Rikomagic MK25 Amlogic S922X TV Box Supports Digital Signage Features

Rikomagic MK25 Digital Signage TV Box

Here’s another Amlogic S922X TV box. Rikomagic MK25 TV box & digital signage player comes with up to 4GB RAM and 32GB storage, HDMI 2.0 output, Gigabit Ethernet, and dual-band WiFi 5. Rikomagic MK25 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 4x Arm Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 cores, Arm Mali-G52MP6 (6EE) GPU; 12nm manufacturing process System Memory & Storage Configurations 2GB LPDDR4 RAM + 16GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot up to 32GB 4GB LPDDR4 RAM + 32GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz, 3.5mm AV port (composite) Video – AVE-10 engine with 4K UHD H.265/VP9/AVS2 video decoding up to 60 fps, Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and PRIME HDR high-dynamic range support Audio – Optical S/PDIF, digital audio via HDMI, stereo analog audio via 3.5mm […]

Linux 5.4 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.4 Changelog

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.4: Not a lot happened this last week, which is just how I like it. And as expected, most of the pull requests I got were for the 5.5 merge window, which I’ll obviously start working through tomorrow. What little there is here is mostly some networking updates (mix of network drivers and core networking), and some minor GPU driver updates. Other than that it’s a small collection of random other things all over. The appended shortlog is small enough that you might as well just scroll through it. Anyway, this obviously opens the merge window for 5.5. It’s not ideal timing with Thanksgiving week coming up, but it hopefully shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If I fall behind (not because I’m all that big of a fan of the indiscriminate and relentless turkey-killing holiday) it’s because we’ve got […]

Zidoo M9 is a Rockchip RK3399 TV Box/Mini PC/SBC with Android 7.1 + SDK

Zidoo M9

Zidoo has launched several TV boxes running Android over the years, some of which we reviewed such as Zidoo X9 (2015), or Zidoo H6 Pro. They also have experience launched dual-OS systems with Android and OpenWrt running simultaneously for multimedia and router functions respectively through their Zidoo X9S media center. The company has now contacted CNX Software to review their latest model. Zidoo M9 is a higher-end Rockchip RK3399 powered Android 7.1 TV box or mini PC, and Zidoo will also sell it as a single board computer for custom projects in the field of robotics, automotive control, artificial intelligence and more. Zidoo M9 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores @  2.0GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 cores. and a Mali-T860MP4 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL, and Directx11 System Memory – Dual-channel 4GB DDR (2GB is optional) Storage – 32GB eMMC5.1 flash  (8GB/16GB/64G/128G […]

Magicsee N5 Plus Amlogic S905X3 TV Box Comes with a 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD Bay

Amlogic S905X3 TV Box SATA Bay

Amlogic S905X3 TV boxes have been announced since June. S905X3 is Amlogic’s first Arm Cortex-A55 processor and targets 4K UHD HDR TV boxes. If you plan to play files locally, you may do so from a USB hard drive connected to one of the USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 ports, but Magicsee N5 Plus offers another option thanks to a SATA bay for 2.5″ hard drives or SSD’s. Magicsee N5 Plus specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB or 4GB DDR4 Storage – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot, 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD bay up to 4TB Video & Audio Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDCP, CEC, HDR 3.5mm AV jack for composite video (480i/576i) and stereo audio Optical S/PDIF Video Playback – 10-bit H.265 up to 8K @ […]

X96 Link 2-in-1 Android TV Box & Router Combines Arm and MIPS Processors

X96 Link TV Box Router

Most TV boxes come with WiFi and/or Ethernet to access the Internet or local network in order to stream videos, but there are a few rare exceptions with TV boxes also acting as router such as Zome ZMT-330A we covered way back in 2014 with two Ethernet ports. Shenzhen Tomato informed me about another TV box router product dubbed Nut Link powered by Amlogic S905W processor and equipped with not two but three Ethernet ports. A quick web search reveals the device is better known as X96 Link and sells for as low as $39 shipped on sites like GearBest or Aliexpress. X96 Link specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905W quad-core Arm Cortex-A53  processor with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a port up to 4K @ 60 Hzm AV port for composite video and […]

MINIX NEO T5 Google Android TV Certified Media Hub Launched for $85

MINIX NEO T5 & Voice Remote

MINIX has been pretty busy in the last few months with the launch of their NEO J50C-4 (64GB) and NEO G41V-4 mini PCs, and the company has now just officially launched MINIX NEO T5, their first Google Android TV certified media hub for $84.90 on Aliexpress or Amazon. MINIX NEO T5 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage –  16GB eMMC 5.1 flash, microSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.1 output up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR10+ support Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, optical S/PDIF, HDMI digital audio; Dolby Digital support; Dolby TrueHD / Atmos and DTS-HD pass-through is also supported Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi 5 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2 USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB 3.0 port Power Supply – 5V/2A NEO T5 ships with an IR remote […]

NVIDIA Launches Upgraded Shield TV with Tegra X1+ Processor

Shield TV 2019 vs Shield TV Pro 2019

Ever since NVIDIA launched the Shield TV in 2015 it features in lists of best Android TV boxes in the $200 budget range, although it can raise to close to $300 if you do not live in a country where the Shield TV is not officially sold. The company launched a more compact version in 2017, and NVIDIA just officially announced upgraded Shield TV and Shield TV Pro 2019 models with a more powerful Tegra X1+ Processor delivering a 25% boost, as well as  Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision support. As you can see from the photo above the Shield TV now has a completely different cylindrical design, while the Shield TV Pro keeps the traditional design of the box. However, both share many of the same specifications: SoC – NVIDIA Tegra X1+ processor with a 256-core NVIDIA GPU Memory & Storage Shield: 2 GB RAM; 8GB eMMC flash; MicroSD card […]

HK1 MAX PLUS TV Box Features Upgraded Rockchip RK3368PRO SoC with USB 3.0, HDR Support

Rockchip RK3368Pro TV Box

Rockchip RK3368 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz was introduced in 2015 mostly in TV boxes running Android 5.1 such as Beelink i68 or Tronsmart Orion R68. Unsurprisingly we don’t read much about new Rockchip RK3368 products four years later. But Rockchip appears to have launched a RK3368 “refresh” with RK3368PRO processor equipped with most of the same features, plus the addition of a USB 3.0 interface, and HDR support. The company also updated software support to Android 9.0 Pie. We don’t actually have much information about the processor as we learned about it via a listing on Aliexpress for HK1 MAX PLUS TV box with the following (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368PRO Octa-Core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz with Imagination PowerVR G6110 GPU System Memory – 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB flash; MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ […]