More and more devices are supporting voice interaction nowadays from your smartphone to devices like Amazon Echo, but so far, I had not seen development boards specifically designed for that purpose, and that’s exactly what Seeed Studio ReSpeaker board does by combining audio capabilities, WiFi connectivity, and I/O headers.

Click to Enlarge

ReSpeaker Core board specifications:

• WiFi Module – Acsip AI7688 Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n module based on Mediatek MT7688 MIPS SoC
• Storage – micro SD card slot
• USB – 1x micro USB port for programming and power
• Audio – 3.5mm AUX port, WM8960 audio codec, 2-pin header for external speakers
• Expansion – 2x 8-pin expansion headers for I2C, GPIO and USB 2.0 host connected to MT7688
• MCU – Atmel ATMega32U4 @ 16 MHz
• Misc – 12x RGB LEDs, 8x touch sensors, 3 push buttons
• Power Supply – 5V DC
• Dimensions – 70mm diameter
• Weight – 70 grams

The board runs OpenWrt, and uses Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text capabilities from Bing and Google with the company having focused on the English language so far, but you should be able to add other languages fairly easily.  A “detailed and easy-to-use” Python SDK is provided to developers, and other programming languages/options such as C/C++, Arduino, JavaScript and Lua are also available. You can find more details and source code on the Wiki.

Beside the core board, the company also offers two add-on boards such as Grove Extension board to add I2C, UART, digital or analog Grove modules to your projects, and a Microphone array board with 7 microphones and 12 LEDs.

Mic Array (Top Left), Grove Extension (Bottom Left), and Meow King Drive Unit (Right)

Finally if you want something hackable, but looking more like a consumer product, Seeed Studio has partnered with Meow King Audio Electronic to design Meow King Drive Unit with a 5W speaker and taking ReSpeaker Core and Mic Array boards. ReSpeaker Core is also compatible with ESP8266 based Wio Link, and its graphical setup interface.

Some fun projects include a smart speaker answering your questions, weather forecasting decorative cloud, voice controlled meeting scheduler, talking “I’m thirsty” flower, smart photo album showing photos from a given date or event, and more…

[embedded content]

The project has launched on Kickstarter a few hours ago, and already raised $37,000 out of its $40,000 funding target. ReSpeaker Core with a 8GB micro SD card requires a $39 pledge (early bird, $59 normal), which goes up to $89 with ReSpeaker Mic Array, and $139 with the complete Meow King Drive unit kit with all necessary boards. There are many other rewards to choose from with various sensors, bundles, etc… Shipping is not included, and adds $10 for standard shipping (Tip: select Hong Kong irregardless of your country), or $20 for DHL shipping according to their latest update. Delivery is scheduled for November 2016, except for the Meow King kit  (January 2017).

PS: I have an early sample of ReSpeaker Core board, and I’ll post a review/guide in a few days.

Tweet More and more devices are supporting voice interaction nowadays from your smartphone to devices like Amazon Echo, but so far, I had not seen development boards specifically designed for…

After Samsung Z1, and Samsung Z3, Samsung defied “mathematical incrementation wisdom”, and launched Samsung Z2 Tizen smartphone, which happens to be the very first Tizen phone supporting 4G networks.

Tizen Z3 is definitely an entry level smartphone as the specification show:

• SoC – Quad core processor @ 1.5 GHz
• System Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD slot up to 128GB
• Display – 4″ WVGA TFT display
• Cellular Connectivity – 4G LTE Cat.4
• Camera – 5MP rear camera with LED flash, 0.3MP front camera
• Battery – 1,500 mAh battery

The device caters to the Indian market with Samsung’s ‘Make for India’ features such as the “Ultra Data Saving mode, S bike mode and the new My Money Transfer”. The phone also includes a preview version of Jio services to access music and videos on demand.

Samsung Z3 will be sold for 4,590 INR (~$68) in India starting on August 29th. More details may be found on Samsung Z2 product page.

Via Tizen Experts

Tweet After Samsung Z1, and Samsung Z3, Samsung defied “mathematical incrementation wisdom”, and launched Samsung Z2 Tizen smartphone, which happens to be the very first Tizen phone supporting 4G networks….

Coowell V4 is one of the rare Android mini PCs with a built-in camera. It is powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor combined with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash. GearBest asked me whether I wanted to review it, and since I was curious about the camera, I took the offer up. Today, in the first part of the review I’ll start by checking out the device and its accessories, and tear it down to find more about the hardware design, before specifically testing the camera in the second part of the review in a similar way to what I did for HD23 review.

Coowell V4 Unboxing

The device comes in a black retail package with SMART MEDIA HUB text. The only icon that may cause troubles at custom might be the Android logo and text lacking TM.

Click to Enlarge

There’s also sticker on the side indicate Model: V4. SO there may be several “Smart Media Hub” models from the company.

The box ships with a 5V/2A power supply, HDMI and AV cables, an IR remote control with IR learning function (5 keys) taking two non-included AAA batteries, and a generic user’s manual in English that does not show or explain anything about the camera.

Click to Enlarge

The device itself is fairly small, and fits easily in the hand. We’ve got the retractable camera on the top as well as the power button.

Click to Enlarge

The front panel only has the IR receiver window, one side features a USB 2.0 port and micro SD slot, while most ports can be found in the rear panel: WiFi antenna, one more USB 2.0 host, optical S/PDIF, HDMI 2.0 output, one micro USB OTG port, and the power jack.

Coowell V4 Teardown

In order to open the device, we’ll need to turn it upside down, and we”ll notice both the model name “Smart Media Hub V4” and the recovery switch on the bottom right. But what we are interested in here are the four rubber pads on the corners. We have to take them out, and loosen four screws.

Then use sharp and rigid plastic tool to pop the top cover up.
The camera is connected to the main via a MIPI CSI ribbon cable. I’ve lifted the black part of the connector to take the cable out, and have a closer look at the main board first.
Rockchip RK3368 processor is covered by an heatsink, and connected to a 16GB SKhynix H26M52003EQR eMMC flash and two SKhynix H5TC4G63AFR DDR3L memory (1GB). Networking connectivity is achieved with AP6335 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 module, as well as Realtek RTL8211E GbE transceiver and NS892407 Gigabit Ethernet transformer module. Other ICs include Rockchip RK1000-S audio codec and TV out chip, and Genesys GL852G USB 2.0 hub controller. We’ll find the IR receiver, power button, and a built-in microhone in the bottom of the picture. The board is named XT-Z4-V13.

Click to Enlarge

Some clips hold the board in place, but it’s easy to completely take it out of its enclosure. We’ll find two more DDR3L chips on the back of the board bringing the total to 2GB RAM. A sticker also mentions Z4S-V13, and that it is the 16G/2G version.

But let’s go back to the camera on the top cover. We’ll need to loosen four more screws, and push 4 pairs of clips to take out the camera.

It’s then easy to open it by inserting a tool on the side of the module, which contains a GC2145 2MP image sensor if the markings on the cable are to be trusted.

Click to Enlarge

I’d like to thank GearBest for sending a sample for review, and if you are interested you could considering purchasing Coowell V4 from their online store for $69.99 including shipping. Alternatively the TV box can also be found on Aliexpress for $68 and up.

