Review of Rikomagic DS08 Android 13 digital signage player

Rikomagic has sent me a sample of their DS08 digital signage player for review. It’s based on a Rockchip RK3588 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB eMMC flash, and offers two HDMI 2.1 ports, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, as well as several USB ports, optical S/PDIF audio output, and more.

I was initially not sure I could receive a sample, as Thailand is pretty strict with licenses for this type of hardware, but Rikomagic told us that it would not be a problem when using DDP (delivered duty paid), and the courier handles all paperwork. And indeed we did receive the parcel without issue. Since Rockchip RK3588 is now a mature platform, we won’t run benchmarks in this review, but instead go through an unboxing and a teardown, and focus on digital signage features such as video playback, RTC support, and display orientation options.

Rikomagic DS08 unboxing

Since the DS08 is not a consumer device, it doesn’t need a fancy retail package, and we received the sample in a sturdy white box.

The package includes the DS08 player itself, two WiFi antennas, a 12V/2A (24W) power adapter, an “8K” HDMI cable, and a basic IR remote control.

The front panel features the IR receiver, a power LED, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB 2.0 OTG Type-C port, and two USB 3.0 ports, while the rear panel features two SMA antenna connectors, an optical S/PDIF audio output, a USB 2.0 port, an 8K-capable HDMI port, a 4K-capable HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 12V DC jack.

Strangely, my sample only had two screws on the front panel instead of four.

Rikomagic DS08 teardown

We have to loosen the screws on the front and rear panels to remove the SMA antenna connectors from the rear panel and slide the mainboard out of the metal case.

The mainboard features a Rockchip PMIC, a GL805G USB 2.0 hun control, and a RealTek RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet transceiver. The Rockchip RK3588, RAM chips, and 128GB flash are all placed under a large heatsink. Other notable features include the four pads for the UART console, a Reset button placed behind the audio jack, an RTC battery, a WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module (markings unreadable), and footprints for what should be the “optional 4G LTE module with SIM card slot” listed in the specifications.

There’s not much to see on the bottom side of the board, except passive components, and a thick thermal pad that should be in contact with the metal case for cooling.

Rikomagic DS08 first boot and system info

Let’s now reassemble the device and connect it to Ethernet and an HDMI monitor for testing.

It boots to a typical Android launcher. There’s no pre-installed digital signage app, and the customer can use whatever they’d like or develop their own. The resolution of the user interface (framebuffer) is 3840×2160 instead of the more common 1920×1080.

The Rikomagic DS08 runs Android 13 on top of Linux 5.10.157 kernel.

Only a few apps are pre-installed:

• Google Chrome – Web browsing or download apps.
• Explorer – A File manager
• Gallery to check images
• Music to play audio files
• Google Play Store – It didn’t work for me. I can launch it, but clicking on the Sign-in button does nothing.
• Power Manager – For scheduled power on/off and reboots
• Settings
• Video – Playback of local video files.

Some custom settings include the ability to hide the navigation bar (the down arrow icon can also be used), the power button, and the Screenrotate button (second icon highlighted in red).

Google Play didn’t work, even after checking that I had the latest firmware version and clearing all caches for the app. I tried with Ethernet and 5 GHz WiFi, but no luck in either case. Having said that, the company sent me a video showing Google Play working just fine on their sample, so it might be specific to my sample. Google Play support is probably not that important, albeit convenient, on this type of embedded hardware.

So instead, I installed APKPure to install tools I needed, such as CPU-Z. System information is mostly as expected with a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core CPU paired with 7916 MB RAM. However, the system only shows 53 GB of storage, which seems really low for a player that’s supposed to come with 128GB flash. After inquiry, Rikomagic told me I had been sent an early pilot run with 64GB flash, and mass production units come with 128GB flash. The system offers root access.

I  couldn’t use DRMInfo to check DRM licenses, as it requires Google Play. Checking the terminal implies Widewine L3 is enabled:

I’m not sure DRM is that useful for a digital signage player either, although as usual, it depends on the use case. For example, broadcasting live sports or premium channels along with other content, such as scrolling text and images, may benefit from proper Widewine L3/L1 support.

