Vidon.me has sent me one of their Vidon Box (without asking). The box features an Allwinner A31s processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, and more. You can check my previous post for Vidon Box specifications. The company is also providing a membership for extra services such as HDMI / SPDIF pass-through, and Blu-ray menu navigation, among others, as you can see from the table below. The item with ** are upcoming features. VidOn Box Features Subscriber Non Subscriber Blu-ray Menu Navigation Y N Access to VidOn XBMC Pro Y N Access to VidOn Media Center Beta* Y Y Access to VidOn XBMC* Y Y Free XBMC Add-ons Y Y Media Library Info Collection Y Y Access Home Sharing Server Y Y 1080p Hardware Acceleration Y Y Blu-ray ISO Playback Y Y 3D Blu-ray Playback Y Y Firmware/Software Update Support Y Y SPDIF/HDMI Passthrough Y N Mobile Transfer** Y N Photo Backup** […]
Android 5.0 Lollipop Running on Amlogic AML8726-MX Based WeTek Play STB
Last month as Android Lollipop was shown booting on a Rockchip RK3188 tablet, and a few days later several companies such as Allwinner and Rockchip announced Android 5.0 ports were in progress for their latest processors, a few people asked me: what about Amlogic? I had no news at the time, but I expected the company to port Android 5.0 to their recent processor such as S802, S805, or S812, so I was surprised when I saw WeTek Play might be the first Amlogic device to boot Android 5.0 (CyanogenMod version), since it features the old dual core Amlogic AML8726-MX processor. The company has just released their latest Android 4.2 firmware, so this Android 5.0.1 version is most probably an early firmware, just not quite ready for prime time just yet, but hopefully they’ll release a stable version within a few weeks. That’s the boot and About WeTek Play video […]
Unboxing of BuyForSure 4KH 2160p/H.265 Android Media Player Powered by HiSilicon Hi3798M SoC
BuyForSure (BFS) is a company that sells various item on Aliexpress and Ebay, and then might also be involved in some product development (TBC). A couple of weeks ago I wrote about an inexpensive HiSilicon Hi3798M based TV box (quad core Cortex A7) supporting 2160 (4K UHD) video output and decoding, HEVC/H.265 video decoding, and featuring a USB 3.0 port. The company asked me if I wanted to receive a sample, and I accepted because few companies promote HiSilicon and MStar based products for oversea markets. So they send me their BFS 4KH TV box, my first HiSilicon device, and early next year, I’m likely to receive Zidoo X9 based on Mstar MSO9180 from another company, so that’s another story… Today, I’ll start by taking pictures of the media player and its board, and in several days I’ll post a review showing what this $50+ box is capable of (or […]
Android TV Launcher is Now Available on Google Play
If you own one of the many Android media player available on the market, and wanted to get Google Android TV on your device, the good news is that Google has just published Android TV Launcher on Google Play. So even though you can’t install Android TV on you device just yet, at least you should be able to run the launcher. But unfortunately, there’s also a bad news: Android TV Launcher is only available for Android TV devices such as ADT-1 Devkit or Nexus Player. I wanted to side-loaded to one of my Android devices, so I tried APK downloader to retrieve the Android TV launcher apk, but it can’t be downloaded unless your use a “Device ID” from ADT-1 or Nexus Player. So if you want to give it a try, you’ll have to patiently wait for the apk to show up somewhere. One place where it might […]
OpenELEC For Amlogic Media Players – MXIII, Tronsmart Vega S89, TV110 and CX-S806 (S812)
XBMC / Kodi is now working pretty well on Android devices, and even automatic frame rate switching is available on some Android platforms such as MINIX NEO X6. But if you want a pure XBMC experience, you may consider XBMC/Kodi Linux distributions such as OpenELEC also providing support for some USB DVB tuner dongles and PVR function, both of which are currently unavailable in Kodi for Android. We’ve also seen OpenELEC released for M8 TV Box, but Kerber, a Russian developer (or at least a Russian speaking developer) has also released OpenELEC 4.97.x for MXIII (Amlogic S802), Tronsmart Vega S89 (Amlogic S802), TV110 (Amlogic S805) , and CX-S806 (Amlogic S812) media players. The forum post is dated on August 2014, but it has been updated on December 12 with more up-to-date images: OpenELEC-Amlogic.MX3.arm-4.97.2.zip for MXIII (1GB) OpenELEC-Amlogic.S82.arm-4.97.2.zip for Tronsmart Vega S89 (2GB) OpenELEC-Amlogic.TV110.arm-4.97.2.zip for TV110 OpenELEC-Amlogic.S806.arm-4.97.2.zip for CX-S806 (Amlogic S812 […]
Unboxing of Amlogic S812 based Sunchip CX-S806 Android Media Player
Sunchip CX-S806 is my third Android media player based on Amlogic S812 processor, after Eny Technology EM8S (which I haven’t received yet, because the firmware is not really ready yet), and MINIX NEO X8-H Plus with a stable firmware, but some disappointment with regards to peripherals performance (eMMC, Ethernet,…), and poor support for H.265 / 4K videos in XBMC/Kodi, at least for now, since I’m sure they’ll work out the video issue with subsequent firmware / Kodi releases. CX-S806 has lower specs compared to NEO X8-H Plus, and does not come with an air mouse, but it costs about half of the MINIX box, so we’ll have to see how it performs. For now, I simply post pictures of the device and the internal board, since I’ve already posted CX-S806 specifications previously. CX-S806 Unboxing Sunchip sent me the box via DHL, and I received it in the black and gold […]
Inphic i8 Android Media Player Supports VP9 and H.265 Video Codecs, Features Allwinner H8 Processor
Allwinner H8 a new octa-core Cortex A7 processor for low cost Full HD media players with H.265 & VP9 codec support, and one the first product using the new Allwinner H-Series processor is Inphic i8, which sells for as low as 349 CNY (~$57) on JD.com and it’s also available on Taobao for 499 CNY (~$80). Some Inphic i8 boxes are available on Aliexpress, but so far all models are based on Allwinner A31s, promoted as quad core processor eight core GPU boxes, so don’t be fooled. Inphic i8 (Allwinner H8) specifications: SoC – Allwinner H8 octa-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 2.0GHz with PowerVR SGX544 GPU up to 720MHz System Memory – 1GB or 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8, 16, or 32GB internal storage Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p, Composite output (RCA) Audio Output – HDMI, and Left / Right RCA connectors Video Codecs Multi-format 1080p@60fps video playback, including […]
WeTek Play Android & Linux DVB-S2 / DVB-C/T/T2 Receivers are Now Available for 109 Euros
I reviewed Wetek Play Android media player with a DVB-S2 tuner this summer, and although I found it pretty good for a dual core media player, and liked its PVR functions, more work was needed to fix several bugs, and improve “WeTek Theater Live TV” app. Several months later, they must consider their devices ready, as they’ve now launched their online store selling the DVB-S2 and DVB-C/T/T2 versions for 109 Euros, and a version without DVB tuner for 99 Euros, all including free shipping worldwide. Let’s remind us of the specifications: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.5GHz with a dual core Mali-400MP GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4 GB NAND flash + 1x micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI, AV (CVBS + R/L audio) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Tuners – DVB-S2, or DVB-C/DVB-T/DVB-T2 depending on model with two […]