Tweet Coowell V4 is one of the rare Android mini PCs with a built-in camera. It is powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor combined with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash….

Shenzhen Shiningworth MXQ Plus M12N is one of the first TV box powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor also bringing a faster GPU, VP9 and HDR support compared to the earlier Amlogic S905 processor. I’ve already shown the device, its accesories, and its internal degisn in the first part of MXQ Plus M12N review, so today I’ll spend time reporting my finding testing features and performance with Android 6.0 firmware.

Setup Wizard and First Impressions

Since there are only two USB ports, I connected my USB hard drive to one, and used a USB hub to connect input devices including two RF dongles for an air mouse, and a gamepad, as well as a USB keyboard to take screenshots. I also added Ethernet and  HDMI cable, and finally connected the power supply to boot it up.

But as you can see from the picture the very first boot was not quite as expected, as all I can see what a mini version of the user interface in the top left corner of my TV (please ignore the vertical line(s) in my pictures, as it is a problem with my LG 4K TV). I contacted the Shenzhen Shiningworth about this issue, and they told me to try to reboot the device… To my surprise, the issue was gone, and I’ve never been able to reproduce it.

The very first screen will be a welcome from the setup wizard. Select/Click on Next to select the language.

You’ll only have four choices at this stage: English, simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Japanese.

The Next window is for overscan compensation in case you have black zones on the edges of your TV.The final settings in the wizard is for Network. If you have connected an Ethernet cable just click Next, but if you want to use WiFi instead set Wireless from close to open, select your access point, and enter its password. Both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz (802.11ac) networks are supported.

Click to Enlarge

Once everything done you get to the main launcher with icons for Google Play, Kodi, YouTube, Netflix, “Local” apps, All apps, a Game app (KO GameBox), and a links to Settings. There’s also a customizable bar at the bottom for favorite apps. Boot is normally achieved in less than 30 seconds.

The pre-installed app are mostly pretty common, except some IPTV apps – BangTV, Mobdro, and Show Box – which I’m not familiar, and check out later in the review.

There are 6 main menus in the settings:

• Networks – Wireless, Ethernet, Broadband (PPPoE), and wireless hotspot
• Device – BlueTooth, Keyboard, HDMI CEC control, Sound settings (PCM, SPDIF passthrough, or HDMI passthrough)
• General – Device Name (default: MXQ Plus), Date & Time, Language, and More settings (Android 6.0 settings)
• Security – Security redirecting to Android 6.0 Security Settings, Add Account
• Display – Adjustment, Resolution, Wallpaper, Screensaver
• MXQ About – Device Name, System Info, Developer mode, ROM update, and Restore factory status

I haven’t had any problems with neither WiFi or Ethernet connectivity, and I could setup HDMI output up to [email protected] Hz, however the system would almost always revert to 1080p60 after a reboot. The mow usual annoyance that I can’t turn off my AV receiver while it’s connected to the device still occur, even if I disable HDMI CEC. I could not find any HDR options in the settings.

While we have the most useful option in Settings app,  you can still access Android 6.0 settings via General->More settings, and set other parameter like accessibility, printing, developer options, Languages and Input (with many languages), and so on.

Like most new devices to the market, the TV box has a unified partition for apps and data with 11.87 GB storage, and at the end of the review I had only used 2.99 GB with all installed apps and some files copied to the download directory. So there will be enough space for the requirements of most people.

Going to About MediaBox section shows MXQ Plus running Android 6.0.1 on top of Linux 3.14.29. The firmware is not rooted. The company told me that OTA firmware is supported, but it won’t work through UPDATE&BACKUP app, which reports OTA failure connecting to server, and instead you’d have to go to Settings->MXQ About->ROM update. I have not been able to confirm whether it works since the company has not release a new firmware since I’ve received the device.

While I used MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse for most of the review, I’ve also quickly tested the infrared remote control, and it works with a range up to 10 meters.  Google Play store worked well, except for BLE (Bluetooth LE) app such as Mi Fit or Vidonn Smartband, which I had to side-loaded. I had no problem installing the free version of Riptide GP2 through Amazon Underground.

Power handling is OK with a short press on the power button of the remote control making the device go into standby, and a long press, popping up a window to power it off cleanly. I could also use the remote control to power it back on.

I measured power consumption in 6 different configurations:

• Power off – 0.4 watt
• Standby – 0.4 watt
• Idle – 3.0 to 3.4 watts
• Power off + USB HDD – 0.4 watt
• Standby + USB HDD – 1.0 watt (HDD LED was turned off)
• Idle + USB HDD – 4.2 watts

All good numbers, and behaviors. Unless you consider the 30+ watts consumed by my A/V receiver which I can’t power off while connected to MXQ Plus M12N…

Thermal design as seen in the teardown post with two thick thermal pad connecting the processor to the metal case, was not very convincing, but during use the case does not get very hot. After Antutu 6.x, top and bottom temperatures were both 41°C max, and after playing Riptide GP2 for about 15 minutes, the temperatures only went up to 43°C and 45°C respectively. The game frame rate was also constant during the whole duration of the game.

Considering Amlogic S912 is a brand new processor, and putting aside the very first boot letterbox issue. my first impressions were quite good with MXQ Plus M12N with the stable and responsive firmware most of the time. Other small annoyances and bugs included the lack of status and notification bars, the device preventing me from turning off my A/V receiver, and in two or three occurrences having the system ask whether I wanted to close or wait for an unresponsive app.

A Quick Look at IPTV apps

As previously mentioned 3 IPTV apps are installed.

BangTV plays Chinese TV stations in Mandarin, but also some in foreign languages (Russian, French, Arabic…) in SD resolution.

Click to Enlarge

Mobdro app categorizes live video feeds by Channels, News, Shows, Movies, Sports, and Music, and more.

Click to Enlarge

Once you enter a category, you will be presented by a list of channels with logo and descriptions.

Click to Enlarge

I could play Sky Sports F1 from the list in SD resolution, and it worked well, except the quality was rather low. Watching sports on TV is often a paying endeavors, so I assume this may not be legal everywhere…

Finally Show Box app starts in the News section, which you can navigate to access various entertainment news about movies and TV shows.

Click to Enlarge

But you can also select Movies and TV shows in the left sidebar, which brings you to a list of movies.

Click to Enlarge

I selected one, and it looks like it’s pointing to stream or download the movie through bittorrent.

Click to Enlarge

I’ve checked Tarzan for two minutes and it could stream fine at 720p (with somewhat low quality)… Again it may not be fully legal in all locales…

Video and Audio Playback with Kodi, Antutu Video Tester, and DRM information

I’ll switch to local video playback. The first time you start Kodi, you’ll be asked whether you want to install Add-ons. I selected “Not install” myself, since I don’t need it for review.

Click to Enlarge

Kodi 16.1 is installed, probably a custom version built on July 4, 2016.

Click to Enlarge

I’ll play all videos from a SAMBA share over an 100Mbps Ethernet connectivity, unless otherwise stated (HDD = played from USB hard drive).