Video playback

One of the most important features for a digital signage player is its video playback capabilities. I used the built-in Video app to play videos from a USB 3.0 hard drive, and also connected speakers to the 3.5mm audio jack since the CrowView HDMI display I’m using doesn’t include any.

I started with 4K videos:

• HD.Club-4K-Chimei-inn-60mbps.mp4 (H.264, 30 fps) – OK
• sintel-2010-4k.mkv (H.264, 24 fps, 4096×1744, AC-3 audio) – Video OK, no audio
• Beauty_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265, no audio) – OK
• Bosphorus_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_MP4.mp4 (H.265, no audio) – OK
• Jockey_3840x2160_120fps_420_8bit_HEVC_TS.ts (H.265) – OK
• MHD_2013_2160p_ShowReel_R_9000f_24fps_RMN_QP23_10b.mkv (10-bit HEVC, no audio) – OK
• phfx_4KHD_VP9TestFootage.webm (VP9, no audio) – OK
• BT.2020.20140602.ts (Rec.2020 compliant video; 36 Mbps; 59.97 Hz) – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4 – OK
• big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_60fps.mp4 – OK
• Fifa_WorldCup2014_Uruguay-Colombia_4K-x265.mp4 (4K, H.265, 60 fps) –
• Samsung_UHD_Dubai_10-bit_HEVC_51.4Mbps.ts (10-bit HEVC / MPEG-4 AAC) – OK
• 暗流涌动-4K.mp4 (10-bit H.264; 120 Mbps) – OK
• Ducks Take Off [2160p @ 243 Mbps].mkv (4K H.264 @ 29.97 fps; 243 Mbps; no audio) – OK
• tara-no9-vp9.webm (4K VP9 YouTube video @ 60 fps, Vorbis audio) – OK
• The.Curvature.of.Earth.4K.60FPS-YT-UceRgEyfSsc.VP9.3840×2160.OPUS.160K.webm (4K VP9 @ 60 fps + opus audio) – OK

Excellent here, except for the lack of support for AC3 audio in the Video app.

I carried on testing with a few 8K videos:

• 8K Sample Video _ Alpha 1 _ Sony _ α–ucUFBTUYLI.mkv (8K AV1 video @ 29.97 fps with Vorbis audio) – Starts with audio, but video is choppy. Normal due to RK3588 4Kp60 AV1 limitation.
• 2021-LG-8K-60-fps.mp4 (8K AV1 @ 59.94 fps, no audio) –  Choppy and playing in slow motion (the original is at normal speed). Normal due to RK3588 4Kp60 AV1 limitation.
• hevc_8k60P_bilibili_1.mp4 (8K H.265 @ 30 FPS, AAC LC audio) – OK
• First_8K_Video_from_Space_-_Ultra_HD_VP9.webm (8K VP9 @ 23.96 fps, Opus audio) – OK most of the time, but too many freezes, audio cuts at times.

It looked quite bad at first, until I realized that the Rockchip RK3588 SoC only supports hardware AV1 video decoding up to 4Kp60… So I found two more 8K videos with H.265 and VP9. The H.265 played just fine, but the VP9 video was not playing that well. I copied the file to the eMMC flash just in case, but it didn’t help either. The Rikomagic DS08 can be used as an 8K digital signage player, but if 8K videos are required as part of your media content, you may need to select specific formats and/or bitrates.

Digital signage players must often run continuously, so reliability is important. So I did a burnout test playing a single 4Kp60 video in repeat for well over 24 hours. The system didn’t crash, and the video was still playing smoothly, even though the test was performed at an ambient temperature of 28°C to 40°C.

Digital signage features

The DS08 has at least three features that are specifically useful to digital signage use cases: display orientation, RTC support, and watchdog timer.

