Rockchip RK33xx Category - Page 35 of 46 - CNX Software

July 16, 2017July 17, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

ROCK64 Board Review – Part 1: eMMC Flash Module, Android 7.1 Firmware, Benchmarks, and Kodi

ROCK64 is the second ARM Linux development board by Pine64 that is based on Rockchip RK3328 processor, instead of Allwinner 64 for Pine A64 board, and while both processors comes with four Cortex A53 cores, the Rockchip processor offers a faster GPU, 4K @ 60 Hz video support, as well as USB 3.0 support. I’ve got a sample with an eMMC flash module, and I’m going to test it first with Android 7.1, since those were the only firmware images currently available on the Wiki, but Linux will be available before the board ships publicly at the end of July. Rock64 Linux Ports Status There are now at least three Linux ports in progress: ayufan’s Debian Jessie and Ubuntu Xenial images which are now in pre-release, but should officially be released next week. Arch Linux ARM with no pre-built Rock64 images yet Fedora 25 minimal Image The Yocto Project support […]

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Bqeel MVR9 TV Box Review – Part 1: Specifications, Unboxing and Teardown

All Rockchip RK3328 based 4K TV boxes I’ve seen so far come with Fast Ethernet, not Gigabit Ethernet, with the exclusion of Rock64, which is not a TV box, but a development board. But Nagrace sent me Bqeel MVR9 box that comes with Gigabit Ethernet, in order to write a review. I’ll start by having a look at the hardware first, before experimenting with the firmware in several weeks. Bqeel MVR9 Specifications SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR4 @ 1066 MHz Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support, 3.5mm AV port (composite video) Video Codec – 4K VP9, H.265 and H.264, 1080p VC-1, MPEG-1/2/4, VP6/8 Audio Output – Via HDMI, and AV (stereo audio) ports; optical S/PDIF […]

July 6, 2017July 28, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Vorke Z3 Rockchip RK3399 TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware

Vorke Z3 is another mini PC / TV box powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, and two Cortex A53 cores making it theoretically one of the fastest TV boxes on the market, excluding NVIDIA Shield Android TV which is well ahead of the competition, albeit with poor worldwide availability. I’ve have already shown Vorke Z3 hardware inside out, so in the second part of the review, I’ll focus on testing the firmware including video playback, and the system performance, and see how it compares to the similar Yundoo Y8, which I reviewed last month. First Boot, Setup, and First Impressions One the selling point of Vorke Z3 is its SATA connector, so I connected a 1TB 3.5″ SATA drive first, as well as Seagate USB 3.0 drive (1TB) to the USB 3.0 port, I also added a USB hub to connect a USB keyboard, […]

July 4, 2017July 4, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

ROCK64 and UDOO X86 Boards and Accessories are Now Available for Purchase

Pine64 ROCK64 is a development board powered by Rockchip RK3328 quad core processor, while UDOO X86 board is based on Intel Atom x5-E8000 or Celeron N3160 processor plus a Quark SE MCU. What do they have common? Not much, except both boards are now officially available for sale. Just a quick reminder of the specifications for ROCK64 board: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 1, 2, or 4 GB LPDDR3 Storage – eMMC flash module socket + micro SD card slot + 128 Mbit SPI flash Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10 and HLG support, 3.5mm AV port (composite video + stereo audio) Video Codec – 4K VP9, H.265 and H.264, 1080p VC-1, MPEG-1/2/4, VP6/8 Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB 3.0 port Expansion Headers […]

July 3, 2017July 3, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

How to Install RKMC “Kodi for Rockchip” App in your TV Box

I’ve started playing with Vorke Z3, an Android 6.0 TV box based on Rockchip RK3399 , and saying that Kodi 17.3 – installed from the Google Play Store – is not working so well is an understatement. The other Rockchip TV boxes I’ve recently reviewed with Android 6.0.1 such as Yundoo Y8 and A95X R2 are all using TVMC, a fork of Kodi 16.1 specifically designed for Rockchip devices. However, there’s no source code for that app, but a Rockchip engineer is maintaining his own fork of Kodi, with the code and some binaries libraries released on Github. The project is called RKMC. I did install the app, but I misunderstood part of the instructions at first, and the device would not boot anymore. I lost many hours of work, as I had to reflash the firmware. So I’ll show how I installed it in Vorke Z3 TV box. You […]

July 3, 2017June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Linux 4.12 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.12: Things were quite calm this week, so I really didn’t have any real reason to delay the 4.12 release. As mentioned over the various rc announcements, 4.12 is one of the bigger releases historically, and I think only 4.9 ends up having had more commits. And 4.9 was big at least partly because Greg announced it was an LTS kernel. But 4.12 is just plain big. There’s also nothing particularly odd going on in the tree – it’s all just normal development, just more of it that usual. The shortlog below is obviously just the minor changes since rc7 – the whole 4.12 shortlog is much too large to post. In the diff department, 4.12 is also very big, although the reason there isn’t just that there’s a lot of development, we have the added bulk of a lot of new header files […]

June 26, 2017July 25, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

A95X R2 TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 7.1, Video & Audio Tests, and Benchmarks

In the first part of A95X R2 Rockchip RK3328 TV box review, I listed the specifications of the device, took a few photos, and reported about the chip used in the PCBA. I’ve now had time to play with the box, so I can report about my experience with Android 7.1, video & audio capabilities, and the performance of the device in the second part of the review. First Boot, Setup, and First Impressions I connected a USB 3.0 hard drive to the USB 3.0 port of the box, a USB keyboard to one of the USB port to take screenshots, and a USB hub with the RF dongles for my air mouse and gamepad in the remaining USB 2.0 port. I completed the hardware setup with Ethernet and HDMI cables, as well as the power supply. I then pressed the power button on the unit to start it up, […]

June 16, 2017November 13, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Zidoo X7 RK3328 TV Box to Sell for $69 with Android 7.1

Rockchip RK3328 processor has been getting some attention recently with low cost RK3328 TV boxes, Pine64’s ROCK64 development board, and now Zidoo has announced they are working on their X7 TV box with slightly better specifications and a product that should get better support than the cheaper models. Zidoo X7 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53processor @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a port up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR support + 3.5mm AV port (composite video) Audio Output – HDMI, AV (stereo audio), and optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – H.264/AVC Base/Main/High/High10 profile @ level 5.1; up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps H.265/HEVE Main/Main10 profile @ level 5.1 High-tier; up to 4Kx2K @60fps VP9, up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11ac WiFi and […]