Zidoo has been busy this year, after releasing Zidoo X5 and Zidoo X1 II in Q1 2016, the company is about to launch Zidoo X9s Android media recorder and player, successor of Zidoo X9, powered by Realtek RTD1295 quad core Cortex A53 processor, and be one of the first TV box to run Android 6.0.
Zidoo X9s preliminary specifications:
- SoC – Realtek RTD1295 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 GPU
- System Memory – 2GB DDR3
- Storage – 16GB eMMC + micro SD slot + SATA 3.0 interface (external?)
- Video I/O – HDMI 2.0a output, AV output, and HDMI input (recording and streaming up to 1080p @ 60 Hz)
- Audio I/O – HDMI in and out, 1x S/PDIF output
- Video Playback – HDR, 10-bit HEVC/H.265 up to 4K @ 60fps, H.264 up to 4K @ 24 fps, VP9 up to 4K @ 60 fps, BDISO/MKV, etc… automatic frame rate switching
- Audio Features – 7.1 channel audio pass-through
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
- USB – 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 ports
- Misc – IR receiver, VFD display
- Power Supply – 12V/2A
- Dimensions – 187 x 127 x 27 mm (aluminum enclosure)
As mentioned in the introduction the device will run Android 6.0, but also OpenWrt at the same time so that it can be configured just like a router/NAS, and you’ll be able to install OPKG packages. The firmware also features the company’ Kodi 16 port called ZDMC.
What’s really interesting with Realtek RTD1295 is that all features are integrated according to the block diagram, so no need to have USB bridge to implement SATA, Gigabit Ethernet MAC/PHY is built-in, PCIe host interfaces are also embedded, and so on. It’s also the only SoC that I know of with 4K @ 60 fps hardware decoders working for all three main codecs: H.264, H.265, and VP9.
Availability and pricing are not known at this stage.
Via Androidtvbox.eu and MiniPCDB
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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The board appears to have two Ethernet ports, both GigE? I’m guessing its going to be out of my price range. 🙁
@eas
The board will not be the one inside Zidoo X9s (I asked the company), but another version. It would also not fitted properly with X9 case. So it’s unclear whether the final product will have two.
No info about Linux support, or about their plan for future Android support/updates, right?
@AlexMSX2
Zidoo will likely provide firmware updates regularly since that’s what they do for their previous devices.
Realtek will most probably not provide any updates to the Android 6.0 SDK, again speaking from an historical perspective.
OpenWrt is Linux too, but if you mean something like Ubuntu with Unity or XFCE, then it’s unlikely.
@AlexMSX2
Their previous SOC has no support/update ….. but everythings was working out of the box ! 😉
The rtl1195 already was a interesting chip with great I/O (usb3, sata, G.ethernet …) but low performance (dual a7 + mali 400). This new may be a top media box or low/mid performance device chip :D.
How is support of Kodi at this SoC? I can’t find it as supported Hw on Kodi Wiki pages
bring it on! 🙂
@Giorgio
Suspect it will rely on Kodi using standard Android media playback APIs to support hardware acceleration. Kodi are trying to move away from hardware specific acceleration (particularly on Android) and instead use the native Android functionality instead AIUI.
Interesting what recording bitrate will be? In X9 for 1080p was only 6Mb. If they are able to rich at least 18 Mb then it will be worth buying.
jPEG Codec=???
Or was it MJPEG Codec?
All looks great, except ATM kodi doesn’t have an android developer.
Stick a port for modular tuners and this box is on my dreamlist
@Giorgio
If you install Kodi 16 from the website it will probably not work very well. They must have tweaked, and added support for ZDMC.
@Bogolisk
JPEG should just be JPEG, as some SoCs have a JPEG hardware decoder for faster pic decoding.
Hey, look – a non-dead-in-the-water connectivity A53 SoC! Some linux, please?
@blu
The RTD1296 is said to have both a 2nd SATA and USB3.0 port. Even more interesting 🙂
And what about throughput of this SoC?
Would you be so kind to do some test like readin and writing on sata 3 disc, or on usb3.0, NTFS FS, EXT4?
Openwrt on such a massive hardware seems just like a waste of resources to me, it’s supposed to run on 16MB of ram or less..
But that means you have a working (old) linux kernel so there’s some potential to build a regular system (debian/ubuntu) on top of it, although you most probably won’t have any video hw acceleration (no kodi) and maybe not all the peripherals working, depending on what’s been built directly into the kernel.
