Database Users

iMito MX1 Dual Core vs mk808 ?

ok have decided i really want one of these as it appeares these are the best 2, what do you guys consider when choosing what one to purchase please, will really appreciate your advice.

Does this devices support xbmc?

sindamc said:
Does this devices support xbmc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both support XBMC but still no hardware acceleration for the Rockchip. Streams well in SD but HD content not quite there yet. There is a workaround using mx player as an external player link in neon builds of xbmc.
I have mx1 and think it is good for most but still not 100% for xbmc for the video enthusiest. Alot of active development community at freaktab website just google freaktab mx1.

Will it have support to hardware acelaration? Do you think its wise to buy an android stick right now? or should i wait for the quadcore rockchips?

I'd guess that the rk3066 series of devices will see hardware support from XBMC sooner than later. They actually have an experimental libstagefright build available if people want to try it. I ran it on my UG007 last night.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=152005
It does a reasonable job of running the file dredd.2012.1080p.bluray.x254-sparks.mkv...over SMB. So, I mean...they're not far off. Nojoy on the 1080P Avengers rip, but this is still something.
What I found works well is to set up XBMC to recognize your video dir, and then in services, enable UPNP server. For HD videos that don't play in XBMC, fire up the eHomeMediaPlayer that comes with it, navigate to your XBMC UPNP, and play it there.

[Q] Ouya or GBox Midnight MX2?

OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.

I think that, in terms of brute force, Tegra 3 overhelms A9+Mali400. OUYA bears the last Tegra3 revision and, theoretically, NVIDIA works with OUYA Team to boost it up.
If you buy OUYA, you gain a Bluetooth controller for the same prize which can be used as remote.
At, the end, nobody knows if OUYA nor G-Box thing will have support from the scene, which, for me, is a key value.

I'd say if you're not interested in gaming, I'd go with the G-box. The ouya is marketed as a game console, and while they may add support for some media features in the future, for right now we're busting our tails trying to get better compatibility with the play store apps. the G-box is designed as a media player, and it already supports XBMC with some great reviews. It also includes the play store, so you can easily download the latest versions of netflix, hulu, etc.

Cool, I think that settles it for me, I wasn't aware that the regular playstore apps wouldn't work on the ouya. I will get an MX2 and post a review soon. Also it helps that I can connect a few spare portable hard drives and use this as a streaming box to other TVs in the house.

Didn't mean to mislead, because some play store apps will work. However, a lot don't, or are glitchy or crash occasionally, and they all have to be sideloaded because there is no play store access at all yet...

The gbox is pretty good. I have had it for a few days now and use my Logitech keyboard that also has a touch pad. It works great. Honestly, I would probably hate it if I didn't have the keyboard. The play store works perfectly. I haven't had a problem installing any apps. It is fully rooted. There has been a few times when it has restarted but it is android, it isn't perfect. Especially for 100 bucks. External hard drive works great but sometimes loses power. I don't think the gbox puts off enough juice. A powered hub would fix this issue. I wish there was development for the gbox but metronix or however you spell it won't release source.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

ouya vs mx2
plasmafire said:
OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.

I'm actually going to be doing a review on the MX2 today and uploading it tonight, I'll be comparing it's gaming features to the Ouya and stuff.
Spoiler alert, the Ouya is way ****ing better.
EDIT: Vid's up, see the Ouya destroy the MX2 for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTst6QE-34

Interesting topic. I was also looking at the Gbox before I pre-ordered the Ouya. I think the Tegra 3 on the Ouya would do a better job on graphics than the dual core Gbox Midnight. It's not just processor speed and number of cores, but also graphics processor. Plus, the bluetooth on the Ouya means one less USB dongle to plug in.
I went with the Ouya, hoping the hard working people on XDA will get a pure Android ROM for the Ouya soon. If I'm stuck with the Ouya's Android skin, it'd probably be an even split which way I'd go.

