MS2130 based “4K” HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle sells for $19

Mini U3 MS2130 4K HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle

4K HDMI to USB 3.0 dongles based on Macrosilicon MS2130 video and audio acquisition chip are starting to show up on Aliexpress for around $19 with free shipping. We first discovered the MS2130 chip in the YuzukiLOHCC PRO open-source hardware board that claims to have a bills-of-material cost of about $10. But you have to build it and source the components yourself, so it’s not for everyone. Now USB 3.0 adapters capable of recording or streaming up to 1080p60 uncompressed video from an HDMI input up to 4Kp30 are available to anyone with around $20. “Mini U3” HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle specfications: Main chip – MacroSilicon/UltraSemi MS2130 USB 3.2 Gen 1 high-definition video and audio acquisition chip HDMI input up to 4Kp30, 24/30/36-bit depth color Video Output up to 1080p60 in YUV or JPEG output format Audio – L-PCM codec Input cable length – Up to 15 […]

Beelink SEi12 Alder Lake mini PC review with Windows 11, Ubuntu 22.04

Beelink SEI12 Alder Lake Mini PC review

Beelink have launched their first Intel Alder Lake mini PC calling it the SEi12. Featuring a mobile 12th gen Core-i5-1235U processor it is also their first mini PC to incorporate a PCIe4 NVMe slot. Beelink kindly sent one for review and I’ve looked at the performance running both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04. Beelink SEI12 hardware overview The Beelink SEi12 physically consists of a 126 x 113 x 42mm (4.96 x 4.45 x 1.65 inches) square metal case with a new and innovative waterproof fabric-covered top. As an actively cooled mini PC, it uses Intel’s Alder Lake Core i5-1235U processor which has a thread count of 12 with 2 ‘performance’ cores boosting to 4.40 GHz and 8 ‘efficient’ cores boosting to 3.30 GHz and includes Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics. The front panel has an illuminated power button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a data-only Type-C USB 3.1 port, dual USB 3.1 […]

UP 4000 x86 SBC review with Ubuntu 22.04

UP 4000 x86 SBC Ubuntu 22.04 review

The UP 4000 is a credit-card / Raspberry Pi-sized single board computer based on an Intel Apollo Lake processor. AAEON sent me the model with an Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad-core processor, 4GB RAM, and a 64GB eMMC flash, and in the first part of the review, I installed Ubuntu 22.04 since the board would initially only boot to the UEFI shell out of the box. I’ve now spent more time with the board, and in this article, I will report my experience with the UP 4000 SBC running Ubuntu 22.04 checking out features, performance, video playback, power consumption, and so on. Ubuntu 22.04 System info Let’s check out some information after I’ve upgraded the system to the latest packages:

Everything looks good with an Intel Atom E3950 processor detected together with 3.68GB RAM and a 56.53GB rootfs EXT-4 partition. UP 4000 features testing There may also be some issues […]

Mekotronics LS1200 “live streaming” box is powered by MediaTek Genio 1200 SoC

Mekotronics LS1200

Mekotronics LS1200 is a mini PC powered by a MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor with a 4.8 TOPS NPU, and especially suited to live streaming applications. The system, housed in a metal enclosure, is offered with an unspecified amount of LPDDR4x memory and eMMC flash, HDMI input and output, an eDP (Embedded DisplayPort) interface, a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and four USB host ports. Mekotronics LS1200 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 1200 (MT8395) octa-core processor with CPU – 4x Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.2GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.2GHz GPU – Penta-core Arm Mali-G57 GPU @ 880MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.2/2.0/1.1, Vulkan 1.1/1.0, OpenCL 2.2, AI accelerator – 4.8 TOPS dual NPU with support for TensorFlow and Caffe models DSP – HiFi 4 audio DSP VPU Encoding up to 4Kp60 with H.265/HEVC Decoding up to 4Kp90, AV1, VP9, HEVC, H.264 codecs supported System Memory […]