I’ve started with some Linaro media samples, and Elecard H.265 videos:

• H.264 codec / MP4 container (Big Buck Bunny) – 480p/720p/1080p – OK
• MPEG2 codec / MPG container –  480p/720p/1080p – OK
• MPEG4 codec, AVI container 480p/720p/1080p – OK
• VC1 codec (WMV) – 1080p – 480p/720p/1080p – OK
• Real Media (RMVB), 720p / 5Mbps – OK (software decode)
• WebM / VP8 – 480p/720p – OK (ff-vp8 software decode), 1080p – some frames are skipped
• H.265 codec / MPEG TS container  – OK

I enabled automatic refresh rate in Kodi, but this did not work well.

Videos with various bitrates were next:

• ED_HD.avi (H.264 / 10 Mbps) – OK
• big_buck_bunny_1080p_surround.avi (1080p H.264 – 12 Mbps) – Not 100% smooth (software decode)
• h264_1080p_hp_4.1_40mbps_birds.mkv (40 Mbps) – OK
• hddvd_demo_17.5Mbps_1080p_VC1.mkv (17.5Mbps) – Audio only, stays in UI
• Jellyfish-120-Mbps.mkv (120 Mbps video without audio) – HDD: OK

The worry here is that the system can’t play some videos with software decode that could be played without issues in Amlogic S905X devices like MINI M8S II, so it could be the CPU is throttling under load.

I also tested PCM output (stereo downsampling) via Kodi and MX Player/MoviePlayer app using my TV’s speakers, and HDMI pass-through in both using Onkyo TX-NR636 receiver for advanced audio codecs.

No audio with PCM output using apps other than Kodi is expected since the processor is Amlogic S912, and not Amlogic S912-H with the proper Dolby and DTS licenses. HDMI pass-through is still in a sorry state, especially in Kodi. It’s still usable in other apps, as long as you are satisfied with 5.1 audio.

4K video playback is pretty good however, at least for supported HW codecs:

• HD.Club-4K-Chimei-inn-60mbps.mp4 – OK
  
• sintel-2010-4k.mkv – OK
• Beauty_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) –  OK
• Bosphorus_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265) – OK
• Jockey_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_TS.ts (H.265) – OK
• MHD_2013_2160p_ShowReel_R_9000f_24fps_RMN_QP23_10b.mkv (10-bit HEVC) – OK
• phfx_4KHD_VP9TestFootage.webm (VP9) – OK
• BT.2020.20140602.ts (Rec.2020 compliant video; 36 Mbps) – OK.
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4 – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_60fps.mp4 – Not smooth, and audio delay (as expected since hardware is not supposed to support it)
• Fifa_WorldCup2014_Uruguay-Colombia_4K-x265.mp4 (4K, H.265, 60 fps) – OK
• Samsung_UHD_Dubai_10-bit_HEVC_51.4Mbps.ts (10-bit HEVC / MPEG-4 AAC) – OK
• Astra-11479_V_22000-Canal+ UHD Demo 42.6 Mbps bitrate.ts (10-bit H.265 from DVB-S2 stream) –  OK
• 暗流涌动-4K.mp4 (10-bit H.264; 120 Mbps) – HDD: Slow motion, and many artifacts (Not supported by S912 VPU, software decode)
• Ducks Take Off [2160p a 243 Mbps].mkv (4K H.264 @ 30 fps; 243 Mbps; no audio) – HDD: Not perfectly smooth for either NTFS or exFAT partitions
• tara-no9-vp9.webm (4K VP9 YouTube video) – OK
• The.Curvature.of.Earth.4K.60FPS-YT-UceRgEyfSsc.VP9.3840×2160.OPUS.160K.webm (4K VP9 @ 60 fps + opus audio) – OK watchable but not 100% perfectly smooth.

I had already written about 4K video playback on Amlogic S912 SoC, and if you haven’;t seen it already you can watch some of the videos above playing in M12N in the embedded video below.
[embedded content]

Sintek-4k.iso & amat.iso (non encrypted) Blu-Ray ISOs, and two MPEG2 1080i videos could all play without an issues. I was expecting Amlogic S912 to handle 1080p 10-bit H.264 video software decoding thanks to its 8 cores @ 2.0 GHz, but while a 720p Hi10p would play perfectly with audio, video and subtitles, the 1080p Hi10p video was not perfectly smooth, and even suffered from artifacts and audio cuts from time to time. The culprit could be M12N specific thermal design, so the issue will have to be confirmed or disproved with some other S912 models.

My TV does not support 3D videos, but I normally still checked if the TV box can decode the videos, and Onkyo TX-NR636 A/V receiver is capable of detecting 3D content (shows 3D icon) for MVC videos as shown in  Zidoo X1 II review, so I check whether the 3D icon is lit up:

• bbb_sunflower_1080p_60fps_stereo_abl.mp4 (1080p Over/Under) – OK
• bbb_sunflower_2160p_60fps_stereo_abl.mp4 (2160p Over/Under) – Audio only, stays in UI.
• Turbo_Film-DreamWorks_trailer_VO_3D.mp4 (1080p SBS) – OK
• 3D-full-MVC.mkv (Full-frame packed MVC 3D MKV) – 2D only, 3D icon not shown on Onkyo receiver
• ISO-full3D-sample.iso (Full-frame packed MVC 3D ISO) – 2D only, 3D icon not shown on Onkyo receiver

I completed Kodi videos testing by playing various VOB/IFO, MKV, AVI, MP4, XViD/DViX, and MKV 720p and 1080p videos from my library and all could play fine. I also played one complete video for 2 hours without issues.

I’ve also run Antutu Video Tester 3.0 benchmark, and MXQ Plus got 895 points, which is quite similar to the 909 points achived on MINI M8S II. The best devices normally get over 1,000 points.

Click to Enlarge

DRM info shows only Widewine Level 3 is supported. No surprise here.

Click to Enlarge

YouTube works fine, but is limited to 1080p max.

Video samples used in Kodi for this review can be downloaded via links in the comments section of my video sample post.

Network Performance

I copied a 278MB file between a SAMBA share and the internal storage test WiFi performance, both using 802.11n @ 2.4 GHz, and 802.11ac @ 433 Mbps.

Results are below average, and during the 802.11n test, I even got a stalled and failed transfer. Performance is also asymmetric with “downloads” (SAMBA-> flash) faster than uploads (flash to SAMBA). 802.11n achieved 1.6 MB/s on average, while the file was transfered @ 1.9 MB/s over 802.11ac on average.

Throughput in MB/s – Click to Enlarge

For Fast Ethernet, I instead ran iperf -t 60 -c server_ip -d to test full duplex transfer, a worse case scenario, and performance is good:

Miscellaneous Tests

Bluetooth

After pairing my Android smartphone with “MXQ Plus” I could transfer a couple of photos over Bluetooth. I side-loaded Mi Fit, and it recognized and sync data with Xiaomi Mi Band 2 fitness band, however the app was displayed in portrait mode.

I skipped Sixaxis app test with my PS3 Bluetooth game controller clone since the firmware is not rooted, and for some reasons the TV box completely failed to detect my Bluetooth headset.