I saw the "XIOS DS Media Play" and considered it against the Ouya. I think these box with out of the box rooted + Play Store compatibility is better for the majority, especially non-geeks who don't want to fiddle flashing/etc. Not having PlayStore is still a big flaw for the Ouya in term of satisfying a wider audience imo.
For me the Ouya is the clear choice, it have a dedicated XDA forum section for a reason, it will get more community development and for sure the Ouya will likely get CyanogenMod and other roms, while its less likely with these other Android boxes.
For hardware performance the Tegra3 will be faster than these dual core 1.5GHz A9 with Mali-400 gpu.
If you are looking for a lot of gaming then the Ouya is the way to go, otherwise get one of these Cortex A9 boxes if you only need video playback. There will be some of these boxes that will exceed the Ouya in term of performance in no time, but the Ouya have XDA community that's the key for me. This is the case for all Android devices that I buy.

Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Axelben said:
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?

plasmafire said:
Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow. The reviewer also couldn't get bluetooth adapters to work, so could use a PS2 wireless controller. Granted, this is just one person's attempt to use the Midnight box, maybe other people have overcome these issues with some setting changes.

Yep the guy is playing games and using plex..both of which the mx2 doesn't do well. I am just going to have it boot into xbmc launcher. Run utorrent with rss feeds from showrss in the background. And maybe run droidnas on it. I have seen logitech mini keyboards work so that is what I'll get.

coachclass said:
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?

SamsungBlue said:
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.

mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my video. The settings I was using in Plex on both devices was to use the hardware to decode and playback the videos. The MX2's hardware just simply isnt nearly good enough to rely on for high resolution video playback, and on top of that there's some really annoying kinks with it like no bluetooth support at all and a very fussy keyboard input system that really sucks compared to stock android and what the Ouya uses.There's also a higher res version of the review on youtube, I linked to it on the first page of this thread towards the bottom.

Just got my MX2 today. I was quite apprehensive after reading some of the comments, but I must say that after using it for a while.. it is exactly what I needed. I am not saying it is better than ouya, but I have XBMC setup with all my local media and video plugins. It works like a charm. I will not play any games on it so I don't really care about the gaming performance.
All programs installed from Play store work
Full 1080p videos play no issues on xbmc.
Torrents are download via showrss to my xbmc monitored directory.
USB hard drive 1TB western digital is powered via the usb ports and shared via droid nas
Quick video 1080p: http://youtu.be/vQ6FvGtKbEw

mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if plex has the issue xbmc for ouya has at the moment but after the new firmware update last week most of my videos have stuttering seems like a framerate issue I reported it to ouya and they got back to me saying they are aware of the issue and are working on it. Before that update my videos were playing smooth.

plasmafire said:
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. There seems to be quite a few "Unity" USB recovers from Logitech. I couldn't find one that listed the Revue KB as a compatible device. Would any of those Unity receivers that work with other Logitech KBs or mice work? Seems like there are several in the $10-15 range. I appreciate your help.

opinions on MK888 / T-R42 Rockchip based Android TV boxes

Hi,
I'm interested in getting one of these newer quadcore Android TV boxes for media center. Mostly for use as XBMC and Netflix watching. This model looks good, but I can't get a straight answer from the web about whether it supports XBMC well enough for smooth video playback (avi's, mkv's, xvids...nothing big, about 5GB files).
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HKPo...RAM-8G-ROM-Android-4-2-2-Quad/1064048320.html
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/T-R4...a-with-IR-Remote-Controller-Black-317424.html
I've heard that some people are using external players with XBMC because there's no support for hardware acceleration with these rockchip devices.
How is Netflix for these?
Thanks for any info.

coachclass said:
Hi,
I'm interested in getting one of these newer quadcore Android TV boxes for media center. Mostly for use as XBMC and Netflix watching. This model looks good, but I can't get a straight answer from the web about whether it supports XBMC well enough for smooth video playback (avi's, mkv's, xvids...nothing big, about 5GB files).
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HKPo...RAM-8G-ROM-Android-4-2-2-Quad/1064048320.html
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/T-R4...a-with-IR-Remote-Controller-Black-317424.html
I've heard that some people are using external players with XBMC because there's no support for hardware acceleration with these rockchip devices.
How is Netflix for these?
Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any updates if this works now?

