TV box News - Page 9 of 108 - CNX Software

August 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Linux 5.8 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.8: So I considered making an rc8 all the way to the last minute, but decided it’s not just worth waiting another week when there aren’t any big looming worries around. Because despite the merge window having been very large, there really hasn’t been anything scary going on in the release candidates. Yeah, we had some annoying noise with header file dependencies this week, but that’s not a new annoyance, and it’s also not the kind of subtle bug that keeps me up at night worrying about it. It did reinforce how nice it would be if we had some kind of tooling support to break nasty header file dependencies automatically, but if wishes were horses.. Maybe some day we’ll have some kind of SAT-solver for symbol dependencies that can handle all our different architectures and configurations, but right now it’s just a manual […]

July 26, 2020July 26, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Beelink GS-King X Review with Android 9 – Video & Audio Playback, NAS/File Server Function, and Benchmarks

Last month I received Beelink GS-King X for review and started with an unboxing and teardown to check out the hardware. I’ve now had time to test the device with Android 9 including the file server function, a key selling point since of the device since it supports up to two 3.5″ SATA drives internally. A Tedious and Frustrating Start Eventually, I managed to boot the TV box and access the launcher, but it was no pleasure cruise. The first time, I connected the power, there was nothing at all, with the LED turned off, and no noise from the device. I thought the device was dead. The company asked me to check the power supply, and indeed a quick check with a multimeter confirmed it was dead despite the blue LED (on the power supply) implying the contrary. Nevermind, bad things happen, and the company sent me a new […]

July 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Dune HD AV1 4K TV Box To Run AOSP or Android TV for Android 10 on RealTek RTD1319 Processor

4K TV boxes capable of playing AV1 content are coming later this year. Many of the entry-level models will feature Amlogic S905X4 processor, but some higher-end set-top boxes will instead be equipped with Broadcom BCM7218X or Realtek RTD1319 processor with better video post-processing capabilities and often more extensive DRM support which can be important to operators. Dune HD AV1 4K TV box is coming later this year with Realtek RTD1319 media processor, and support for either Android 10 AOSP or Android TV for Android 10. Dune HD AV1 4K TV box specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1319 quad-core Arm Cortex A55 processor with Mali-G31 GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2 API support System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash (32 GB or more as an option) Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4Kp60 with HDR support, 3.5mm AV port with composite video and analog stereo […]

June 30, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Ugoos X4 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box Plays 4Kp120 AV1 Videos

AOMedia AV1 video codec has been in the works for several years, and has strong industry backing since it’s open-source, royalty-free and delivers compression similar or even superior to H.265. Some services like YouTube and Netflix have already started using AV1 on PCs where the CPU is powerful enough to handle software video decoding. But relying on software video decoding is not ideal on typical Arm-based devices, either because of battery life concerns (e.g. phones) or simply impossible because the processor won’t be able to cope. The latter is especially the case on TV boxes who are not usually fitted with Arm Cortex-A53 cores leaving hardware video decoding to a video processing unit (VPU). Since AV1 is still fairly new, most VPU doesn’t support the new video codec, and while we have seen several AV1 capable processors including Broadcom BCM7218x, Realtek RTD1311/RTD1319, and Amlogic S905X4. as well as at least […]

June 18, 2020July 26, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Beelink GS-King X Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Teardown

Beelink GS-King X is a 3-in-1 media center that works as an Android 9.0 TV box, a NAS with support for two 3.5″ hard drives, and a HiFi audio system with two ESS9018 audio DACs powering RCA and balanced audio outputs. The company sent a review sample, and I’ll start by checking out the hardware and accessories, show how to install the hard drive(s), and attempt to tear down the device to check what it’s really made of. Beelink GS-King X Unboxing There’s no mention of TV box nor Android on the package, just “STORAGE” and DTS plus Dolby Audio… The bottom of the package lists the Beelink GS-King X specifications which we already discussed in our previous articles. There’s a red ribbon that helps to take the device out of its package. I wish more companies would do this. Accessories include the voice remote control, an HDMI cable, a […]

June 13, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Dune HD RealBox 4K TV Box Runs Android and Linux on Realtek RTD1395 SoC

Realtek RTD1395 processor is designed for 4K HDR TV boxes and set-top boxes. Equipped with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and Mali-470 GPU it offers a lower-cost alternative to Realtek RTD1295 and RTD1296 with the same 4K video processing and playback capabilities. So far, we had seen it in TV boxes designed for operators and Banana Pi BPI-M4 single board computer, but Dune HD RealBox 4K TV box is the first RTD1395 consumer device sold directly to end-users. Dune HD RealBox 4K specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-470MP4 GPU System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60 HDR and AV port (composite) Audio – Optional S/PDIF, analog stereo audio via AV port, digital audio via HDMI port; HDMI audio pass-through to AV receiver Video Playback 4Kp60 HDR/HDR10+ with 10-bit H.265 and VP9 profile-2, […]

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Beelink GS-King X Android TV Box, Dual HDD NAS & HiFi Audio System Launched for $250

Beelink GS-King X is an Android 9.0 TV box and a NAS with two 3.5″ SATA bays powered by Amlogic S922X-H processor combined with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash that was unveiled last month with some blurry renders. We now have for the details about the device, which has started to sell for $249.99 plus shipping on GeekBuying when using a “Fixed Priced” coupon, in my case 4ATAOTO6. Updated Beelink GS-King X specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X-H hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52MP4 GPU @ 846MHz; 12nm process System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot, 2x 3.5″ SATA HDD drive bay for up to 32TB storage in total Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 Video – […]

May 13, 2020May 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Beelink GS-King X Amlogic S922X-H TV Box Comes with 3.5″ SATA Drive Bays

After Beelink GT-King and GT-King Pro, it appears the company is working on another Amlogic S922X(-H) TV box with Beelink GS-King X providing two internal 3.5″ SATA Bays. [Update May 14th: The post has been updated to reflect two SATA bays are available, not only one] Beelink GS-King X (preliminary) specification: SoC – Amlogic S922X-H hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores @ 1.9 GHz, Arm Mali-G52MP4 GPU @ 846MHz; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot, 2x 3.5″ SATA HDD drive bay for up to 16TB storage Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP 2.2 Video – AVE-10 engine with 4K UHD H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoding up to 60 fps, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and PRIME HDR high-dynamic range support […]