Storage

My Seagate USB hard drive with 4 partitions got NTFS and exFAT partions recognized and mounted  and a FAT32 micro SD could also be moutned in read/write mode.

Once I tried to copy a file from NTFS to exFAT in ES File Explorer but it failed due to permissions issues. I had not such issues with File Manager app. A1SD bench app shows fast sequential read speed in both partitions with 30MB/s (NTFS) and 33.86MB/s (exFAT), but write speeds are on the low side at respectively 6.42MB/s (NTFS) and 23.83MB/s (exFAT). I checked the NTFS partition with ntfsfix in my PC, and repeated the benchmark but the write speed was still very low.

Read and Write Speeds in MB/s

I repeated the test for M12N Samsung eMMC flash, and the results were excellent with 99.00 MB/s read speed and 69.40 MB/s write speed, which really makes me wonder why the box are the “unresponsive” app issue.

Read and Write Speeds in MB/s

Gaming

I’ve already written a specific post about Gaming on Amlogic S912 TV box, and performance is clearly better than on Amlogic S905 TV boxes. The included retro gaming app “KO Gamebox” is also interesting. You can see the performance in several games in the video below.
[embedded content]

MXQ Plus M12N Benchmarks

I’ll refer to you to the post entitled M12N Amlogic S912 TV Box Benchmarks for details, but let’s say results are disappointing, and I was expecting a larger performance jump compared to Amlogic S905 platforms.

Conclusion

MXQ Plus M12N works reasonably well with a stable and responsive firmware, good 4K video playback in Kodi, and decent gaming performance, however it feels like the device does not fully leverage Amlogic S912 processor performance based on benchmark results and video software decoding performance, and it still has some bugs like lack of HDMI audio pass-through in Kodi, and no automatic frame rate switching, problem with remembering HDMI resolution, slow WiFi, and so on.

PROS

• Recent, stable, responsive (most of the time) Android 6.0 firmware
• Good 4K videos playvack for VP9, H.265 and H.264 in Kodi
• HDMI audio pass-through for Dolby 5.1, DTS 5.1, and TrueHD 5.1 and 7.1 in Video Player/MoviePlayer
• One of the fastest internal storage I’ve seen in any TV boxes leading to reasonably fast boot (< 30 seconds)
• Good 3D gaming performance
• Proper power handling, and low power off, standby, and idle power consumption
• OTA firmware update support (not tested since no new firmware)
• exFAT, NTFS, and FAT32 file system support for external storage
• IR remote control working up to at least 10 meters
• Bluetooth file transfer and BLE are working

CONS

• HDMI audio pass-through and automatic frame rate switching not working properly in Kodi. Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD 7.1 not supported in other apps
• Disappointing performance compared to Amlogic S905 TV boxes (only ~ +10/15% boost in many benchmarks), and some videos (10-bit h.264) are not playing as well as in Amlogic S905X devices using software decode. Possibly a thermal design issue
• User set HDMI output mode is not always remember, often falling back to 1080p60 after a reboot, even if I set it to 4K 60Hz previously.
• “App not responding” issue appearing from time to time (not too often, but still noticeable)
• Poor WiFi performance
• Likely HDMI CEC issue as the device will not let me turn off my A/V receiver even after disabling HDMI CEC or automatic HDMI output
• Bluetooth audio may not be working
• Lack of status and notifications bars
• DRM: Only supports Widevine Level 3
• Dolby & DTS licenses not included (Only a problem for apps other than Kodi, for people not using HDMI or S/PDIF audio pass-through)

The manufacturer, Shenzhen Shiningworth, provide the sample for review, and wholesalers and distributors can contact the company to purchase in quantities. They also sell the MXQ Plus M12N to individuals on Aliexpress for $69.90. Alternatively you can buy their customers’ design, with a slightly different firmware, such as Acemax M12N for $65 on GearBest, or $69.99 on Aliexpress, as well as ENYBOX X2 sold on GeekBuying for $79.99.

Tweet Shenzhen Shiningworth MXQ Plus M12N is one of the first TV box powered by Amlogic S912 octa-core processor also bringing a faster GPU, VP9 and HDR support compared to…

Xtreamer mxV is a family of TV boxes powered by Amlogic S905 processor, and supporting Android 5.1 and OpenELEC firmware provided by the company. There are three models: mxV without tuner, mxV Plus with a DVB-T2 tuner, and mvX Pro with a DVB-T2/DVB-S2 combo tuners.

The three devices share the same 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 eMMC flash + micro SD card slot
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2 support, and 3.5mm AV jack
• Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF
• Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, MPEG/VC-1/AVS+/H.265 up to 4K30
• Tuner
  • mxV – None
  • mxV Plus – DVB-T2 tuner with two connectors
  • mxV Pro – Combo DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2 with two connectors
• Connectivity – Fast Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports
• Misc – Power button and LED, IR receiver
• Power Supply –  DC 12V/1A
• Dimensions – mxV: 130 x 110 x 32 mm; mxV Plus / Pro: 130 x 120 x 32 mm

The device ships with IR remote control, a quick instruction guide, an HDMI cable, and a 12V/1A AC/DC power adapter. If the design and specs looks similar, it’s because mxV is based on K1 Plus, and mxV Pro on K1 Plus T2/S2. According to a post on Freaktab, mxV firmware either Android 5.1. called “Xtreamer Android TV OS” and supporting OTA firmware updates, or OpenELEC OS released by the company also work on K1 Plus devices. K1 Plus DVB TV boxes have supported OpenELEC (Vitmos build) for several months already, but the Xtreamer version appears to be officially supported by the company.

Xtreamer boxes are also reasonably priced with mxV selling for 39 Euros, mxV Plus for 49 Euros, and mxV Pro for 59 Euros. At first prices in Euros made me think it was sold from Europe, avoiding custom issues (e.g. “my” WeTek Play 2 has been stuck in customs for 3 weeks with basically no hope of getting it out) and extra duties, but it’s actually shipped from Hong Kong. You can find more information and/or purchase the devices on Xtreamer mxV product pages.

Thanks to Slowstream for the tip.

Tweet Xtreamer mxV is a family of TV boxes powered by Amlogic S905 processor, and supporting Android 5.1 and OpenELEC firmware provided by the company. There are three models: mxV…

Dot physical push notification is another Bluetooth beacon, but the company – Iota Labs – has designed and promote it in a location aware device that gets triggered when you move in a specific area with your smartphone. For example, somebody can leave a dot with a message such as  “remember to take the trash out” in the kitchen, and once you walk pass you’ll receive a notification, or you can use a dot to automatically turn on the light if you enter a room at night.

The full technical specifications have not been made available but here’s what we know:

• MCU – Nordic Semi nRF51822 (or similar) ARM SoC with Bluetooth radio
• Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE with a range up to around 45 meters
• Misc – RGB LED
• Battery – Replaceable battery good for 6 months to one year

Android and iOS apps will allow your to configure your dots.

It will also be hackable with a JavaScript API provided. Kunal Chaudhary, Dot project leader, explains further:

For advanced hackers we will likely leave the programming headers exposed, as well as 3-4 GPIO pins.  Hopefully at least one of the pins will be PWM capable and one will be Analog input capable in order to read a sensor.  We are hoping to have a glue-less case design so the internals can be easily accessed by hackers and for battery replacement.

