Rockchip (via Charbax) has been teasing us with their upcoming RK2928 miracast adapter since the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April 2013. It appears a device is finally available on DealExtreme with MOCREO M1 (iPush) for $25.90 including shipping.
It’s using the same casing as the other iPush or Ezcast (MSD03) HDMI sticks, but the guts of the device are different:
- Processor – Rockchip RK2928 single core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.0 GHz
- System Memory – 256MB DDR3
- Storage – 16 MB Serial Flash
- Connectivity – Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n
- Video Output – HDMI V1.4
- Multi-screen protocol – DLNA / Airplay / Miracast
- Video Format – RMVB / WMV / ASF / AVI / 3GP / MPG / MKV / MP4 / MOV / MPEG2 / MPEG4
- Audio decoding – MP3 / OGG / WAV / APE / CDA / MIDI / WMA / AAC;
- Power adapter: 5V / 1A (Micro USB)
- Dimensions – 7.3 cm x 2.8 cm x 1.2 cm
- Weight – 19 grams
The device, apparently also called MCAST01, runs Linux 3.0.8, and comes with an HDMI cable (50cm), a Micro USB cable (50cm), and a user manual in Chinese and English.
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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On Aliexpress they have another version also based on RK2928 called “Chromecast MD321” for $33. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Multi-small-screen-to-TV-Big-screen-interactive-wireless-Airplay-DLNA-WIFI-display-dongle-Miracast-dongle/1230147002.html
RK2928 miracast dongle is with 16 MB Serial Flash and 256 MB DDR3 RAM
we need an actual copy of chromecast both hardware and software for a cheaper price where i can use any device to stream content to my tv by wifi using not just android or ios phone but also my desktop or laptop pc. i want to mirror my whole pc screen to my tv from any browser not just chrome thats not too much now is it he he
For the new Nexus 7 (2013) a SlimPort adapter is $39 on Amazon.ca. Chromecast option is not yet available in Canada but if/when it does will probably be around the same price. This Miracast adapter would be a good 3rd option *if* it works — so eagerly awaiting someone to test! 🙂
@darethehair
Chromecast is the more limited one.
here’s the rockchip miracast demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrTpWlkupUs
Do these DLNA supported devices also allow Plex media receiver like the built-in PS3 feature? So stream from Android via miracast, stream from PC via Plex?
@manny
Yea, that video makes it look cool and painless — but from Googling, it doesn’t sound like folks have had a lot of success with Miracast devices. It would be great to get a report from a Nexus 7 (2013) user and this RK2928! For $26, I am almost willing to take the chance on my own…
So, once again, what’s so exciting about these devices? I assume price is the only thing – indeed, at $25, it finally catches “raw” price of proverbial Pi, while being about the same power. Indeed, such devices could be good target for router usage with OpenWRT. If they would have USB host slot! Otherwise they’re pretty useless, will become interesting at ~$15 range as throw-away hack toys. And I hope that nobody really interested in that dlna/miracast marketing b/s :-D.
@Paul
Depends on the person, I as a consumer definitely am interested. I tend to want to connect laptops and phones up to bigger screens in a hurry, and having HDMI cables trailing from such things isn’t a great solution, Miracast could be (or Intel WiDi, the Wikipedia entry says the two are compatible but I haven’t tested it).
It could be sold as simply as saying “it’s like wifi, but for video”, you know that it can be pretty darned convenient to use wifi, as do a lot of people
@whyzor
If Plex media receiver support DLNA too, it should work.
As mentioned in another recent comment, WiDi 3.5 supports Miracast, and I’ve read Windows 8.1 will natively support Miracast.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiDi
@Paul
The price is the main thing. If you don’t really need an Android HDMI TV, but just want to use Miracast or DLNA or Airplay, that’s a cheaper option. It’s a bit more powerful than the R-Pi in terms of processing power. It’s already running Linux, so it might be fun to hack too. $15 target? I guess that’s possible in a few months.
There is it on Aliexpress by price 22$:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wifi-HDMI-DLNA-display-dongle-Stream-Contents-Audio-Video-Photo-on-Smartphone-to-TV-Big-Screen/944792227.html
@dfgigger
Thanks. But it seems that model does not support Miracast or Airplay video mirroring, so it’s probably another hardware.
@cnxsoft
You are right It needs some WI-FI router too…
@CampGareth: I certainly would love wireless HDMI connection too, but all the current DLNA-AirPlay-Miracast-Chromecast mumbo-jumbo is pretty far away from being wireless HDMI cable for end users, and I don’t expect that change for at least couple of years. At the same time, screen sharing protocol exists and works for more than decade: it’s VNC. Yeah, it doesn’t work for sharing FullHD videos, but Miracast yet have to prove it really does across devices (current generation definitely won’t work as expected) and implementations, and broken WiFi connections. And working on adding H.264 support to VNC would be more beneficial solution than pray for Miracast to win over.
this device only has 3 apps that can connect to the device something like youtube but not youtube something like vimeo but not vimeo is there other thing i can do with this like youtube
can i connect through laptop or pc if your not chinese then this device is no good for anything except viewing content like video and music files but then you can do that with most hdmi dongles
I tested it with a blackberry Q 10. Screen mirroring works ok but streaming video just does NOT work. Also airplay is not fully supported just airplay of dlna content. Again lot of lag when viewing video. 🙁
Can i run Debian on this stick? Is bootloader locked?
I’m looking for cheapest ARM device, which can run Debian GNU/Linux (on Cortex-A8 or A9).
I’ve tested several dongles with RK2928 SoC. The last test may be read here: (http://goo.gl/cePq2A, only in German)
I’ve tested also the RK2928 dongle mentioned above. After firmware update to 4.1.01 it works far better (http://goo.gl/SkNeiW, only in German) – but it’s far from perfect. Lags, Miracast flaws, AirPlay mirroring issues, DLNA issuses …
And this is the main problem with all these cheap RK2928 Miracast, AirPlay, DLNA receivers – missing firmware support is messing up most products.