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August 22, 2016August 23, 2016 by Ray - 55 Comments

Mini Review of MECOOL BM8 TV Box with Android 6.0 and Kodi 17.0

CNXSoft: An other review by Ray for an Amlogic S905X powered TV box provided by Videostrong. MECOOL BM8 specifications The specifications are pretty standard, except for the large flash: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core Cortex A53 @ 2.0GHz with a penta-core Mali-450MP GPU Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash + card reader for SD/SDHC/MMC cards Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K*2K “super HD video” with HDR support and AV outputs Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 port Supports HEVC (H.265) decoding The TV box runs Android 6.0. Unboxing The box comes with 3 different Power Adapters, a HDMI cable, power supply and a completely oversized (20cm/5cm) remote control with “learning modes ability”. No manual was inside the box. The Videostrong MECOOL BM8 is a […]

August 15, 2016October 19, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 55 Comments

Amlogic S912 Android TV Boxes List So Far

Following up on the tradition to create list of TV boxes with popular processor, such as my Amlogic S905 TV boxes and sticks list, I’ve decided to generate a comparison table for the first ten Amlogic S912 Android TV boxes announced so far. There won’t be any S912 TV sticks, as the processor probably dissipate a little too much heat to be useful in that form factor. All TV boxes in the table below share the same Amlogic S912 octa-core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with an ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU, support for HDMI 2.0a output, HDR, 4K video playback for VP9, H.265 and H.264 codecs, and run Android 6.0, so I only included columns for items that differ between products. Remarks: AV means 3.5mm AV jack with composite and stereo audio, and prices are usually retail prices with shipping by registered airmail from China, except for the ones followed […]

August 10, 2016April 25, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 75 Comments

DVB Channel Editor Tools for K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV Box

K1 Plus T2/S2 is one of the most popular Android TV boxes with digital tuners, including both DVB-T2/T/C and DVB-S2/S tuners, and I get frequent comments and questions on K1 Plus T2 S2 review. One of the often asked request is a channel editor to use on a computer, in order to change the names, the order of channels, and set favorites. You can export the DVB data from the DTV app in Android with all data stored in dtv_user_data directory, and in theory, one web based editor is supposed to let you do just that, but it did not work for me. Another option shared with us by gabywap is K1_Plus_Editor.exe (Mirror) developed by Sm0ke, who appears to mostly frequent Russian forums. So I downloaded it, and launched it with Wine in Ubuntu 16.04, but the channel data I had could not load, and the program showed some error […]

August 1, 2016August 1, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

QINTAIX Q912 Android TV Box is Powered by Amlogic S912 Octa-core SoC

I published pictures of Amlogic S912 TV box boards just over a month ago, and it appears companies have started to take orders from resellers for Amlogic S912 TV boxes with products such Videostrong KM8 Pro, or the one I’m going to cover in this post: QINTAIX Q912. QINTAIX Q912 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 @ up to 750MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB or 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 and AV ports Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Video codecs – VP9 profile 2 up to 4K @ 60 fps, H.265 [email protected] up to 4K 60fps, H.264 AVC up to 4K @ 30 fps, H.264 MVC up to 1080p60, MPEG-4, WMV/VC-1 SP/MP/AP, AVS-P16(AVS+)/AVS-P2 JiZhun Profile, MPEG-2 MP/HL, MPEG-1 MP/HL, and RealVIDEO 8/9/10 all up to […]

June 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

KS2 Android SoundBar Features Amlogic S905 Processor, a DVB-T2 Tuner

I’ve tested several Android TV boxes with digital TV tuners this year, including K1 Plus S2 T2 and U4 Quad Hybrid, but the manufacturers of K1 Plus have decided to design an Android 5.1 soundbar powered by Amlogic S905 processor and including a DVB-T2 tuner to catch live TV channels. KS2 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz; composite video output (RCA) Audio HDMI, Line IN, digital audio input Speakers 2x 15W 2.5″ speakers 1x 20W 3″ subwoofer 1x bass diagram Audio Range – 20 to 20 kHz Signal to noise ratio – >= 85 dB Effective output power: 50 watts Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, MPEG/VC-1/AVS+/H.265 […]

May 11, 2016May 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

VideoStrong VS-M9RD Development Board is a Raspberry Pi Lookalike with Amlogic S905 SoC

VideoStrong is better known for their Android TV boxes with or without digital TV tuners, such as K1 Plus T2/S2 TV box, but the company has also designed several Amlogic based single board computers and development boards, including the latest Raspberry Pi inspired VS-M9RD board powered by Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM processor. VS-M9RD board technical specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core cortex-A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with penta-core Mali-450 GPU up to 750 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – Optional 4 to 32 GB eMMC flash module, micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K2K Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports + mini USB OTG port Expansion Header 30-pin header 28-pin header 7-pin header with CVBS and JTAG signals Debugging – 4-pin 2.54mm pitch serial console header Misc – IR receiver, power and update buttons. […]

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 […]

February 28, 2016November 4, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 231 Comments

Review of K1 Plus Android TV Box with Combo DVB-S2/DVB-T2 Tuner

VideoStrong has launched K1 Plus TV box powered by Amlogic S905 processor last year, and I had the chance to review their model last November. But here I am reviewing K1 Plus again. Why? That’s because the company’s has several K1 Plus models: the “standard” version that’s just like any Android TV boxes, and the DVB version with DVB-S2, DVB-T2/C, or DVB-T2/C + DVB-S2 combo, and the latter is the one I’m reviewing today. K1 Plus DVB combo teardown revealed that the main board was exactly the same as K1 Plus “standard”, and that only a tuner card was added. So I’ll have a two part review with the first part checking if they fixed any of the bugs found on K1 Plus “Standard” with “November 2015” firmware in the new “January 27, 2016 DVB” firmware, and the second part will focus on testing DTV app with DVB-S2 and DVB-T2, […]