As for the javascript API, we basically set it up so that a user can write up a script, upload it through our website, and then get it running on their phone within seconds. They write their script in a skeleton file that they download from us, and they basically fill it in with whatever functionality they desire. This JavaScript file runs in a headless UI browser on the actual app, executing the code and returning us a string of commands, from which we control the Dot. We built the API so that you can do very simple requests, or handle all the stuff under the hood like polling rate, distance, etc.

IFTTT might also be supported. All use cases are location dependent, for example the Dot can launch a GPS navigation app when you enter you car, work as digital post-it notes as explained above, control the lights/heating/aircon when you enter or leave a room, send notifications relevant to your location (e.g. tweets related to the sports event you’re watching on TV),  be used as a reminder device with the LED changing color whether you have brushed your teeth or not, and so on.

[embedded content]

I find dot to be of limited use for my personal case, since I’m not the kind of person to carry my smartphone with me everywhere and all the time, nor I check it each time I have a notification, but if you and your phone are one at all time,s then it might be useful. There could be some other use cases I have not thought of too.

The project launched on Kickstarter yesterday, and has already surpassed its $20,000 funding target. You’ll need to pledge $20 for a dot, and they have discount for various quantities up to 10 dots for $170. Shipping adds $2 to the US, and $5 to the rest of the world, with shipping planned for March 2017.

Tweet Dot physical push notification is another Bluetooth beacon, but the company – Iota Labs – has designed and promote it in a location aware device that gets triggered when…

CNXSoft: Ray reviews Amlogic S812 powered Linux based KowanTV Click TV box with allegedly access to over a thousand free IPTV channels. While the hardware is pretty standard, you pay a (hefty) premium to access their IPTV servers, and it reminds me of Jynxbox Live which I reviewed a few years ago.

I received one these rare Linux stream boxes. It’s called TVone Entertainment hub, advertised as: KowanTV Click To Play Entertainment Hub European American TV Channels Live Broadcast Video on demand IPTV BOX 1000+ Free Channels, and provided by GeekBuying for this review.

KowanTV Click Specifications

Unboxing and first impressions

After opening the package, we see the top of the box and the fancy looking RF remote, covered in soft foam, a USB 2.0 to Micro USB (1 meter), and a HDMI cable v.1.4 (1.5 meter) together with a quick setup manual and the power supply.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

On first sight, all looks from high quality in a straight forward design. But stay tuned, this box will show some surprises.

One of the big “advertisements” of this box is, that it would come with a preload (or after OTA updates) of over 1000 Channels. The company also provided a comparison table showing differences with “standard Android TV boxes”. Kowan TV1 is the box being reviewed here, as Kowan TV2 also include dual DVB-T2/C & DVB-S2 tuner.

Surprisingly the number of TV stations after my first connection was just 95 channels.

I got suspicious and tried to figure out, what’s really behind the Kowan TV1! The firmware is simply a kind of modified Linux/Kodi Modification, similar to Arnubox Mach 10 Pure Linux! A mixture of renewable OTA TV links and a integrated Kodi styled Addon GUI.

Click to Enlarge

It reminded me directly of my bad experiences with Arnubox Mach 10, with similar specifications, also using Amlogic e S812 ARM Cortex-A9 processor with an octa-core Mali-450MP GPU.

I tested the quality of the “live links” and it was a new experience. Never ever before I saw streams such bad video streams, almost all in a range between 500 and 800k, meaning they are not watchable on big screens at all. Most streams are delivered by FilmON add-on.

Click to Enlarge

I connected 3 different brands of Wireless mouses without success, and even Mele F10 Deluxe did not work. Then I tried a standard USB keyboard, no success either. This box only seems to work with the original remote, a handicap what could be fatal one time.

The box is also advertised with Bluetooth capability, but I could not find any such setting in the settings menu or anywhere else, so I guessed it might be some sort of permanent Bluetooth connection, and tried different devices with “searches”…result: none at all. So one way to work around the issue could be to use a USB Bluetooth dongle instead, which I did, but again unsuccessfully…

After connecting my Samsung soundbar HW-K950, Kowan TV1 box showed us its first bright side, as it delivered a real Dolby experience. After a web search, I found out that a box with the same promises and advertisements was advertised in 2011. So it looks like a remake of a hard-to-sell device…

Video Test Results

Conclusion

KOWAN TV1 Linux seems like a promising system. It shows great performance, but I also experienced issues with connecting built-in Kodi addons to servers (both through Ethernet and WiFi), signing-in into YouTube, some add-ons did not work, and the remote control was useful but quite flawed.

The biggest disappointment was, that this box delivers the advertised “over 1000” channels only by using pirate Kodi addons only. As I mentioned previously, I also manged to get 95 live channels, and half of them would not even open because of endless pre-buffering, so it was more then disappointing.

On the bright side, this “Kodi machine” has good picture quality, and managed to play almost anything thrown at it (within Amlogic S812 chipset limitations – no TS files). Local network performance proved to be quite good, though with long pre-buffering for heavy 4K content. There are also some services reminiscent of the old NMT (network media tanks), which allows things, like torrent download and playback, and other interesting options.

PROS

• Live Streams with EPG
• Very nice Remote with keyboard function including backlight and rechargeable battery via a micro USB port. Range tested up to 12/15 meters
• Relatively easy to handle GUI
• No Temperature issues

CONS

• The price… definitely.
• Works only with original remote control
• Nothing more than a modified Linux running Kodi in the background.
• 95 “live Streams” are delivered through Kodi’s IPTV simple client, which once a while needs an update over the so-called update when starting the box! There would be a premium package to book later on, but this is normally free (FilmOn licensed live stream Inc.).
• If you want to watch movies, you have to launch Kodi add-ons, with long pre-bufferings and all kind of bad effects delivered by these freebies.
• The whole experience is within the confines of Kodi, there’s no getting out.
• The Channel update experience was less than encouraging, as the device was unable to connect to the update server quite a few times. Much like most of other “pure Linux” based TV boxes, a manual update through a USB/SD Card is not possible since the  firmware is not public

Entertainment systems running on Linux never really made their way to the end consumers in the past through their handicap to be married to Kodi only somehow. More successful Linux boxes, such as the Mag boxes, use different middleware  offering end users a simple way to connect to a IPTV portal. I wish Kowan TV1 would have gone this way in compiling a real hybrid able to run a nicely done GUI with Kodi together with portal compatibility. This would have made it a real unique box with potential, and not ending up being an overpriced Kodi Entertainment System, although the name Kodi does not appear at all in the the modified GUI.

The specifications are about the same as any of the other Amlogic S812 based boxes out there, and the main difference remains the operating system. The manufacturer markets the box as better than its Android counterparts, but I found it to be a mixed bag.

The default skin that was custom made for the box, requires some getting used to, if you are used to the standard confluence Kodi skin. But it works quite well, If you come from Android, or even Windows boxes, this Linux box will require some adjustments. It might be the right fit for you, but you will need to know that it’s Kodi only, and there is nothing else, no matter the modified GUI, which is on the other hand, an improvement to standard Kodi systems, for an inexperienced or older user.

