Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

CuBoxTV is a $100 OpenELEC TV Box Powered by Freescale i.MX6 Quad SoC

Last year, Solidrun launched their Cubox-i mini PCs powered by Freescale i.MX6 single, dual or quad core processor, and running Debian, OpenSUSE, Android 4.4, or various XBMC based Linux distributions. The company has now announced a new product called CuboxTV, that on surface looks similar to their Cubox-i4Pro mini PC with a quad core processor, but instead of running Linux desktop distributions, or Android, it’s pre-loaded with OpenELEC Linux distribution running Kodi 14. CuboxTV specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Quad with four Cortex A9 core up to 1GHz, and Vivante GC2000 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB SDRAM @ 1066 MHz Storage – 8GB internal storage + micro SD interface Video Output – HDMI 1.4b, 3D support Video Decoders – MPEG-4 ASP, XVID, H.264 HP, H.263, MPEG-2 MP, MJPEG BP, VP8, Sorenson-H263. Video Encoders – MPEG-4 SP, H.264 BP, H.263, MJPEG BP Image Codecs – JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG. Audio […]

November 25, 2014November 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Unboxing of Jesurun T034 RK3288 TV Dongle with a Gigabit Ethernet Port

Jesurun T034 is an Android HDMI Stick that looks just like MK802 V, and with the same specifications. GearBest sent me a sample of this Rockchip RK3288 based HDMI TV dongle that have the particularity to include an Ethernet RJ45 port that most sticks lack. I’ll take a few pictures of the device, and the internal of this product today, before writing a full review. Jesurun T034 Unboxing I’ve received the parcel via DHL together with a dreaded piece of paper reading “Inbound Charges Invoice”. The package is a white brand box reading “Smart TV BOX” with RK3288 logo. The stick comes with a 5V/2.5 power adapter, a short HDMI cable, a micro USB to USB cable, a IR remote control. and the IR receiver cable. There’s also a user’s manual in English that seems to be for other RK3288 TV boxes (CR12, CR13, and CR16), but I’m sure nobody […]

November 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Imp Computer is an Ubuntu 14.04 mini PC Based on ODROID-U3 Development Board (Crowdfunding)

Hardkernel ODROID-U3 is a development board powered by Samsung Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 processor that’s both small and cost effective at $59, not including required storage and shipping. An Israeli start-up named Imp Computer has now launched a mini PC of the same name, based on ODROID-U3 board, and running Lintux Ubuntu 14.04 with Cinnamon based Imp Desktop environment, and various pre-installed software packages like Chrome and Firefox web browsers, Kodi/XBMC, etc.., and somehow Microsoft Office with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are also listed, which does not seem right on an ARM Linux machine, but they are apparently using Microsoft Office Online to achieve this feast. Imp computer specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 4412 Prime @ 1.7 Ghz with ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU @ 440MHz System Memory – 2GB @ 880MHz Storage – 8 or 16 GB internal storage (micro SD card) USB – 3x USB 2.0 Host […]

November 25, 2014January 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 26 Comments

MeegoPad T01 Android 4.4 & Windows 8.1 Mini PC Sells For as Low as $100

MeegoPad T01, also known as APM-D01, is a low cost Android 4.4 and/or Windows 8.1 HDMI TV dongle powered by Intel Bay-Trail-T Z3735F or G with 1 to 2GB RAM, and 16 to 32GB eMMC. It has become quite popular (for a Chinese product from an unknown board), and one seller managed to sell nearly 400 pieces of the 2GB RAM/16GB eMMC version on Aliexpress for about $130 shipped. But this morning, I discovered this Windows 8.1 HDMI TV stick was listed on DealExtreme for just $93.50 $99.99 including shipping, and if you want the 32GB eMMC version, it would cost you $104.39 $109.99 also including shipping. MeegoPad T01 specifications of the devices sold on DealExtreme: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Bust freq: 1.83 GHz) with Intel HD graphics Gen 7 (2W TDP) System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L-1333 (64-bit up to […]

November 24, 2014November 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Unboxing of M-195 TV Box Powered by Realtek RTD1195 Processor

Realtek RTD1195 is a dual core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400 GPU, supporting fast interfaces such as USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA, as well 4K video decoding (including H.265) and output, and HDMI input. Despite all these features, it can be found in ultra low cost Android media players, so I was eager to find out if it’s as good as it looks on paper. Thanks to GeekBuying which sent me M-195 TV box, I’ll soon be able to find out. Today, I’ll list the technical specifications of the device, and take pictures of the device and the board, before doing a full test early next month. M-195 specifications Hardware specifications as listed in the user’s manual and GeekBuying: SoC – Realtek RTD1195 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC + SD […]

November 24, 2014November 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Unboxing of Cloud Media Open Hour Chameleon Android Media Player

Cloud Media (previously Syabas) recently announced Open Hour Chameleon Android media player powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor. Compared to the many competing solutions based on Rockchip’s quad core Cortex A12/A17 processor, Open Hour comes with a metallic case to provide better casing, and instead of coming with internal NAND or eMMC flash, they provide a bootable SD card (Class 10) pre-loaded with Android 4.4.2, and they also have a preliminary Lubuntu image. They also recommend to use SPMC for video playback as “going forward, Rockchip will fully support SPMC instead of their custom Kodi”. Before writing the full review, I’ll show some pictures of the device, and take it apart to check out the hardware and their thermal dissipation solution. Open Hour Chameleon Unboxing I’ve received the box by Fedex in the following package. They list the key features on the top of the box namely RK3288, XBMC, Android Kitkat, […]

November 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Technologic TS-7250-V2 Industrial Grade Embedded Computer Features Marvell PXA166/PXA168 Processor

Technologic Systems, as US based embedded systems solutions company, has announced availability of their TS-7250-V2 industrial grade PC/104 single board computer powered by Marvell PXA166 or PXA168 ARMv5 processor, with 512 MB RAM, 2GB eMMC SLC flash, single or dual Ethernet, and an optional Lattice FPGA with up to 17k LUT (Look-up Tables) among other features. They also have two enclosures namely TS-ENC720 (1x RJ45 port), and TS-ENC720-2ETH (2x RJ45 ports) for the boards. TS-7250-V2 technical specifications: Processor (one of the two) Marvell PXA166 Sheeva ARMv5 processor up to 800 MHz Marvell PXA168 Sheeva ARMv5 processor up to 1066 MHz FPGA – 17 KLut Lattice LFXP2-8E FPGA System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – micro SD card socket + optional 2GB eMMC flash + optional full size SD card socket Connectivity – 1x or 2x 10/100 Ethernet ports, USB – 2x USB HS host ports, 1x micro USB device […]

November 24, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Handbrake 0.10 Supports H.265 and VP8 Video Encoding

HandBrake is an open-source video transcoding tool that I use each time I upload a video on YouTube, simply because it will let me crop the beginning or end of a video as needed, can make web optimized videos, has an easy to use user interface, and greatly reduces the size of the video shot with my camera. HandBrake 0.10 has now been released, and it adds H.265 and VP8 encoding support via respectively x265 v1.4 and linbpx, as well as QuickSync video support, but the latter only in Windows. There are also various other changes include OpenCL accelerated scaling. Handbrake is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu operating systems. It’s part of Ubuntu repository, but if you want the latest version, and support for MPEG-4 (m4v), you’ll need to install it from a PPA:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

I’ve tested with the video I shot yesterday, to see if I […]