How to Upgrade Firmware in HiSilicon Hi3798M TV Boxes

HiSilicon based Android TV boxes are not that popular, at least outside of China, but I’ve got one with BFS 4KH featuring HiSilicon Hi3798M processor, and since we could not fix AC3 audio decoding after a factory reset in the firmware I have, the company provided me with a new firmware, and I’ll document the procedure I followed below.
  1. Download the firmware, the file should be update.zip. For BFS 4KH, I could get it @ http://pan.baidu.com/s/1kTrCcMr (password: xpef). It includes YouTube and Google Play, but not the Rainbow launcher, nor XBMC, but these can be side-loaded.
  2. Now copy update.zip on the root of a USB flash drive formatted with FAT32, and at least 1GB free storage.
  3. Connect the USB flash to the USB 2.0 port of the device, as the USB 3.0 port can’t be used for firmware upgrade.
  4. In the current firmware, go to Settings->System->Local Update, and select the drive letter for the USB drive (e.g. D), and you should be prompted with a window asking you want to go ahead with the upgrade.
    hisilicon_firmware_upgrade
  5. The box will then reboot, show the usual Android upgrade animation, and reboot automatically in the new firmware.
  6. Done

Overall the procedure is very similar what is done on Amlogic devices.

Now the test firmware I received did not include XBMC, nor the necessary codec. So I installed XBMC for HiSilicon (password: amaw) and MXPlayerCodec (works with BFS 4KH only), and I could run XBMC, and downmixed audio worked with AC3, and some other Dolby and DTS codec.

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9 Replies to “How to Upgrade Firmware in HiSilicon Hi3798M TV Boxes”

  1. Hi, can you please share the address where you have contacted the manufacturer?
    I have a bfs 4km, but I am not able to upgrade it with it’s fw update.

    Thank you.

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