OpenELEC. WeTek Hub specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905-H revision C quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to […]

March 1, 2016May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 71 Comments

Raspberry Pi 3, ODROID-C2 and Pine A64+ Development Boards Comparison

Raspberry Pi 3 and hardkernel ODROID-C2 launched the same day, and together with Pine A64/A64+, are the only ultra low cost (<$40) 64-bit ARM development boards available or soon-to-be available, so I’ve decided to make a comparison of the three boards the same way I did with ~$10 boards with a Raspberry Pi Zero, C.H.I.P, and Orange Pi One comparison. I’ve used features of Pine A64+ instead of Pine A64 since features and price are closer to the other two boards. Text highlighted in green means a board is clearly better than the other two for a given features, while a red highlight means it’s the weakest of the three. Raspberry Pi 3 ODROID-C2 Pine A64 Plus Processor Broadcom BCM2837 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz(4x ~2760 DMIPS) Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz(4x ~4600 DMIPS) Allwinner A64 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ […]

October 10, 2015March 15, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

WeTek Core 4K Media Player Unboxing and Teardown

WeTek Core is the latest media player from WeTek Electronics, based on Amlogic S812-H processor with 2GB RAM, and 8GB flash. By default, it will ship with Android 5.1 using DRM libraries enabling Netflix HD, but you’ll also be able to install OpenELEC, and later on Lubuntu once/if the community gets involved like for WeTek Play. The company sent me one sample, and I’ll start by checking out the device and internal hardware. WeTek Core Unboxing That’s the package which lists the specifications and provides links to WeTek Facebook page and forums. The box ships with a 12V/1A power adapter with clippable US, EU and UK plugs, an HDMI cable, WeTek’s IR and RF 6-axis remote control with voice search function, a small (and cool) tool for firmware updates, and a blue document showing the device’s ports. The power button and LED are located on one of the corners at […]

September 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android TV Box and OpenELEC Video Tutorials

WeTek has released several video tutorials explaining how to configure WeTek TV boxes such as WeTek Play or WeTek OpenELEC, as well as the upcoming WeTel Core. The tutorials includes instructions for both Android and OpenELEC available in 6 languages: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and German. Some tutorials are clearly specific to WeTek products, such as “How to Activate WeTek Play membership”, but many of the tutorials are more generic starting from simple configurations steps like configuring HDMI output resolution and framerate, or configuring the network, to more advanced tasks such as configuring a DVB-S2 tuner on TVHeadend in OpenELEC. I’ve embedded the latter video tutorial below for reference. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com