Did I like it? Not really. I was disappointed with some of the issues I found as my expectations were higher for a dedicated box.

Would I recommend it? I would, but only for people with limited technical understandings and who just need a capable kind of Entertainment/Kodi box, and are willing to live with its limitations, and extremely higher than average price.

GeekBuying kindly provided the sample for review, and if you still want to purchase it, you can do on on their website for $199 (No typo). Free shipping and a free Tenda F3 N300 wireless router somewhat soften the high price tag. It can also be found on Aliexpress and eBay for the same price.

Tweet CNXSoft: Ray reviews Amlogic S812 powered Linux based KowanTV Click TV box with allegedly access to over a thousand free IPTV channels. While the hardware is pretty standard, you…

A few months ago I wrote about sub $200 ARM Cortex A72 Android smartphones, but Xiaomi is now further lowering the price point with their Redmi Note 4 powered by Mediatek Helio X20 processor with 16GB storage, a 5.5″ display, a 13MP camera, and a large 4,100 mAh battery selling for just 899  RMB (~$135).

Redmi Note 4 Specifications:

• SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with 2x Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.4 GHz and ARM Mali-T880MP4 GPU @ 700 Mhz
• System Memory – 2 or 3 GB RAM
• Storage – 16 GB or 64 GB storage + micro SD slot up to 128 GB (shared with dual SIM slot)
• Display – 5.5″ capacitive touchscreen, 1920×1080 resolution; 2.5D curved glass
• Cellular Connectivity – 4G+ / 4G / 3G / 2G ; dual SIM slot for Nano and micro SIM cards
• Connectivity – 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/A-GPS
• Camera – 13MP rear camera with phase-detection autofocus, 5MP front camera
• USB – 1x micro USB OTG port
• Audio – Speaker, microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack
• Sensors – Accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, hall sensor, fingerprint sensor
• Battery – 4,100 mAh battery
• Dimensions – 151 x 76 x 8.35 mm
• Weight – 175 grams

The phone will run Android (MIUI 8.0), and ship with a charger and USB data cable, a pin, warranty cards, and a quick start guide. For some reasons, the CPU and GPU frequencies are lower than the one advertised on other model, but I don’t know if it is because of honesty, or a desire to reduce power consumption.

As you’ve must have noticed from the specifications there’s also a 3G/64GB model, and it’s selling for 1199 RMB (~$180). The phone is only available in China for now, but it will soon sell online worldwide like the other models. More details can be found on Redmi Note 4 page (in Chinese).

Via Liliputing and MIUI forums.

Tweet A few months ago I wrote about sub $200 ARM Cortex A72 Android smartphones, but Xiaomi is now further lowering the price point with their Redmi Note 4 powered…

Based on the number of comments I get daily on my review of Videostrong K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV box, the device is rather popular thanks to its dual DVB-T2/T2C and DVB-S2/S tuner, its low price, and OpenELEC community support. However, some people are possibly affected by the mere 1GB RAM in the system, with some apps being killed during use due to lack of memory. One solution is to purchase WeTek Play 2, but at $120 it’s in a different price range, and does not offer a dual tuner solution. But Videostrong has recently launched their KII Pro DVB T2+S2 model based on K1 Plus DVB T2+S2, but with 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, and 802.11ac WiFi.

KII Pro specifications:

• SoC –  Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with  penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz
• System Memory – 2GB DDR3
• Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz, and 3.5mm AV (composite video) jack
• Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo audio), optical S/PDIF
• Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, MPEG/VC-1/AVS+/H.265 up to 4K30
• Tuner – Combo DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2 with two connectors
• Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 (Ampak AP6335) – Not Realtek RTL8189 as shown in Aliexpress according to VideoStrong.
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports
• Misc – Power button and LED, IR receiver
• Power Supply –  DC 12V/1A
• Dimensions – 130 x 120 x 32 mm
• Weight – 187.50 grams

K2 Pro runs Android 5.1.1 and comes with the same DTV app installed on K1 Plus S2 T2 with channel scanning, EPG, channel recording and CCCAM/OSCAM support. People who require AC3 / Dolby D 5.1 in some countries will have the same issue as on K1 Plus T2 S2 because the Dolby license is still missing, and a device with Amlogic S905-H is required, unless maybe if you use OpenELEC (TBC) instead of Android.

The box is currently sold on Aliexpress for $82.69 shipped. It’s also sold under the Acemax brand for about the same price, but it’s unclear whether the WiFi module is the same since they only mention dual band WiFi. More details may soon be available on Videostrong products page.

Tweet Based on the number of comments I get daily on my review of Videostrong K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV box, the device is rather popular thanks to its…

Some ultra cheap Allwinner V3 based cameras are advertised as 4K cameras, but in reality they are limited to 4K @ 15 fps, and on top of that the software have to extrapolate data to get to that resolution. So there are not usable for most people, unless maybe if you somehow need a 4K CCTV camera. Currently one of the cheapest “true” 4K action cameras is Yi Technology / Xiaomi Yi 2 sports camera based on Ambarella A9S SoC, capable of recording up to 4K @ 30 fps, and selling for around $250. But there’s now a new wave of cheaper “4K 30 fps cameras” based on Ambarella A12S75 Cortex A9 SoC such as EKEN H8 Pro selling for $139.99, or Andoer C5 Pro going for $124.50 both of which use Sony 12 MP image sensors respectively IMX078 and IMX177.

Instead of focusing on the cameras themselves, I’ve decided to check the SoC in details instead and see its “4K capabilities”

Block Diagram for a Typical Action/Flying Camera Based on A12S – Click to Enlarge

Nothing shows for A12S75 SoC in Google, just the cameras, so I searched for Ambarella A12S instead, and found A12S75 “string” in the chip rendering shown on the top left of this article, as well as the product brief with the following key features/specs:

• CPU – ARM Cortex-A9 CPU up to 792 MHz
• Camera Sensor – Up to 32 MP still picture capture
• Video Encoding
  • 1920x1080p100, 2560x1440p30 and 1280x720p240 Encoding
  • Simultaneous 1080p30 + 720p30 Encoding
• Image / Video Processing –  Advanced Electronic Image Stabilization and Tilt Correction
• Connectivity – USB Host for 4G Module Connectivity, DMA UART for Bluetooth (BT) module connection, dual encode for on-the-fly mobile resolution streaming
• Processor – 28-nm low-power CMOS Process

The SoC supports ThreadX and Linux.

EKEN H8 Pro Fake? 4K Camera

But wait, where is 4K support listed? There’s no mention of 4K support at all, and Amberalla A12S was unveiled together with A9S processor in a press release in October 2015 that reads:

Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA), a leading developer of low-power, HD and Ultra HD video compression and image processing semiconductors, today announced the addition of A12S and A9SE to its range of camera solutions for drones, or flying cameras. The Full HD A12S SoC family enables a new generation of entry-level flying cameras, including small form factor designs and racing drones; while the 4K Ultra HD A9SE SoC family is ideal for midrange designs.