Display orientation

By default, Android boots in landscape mode. We can easily change that by clicking the Screenrotate button. That’s after rotating the display by 90° (portrait mode)…

… 180 degrees (landscape mode with cables on the left) …

… and 270 degrees (portrait mode with cables on the bottom for my display). I also went to the Video app and started playing a video in that mode before taking a photo.

 

The selection also survives reboot and power cycles, as we’ll see further below.  We used to be able to switch between landscape and portrait mode with an app, but changes to Android OS have made that mode difficult, and it’s better when the feature is integrated into the device’s firmware.

RTC and power/reboot scheduling

If your digital signage player is designed to operate in a location such as a shopping center open between 10 am and 10 pm, you don’t exactly need to run it at all times. The Power Manager app offers options to schedule on/off and reboot times.

I tried the reboot time first, selecting it to reboot at 20;00, and no problem. The boot time and shutdown time can be set for every day or only workdays (Monday to Friday), and you can set the “boot time” and “shut time” for all enabled days, or configure each day independently. I tested that on Sunday to shut down at 20:15 and boot at 20:20 in portrait mode, and it worked as expected with correct timing and the same orientation.

Watchdog timer

This one was less obvious to test for me. I eventually connected through SSH (using an SSH server app) to generate a kernel panic:

The terminal window became unresponsive, and within a couple of seconds, the system automatically rebooted instead of being hung there forever. This is used to minimize downtime and make sure your signage quickly recovers when the system crashes or hangs.

I still asked the company about watchdog testing, and they told me to follow these steps instead:

1. Download and install Rockchip FactoryTool and DriverAssistant
2. Connect the DS08’s USB-C port with a Windows computer
3. Open the FlashTool flashing tool
4. Press and hold the recovery button (inside the audio jack, see teardown ) to enter recovery mode until the flash tool recognizes the device.
5. The system will reboot automatically after around 8 minutes.

So I did just that, as shown in the screenshot above. The DS08’s power LED and HDMI output turned off, and I could see a connection on Port[2]. I started at 10:24, and at 10:32, the digital signage rebooted into Android 13.

Dual-display support

Rikomagic DS08 offers two display interfaces: HDMI up to 8Kp60 and HDMI up to 4Kp60. So I’ve connected a 32-inch KTC A32Q8 4K monitor and a 14-inch CrowView Full HD portable monitor, and mirroring works fine, even when playing an 8K video.

Independent displays might be possible, for example, to show information or menus in different languages,  but it will probably require firmware modifications. The DS08 may need to be used in combination with a long fiber HDMI cable if the second display is far away (7-10+ meters at 4Kp60) and a traditional HDMI cable won’t do.

I had also planned to test the USB touchscreen function until I realized I had no working touchscreen displays with HDMI and USB-C, only one where USB-C carries both video and (touch) data, and the DS08/ only supports video output through HDMI.

WiFi 6 performance

I quickly tested Gigabit Ethernet using iperf3 (Magic iPerf on Android) and got 941/942 Mbps in either direction, so Gigabit Ethernet is not an issue, as on most machines. There can be more variation with WiFi 6, so I tested it again when connected at 5 GHz:

• Download
  
  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.31.12 port 34542 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 412 MBytes 345 Mbits/sec 8 648 KBytes [ 5] 10.01-20.01 sec 396 MBytes 333 Mbits/sec 10 399 KBytes [ 5] 20.01-30.01 sec 365 MBytes 306 Mbits/sec 8 499 KBytes [ 5] 30.01-40.01 sec 358 MBytes 300 Mbits/sec 12 583 KBytes [ 5] 40.01-50.01 sec 333 MBytes 279 Mbits/sec 19 321 KBytes [ 5] 50.01-60.00 sec 362 MBytes 304 Mbits/sec 9 337 KBytes - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-60.00 sec 2.18 GBytes 311 Mbits/sec 66 sender [ 5] 0.00-60.00 sec 2.17 GBytes 311 Mbits/sec receiver

