Android Category - Page 289 of 456 - CNX Software

November 3, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

How to Flash Firmware to Realtek RTD1195 Media Players

Android TV boxes based on Realtek RTD1195 SoC are cheap (about $60), with a relatively slow dual core Cortex A7 processor, but include fast interfaces such as USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and sometimes SATA, and are said to be very good at playing videos. After several months of development since they’ve first been spotted, RTD1195 media player are finally shipping. One of the models is M-195, which had its firmware recently released, and can be downloaded from copy.com, filefactory, mediafire, or solidfiles servers. This firmware is based on Android KitKat 4.4.2, with build number rtk-phonenix-eng 4.4 krt160 eng.ton.20141024.094201. Firmware update is pretty easy, and is operating system agnostic, since all you need to do is to basically copy the firmware file to a USB flash drive. A PC is not even necessary, as you can download the file and extract it directly from the mini PC itself. The same procedure […]

November 1, 2014November 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Unboxing of Rippl-TV XBMC Android Media Player

Half year ago, I reviewed Shenzhen Tomato M8 / TM8 Android TV Box. It was the first hardware I received based on Amlogic S802, and although I found overall performance and video playback in XBMC was very good, the firmware was not always stable, and Wi-Fi performance was poor. Shenzhen Tomato has now sent me another model based on Amlogic S802 called Rippl-TV (click for full specs), with an hardware very similar to M8 as we’ll see below, but a completely different firmware that relies on XBMC as the Android launcher. Rippl-TV Unboxing I received the TV Box by Fedex in the following package that reads “Rippl-TV a drop of perfection brings out the best in media…” The package lists the key features of the TV with 4K UHD video playback, XBMC Rippl-TV Edition, Android 4.4 OS (called UtilOS), dual band Wi-Fi, a quad core Cortex A9 CPU coupled with […]

November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SPMC 13.3.3 Release Adds H.265 Video Playback and Android TV Support

SPMC (Semper Media Center) is a fork of XBMC for Android with some modifications, that you can easily install from Google Play or Amazon AppStore. The latest version is particularly interested as it adds H.265/HEVC codec support for platforms such as Rockchip RK3288, and Amlogic S805/S812, and other SoCs making use of MediaCodec API and libstagefright should also work, including Realtek RTD1195 and Hisilicon K3V2. This version is also the first to support Android TV based on Android 5.0 Lollipop. SMPC 13.3.3 Changelog: Preliminary support for h265 (including RK3288) Preliminary support for Android TV Allow sleep and Daydream to kick in (e.g. on Amazon Fire TV) Add setting to scrape all videos, even if they failed Add “sd” & “hd” to the advanced settings of libstagefright (and mediacodec) for fine tuning Allow fullscreen on Jelly Bean Hide irrelevant video & audio settings Another possible fix for start crash Make the […]

October 31, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Tronsmart Draco AW80 is an Allwinner A80 Android mini PC with Up to 4GB RAM

An Allwinner A80 board for TV boxes / mini PC started to show up in the upcoming Z8C Alice TV box a few weeks ago, and the board, or another one with exactly the same layout, made it into Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta and Telos mini PCs with respectively 2GB RAM/16GB eMMC, and 4GB RAM/32GB eMMC, and selling for $149.99 and $199.99 on GeekBuying. Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta/Telos specifications: SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80 4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 big.LITTLE processor with Imagination Technologies PowerVR GC6230 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, Directx 9.3 System Memory – 2GB (Meta), or 4GB (Telos) DDR3 Storage – 16 GB (Meta) or 32GB (Telos) eMMC + SD card slot + SATA port (via a USB 2.0/3.0 bridge) Video Output – HDMI 1.4b + AV port Audio – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF (Main) Video Codecs – H.265/VP9 up to 1080p […]

October 31, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.10 Release with Kernel 3.17 and Android 4.4.4, Debian ARM64 Port Almost Complete

Linaro 14.10 has just been released with Linux kernel 3.17 (baseline), Linux 3.10.54 & 3.14.19 (LSK, same versions as last month), and Android 4.4.2 & 4.4.4. Most of the work is a continuation of previous months working member hardware, and ARM64, but one particularly interesting point is that 90% of Debian packages have been built for ARM64, and the next version of Debian should have an official ARM64 port. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.17-2014.10 updated linaro-android topic. In particular, CONFIG_IPV6=y is no longer the requirement for linux-linaro tree builds GATOR version 5.19 (same version as in 2014.08 release). gatord is fixed to build for ARMv8. dropped multi_pmu_v2 topic by ARM LT (no longer used) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (include IFC6410 board support) replaced integration-linaro-vexpress topic by integration-linaro-vexpress64. Starting from 2014.10 release, linux-linaro kernel tree will use the mainline support for 32-bit vexpress boards. integration-linaro-vexpress64 […]

October 30, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Banana Pro Allwinner A20 Development Board Looks Similar to Raspberry Pi Model B+

Banana Pi development board was launched about half year ago with Raspberry Pi model B form factor, but with more powerful Allwinner A20 dual core processor, and extra interfaces such as SATA. A few months later, the Raspberry Pi foundation launched Raspberry Pi Model B+ with pretty much the same specifications, but a different board layout and connector placement, and LeMaker has now designed a new version of the AllWinner A20 development board called “Banana Pro” that’s somewhat similar to R-Pi B+ board layout, with a 40-pin header, and similar connector placement, minus a few differences, such as using two USB ports instead of four, and the addition of a Wi-Fi module. Banana Pro specifications with differences against Banana Pi highlighted in bold: SoC- Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot, SATA […]

October 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Amazon Introduces $39 Fire TV Stick to Compete with Chromecast, Roku Streaming Stick

Amazon has decided to put Fire TV media player functionality into a low cost HDMI TV stick called “Fire TV stick” to offer an alternative to the likes of Google Chromecast, and Roku Streaming Stick. The device is based on a Broadcom BCM28155 dual core processor with the same VideoCore IV GPU/VPU found in BCM2835 SoC used in the Raspberry Pi. Fire TV stick hardware specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM28155 (Capri) dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 1.0 GHz with VideoCore IV GPU/VPU System Memory – 1GB RAM with half reserved to the system, and the other half dedicated to video. Storage – 8 GB internal storage Video / Audio Output – HDMI 1.4b output, w/HDCP 1.4. Resolution: 720p and 1080p up to 60fps Video Codecs – H.264 Audio – AAC-LC, AC3, eAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), FLAC, MP3, PCM/Wave, Vorbis Connectivity – dual-band/dual-antenna 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (2×2 MIMO), Bluetooth 3.0 […]

October 27, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Vsmart V52D EZCast HDMI Dongle Supports Dual Band (2.4 / 5.0GHz) Wi-Fi

EZCast wireless adapters are now pretty common, allow you to display and stream documents, pictures, music, and videos from your smartphone or computer to your big screen TV, and sell for about $20, but the vast majority come with a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi module, which may be a problem if your environment is crowded with other 2.4GHz routers. Vsmart V52D fixes that, as it includes a dual band Wi-Fi module supporting both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz frequencies. The other part of the specifications remain the same: SoC – Action Semi AM8251 @ 600MHz (MIPS) System memory – 128 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash Video output – HDMI 1.3 make Wi-Fi – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi module Standards – Miracast (EZMirror), Airplay (EZ Air), DLNA, and EZCast Video Containers – MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, MKV, MOV, RM, RMVB Audio Formats – MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC, […]