So there you go, somebody used a Full HD camera SoC, applied some voodoo magic, and comes up with a 4K camera. So maybe they are able to extrapolate resolution to 4K, but the resulting videos are likely to be no better than on a 1080p cameras. So if you want to buy a 4K action camera don’t fall in the trap with the ones using A12S, and falsely marketed, and make sure they are based on Ambarella A9S or later.

Tweet Some ultra cheap Allwinner V3 based cameras are advertised as 4K cameras, but in reality they are limited to 4K @ 15 fps, and on top of that the…

ReSpeaker is a development board combining an Atmel AVR MCU, a MediaTek MT7688 WiFi module running OpenWrt, a built-in microphone, an audio jack, and I/O headers to allow for voice control and output…

When I compared the performance Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 processors  last year, I noticed Amlogic S905 single thread performance not being much faster than the one of Rockchip RK3368, despite the former allegedly clocked at 2.0 GHz against the latter 1.2 GHz. But early this month one member (koschi) on ODROID forums started a thread entitled “No performance difference between 1.5, 1.75 & 2GHz” about ODROID-C2 board.

The first post link to Ant-computing website about choosing a processor for a build farm, and one of the tables comparing various ARM and x86 processors with the claim that Amlogic S905 was listed to 1.536 GHz, because “the device claims to run at 2.016 GHz but the kernel silently ignores frequencies above 1.536 GHz!”

So koschi did his own tests with 7z and sysbench, using cpufreq-set -u $FREQ to set a fixed frequency between test, and could confirm the issue:

So it looks like Amlogic is cheating with the frequencies, and anything above 1.536 GHz does not change the results… There has been many comments in the thread with others confirming the issue. Hardkernel investigated the issue, and the answer while truthful is disappointing:

Please don’t waste your valuable time.
All the Coretex-A53 based Amlogic SoCs have the same issue. S905, S905 Rev-C(S905H), S905X and even S912.
The kernel clock frequency 1.75 and 2Ghz do not exist in the BL3x blobs.
It must be Amlogic’s fault. But we should detect it earlier in our internal development stage. Really sorry about that mistake.

We’ve been modifying/testing the BL3x code to find a maximum feasible/stable clocks like 1.53Ghz, 1.58Ghz, 1.61Ghz, 1.65Ghz, 1.68Ghz, 1.71Ghz, etc for a couple of weeks.
But 1.65Ghz seems to be the maximum one due to some power and heat issues. We will run the burnA53 on Ubuntu and the Stress app on Android with 10 set of C2 boards in this weekend (for 48 hours stability test) to make sure it.
Once we will have a test result, we will report it on this thread with update package for further sampling test in early next week.

If we disable two cores, the SoC can run up to 1.75Ghz probably. But we need further stability test too.
And yes. I fully agree most people don’t like this approach.

Anyway, we know well 1.65Ghz or 1.75Ghz is still very far from the 2Ghz. So we will change the C2 specification in our home page next week as per the test result.
And we must consider some compensation for C2 users. But we need to check what we can do first.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the mistake and kindly understand our situation.

The only good news is that the limit might not be 1.5 GHz, and possibly closer to 1.7 GHz, with the final number pending Hardkernel burn-in test results. That issue will not only affect ODROID boards, but also any other devices based on Amlogic S905, S905X, and S912 processors.

Thanks to Tim for the tip.

Tweet When I compared the performance Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 processors  last year, I noticed Amlogic S905 single thread performance not being much faster than the one of Rockchip…

Karl here with part 2 of Tanix TX5 Pro TV box. In the first part we peaked inside took a look at the specs and quick look at the UI. In part 2, we will get into the nitty gritty. When I first…

There are plenty of WiFi sockets going around such as Broadlink SP2 or Kankun KK-SP3, but in some cases it might be both more convenient and cheaper to get a WiFi power strip, and Broadlink MP1…

My first activity tracker, Vidonn X5, worked reasonably well and lasted for over a year, but the subsequent models I tried were all mostly disasters, especially as they added some features like a heart rate monitor that did not work reliably, and worse, their lifetime was poor, lasting only a few days to a few weeks before stopping working. My Xiaomi Mi Band 2 died last week-end, two days after a firmware update which decreased battery life to less than a day, and now refuses to charge. While the HRM was utterly useless, it did count steps fairly accurately, and battery life was good. Sadly, it would only last about two months. So at this stage, it might be worth spending more for a fitness tracker, and Fitbit has unveiled two new models with Charge 2 and Flex 2.

Fitbit Charge 2

Fitbit Charge 2 includes a 1.5″ OLED touchscreen display, and an heart rate monitor. It also supports step counting and sleep tracking, GPS tracking via your phone, and notifications for calls, SMS, and so on. Battery life is said to be around 5 days per charge.

Fitbit Flex 2 does not come with a display, but instead features notification lights. It has a thinner design, and is suitable for swimming with better waterproofness (up to 50 meters), and swim tracking. Phone notifications are supported via the 5 LEDs, and a vibration motor. Battery is also said to last a mere 5 days between charges.

Fitbit Flex 2

You can remove Flex 2 tracker, and use it in the company’s bands, bangles and pendants. Both products support Fitbit app for Android and iOS.

Fitbit Charge 2 sells for $149.99, while Fitbit Flex 2 goes for $99.99.

Via Liliputing.

Tweet My first activity tracker, Vidonn X5, worked reasonably well and lasted for over a year, but the subsequent models I tried were all mostly disasters, especially as they added…

Allwinner has mixed relationships with open source communities such as Kodi, especially due to issues with its closed-source CedarX VPU drivers, and some GPL violations. However to address the former, linux-sunxi community has been working on open source Cedrus library for the video processor unit on Allwinner processors, that’s been successfully tested on boards such as Orange Pi One. Free Electrons has gone  further, as they’ve made sure Cedrus now works with Linux mainline kernel, currently Linux 4.8, and tested it on Allwinner R8 based Pocket CHIP.

The work has been done by Florent Revest, a 19 years old intern at the company, who delivered a new sunxi-cedrus driver, a Video4Linux (V4L2) memory-to-memory decoder kernel driver, and corresponding VA-API backend, with the implementations currently available on Github here and there respectively. Currently only MPEG2 and MPEG4 are working, but adding other codecs such as H.264, and video encoding is possible using the current framework.

The short demo below shown VideoLAN playing an MPEG2 video using Cedrus on Linux 4.8 on PocketCHIP.

[embedded content]

A patchset has already been sent to the Linux Kernel mailing list, so support should become available in one of the upcoming Linux releases, and they’ve also updated linux-sunxi Cedrus Wiki to explain how to reproduce this setup on other Allwinner A13 boards.

Tweet Allwinner has mixed relationships with open source communities such as Kodi, especially due to issues with its closed-source CedarX VPU drivers, and some GPL violations. However to address the…

Qintaix Q912 was one of the first Amlogic S912 TV boxes featured on CNX Software, and now the company, Qintex Tech, has sent me a sample of their device for review. I’ll start by posting photos of the device, and looking inside to find more about the hardware and thermal design today, before reporting my experience in the second part of the review in a few weeks.

Qintaix Q912 Unboxing

I first thought they had sent me a chocolate box instead, but that’s refreshing to see a different retail package device.