Not to mention that it will most certainly cost an arm (no pun intended), i’d say well above $100, and if that’s the case, not competitive enough compared to low end x86 boards..
Recommend to boycott all Realtek based players until manufacturers using them get their act together and comply with the GPL license.
The reason for this is that Realtek and manufacturers like Zidoo (and its ZDMC fork) do not use Android’s MediaCodec API for video decoding. Instead they use Realtek SDK for RTD1195 and RTD1295 which violate the GPL license by integrating a closed sourced “Rtkplayer” that replace the integrated into Kodi / XBMC as a replacement for the original internal video player (“DVDPlayer”) to achieve hardware accelerated video decoding. For more information read: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252356 and http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=254424 and http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=204918
That would be fine is they only open sourced the code for their video player(s) that integrate into Kodi, or they could use Android’s MediaCodec API, or used an external player instead (which they don’t even though Zidoo says that they do).
Regardless of that, Realtek will not be supported by builds the upstream (official) Kodi at kodi.tv until they support Android’s MediaCodec API or release all the source code and dependent libraies of that “Rtkplayer”player under a GPL compliant license.
This is the same as VidOn infamously does with its fork of Kodi / XBMC for Allwinner based media players, which also violate the GPL in basically the same way.
Damn, this box looks stacked def. gonna have to make sure I get my hands one. Thanks for the info!
Seems like Xunlong just announced a new development board based on RTD1295: http://www.orangepi.org/orangepibbsen/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=1423&pid=12236
@tkaiser
I’m not sure Steven deleted on message, but he did not mention Realtek. It could be Hisilicon Hi3798C V200 too -> http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/09/15/hisilicon-hi3798c-v200-64-bit-arm-processor-supports-hdmi-2-0-10-bit-hevc-usb-3-0-sata-and-more/
@cnxsoft
But in either cases, software is likely to be a disaster, at least at the beginning. Ive never heard of a community around HiSilicon or Realtek processors. Linaro is goind some work on HiSilicon, but other families of Hisilicon SoCs.
@cnxsoft
Ah, I didn’t know about Hi3798C’s feature set. And of course software will be a disaster in the early beginning (or ever) 😉
Tried to register on orangepi forum, but i get Your user group (Waiting for verification of member) does not allowed to do this operation.
Is the process just slow? I’ve after all bought multiple Orange PIs lately 🙂
@Fossxplorer
They manually validate registrations so it may take a while.
They also have a version with 8GB flash, no SATA called Zidoo X8 -> http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?threads/a-zidoo-x9s-on-the-way-come-updated-6-17.1705/page-2#post-10869
Realtek RTD2999 has similar multimedia features, but it’s designed for Smart TV instead of TV Boxes -> http://armdevices.net/2016/07/02/realtek-rtd2999-4k-hdr-smart-tv-soc-with-embedded-universal-dvb-supported/
@cnxsoft
I see. To this day, no reply about my registration. Something is clearly wrong 🙁
From the looks of it, video of the board is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJA1IaWaggE
How’s it for $149 from Geekbuying?
I’ll buy this new serie of X9S in soon(when available on sale!)
by the way Zidoo support team fine(this is most important!)
bye++
Zidoo X9S has been launched @ http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/08/13/zidoo-x9s-android-tv-box-openwrt-nas-and-hdmi-recorder-is-now-up-for-pre-order-for-149/
Realtek RTD1296 coming soon. Similar to RTD1295, but with 2x RGMII, 2x USB 3.0 interfaces, 2x SATA interfaces.
how price is pls
@zenel
Zidoo X9S now sells for $139 with coupon
You can check the full review and purchase links (at the end) @ http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/10/14/zidoo-x9s-android-media-center-review-part-2-android-firmware-openwrt-nas-functions/
@cnxsoft
I couldn’t find any additional information about RTD1296 or any upcoming mediabox/NAS based on that SoC. Did you find anything else? Thx.
@Wolf
No info about RTD1296 TV boxes yet.
@cnxsoft
Thanks for the confirmation. These latest boxes with GB Ethernet and integrated SATA seems to be a great candidate for a media hub with TV box functionalities 🙂
BTW, did you have the chance to test if they can be used as local Access Points if connected via Ethernet? (as in http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/07/03/how-to-use-an-android-tv-box-as-a-wi-fi-access-point/)
Thx!
@Wolf
I have not specifically tested it, but considering the box is running OpenWrt, I’d be really surprised if it did not work.