Can't answer for the KR-42 boxes, but on my X7, the video works fine in xbmc (with an advancedsettings.xml) Hardware acceleration is built into all xbmc android after Sept 1 (actually earlier don't know the exact date)... but you still need xbmc to enforce it.. look on freaktab.com for more on specific mini pcs if you are interested.. the price is right for what you get, if you ask me.

coachclass said:
Hi,
I've heard that some people are using external players with XBMC because there's no support for hardware acceleration with these rockchip devices.
How is Netflix for these?
Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Netflix and 1080/720p are playing fine on T-R42. XBMC v13 gotham version 6 beta is working great with few bugs since it's a beta and it's hardware decoding, no external player required.:good:

fingers crossed for good luck
I ordered a T-R42 for $87 USD from Amazon and hope it's all good without annoying flaws. Geekbuying supports it on their blog, and Freaktab forums show a custom rom by "wasser". I'll update this thread once I get it. Cheers.
*EDIT* wasser custom rom newer thread here, his/her 1.2.4 release is there so far. Also found out that some devices now may have and in the future will have a low-end RK3188-T chip running at 1.4Ghz or slower. Here is a "black list" I found on freaktab forums, and it's forum thread here.
*EDIT* I received my T-R42 from Amazon, two days ago. The stock rom works fine with Ethernet, Wifi, Bluetooth playing videos, XBMC ( latest monthly or nightly from http://mirrors.xbmc.org ), MX Player and simple games. There was no root, so I had to install Moborobo phone tools to make adb work for rooting and followed a guide on Geekbuying blog. Wifi signal is good, just as strong and stable as a modern smartphone. (be sure to configure your wifi router to a channel between 1 and 11). I wanted to add some tweaks, so I got a "wasser" custom rom from freaktab. Some usb webcams work such as Creative VF0610 (tested myself) and Logitech C170 (not tested, but Geekbuying reports it works), but you need a good powered usb hub. Those webcams are maybe $10 USD on ebay or amazon. Wasser rom 1.2.4 did not work well. You're device may be better off. So I then tried 1.2.3, and I'm glad the this 1.2.3 rom works nicely with my T-R42. This rom appears to have a 720p kernel so 1920x1080 output is really 1280x672 (status/navigation bar at bottom takes 48 px). My circuit board is B351_V1.0 in this photo http://i.imgur.com/DavJg4P.jpg. I have read in freaktab forums there are at least three identifiable versions of the circuit board in the T-R42 device. One is V1.0, another V2.0 and the other V3.5. Howver, circuit boards with completely different markings or serial numbers are sometimes in these CS918/CS968/T-R42 box devices. Whatever board you may get in your box, I'm sure some someboy in freaktab forums can help or has already solved an issue. I recommend this device, only if like "tv boxes".
kadooosh said:
Any updates if this works now? (hardware acceleration)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. H/W acceleration using GPU does work. Check this XBMC thread for support. and download a monthly or nightly XBMC build from http://mirrors.xbmc.org (be sure to choose the right cpu architecture, "arm"). The latest monthly snapshot should work well http://mirrors.xbmc.org/snapshots/android/arm/
*EDIT* I will return my t-r42 to Amazon soon. I prefer a portable battery powered device with HDMI such as JXD gaming tablets http://www.jxd.hk yay! ^_^
My JXD s7800B gaming tablet works nicely with different games. Here's a demo of Dead Trigger 1 (youtube).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc9oDNduzN4

What android stick / box should i get now? Jan 2014

Ok so im completely new to this and would love to get an Android stick or box for the living room 50 inch TV to stream mainly netflix.
Theres just so many choices!
Im just looking for a good reliable smooth HD playback on Netflix and also playing HD from external HDD would be needed.
Budget is around $80 £60 70Euro
Ive noticed a CX919 that seems good but is there a better, newer stick just released?
Thanks for your advice.

Why you don't choose TVBox instead of Stick, you'll have much more options and better performance.
I can advice you to CS968 / CR11s (Both same), the price about of 65 euro.
Internal camera is not awesome but enough for skype with good light ambiance.
Ofcourse there are other models but I recommend you to choose a RK3188 based device with 2 gigs of ram.
Atleast, CS968 has a few firmware sources.

