Rockchip RK3568 SBC to power 4G/5G, WiFI 6 connected smart displays, features an optional tuner

Geniatech K3-3568 SBC smart display

Geniatech is back with another Rockchip RK3568 SBC. The K3-3568 single board computer is designed specifically for smart displays with 4G LTE, 5G, or WiFi 6 connectivity, and follows last year’s “Geniatech RK3568 development board” (aka DB3568) offered as a full-featured development kit for Rockchip RK3568 SoC. K3-3568 SBC ships with up to 8GB RAM, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and offers multiple display interfaces with HDMI, MIPI DSI, LVDS, eDP, plus and an internal HDMI input connector, as well as support for an optional DVB-T2, ISDB-T, DMBT, or ATSC digital tuner. Geniatech K3-3568 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor up to 1.5/2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1, 0.8 TOPS NPU for AI acceleration System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash MicroSD card slot M.2 socket for NVMe SSD (See expansion […]

Amlogic S905X4 Android TV & RDK developer kit ships with ATSC, DVB, or ISDB tuners

Amlogic S905X4 developer kit

SEI Robotics has launched an Amlogic S905X4 developer kit for Android TV & RDK development under their DroidLogic brand. The devkit looks like a standard TV box, and the company also provides a choice of tuners with DVB-S2, DVB-T2/C, DVB-S2+DVB-T2/C Combo, ISTB-T, or ATSC-T. We were expecting Amlogic S905X4 TV boxes with products like Ugoos X4 or Mecool KM6 by the end of last month, but due to supply issues manufacturing has been delayed. So SEI Robotics could be a good device to get started with your own project as soon as possible, for example, to work on AV1 hardware decoding implementation. DroidLogic Amlogic S905X4 developer kit specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X4 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU (Amlogic S905X3 as option) System Memory – 2GB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4Kp60 with CEC, HDR, and HDCP 2.2 support; CVBS (composite […]

V-Bridge Muses DTV Modulator and Video Encoder Review – Part 2: Muses-β Turnkey Solution Demo

V-Bridge Muses-α and Muses-β boards can be used to respectively broadcast video to DTV standard from your PC, and as a turnkey solution taking any HDMI, CVBS, or USB inputs. The VATek SoC used in those  board support various DTV standards including DVB-T, DVB-C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB, ISDB-T/TB up to full HD resolution. I’ve received an early prototype for each, and I’ve already taken pictures and show how to assemble both Muses-α and Muses-β kits in the first part of the review. Today, I’ll show a demo with Muses-β turnkey solution taking HDMI input from an Android TV box (R-Box Pro), encoding and modulating the video to DVB-T, before broadcast it to an Android STB with a DVB-T/T2 tuner (U4 Quad Hybrid). This tool could be useful to test STB featuring ATSC or ISDB-T too, as those two standards are not supported in my country, and I could instead generate signals […]

MUSES-α & MUSES-β DVB-T/C, ISDB-T, DTMB & ATSC Modulator Boards Review – Part 1: The Hardware

V-Bridge Muses digital TV modulator boards launched on Kickstarter earlier this month, with the cheaper $200 MUSES-α board modulating video from a PC, and $600 MUSES-β turnkey solution capable of broadcasting HDMI or AV + stereo input to various digital TV standards including DVB-T/C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB, and ISDB-T/TB without the help of a computer. The company sent me the two hardware kits for evaluation and review on CNX Software, and today I’ll start by showing off the hardware I received. I got 3 packages and a F-female to F-female cable, which means you can connect the board directly to your TV tuner without having to rely on actual RF signals, and potential legal issues that goes with it. The first package I open if for the PC modulator kit that include MUSES-α board, an “RF” board, as a USB cable to connect to your computer. MUSES-α board features Vatek A1 […]

V-Bridge Muses Digital TV Modulator Boards Let You Broadcast Your Own TV Channel for $199 and Up (Crowdfunding)

