AMLogic S802 Android TV Boxes are currently available for pre-order, and are expected to ship by the end of the month. Last time I wrote Tronsmort Vega S89 and Eny ES8 featuring the latest quad core SoC from AMLogic. Geekbuying currently has test samples for both Vega S89 and M8 (similar to ES8), has open them, and taken some pictures of the boards. The good news, if you want to tinker, is that both of them appear to give relatively access to the UART port.
Tronsmart Vega S89 Board
There are two models: Vega S89 and Vega S89 Elite. The former is the high-end version with dual band Wi-Fi (2.4/5.0GHz) and 16 GB flash, and the latter only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and comes with 8GB flash. Price: $120 and $105.
The serial port appears to be on the left side of the board (TBC), just above the two USB ports. You’d need to solder small cables to add a USB to TLL board but with the through holes it should be easy. On the bottom right, we have the Wi-Fi module which happens to be AP6330 (Vega S89 only) like in many previous devices. I could not see any sort of cooling in the pictures published by GeekBuying.
M8 Board
The device comes with 8GB flash, 2GB RAM, and a dual band Wi-Fi module. Price: $103.79. ES8 is also available for $99, but pictures are not available.
On the top picture, we’ll find a 4-pin connector (soldered) which according to the marking on the back of the board is definitely the serial console port with GND, 3.3V, Tx and Rx. Contrary to Vega S89, there’s a heatsink, so the device is less likely to overheat. The same AP6330 Wi-Fi module is used in this board. The silkscreen shows M9_V0.91, although the board is sold as M8. In this sample at least, the company has decided not to solder the IR sensor.
If you are interested in getting one, Geekbuying pre-sells four models based on S802 SoC. You can also find sellers on Aliexpress with prices starting just below $100.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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To Amlogic
We want source codes!
We want source codes!
We want source codes!
LMFAO and I want a blowjob… none of us is getting what we want.
Been there with M3.
Amlogic can go f… themselves.
Open source my ass.
@m][sko
The easiest for now would be to look for M802 tablets source, but since most of them are currently sold by Chinese companies it may be difficult.
For S802 devices it will take longer as they are not shipping yet.
I’m just going to skip this one and wait for the Allwinner A80 …. much more powerful and we’ll probably get some sources. With Allwinner’s fex system once we have any sources they should cover all devices.
The only thing this one has over the A80 is the potentially open source Mali.
if i wanted to use a tv box for entertainment like xbmc youtube and not as a computer or a server what would be a better choice between vega s89 or minix x7. although a really dislike allwinner for their lack of support and buggy firmware (allwinner a31 and a31s) how different would th a80 be and what gpu will it use
@adem
Nobody has tested Vega S89 yet, and the firmware is probably still beta, so it’s difficult to make a judgment right now.
Mini Neo X7 should be fine, although some people have add issues with RK3188 video playback.
I still prefer dual core AMLogic devices for XBMC.
There is not XBMC support for those boxes yet, do not run
I mean, must wait to play XBMC correctly (if it happens)
Pivos who first sponsored the port of XBMC to Android and AMLogic is expected to release a new low-end AMLogic dual-core CPU SoC based Android media player now in March 2014 that will of course have XBMC support out-of-the-box.
They have already leaked the news that the new low-end media player will be called Pivos XIOS XS and is meant to replace their previous Pivos XIOS DS media player.
http://www.pivosforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3714
Later this spring they said that they also plan on releasing a mid-range Android media player based on a quad-core CPU AMlogic SoC, and then a high-end Android media player after that which will also be AMlogic based but unknown which SoC or even how many CPU cores it will have.
hufff…. let resume a bit the charts.
video playback:
AMLogic – Freescale – Exynos – Rockchip – Allwinner (cedarx is a joke, right? pink screens everywhere with 264)
gpu in linux:
Freescale – AMLogic – Allwinner/Exynos Mali – Rockchip – Allwinner/Exynos PowerVR
cpu speed:
Exynos – A80 – S802 – Rockchip – Freescale i.MX6
right?
@mat
CPU is the easy part ,and I think you’re right.
GPU Linux. I believe Freescale has probably the best support, following by Exynos (ODROID board), and AllWinner/AMLogic, with anything PowerVR at the end
Video. It can be quite complicated, as it involves performance, quality, audio support, and network performance (more device than soc bound), and everybody has different requirements so opinions may vary greatly. For example, people who have a home theater system, really care about pass-through, people who don’t have one, just don’t care about this. For XBMC I still think AMLogic has the best overall video and audio codec support. I only tested AllWinner, AMLogic and Rockchip a few months ago. Never really tried XBMC on Freescale (LInux) or Exynos.