EQUANCY said:
Why you don't choose TVBox instead of Stick, you'll have much more options and better performance.
I can advice you to CS968 / CR11s (Both same), the price about of 65 euro.
Internal camera is not awesome but enough for skype with good light ambiance.
Ofcourse there are other models but I recommend you to choose a RK3188 based device with 2 gigs of ram.
Atleast, CS968 has a few firmware sources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. yeah maybe a box would be better as it doesnt need to be portable.
Are they a ll the same once they are RK3188 based or should i go for a particular brand?

christrance said:
Thanks for the advice. yeah maybe a box would be better as it doesnt need to be portable.
Are they a ll the same once they are RK3188 based or should i go for a particular brand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
No, not at all, even same chipset based devices might be slight different than each other, it depends on pcb called REFERENCE BOARD, which released mostly by manufacturer or company self.
Aftermarket manufacturers generally uses that referenceboard for their devices.
And the brands and models:
Actually, there are not many particular brands, only a few may be more.
But as far as I know only Minix provides regularly(!) firmwares and sources for their devices, but they are much expensiver than CS968 like devices.
Of course you can find a firmware for other devices, for CS968 there is Cloudnet and sometimes other sources.
However,
You should go for reviews first, then forums to ask personal experiences to users (examples: here, arm-tvtech and freaktab) then you can make a comparision.
But there is no one choice and not one answer, its up to you to take the risk because there is allways risk.
I hope this answer helps.
Have a nice day with your beloved ones.

EQUANCY said:
Hi,
No, not at all, even same chipset based devices might be slight different than each other, it depends on pcb called REFERENCE BOARD, which released mostly by manufacturer or company self.
Aftermarket manufacturers generally uses that referenceboard for their devices.
And the brands and models:
Actually, there are not many particular brands, only a few may be more.
But as far as I know only Minix provides regularly(!) firmwares and sources for their devices, but they are much expensiver than CS968 like devices.
Of course you can find a firmware for other devices, for CS968 there is Cloudnet and sometimes other sources.
However,
You should go for reviews first, then forums to ask personal experiences to users (examples: here, arm-tvtech and freaktab) then you can make a comparision.
But there is no one choice and not one answer, its up to you to take the risk because there is allways risk.
I hope this answer helps.
Have a nice day with your beloved ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one looks good. Should i go for it? Seems to do everything i want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUu8VXjzQFg

christrance said:
This one looks good. Should i go for it? Seems to do everything i want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUu8VXjzQFg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it, and for me it is best tvbox at the market rightnow, performance is similar or even better than Tegra3 devices.
I can play a few games with my ps3 controller (aftermarket one) wirelessly, even emulator games, 40 mbps video from network drive is very well and also has native 1080p support.
Itsn't an ultimate device but meets basic (means not simple) principles of a Multimedia center.
I also modded a firmware for this one (2 mpx version).
But...
I can not say to you to go for anything, because everyone has different expectations and view, its your choice.
Success :good:

Minix neo x7
christrance said:
Ok so im completely new to this and would love to get an Android stick or box for the living room 50 inch TV to stream mainly netflix.
Theres just so many choices!
Im just looking for a good reliable smooth HD playback on Netflix and also playing HD from external HDD would be needed.
Budget is around $80 £60 70Euro
Ive noticed a CX919 that seems good but is there a better, newer stick just released?
Thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

addictz809 said:
Minix neo x7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you intent on using the mini PC for video chat, Minix Neo X7 doesn't work properly at the moment. Hangouts doesn't work at all for video. Skype works some times. Lot of people have complained on Minix forum, but they always say that it is a Skype issue.