I wrote about VATek VMB8202D Enmoder SoC handling both DVB, ATSC, DTMB and ISDB modulation and H.264 hardware encoding earlier this summer, and at the time, the company also planned to launch a crowdfunding campaign for two open source hardware DTV modulation boards in a couple of weeks. Weeks turned into months, but finally V-Bridge Muses boards and video input & RF daughterboards have now launched on Kickstarter where you can get your own live video broadcasting board for $199 and up. MUSES-α board MUSES-α board is the cheapest of the two boards, and features a header for the RF daughter board, and a USB port to connect to a computer. MUSES-α board specifications: SoC – VATek A1 32-bit RISC modulator chip Storage – SPI flash (unclear whether it can be accessed/modified by user) Modulation – DVB-T/C, ATSC/QAM, DTMB; RF header Video Encoding – N/A (handled by PC via USB […]

VATek VMB8202D Enmoder SoC Supports DVB, ATSC, DTMB and ISDB Modulation, H.264 & MPEG-2 Encoding up to 1080p30

Terrestrial digital TV transmitters normally cost over 1,000 dollars because there are usually implemented with expensive FPGA chips, but Taiwan based VATek has designed a low cost chips such as VMB8202D Enmoder (aka B2 Enmoder) capable of encoding 1080p60 video input to MPEG-2  (1080p30 max) or H.264 (SD resolution max), and transmitting the resulting video over DVB-C, DVB-T, ATSC, DTMB, or ISDB-T standards. VATek B2 Enmoder SoC specifications: CPU – 32-bit RISC @ 400MHz Memory – Built-in DDR Modulation Engine – VATek Multi-standard Modulator 1.0 ATSC / DTMB / DVB-T / DVB-C Media Encoder – VATek Ultral Low Latency HD Encoder supporting 1080p30 or SD MPEG-2 and SD H.264 encoding Audio Formats – MPEG-1 Layer 2, AAC Raw Video Inputs – 1x ITU-R BT.1120 or 2x ITU-R BT.656 up to 74.25MHz pixel clock Raw Audio Inputs – I2S up to 48kHz sample rate Stream Input Interface – Ethernet,  Transport Serial […]

Asus Zenfone Go TV Android Smartphone Includes a DVB-T2 & ISDB-T TV Tuner

Asus has introduced Zenfone Go TV Android 5.1 mid-range smartphone that only stands out thanks to its built-in digital TV tuner supporting DVB-T2 and ISDB-T standards letting you watch terrestrial digital TV on the go without needing Internet connection. Asus Zenfone Go TV (ZB551KL) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928) quad core Cortex A7 processor @  1.4GHz with  Adreno 305 GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 Storage – 16GB/32GB eMMC Flash, MicroSD card slot up to 64 GB Display – 5.5″ TFT display with capacitive touch panel; 1280×720 resolution, Gorilla Glass 3; 450nits brightness Tuner – SONY SMT-EW100 Digital TV (DTV) tuner supporting  DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-T2 Lite, ISDB-T, ISDB-Tmm Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi; Bluetooth V4.0+EDR +A2DP; GPS, GLONASS, AGPS & BDS Cellular Connectivity Dual Micro SIM card with Sual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) support Network Standard – WCDMA/TD-SCDMA/TDD-LTE/FDD-LTE Data Rate – LTE Cat4 – UL 50 / DL […]

WeTek Play+ Amlogic S905 Android Set-Top Box Features a Tuner with a SmartCard Reader and an mSATA SSD Bay

When WeTek announced the WeTek Core, some people were disappointed that they did not include a tuner like in the original WeTek Play, but the company has been working on a successor called Wetek Play+ that is based on Amlogic S905-H quad core processor and supports DVB-S/S2, DVB-C/T/T2, ISDB-T and ATSC tuners with a smartcard reader, as well as an extra store with an half-size SSD slot. WeTek Play+ specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905-H (Revision C) quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with  penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC 5.0 flash + micro SD card slot + mSATA SSD socket (implemented via USB to SATA) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2 support, and AV port Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF Tuners – Support for DVB-S2, DVB-C/T/T2, ISDB-T and […]