Tiger Lake embedded Box PC offers V-by-One and eDP Interfaces

Embedded Box PC V-By-One & eDP

Distec BoxPC Pro NPA-2009 is an embedded Box PC powered by a Celeron 6305E, Intel Core-i3 1115G4E,  Core i5-1145G7E, or Core-i7-1185G7E  Tiger Lake processor that offers both V-by-One and eDP interfaces to connect to high-resolution displays. The system supports up to 64GB RAM, NVMe stoage, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and optional WiFi and cellular connectivity, and is suitable for info terminals, medical equipment, and transportation applications. Distec BoxPC Pro NPA-2009 specifications: Tiger Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i5-1145G7E (default) quad-core/8-thread processor @ 1.50 GHz / 4.10 GHz (Turbo) with 80 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics; TDP: 12W to 28W Intel Core i7-1185G7E quad-core/8-thread processor @ 1.80 GHz / 4.40 GHz (Turbo) with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics; TDP: 12W to 28W Intel Core i3-1115G4E  dual-core/4-thread processor @ 2.20 GHz / 3.90 GHz (Turbo) with 48 EU Intel UHD Graphics; TDP: 12W to 28W Intel Celeron 6305E dual-core […]

Khadas Edge2 review with Android 12

Khadas Edge2 Android 12 review

We’ve already reviewed Khadas Edge2 Pro with Ubuntu 22.04, and I’ve now had time to test the ultra-thin Rockchip RK3588S SBC with Android 12, so I’ll report my experience checking out the features, running some benchmarks, playing videos and games, etc… Flashing Android 12 to Khadas Edge2 board Our board was running Ubuntu 22.04, so in order to enter OOWOW firmware system, I had to keep pressing the function key (middle), then shortly press the reset button, before releasing the function key and entering the OOWOW interface. We can see the Android 11 image from the list we saw last month is gone for good, and a new Android 12 image dated September 20, 2022 is available. I selected that one, and OOWOW downloaded the files and flashed it to the board. Within five minutes, Android 12 was up and running on the board. As somebody who had spent several […]

Beelink SEi12 mini PC features an Intel Core i5-1235U Alder Lake CPU

Beelink SEi12 Alder Lake mini PC

Beelink SEi12 mini PC is powered by an Intel Core i5-1235W Alder Lake U-Series 10-core hybrid processor with a 15W processor base power (PBP), making it one of the first 12th generation Alder Lake-U mini PCs. The computer ships with 16GB or 32GB dual-channel RAM, a 500GB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD, and provides two HDMI 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, as well as five USB ports for expansion. Beelink SEi12 i5-1235U specifications: SoC – Intel Core i5-1235U 10-core/12-thread hybrid Alder Lake U-Series processor with 2x Performance cores @ 1.3/4.4GHz, 8x Efficient cores @ 0.9/3.3GHz, 12 MB Intel Smart Cache, 80EU Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.2 GHz; BPB: 15W System Memory – Dual-channel 16GB (2x 8GB) or 32GB (2 x 16GB) Crucial DDR4; upgradeable to 64GB Storage – 500GB PCIe 4.0 Kingston M.2 2280 NVMe SSD up to 7,000MB/s read speed Video Output – 2x […]

Amlogic POP1-G octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor shows up in Amazon Fire TV Cube 2022

Amazon Fire TV Cube 2022

Amazon has just launched the “all new” Fire TV Cube streaming device with an Amlogic POP1-G octa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor that we never heard of, but that appears to be almost the same as the Amlogic A311D2 processor that we reviewed in Khadas VIM4 SBC. The Amlogic POP1-G (aka Amlogic – AML Popcorn) also integrates an Arm Mali-G52 MP8 GPU clocked at 800 MHz, and the third generation Fire TV Cube features 2GB LPDDR4/x memory, 16GB storage, WiFi 6E and Fast Ethernet, as well as an HDMI port. Fire TV Cube 2022 specifications: SoC – Amlogic POP1-G (Amlogic AML Popcorn) octa-core processor with four Cortex A73 cores @ 2.2 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores @ 2.0 GHz, Arm Mali-G52 MP8 GPU @ 800MHz with OpenGL ES 3.2 support System Memory – 2GB, LPDDR4/x – 4224 MT/s Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Video 1x HDMI output port up to 4Kp60 with HDR (HDR10, […]