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  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201 [  5] local 192.168.31.12 port 34542 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201 [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd [  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   412 MBytes   345 Mbits/sec    8    648 KBytes       [  5]  10.01-20.01  sec   396 MBytes   333 Mbits/sec   10    399 KBytes       [  5]  20.01-30.01  sec   365 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    8    499 KBytes       [  5]  30.01-40.01  sec   358 MBytes   300 Mbits/sec   12    583 KBytes       [  5]  40.01-50.01  sec   333 MBytes   279 Mbits/sec   19    321 KBytes       [  5]  50.01-60.00  sec   362 MBytes   304 Mbits/sec    9    337 KBytes       - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr [  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  2.18 GBytes   311 Mbits/sec   66             sender [  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  2.17 GBytes   311 Mbits/sec                  receiver

• Upload
  
  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10 -R Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.31.192 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.31.12 port 46694 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 372 MBytes 312 Mbits/sec [ 5] 10.01-20.01 sec 383 MBytes 321 Mbits/sec [ 5] 20.01-30.00 sec 380 MBytes 319 Mbits/sec [ 5] 30.00-40.00 sec 379 MBytes 318 Mbits/sec [ 5] 40.00-50.01 sec 382 MBytes 320 Mbits/sec [ 5] 50.01-60.01 sec 380 MBytes 319 Mbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-60.01 sec 2.22 GBytes 318 Mbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-60.01 sec 2.22 GBytes 318 Mbits/sec receiver

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  devkit@UPX-i11:~$ iperf3 -t 60 -c 192.168.31.192 -i 10 -R Connecting to host 192.168.31.192, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.31.192 is sending [  5] local 192.168.31.12 port 46694 connected to 192.168.31.192 port 5201 [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate [  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   372 MBytes   312 Mbits/sec                   [  5]  10.01-20.01  sec   383 MBytes   321 Mbits/sec                   [  5]  20.01-30.00  sec   380 MBytes   319 Mbits/sec                   [  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   379 MBytes   318 Mbits/sec                   [  5]  40.00-50.01  sec   382 MBytes   320 Mbits/sec                   [  5]  50.01-60.01  sec   380 MBytes   319 Mbits/sec                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate [  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  2.22 GBytes   318 Mbits/sec                  sender [  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  2.22 GBytes   318 Mbits/sec                  receiver

311 Mbps downloads and 318 Mbps uploads are not amazing, considering I get over 1 Gbps using some other devices in this environment. At least it looks stable. However, if for some reason you need a higher network transfer speed, Gigabit Ethernet is recommended.

Power consumption

I used a wall power meter to measure consumption when connected to Ethernet, an HDMI display, and a USB RF dongle for a mouse and keyboard:

• Power off – 0.4W
• Standby – 2.5W
• Idle – 3W
• 8K video plaback – 4.9W to 5W

Power consumption is really low, but what will matter the most here is the power consumption of your selected display(s).

Conclusion

Rikomagic DS08 is an Android 13 media player designed for digital signage applications with features such as display orientation, scheduled reboots, and time on/off, and a watchdog timer to optimize uptime even in case of a system crash. It also offers two HDMI video outputs, which worked fine in mirror mode.

Powered by a Rockchip RK3588 SoC with 8GB of RAM, it performs well as a 4K digital signage player, and all samples I tried played smoothly. The only issue I had was with a video using AC3 audio, which was not supported by the built-in Video app. In theory, you can also support 8K video output and playback, but the results were mixed here. 8K AV1 videos are not supported, only 4Kp60 ones due to RK3588 VPU limitations, and while an 8K H.265 played just fine, another 8K VP9 video would freeze from time to time, and more rarely, I got audio cuts. This was tested on Full HD and 4K monitors, since I don’t own an 8K TV.

I’d like to thank Rikomagic for sending the DS08 digital signage player review. Production units with 8GB RAM and 128GB eMMC flash sell for around $300 on AliExpress before shipping and taxes. More details may also be found on the product page, where they mention OS customization for orders of 500+ pieces.

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