The first Rockchip RK3566 TV box is out with H96 Max running Android 11

H96 Max 8K UHD

Rockchip RK3566 is a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with plenty of peripherals designed for AIoT and NVR applications. While it still supports features like high-dynamic range or video post-processing, it’s not really optimized for TV boxes, but this has not stopped the maker of H96 Max “8K UltraHD” TV box to launch an RK3566 model with 4GB RAM and 8GB RAM now sold for respectively $59.99 and $76.99 on Banggood. H96 Max RK3566 TV box specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with Arm Mali-G52 EE GPU, 0.8 TOPS NPU/AI accelerator System Memory / Storage configuration 4GB DDR3, 32GB  eMMC flash, and MicroSD card 8GB DDR3, 64GB  eMMC flash, and MicroSD card Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60 with 3D support, Video decoding 4Kp60 H.264/H.265/VP9 VC1 up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps MPEG-4 up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps HDR10 and HLG modes Audio – Optical […]

Kodi 19 “Matrix” released with AV1, HDR, tvOS support

Kodi 19 add-ons

Kodi is an open-source media center that was initially designed for the XBOX game console, but was quickly ported to other platforms such as Windows and Linux, and eventually to low-cost Android TV boxes and single board computers such as Raspberry Pi. A new stable release of the software comes out every couple of years, and the developers have just announced the release of Kodi 19 “Matrix” a little over two years after Kodi 18 “Leia” release. The default user interface may look similar to the one for Kodi 18, but there have been many changes over the last two years with some of the highlights including: Skin/Look-and-Feel Screen redesign, especially for music with new metadata displays and changes to playlist views New “now playing” view Artwork and image file improvements Video Playback AV1 software decoding Windows 10 – HLG HDR and static HDR10 playback Android – Static HDR10 and […]

Amazon Fire TV Stick 3rd Gen is Powered by MediaTek MT8695D SoC

Amazon Fire TV Stick MediaTek MT8695D

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K powered by a MediaTek MT8695 quad-core SoC for launched for $50  about two years ago. The company has now introduced two cheaper variants with Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite and Fire TV Stick powered by a similar MediaTek MT8695D quad-core processor designed for 1080p (Full HD) HDR video playback. Both devices are basically the same for Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite goes for $29.99, and Amazon Fire TV Stick for $39.99 as the Lite version includes a cheaper Alexa Voice Remote Lite that lacks hardware buttons for controlling the volume and power on your TV and does not support Dolby Atmos (except via HDMI pass-through). New Amazon Fire TV Stick (Lite) specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT8695D quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.7 GHz with Imagination PowerVR GE8300 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2 System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI […]

Dune HD RealBox 4K TV Box Runs Android and Linux on Realtek RTD1395 SoC

Dune HD Realbox 4K

Realtek RTD1395 processor is designed for 4K HDR TV boxes and set-top boxes. Equipped with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and Mali-470 GPU it offers a lower-cost alternative to Realtek RTD1295 and RTD1296 with the same 4K video processing and playback capabilities. So far, we had seen it in TV boxes designed for operators and Banana Pi BPI-M4 single board computer, but Dune HD RealBox 4K TV box is the first RTD1395 consumer device sold directly to end-users. Dune HD RealBox 4K  specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-470MP4 GPU System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60 HDR and AV port (composite) Audio – Optional S/PDIF, analog stereo audio via AV port, digital audio via HDMI port; HDMI audio pass-through to AV receiver Video Playback 4Kp60 HDR/HDR10+ with 10-bit H.265 and VP9 profile-2, […]

MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ 5G Mobile SoC Supports 144Hz FHD+ Displays, 5G UltraSave Technology, and More

Mediatek Dimensity 1000+

MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G processor for premium mobile devices was announced in Q4 2019 with eight Cortex-A77/A55 cores, an Arm Mali-G77 MC9, and APU 3.0 AI coprocessor. Since then, several companies have announced plans to launch Dimensity 1000 smartphones with products such as Astro Slide 5G Transformer. But while there aren’t any Dimensity 1000 phones available for sale just yet (AFAIK), MediaTek has already announced an updated version with Dimensity 1000+ (Dimensity 1000 Plus). The new version of the processor runs the CPU and GPU cores at the same frequencies, and the differences are instead in other specific features of the processor, as we’ve highlighted below. MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ specification: Processor 4x Arm Cortex-A77 @ 2.6GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A55 @ 2.0GHz DynamIQ heterogeneous multi-processing technology GPU – 9-core Arm Mali-G77 MC9 AI Coprocessor – APU 3.0 hexa-core AI accelerator with 2x big cores, 3x small cores, and 1x tiny core […]

Raspberry Pi 4 vs ODROID-C4 Features Comparison

ODROID-C4 vs Raspberry Pi 4

Yesterday, Hardkernel launched ODROID-C4 Amlogic S905X3 SBC as an update to ODROID-C2 SBC launched in 2016. We’ve seen the board can compete with Raspberry Pi 4 4GB board thanks to benchmarks released by Hardkernel, but since those boards are so versatile, meaning they can be used in a variety of applications, it’s impossible to benchmark all use cases. One way to find out which board might be right for your application without going through benchmarks is to look at a list of features for each, and that’s exactly what we’ve done in this post. Let’s get straight to the Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB RAM) vs ODROID-C4 comparison table. Features/Specs Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) ODROID-C4 Release date 24th June 2019 23rd April 2020 SoC Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.5 GHz (overclockable to 2.0+ GHz) with NEON, FPU Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0 GHz with NEON, FPU, Armv8 Crypto […]

$50 ODROID-C4 Raspberry Pi 4 Competitor Combines Amlogic S905X3 SoC with 4GB RAM

ODROID-C4

Hardkernel has just launched an update to its ODROID-C2 board, with ODROID-C4 SBC equipped with a 2.0 GHz Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor combined with up to 4GB RAM, four USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0 video output, and the usual 40-pin I/O header. That makes it a worthy competitor to Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM, especially since it supports Ubuntu 20.04, CoreELEC, Android 9, and LineageOS operating systems, and comes with a proper heatsink for cooling for just $50 plus shipping. ODROID-C4 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 and OpenCL 2.0 System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage 1x eMMC connector (8/16/32/64GB modules available) 1x Micro SD slot with support for DS/HS mode up to UHS-I SDR104 Video & Output – HDMI 2.0 port up to 4K@60Hz with HDR, CEC, EDID Audio – Digital […]

MINIX NEO U22-XJ Media Hub with Dolby Vision & Audio Support Launched for $170

Buy MINIX NEO U22-XJ Media Hub

MINIX NEO U22-XJ Android 9.0 media hub was first unveiled at IFA 2019 last September. It is the first TV box that I know of equipped with Amlogic S922XJ processor that adds Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio licenses to the more common Amlogic S922X processor. The company has now announced the device will launch on Monday, March 2nd 2020 but without providing any price information. As usual, we know need to wait until the official launch date to find out as MINIX NEO U22-XJ can already be purchased on “MINIX Official Store” in Aliexpress for $169.90 including shipping. MINIX NEO U22-XJ main specifications haven’t changed since the initial announcement, but we do have a few more details:: SoC – Amlogic S922XJ hexa-core processor with four Arm Cortex-A73 cores, two Arm Cortex-A53 cores, Arm Mali-G52MP4 GPU System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage –  32GB eMMC 5.1 flash, microSD card slot Video […]