There are some android boxes now with miracast and I think you can link t.r phone to it? Has anyone here tested one of those?

christrance said:
Ok so im completely new to this and would love to get an Android stick or box for the living room 50 inch TV to stream mainly netflix.
Theres just so many choices!
Im just looking for a good reliable smooth HD playback on Netflix and also playing HD from external HDD would be needed.
Budget is around $80 £60 70Euro
Ive noticed a CX919 that seems good but is there a better, newer stick just released?
Thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If all youre looking to do is use Netflix, just get a chromecast 35.00 google play store

christrance said:
This one looks good. Should i go for it? Seems to do everything i want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUu8VXjzQFg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I'm the one who made this video review and I suggest you go for it. This tv box is the best one this moment and with the best price for it's specs.

marcdman4000 said:
If all youre looking to do is use Netflix, just get a chromecast 35.00 google play store
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cant change DNS on a Chromecast to get US netflix. Thats a big no no.

c0nvict said:
Hi I'm the one who made this video review and I suggest you go for it. This tv box is the best one this moment and with the best price for it's specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh really thats great. Really appreciate that you took the time to make the video. Really helps a lot.
I think this is the one i will go for.
Thanks a lot.

c0nvict said:
Hi I'm the one who made this video review and I suggest you go for it. This tv box is the best one this moment and with the best price for it's specs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it play 1080p mkv perfectly?
I'm having issues with another rock quad core w/ mali 400, the framerate is a little low from usual, around 18fps, enough for the eye to notice.

Pinx0 said:
Does it play 1080p mkv perfectly?
I'm having issues with another rock quad core w/ mali 400, the framerate is a little low from usual, around 18fps, enough for the eye to notice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Outside xbmc it plays 1080p perfectly using the stock video player, mx player, bs player and many third party players

c0nvict said:
Outside xbmc it plays 1080p perfectly using the stock video player, mx player, bs player and many third party players
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this still mean there is no currently available Android TV Box or stick that plays true 1080P flawlessly (and with 24Hz support) from XBMC?
Many boxes claim 1080P but render using a 720P framebuffer.
Cheers - Neil G

talkiet said:
Does this still mean there is no currently available Android TV Box or stick that plays true 1080P flawlessly (and with 24Hz support) from XBMC?
Many boxes claim 1080P but render using a 720P framebuffer.
Cheers - Neil G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that only tv boxes with amlogic mx chips play 1080p flawlessly via xbmc.
Maybe allwinner a10 can do this too

c0nvict said:
I believe that only tv boxes with amlogic mx chips play 1080p flawlessly via xbmc.
Maybe allwinner a10 can do this too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Amlogic MX boxes I have seen still output 720P. I don't know about the Allwinner A10 but would be thrilled if anyone could point to a specific known box that properly does 1080P... I still don't think one exists with Android.
Cheers - N

christrance said:
cant change DNS on a Chromecast to get US netflix. Thats a big no no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to use Netflix outside U.S
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2435579

I am a Minix Neo X7 owner since august. So far, their support during the last 4 months has done a good job, the device is way more stable and the Freaktab community has put a good research on it. I personally use a custom finless rom with slightly overclocked parameters, and the device is rock solid, however, no matter what RK3188 device you will choose, you are going to face loads of problems. Unless you are not willing to actually help yourself with the community, there is no way your are going to be happy with it, just the fact that it has a Quad-Core CPU and 2GB RAM makes you notice that it doesnt feel like it's a turbo machine, any phone with similar specs rocks in performance, my X7 beats the Note 2 in Antutu, yet some alpha effects from custom launchers lag the soul out of it.
The real problem however is RockChip, their main market is cheap tablets and they are not giving much a damn for the TV section. They havent updated their TV SDK for quite a while, and as i read, whatever source is out there, it is ICS old ported somehow to JB, probably just to convince people like me and you to go for a 4.2 device, or like 4.1 a few months before.
Just recently a KitKat test rom was made public by a manufacturer who uses RK chips, and the kernel still dates back to ICS, 3.0.36. I remember 4.2/4.3 were released with a 3.4 kernel. I personally have no idea what those versions mean, all i know is that outdated code is being used, note sure how i can judge here but somebody else hopefully will explain that to us better.
Few things i have learned at Freaktab and i must point out, the X7 has loads of overclocked options availabile to flash due to the fact that the devs doubt the device itself is underclocked from Minix. Apparently the RAM is 800 mhz, and it is underclocked to 400 by default, based on chip readings. The CPU can handle 1.8 without a problem, but 1.6 is enough, the problem is, its lowest state, Minix leaves it to 300mhz, custom roms gain performance by leaving the minimum freq to 1200, which i found to be a game changer.
There are ways to squeeze the device, and dont feel bad about it cause it has performant guts, i personally think have hit a solid device when i got it, but there are people reporting the X7 just dying.
My Setup is as follows, X7 with a Logitech K400 keyboard that recognizes the touchpad as a mouse, connected to a LED TV, i have routed the sound strictly to the Headphone jack since i prefer Stereo AVRs, excluding the network connectivity, thats about it, you'll enjoy the device like this with no major problems, BUT people who insisit having DD or DTS output through new AV Receivers, you will face some problems "passthroughing" them.
If these devices dont shine until the next 4 months to their full capabilites, i dont see a point investing on one, but right now, they are all the same, all that differs is support and community attention.

