zidoo News - Page 7 of 9 - CNX Software

November 2, 2015November 4, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 262 Comments

Giveaway Week – Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box

Time for another giveaway week that will take place on November 2 – 8, with one device or board given away per day. The first device is Zidoo X6 Pro TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa core SoC with 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash. Zidoo X6 Pro review showed a capable device, and pretty good, although not perfect yet, Kodi 15.1 implementation, however the device tends to overheat pretty quickly leading to very poor performance at times. So the company will have to work on improving thermal management in their firmware, beside fixing a few other bugs. I received two Zidoo X6 Pro samples due to miscommunication: one from Zidoo directly which I used for the review, one from GeekBuying which I’m giving away today, and is basically new, although I’ve quickly tried it to make sure it boots. You can find more pictures on Zidoo X6 Pro unboxing […]

October 9, 2015October 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box Review

Zidoo X6 Pro is a 64-bit ARM Android TV Boxes based on Rockchip RK3368 processor, promising support for HDMI 2.0 and video decoding up to 4K2K @ 60Hz. While the others I’ve tried so far, such as Beelink i68, are pre-loaded with some version of Kodi 14.2, X6 Pro comes with a modified version of Kodi 15.1. I published pictures of the Zidoo X6 Pro TV box and board a few days ago, and today I’ll review the box’ features, performance, and capabilities. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve connected a USB hard drive to one of the two USB ports, as well as a USB hub with two RF dongles for Tronsmart Mars G01 gamepad and MeLE F10 Deluxe air mouse, a USB keyboard, and a USB webcam. I’ve also inserted an Ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, an optical audio cable, a Class 10 micro SD card, as […]

October 5, 2015October 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Zidoo X6 Pro Unboxing and Teardown

There are so many Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes on the market that it’s difficult for products to stand out. But Zidoo X6 Pro might be one of these products bringing a little more, as beside frequent firmware updates, Zidoo’s RK3368 TV box may be the first to officially run Kodi 15.x, while most others manufacturers have decided to stick with Kodi 14.2 in their latest firmware, and the company also released Kodi source code modifications for 7.1 audio pass-through, 3D MVC support, and hardware video decoding in compliance with Kodi’s GPL license. As usual, I’ll start by taking some pictures of the device and board, before writing a full review in the next few days. Zidoo X6 Pro Unboxing I got the following package via DHL, which somehow decided to take my picture as I received the parcel… The package includes some of the key features of the device include […]

September 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Zidoo 12K Video Player Plays…12K Videos (on 3 Synchronized 4K UHD TV)

Zidoo Android TV boxes have often been featured in this blog, but the company also has products for the industrial market such as their 4K streaming player outputting the same video to up to 8 monitors, and a “12K video player” that outputs a video to three monitors @ 3840×2160 resolution. Zidoo strength is software and support, and they are not a hardware company, and while so far they have partnered with Kaiboer for their Android media players, if the picture above is any indication, they are using Skydigita SDG-3112 player as the hardware platform. The list of specifications and features currently released are unfortunately quite sparse: Video Playback Single 12K video outputted to three 3840×2160 monitors @ 30Hz max, 1080p also supported Codecs – H.265 and H.264 decoding. Containers – TS, MKV, AVI, VOB, MPG, MPEG, MOV. Iimage formats – JPG, JPEG, GIF, PCX, PNG. Video Output – 3x […]

September 22, 2015September 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

A Look at Android and Windows Mini PCs’ Power Consumption in Power Off, Standby, Idle, and Video Playback Modes

I’ve previously measured power consumption of Amlogic S812 and Rockchip RK3288 based TV boxes using a multimeter. This provides relatively accurate measurements, as well as neat power consumption profiles of devices, but it’s a little complex and time-consuming, so it’s not something I would do for all devices. The easiest way to measure power consumption is to use a kill-a-watt type of device, but my first one broke after only 3 months last year. I purchased a new one recently, so I run run some power measurement tests on several devices. I selected five devices for this test: MeLE PCG01 HDMI stick with Intel Atom Z3735F processor running Windows 10 Zidoo X9 TV box with Mstar MSO9810 running Android 4.4 Open Hour Chameleon TV box with Rockchip RK3288 processor running Android 4.4 Tronsmart Orion R68 Meta TV box with Rockchip RK3368 processor running Android 5.1 Tronfy MXIV TV box with […]

September 17, 2015September 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

Zidoo Releases Kodi Source Code Modifications for Rockchip RK3368 and Allwinner H3

Kodi is a popular open source media center, but many companies will not simply install the version released on Kodi.org, and instead modify the source code to bring their own improvements. However most companies never release the source as they ought to as per the GPL license used by Kodi. The good news is that Zidoo released their modifications for Rockchip RK3368 and Allwinner H3. Their modifications include support for 3D MVC,7.1 Channel HD Audio pass through, and HW decoding for Rockchip RK3368, and 5.1 audio pass-through, 4K @ 30 fps, and H.265 hardware video decoding for Allwinner H3. You can read the announcement on Kodi forums for RK3368 (Kodi 15.1) and H3 (Kodi 14.2). Kodi 15.1 source code for Rockchip RK3368 can be found on github (make sure to use zidoo-15.1 branch, and not master). In order to build Kodi yourself, you’ll however need the latest version of Rockchip […]

September 10, 2015September 28, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV Box To Support 4K Videos @ 60 fps, 7.1 Channels Audio Pass-through, and 3D Blu-ray Movies

With their X9 and X1 models, Zidoo selected entry-level hardware, but their latest Zidoo X6 Pro Android TV box, the company went up to mid-range devices with a Rockchip RK3368 octa-core 64-bit processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11ac WiFi. Zidoo X6 Pro technical specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 octa core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.5GHz (or is it 1.2GHz?) with PowerVR G6110 GPU System Memory- 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB flash (Meta). micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with CEC and7.1CH pass-through support, 3.5mm AV jack (Composite shared with stereo audio) Audio Output – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n + 802.11ac (AP6335 module), Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports (including one that supports OTG) Misc – Power button, IR receiver Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions – 10.8 x […]

August 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Zidoo X1 Android Firmware 1.0.7 Fixes Critical Kodi Playback Issues

I was quite disappointed when I wrote Zidoo X1 review, as Zidoo provided decent firmware with their Zidoo X9 recorder (albeit with some caveats), but Zidoo X1 with firmware 1.05 was a disaster while playing videos in Kodi either from the network or a USB hard drive, as even most H.264 videos could not play smoothly… I recommended prospective buyers to skip the box for now, as Kodi was not acceptable when Zidoo’s ZDCodec hardware decoding implementation was enabled. But the developers have quickly worked to fix critical bugs in Kodi, and provided a test APK that indeed fixed H.265, H.264, and MPEG2 videos, and improved greatly 4K video playback in Kodi with ZDcodec implementation. Since then, they’ve also fixed some other playback issues for video using VC1 codec, and released firmware 1.0.7 with the following changes: Kodi Fixed choppy video problems with online videos, such as YouTube Fixed choppy […]