The bottom of the package shows the specifications in details, and I got the version with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash.

Click to Enlarge

The box comes with a 5V/2.5A power supply, HDMI and AV cables, an IR remote control with IR learning function require two AAA batteries. and a “Quick Install Guide”.

Click to Enlarge

The TV box is a little larger than the other models I reviewed recently, but the external design feels of good quality partially because of the metal case, and front panel display.

Click to Enlarge

The display include 4 digits for the time, as well as logo for Bluetooth, WiFi, Ethernet, as well as AV, HDMI, and S/PDIF. Other items on the front panel include a hole with a micrphone logo (but we’ll see there’s nothing there later), an IR receiver windows, a power LED, and the power button. One of the sides feature a micro SD slot and recovery button, while the rear panel includes two WiFi antennas, the DC jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.0 and AV outputs, optical S/PDIF, and three vertical USB ports.

Qintaix Q912 Teardown

The bottom of the case has plenty of ventilation holes, but no screws or rubber pads, so that’s not where we’ll start the teardown. The MAC address prefix 78:C2:C0 looks up to “IEEE REGISTRATION AUTHORITY”, probably meaning it’s not registered, except for one site claiming it belong to SES, a French company specializing in …. road signs.

In order to open the device, we need to loosen the two screws on the outer side of the WiFi antennas.


The design does not allow me to completely take out the board without unsoldering the WiFi antennas, something I’m not willing to do before the review. But we can still get a clear look of the hardware. First this model has a thin heatsink on the top of Amlogic S912 SoC, partially covering RAM chips too. The metal case does not seem to have been leverage for cooling at all.

The top of the board features  a 16GB Toshiba THGBM5G7A2JBAIR eMMC flash, and two SKhynix H5TQ4G63AFR DDR3 chips, which two more that should be found on the other side of the PCB to get the full 2GB RAM. Connectivity is achieved via Ampak AP6330 module for dual band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as H5007NL magnetic transformer, and Realtek RTL8711F transceiver for Gigabit Ethernet.

Click to Enlarge

The WiFi antenna connection on the left side of the picture seem right, but the one of the right side feels a little odd, as if it was just for show… I just don’t know for sure since I can’t check the other side of the board. You’ll find the serial console (UART) pins on the middle left of the board. The board is named SZ-S29-V1.

I’d like to thank Qintex Tech for sending Q912 mini PC for review, and resellers or distributors can contact the company to purchase in quantities or other inquiries. Individuals can purchased the device on Aliexpress for $96 and up, or Amazon US for $122.

Tweet Qintaix Q912 was one of the first Amlogic S912 TV boxes featured on CNX Software, and now the company, Qintex Tech, has sent me a sample of their device…

At the end of last month I wrote about 96Boards TV Platform specifications, and noticed Hisilicon had one such boards, but details were sparse. Linaro has now officially unveiled HiSilicon Poplar board, the first 96Boards TV Platform board, sold for $79 + shipping on Aliexpress.

Click to Enlarge

Poplar board specifications:

• SoC – HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2.0 GHz per core with ARM Mali-T720 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1/1.0, OpenVG 1.1, OpenCL 1.2/1.1 Full Profile, RenderScript, and Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3
• Memory – 1 or 2 GB DDR3 (Specs are conflicting depending where you look)
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.2 up to 4K @ 60Hz
• Video Decoding – H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 and VP9 up to 4K @ 60 fps
• Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm audio jack
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2xUSB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port for console
• Expansion
  • 40-pin Low Speed (LS) connector with UART, SPI, I2S, 2x I2C, 12x GPIO
  • 1x PCIe 2.0 interface
  • 12-pin Smart Card connector (unpopulated)
  • 24-pin connector for tuner (unpopulated)
• Debugging – 1x JTAG port, 1x UART connector
• Misc – IR receiver, boot selection jumper, LEDs, power button
• Security – ARM Trustzone, trusted execution environment, secure boot, secure storage, secure video path, DRM, DCAS
• Power Supply – 12V / 2A
• Dimensions – 160 x 120 mm (96Boards TV platform specs)
• Temperature Range – 0°C to +70°C

Hisilicon Hi3798C V200 is quite an interesting processor with many high speed and media interfaces, and while they used most of them, they did not leverage support for SATA. Luckily, there’s still USB 3.0 and PCIe if you need faster storage.

Hi3798C V200 Block Diagram – Click to Enlarge

The board is sold with Android 5.1.1, but it will be the main development platform of Linaro Digital Home Group which aims “to continue creating optimized, high-performance secure media solutions for ARM on both Linux- and Android-based platforms. Licensees of the RDK (Linux) will be able to create Open Embedded/Yocto RDK builds for Poplar. The Poplar board will also serve as a common development platform for Android TV (AOSP) as well as for TVOS-based STB solutions used in China.”

In the meantime, you may find some information on Tocoding Poplar page, or access directly the hardware user manual. Eventually, 96Boards Poplar page will be a good place to look.

Tweet At the end of last month I wrote about 96Boards TV Platform specifications, and noticed Hisilicon had one such boards, but details were sparse. Linaro has now officially unveiled…

Mediatek Labs and Linaro introduced X20 development board based on 96Boards CE specs, and featuring Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core Cortex A72/A53 processor a couple of months ago. At the time, if you wanted to purchase the board, you’d have to fill a form explaining the details about your project, and the company, Alpha Star, would then decided whether would sell it to you. The good news here is that you don’t need to do any of that anymore, and you can buy the board directly on Seeed Studio for $199, or on Taobao for 1399 RMB.

Mediatek X20 development board specifications have not changed much since the first announcement, but the CPU and GPU frequencies have been lowered somewhat, and we have some more details:

• SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor with two ARM Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1~2.3 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.85 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.4 GHz, and  ARM Mali-T880 GPU @ 700 MHz
• System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 @ 933 MHz
• Storage – 8GB eMMC 5.1 flash + micro SD 3.0 (UHS-I) slot
• Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p @ 30 fps
• Video Support – 32MP @ 24fps / 25MP @ 30 fps; WQXGA 2560×1600 60fps; FHD 1920×1080 120fps; 4Kx2K 30fps H.265 w/HDR
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 (MT6631), GPS with antenna connector
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port (device only).
• Expansion:
  • 1x 40 pin low speed expansion connector – UART, SPI, 2x I2C, 12x GPIO, DC power
  • 1x 60 pin high speed expansion connector – 4L-MIPI DSI, USB, 2x I2C, 2L+4LMIPI CSI
  • Optional 16-pin analog expansion connector – Stereo headset/line out, speaker, analog line-in, and more
• Misc – Power, reset and volume buttons. 6 LEDS (4x user, 1x Wifi, 1x Bluetooth)
• Power Supply – 8 to 18V DC input
• Dimensions – 85 x 54 mm
• Weight – 77 grams

The board only runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow at this stage. You can find more hardware and software technical details on the Wiki, and download page. It might also be worth monitoring 96Boards X20 page for documentation.

Tweet Mediatek Labs and Linaro introduced X20 development board based on 96Boards CE specs, and featuring Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core Cortex A72/A53 processor a couple of months ago. At the…