NVIDIA SHIELD CONSOLE? Android TV SuperComputer Cloud Gaming? WOW

EDIT: Can everyone who visits this thread please take the time to do a official request for adding the SHIELD Console forums? Just visit the below thread and put in your request please. Thanks
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
ORIGINAL POST:
Is this a new device coming out this Summer? I don't even see a section at XDA for it, or any mention of it here in these Shield threads, yet its based on Android TV and the Tegra X1, with the below specs. I'm in the market for a Android TV, so this interests me.
http://shield.nvidia.com/
http://shield.nvidia.com/console
Specifications:
Processor NVIDIA® Tegra® X1 processor
256-core Maxwell™ GPU with 3GB RAM
Video Features 4K Ultra-HD ready with 4K playback and capture up to 60 fps (VP9, H265, H264)
Audio 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound pass through over HDMI
High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB
High-resolution audio up-sample to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB
Storage* 16 GB
Wireless 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.1/BLE
Interfaces Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0
Two USB 3.0 (Type A)
Micro-USB 2.0
MicroSD slot
IR Receiver (compatible with Logitech Harmony)
Software Updates SHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIA
Gaming Features NVIDIA GRID™ game streaming service
NVIDIA Share
NVIDIA GameStream™
Power 40 W power adapter
Weight and Size Weight: 23 oz / 654 g
Height: 5.1 in / 130 mm
Width: 8.3 in / 210 mm
Depth: 1.0 in / 25 mm
Operating System Android TV™, Google Cast™ Ready
Included Apps = PLEX

It is a new android TV console made by Nvidia. The Cpu/GPU is the latest tegra X1 that is insanely fast! Much faster than Snapdragon 810 and Exynos 7.
Release date is in may and will cost 199$

Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines

RollWii said:
Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines
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Games like Crysis 3 will run natively on it (not in the cloud).
(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.

ryocoon said:
Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.
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I'm more interested what it will eventually do for media myself. And it MUST be rootable for me to even consider it as an option. The specs, at least for the Android world are nothing short of brilliant. However, again I want media apps mainly, such as Kodi, Plex, Netflix playback and casting to be flawless. For now the Nexus Player still turns me on more even with it being wifi only. However, If the NVIDIA Console becomes rootable with FULL custom Android ROM's I am going to change my mind in a heartbeat though, haha.

