tuner News - Page 4 of 5 - CNX Software

April 3, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Sen5 Dual Tuner Android Set-top Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

There are only a few companies manufacturing Android TV boxes with tuners with names like VideoStrong and WeTek coming to mind. Shenzhen Sen5 Technology is another one, and the company sent me one of their DVB combo Android TV boxes for review without providing that many details. So let’s have a look at what I received. Sen5 Android Combo STB Unboxing The product might be not ready for retail just yet, as I received it in an old carton box. Once I remove all the bubble wraps, I ended up with the device, an IR remote control, and a 12V/1.5A power supply. Once the product is actually launched I’d expect you’d receive a retail package and a user’s manual too. The box itself is made of plastic with plenty of randomly arranged (ventilation) holes on the top. The front panel comes with an IR window and a “Standby button”, one […]

March 22, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 115 Comments

Mecool KIII Pro Hybrid STB Review – Part 2: Android Firmware, TV Center, and DVB-T2 & DVB-S2 App

Last year I reviewed K1 Plus T2 S2, an Android TV box powered by Amlogic S905 quad core processor with DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 tuner support, which worked with some caveats. VideoStrong has now send me an updated model with Amlogic S912 octa-core processor, which I presented in the post entitled Mecool KIII Pro Hybrid Android STB Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown, where I listed the specifications, and showed photos of the device and the boards (main board + tuner board). I’ve now had time to play with the device, and in many respects the user experience is very similar to the one I got with KI Plus T2 S2 models, but there are also some tweaks, and a few bugs which I’ll report in the second part of the review below. KIII Pro Hybrid TV Box Setup, Settings, & Power Consumption The four USB ports are really […]

March 13, 2017November 8, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 54 Comments

Mecool KIII Pro Hybrid Android STB Review – Part 1: Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

K1 Plus T2 S2 review has been a popular post on CNX Software, as many people tried to improve their experience with the device. VideoStrong has just send an updated version of their DVB-T2 + DVB-S2 TV box with Mecool KIII Pro octa-core Hybrid STB powered by an Amlogic S912 processor combined with 3 GB RAM and 16GB storage, and the same dual tuner configuration. I’ve started the review by posting some pictures of the hardware, inside out, before reporting my experience with Android, especially the DTV part, in a few weeks. KIII Pro Specifications SoC – Amlogic S912 octa core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-T820MP3 GPU System Memory – 3 GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60Hz with support for HDR10 and HLG, and 3.5mm AV (composite […]

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

NVIDIA Shield Android TV Gets Unofficial USB Tuner (ATSC/DVB) Support

NVIDIA Shield Android TV may only be available in a limited number of countries, but if you happen to live in a country where it’s officially sold, it can be one of the best options due its hard-to-beat price to performance ratio, and official Android TV software support from Google & Nvidia. One features it does not support out of the box is support for digital TV tuner, but linux4all has released an unofficial firmware image adding USB TV tuner support to Android TV (7.0) on Nvidia Shield Android TV 2015 and 2017 models. You’ll first need a supported tuner either Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD (DVB-C, DVB-T and DVB-T2), Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850 (ATSC), Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q (ATSC, QAM, Analog), or Sony PlayTV dual tuner (DVB-T). More tuners may be supported in the future. One you’ve got your tuner connected to Nvidia Shield Android TV, make sure you have the latest Android TV 7.0 OTA […]

January 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Rockchip RK3328 Quad Core 64-bit ARM SoC is Designed for 4K HDR Android 7.1 & Linux TV Boxes

Beside RV1108 visual platform for applications, Rockchip also unveiled another processor at CES 2017 with RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor for 4K TV Box with H.265, H.264 and VP9 codecs support, HDR, HDMI 2.0, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet and more. Rockchip RK3328 STB SoC specifications: Processor – Quad core Cortex A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz GPU – ARM Mali-450MP2 Memory I/F – DDR3/DDR3L/DDR4 with “large memory” support (4GB?) Video Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.x/1.4 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10/HLG support, CVBS output Video Processor 4K UHD H.264, 10-bit H.265 and VP9 video decoder 1080p H.265/H.264 video encoder Audio – Embedded audio DAC Peripherals embedded USB 3.0 interface Dual Ethernet interface: RGMII (reduced gigabit media-independent interface) + Fast Ethernet PHY 8 channel I2S interface supporting PDM/TDM TS and smart card interface, with support for CSA 2.0 Security – TrustZone, Secure Video Path, Secure Boot, […]

November 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Geniatech ATV1960 Octa-core Android TV Box Comes with a Dual TV Tuner (ATSC or DVB-T2)

We now have so many Amlogic S912 Android TV boxes on the market, it becomes hard for companies to differentiate, but Geniatech is offering something different with their Geniatech/Mygica ATV1960 model thanks to a dual TV tuner support either ATSC or DVB-T2 and allowing you to watch a program, while recording another. Geniatech/Mygica ATV1960 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot + 2.5″ SATA bay (cover on the bottom of the case) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz Audio Output – HDMI, and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Tuner – Dual Digital TV Tuner (ATSC/T2); one for live watching, another for recording; EPG and PVR supported. Misc […]

November 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

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 […]

August 30, 2016December 5, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

$79 HiSilicon Poplar is the First 96Boards TV Platform Compliant Board

At the end of last month I wrote about 96Boards TV Platform specifications, and noticed Hisilicon had one such boards, but details were sparse. Linaro has now officially unveiled HiSilicon Poplar board, the first 96Boards TV Platform board, sold for $79 + shipping on Aliexpress. Poplar board specifications: SoC – HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2.0 GHz per core with ARM Mali-T720 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1/1.0, OpenVG 1.1, OpenCL 1.2/1.1 Full Profile, RenderScript, and Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3 Memory – 1 or 2 GB DDR3 (Specs are conflicting depending where you look) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.2 up to 4K @ 60Hz Video Decoding – H.265/HEVC Main/Main10 and VP9 up to 4K @ 60 fps Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi […]