TV box News - Page 27 of 108 - CNX Software

November 10, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Zidoo H6 Pro (Allwinner H6) TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 7.0 Firmware

Zidoo H6 Pro is the very first Allwinner H6 based 4K TV box. The Android 7.0 device support H.265, H.264 and VP6 4K video decoding, comes with fast interfaces such as USB 3.0, and network connectivity with Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi. I’ve already checkout the hardware in the first part of the review entitled “Zidoo H6 Pro (Allwinner H6) TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown“, and since then, I’ve had time to play with the TV box, and report my experience with Android 7.0 in this second part of the review. First Boot and OTA Firmware Update I’ve connected a USB keyboard and a USB dongle with RF dongles for an air mouse and gamepad on the two USB ports, a USB 3.0 hard drive to the single USB 3.0 ports, as well as HDMI and Ethernet cables before powering up the TV box. I also […]

November 8, 2017August 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

HiMedia Q10 Pro TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and 3.5″ SATA Bay

HiMedia Q10 Pro Android TV box was launched in March of last year, equipped with a HiSilicon Hi3798CV200 quad-core ARM Cortex A53 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and a SATA bay for 3.5″ drives. When I wrote a post about the Best Android TV boxes, on commenter mentioned that while NVIDIA Android Shield was the best box for streaming, he felt HiMedia Q10 Pro offered the best quality for media playback. With now 18 months since launch, you may wonder why I would do a review now. That’s because Himedia keeps updating the firmware, and they asked me to check out and test their latest feature: 4K Blu-Ray navigation on Android 7.0 OS. As usual, I’ll start by checking out the hardware, and will publish a review focusing on Blu-ray playback in a few weeks. The package is more like a suitcase that your usual tiny box, but that’s common […]

November 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Amazon Fire TV Stick Basic Edition Ships to over 100 Countries for $50

Amazon products are usually launched in the US, and a limited number of European countries, meaning most people can’t purchase or use their devices without going through various hoops. But the company has now launched a basic edition of their latest Fire TV stick 2016 sold in over 100 countries. Basic means it supports Amazon Alexa voice services, and you pay around $10 extra for the privilege. Apart from that it looks exactly the same. Supported languages are still quite limited with Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, or English, and the company mentions people will have access to videos from Amazon Prime Video with “unlimited access to critically acclaimed shows like The Tick, American Gods, and The Man in the High Castle as well as The Grand Tour Season 2″ Hardware looks the same with a quad-core processor coupled with 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of storage […]

November 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Sunvell R69 Allwinner H2 TV Box Sells for $19.99 (Promo)

$20 Android TV box promotions are fun. After last month, Rockchip RK3229 based A95X R1 TV box promotion, GearBest has another one with Allwinner H2(+) based Sunvell R69 TV box powered by Allwinner H2 processor sold for $19.99 with coupon R69GB. If you have no interested in Android, the good news is that since it’s based on Allwinner H2+, you can likely run Armbian images, or the recently released RetrOrangePi 4.0 with minor modifications, to have a $20 Linux server or game console. Sunvell R69 TV box specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2 quad core Cortex A7 processorwith Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD slot up to 32GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4 output up to 1080p60, AV port (composite video + stereo audio) Video Codec – H.265 / H.264 up to 1080p Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (via […]

November 6, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

RetrOrangePi 4.0 Released

RetrOrangePi is a retro gaming & media center firmware based on Armbian Debian image and working on Allwinner H3/H2+ based Orange Pi boards, Banana Pi M2+, and NanoPi M1, as well as Beelink X2 TV Box. Right at the end of last year, I reviewed RetrOrangePi 3.0 on Orange Pi One board to which I connected Mars G01 gamepad, and I could play some games like Wolfenstein 3D and Quake, and watch videos on OpenELEC/Kodi 16. The firmware also comes with various emulators, but you’d have to load the ROMs yourself due to intellectual property / license issues. The developers have now released RetrOrangePi 4.0. RetrOrangePi 4.0 changelog: Latest Armbian v5.32 (Debian Jessie kernel 3.4.113) RetroPie-Setup v4.3.3 (unofficial fork, upgradeable) New RetrOrangePi repository for easy updates and fixes EmulationStation v2.6.5 with video and game collection support, Desktop/OpenELEC shorcuts from main menu New ROPi “Attract-Mode”-like theme (based on Cosmos theme) Retroarch […]

November 1, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

2017 Singles’ Day Promotions on Chinese Online Stores

Singles’ day (Guanggun Jie – 光棍节) is celebrated every year on November 11 (11.11) in China, and retailers launch promotions to attract young shoppers, especially online. Last year Singles’ day was even bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US terms of (online?) sales,with an estimated 20 billions dollars of goods moved. Online Chinese retailers that cater to overseas market bring their promotions to the international stage, and like last year, I’ve gather some of the Singles’ day promos launched by the most popular e-retailers in China. GearBest 11.11 Sale / Double Eleven promotion will span from November 1 until November 13, with Day 1-7 being the preheat period, abd 8-13 the formal time for the promotion. The event includes flash sales for all sort of items, “lucky bags” where you buy something cheap but do not know exactly what it is…, promotions for top brands (Vernee, Creality, […]

October 27, 2017November 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

A95X R1 4K Android TV Box Sells for $20 (Promo)

Rockchip RK3229 quad Cortex A7 processor powers some of the cheapest TV boxes on the market. One of them is A95X R1 with 1GB RAM, 8GB flash, which likeother RK3229 boxes supports both 4K H.265 and H.264, and outputs up to 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz via its HDMI 2.0 interface. GearBest is now selling the device for $19.99 shipped using coupon AA95XR1. A95X R1 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3229 quad core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 fps, and 3.5mm AV output (composite) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and coaxial S/PDIF Connectivity – 100Mbps Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (RTL8189) USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Power Supply – 5V Dimensions – 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.5 cm Weight […]

October 25, 2017December 17, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

Amlogic T962E SoC Powers $55 Alfawise H96 Mini TV Box with HDMI Input, HDMI Output

HDMI input can be a useful addition to Android TV boxes, or media centers, as they allow for functions such as PiP (Picture in Picture), PVR/DVR (Personal / Digital Video Recording), and potentially video broadcasting with the box taking input from your set-top box (or other HDMI device), and broadcasting the video over your network in order to make it accessible to other computer or mobile devices on your home network, or the Internet. We started to see HDMI input on devices powered by Mstar MSO9810 processor a few years, and more recently Realtek RTD1295 processor has become more popular with products such as Zidoo X9S, Beelink SEA I, or EWEAT R9 Plus. Amlogic appears to have joined the fray with Amlogic T962E processor, a family normally used for TVs instead of TV boxes, found in Alfawise H96 mini 4K TV box with HDMI In and Out, 2GB RAM, and […]