Considering that all of the nVidia devices to date have been extremely easy to unlock and root, I'm going to say that, yeah, it is mostly likely going to be root-able. Whether it can handle Kodi/Plex/Netflix/Etc at 4K is up to those developers. I know NetFlix has 4K content, but I'm not sure how they differentiate and enable it to be honest.
I have the Nexus Player, and I honestly feel a bit like a chump for getting it and so soon this device is announced. I can always use it in another room or something though.
The big rub with Android TV so far is that the default UI, the LeanBack Launcher, will not display some apps unless they declare themselves as leanback capable (which includes some XML, an art asset or two for different shape/size icons, navigation by controller/keys, and search-ability in some cases). This is a problem I've run into on my Nexus Player. Now, nVidia may snub the LeanBack launcher and may integrate some LeanBack function into their nVidia Hub (like on the Shield Tablet and Shield Portable) which recognizes dozens of media apps, games, and some other things and has a launcher in its own UI. However, if apps make themselves noted for LeanBack, they show up fine on the normal AndroidTV interface. What is better, if they include search, then you can voice search for titles in media apps, and if it includes some sort of rating or recommendation feature (like Hulu or YouTube) they can integrate that and you can get recommendations of what to watch directly in your launcher UI on the top row. Less important for games, maybe important for Game discovery, but definitely an interesting thing for the media watchers amongst us. I doubt recommendation would work on something like Plex, and KODI is its own UI entirely, skipping LeanBack or even nVidia hub (to be honest, I've never been a fan of XBMC's UI, and Kodi hasn't won me over yet either... too fidgety and I can't trust a 'normal' person to be able to understand and operate it). Like I stated above, the machine has the horsepower, but it will be up to app developers to show up with a "flawless" app that will work on it well.
Casting works pretty damn well on my Nexus Player, so I bet with MIMO capable AC spec WiFi, and also ethernet inclusion, you will get pretty damn good casting from Chromecast apps, as that is built into AndroidTV's OS.
Mind you a lot of this is based upon speculation on specs, existing hardware, and my knowledge of the AndroidTV OS and how it functions. Your mileage may vary, terms and conditions subject to actual reality upon device launch.

Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.

SkOrPn said:
Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.
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I'm still waiting for this device. Hopefully it's better than the garbage that the Razer Forge TV was. The mods and such at the nVidia forums still say it's coming out in may. The Forge didn't release with Netflix, and there might be a chance the same will happen with the Nvidia Shield Android TV, but I'd be ok with Nvidia as they're going to have 4k display support for netflix.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...blet/nvidia-shield-tv-console-release-date/2/

I just got an email from NVIDIA saying its almost here. It starts out saying the wait is over, but then goes on to say its still not available and that they are giving away one Shield Console everyday until it is available to the public. I hate emails that start off telling you the wait is over but then asks you to wait some more, lol...

Its out!
Although only can see USA and Canada
$199.99 for 16GB
$299.99 for 500GB
http://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv

I'm not personally too interested in the gaming aspects but that amount of GPU power will prove very, very interesting. My main hope is that somebody can produce a minimal linux install for HTPC with Kodi and mpv builds, or perhaps just a release of Debian.
This device is the perfect low-cost HTPC. It should have more than sufficient CPU power for 10-bit h.264 and h.265 decode as well as sufficient compute power on the GPU side for EWA-type resamplers for chroma and image. I'm given to understand the X1 has full desktop opengl compatibility so it ought to be fully compatible with mpv (though I'm unsure of the state of the ARM builds).
The denver CPU should be more than enough to handle metadata crawling and the likes via Kodi in a non-sluggish fashion too. Christ, this device needs more videophile attention...

Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.

Just ordered mine from Amazon US to be delivered to the UK next week by expedited delivery. What an absolute beast of a machine.

skrowl said:
Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.
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me too!
returning my fire tv to them for a full refund, and getting this
this will be great to stream my pc to the tv so i can play games like witcher 3 in full 4k 50" vs 1080p 24"
and all the other stuff it does

Full review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review

Shield Console Rooting Experience Thus Far...
Got mine this afternoon and after futzing a bit, tried to root it. It came with developer mode already enabled, one hassle for me is that rebooting to fastboot makes the screen blank so I had to fly blind to oem unlock. So, I've got an unlocked system at the moment, but Super SU is still not working because their is no su on the device. Anyone make it any further than me? I also went ahead and cracked it open to see if there were obvious serial port connection points. Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
I'm going to look into building my own kernel + ramdisk to try and get the necessary tools in place so SuperSU can work, but I'm a bit worried that the screen isn't going to work and so I'll essentially be flying blind through the whole process.

ericvh said:
Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
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Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?

A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Yeah no SATA connector but there is an option in the settings to install all apps to an external hdd or micro sd card anyways
PS. Anyone know if this will be getting a dedicated XDA Forum? I'll probably be picking one up soon

A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Hard to tell for sure, looks like there might be solder points for it, but no header. I've got the 500GB on order, will post the diffs when it arrives.