Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on UGOOS UT8 PRO – An RK3568 TV box with 8GB RAM, 64GB storage

UGOOS UT8 PRO – An RK3568 TV box with 8GB RAM, 64GB storage

UGOOS UT8 Pro

UGOOS UT8 PRO is the first TV box I’ve seen with a Rockchip RK3568 processor, if we exclude Firefly Station P2 that’s more like an Arm Linux mini PC. The device runs Android 11 and is equipped with 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and offers WiFi 6 connectivity. There’s also the “UGOOS UT8” with basically the same features except it ships with 4GB RAM and  32GB flash, and a dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth module. We previously had seen TV boxes and mini PCs with the similar Rockchip RK3566 SoC in T95 Plus, H96 Max, and Zidoo M6, and the only reason for going with RK3568 in UGOOS UT8 (PRO) should be the extra USB 3.0 host/OTG interface, adding to the USB 3.0 host interface found in both RK3566 and RK3568 processors. UGOOS UT8 (PRO) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 with a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ up to 1.8/2.0GHz, Arm […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on UGOOS AM7 Android 11 TV box with Amlogic S905X4, WiFi 6 is up for pre-order

UGOOS AM7 Android 11 TV box with Amlogic S905X4, WiFi 6 is up for pre-order

Ugoos AM7

When Ugoos AM6B Plus 2021 TV box was introduced with Amlogic S922X-J and WiFi 6, we noted the company was working on UGOOS AM7, a more affordable TV box that also supports WiFi 6, and comes with the latest Android 11 running on Amlogic S905X4 processor with 4K AV1 video playback. UGOOS AM7 is now available for pre-order on Aliexpress for around $128 including shipping. The device includes 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash, 4K HDR video output at up to 60 Hz, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFI 6, and Bluetooth 5.0. Ugoos AM7 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X4 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash storage Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4Kp60 with HDR, HDCP 2.2, CEC support;  3.5mm AV port with composite video (and stereo audio) Video Codecs 4Kp60 AV1, VP9, H.265/HEVC, H.264 AVC 1080p60 H264 MVC, MPEG-4, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Ugoos AM6B Plus 2021 TV box adds WiFi 6 connectivity

Ugoos AM6B Plus 2021 TV box adds WiFi 6 connectivity

UGOOS AM6B Plus 2021 Dolby Vision TV Box

Ugoos AM6B Plus 2021 is an update to last year’s Ugoos AM6 Plus Android 9.0 TV box with Dolby Vision support through Amlogic S922X-J hexa-core processor. What has changed exactly? A WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.0 LE module replaces the WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 5.0 LE module used on the previous model. The new WiFi 6 TV box still comes with 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash, Gigabit Ethernet, 4K video support through an HDMI 2.1 port, and VPU capable of 4Kp60 H.265, H.264, and VP9 video decoding. Ugoos AM6B Plus 2021 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X-J hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 2x ARM Cortex-A53 cores, and an Arm Mali G52 MP6 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60fps with HDCP2.2 support, HDR10, HDR10+, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Ugoos X4 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box Plays 4Kp120 AV1 Videos

Ugoos X4 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box Plays 4Kp120 AV1 Videos

Ugoos X4 Cube

AOMedia AV1 video codec has been in the works for several years, and has strong industry backing since it’s open-source, royalty-free and delivers compression similar or even superior to H.265. Some services like YouTube and Netflix have already started using AV1 on PCs where the CPU is powerful enough to handle software video decoding. But relying on software video decoding is not ideal on typical Arm-based devices, either because of battery life concerns (e.g. phones) or simply impossible because the processor won’t be able to cope. The latter is especially the case on TV boxes who are not usually fitted with Arm Cortex-A53 cores leaving hardware video decoding to a video processing unit (VPU). Since AV1 is still fairly new, most VPU doesn’t support the new video codec, and while we have seen several AV1 capable processors including Broadcom BCM7218x, Realtek RTD1311/RTD1319, and Amlogic S905X4. as well as at least […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on Ugoos AM6 Plus Android TV Box is Powered by Amlogic S922X-J Processor

Ugoos AM6 Plus Android TV Box is Powered by Amlogic S922X-J Processor

UGOOS AM6B Plus 2021 Dolby Vision TV Box

When I wrote about the official launch of MINIX NEO U22-XJ media hub yesterday, I mentioned it was the first Amlogic S922XJ that I knew of and the first Amlogic TV box to support Dolby Vision and Dolby Audio. But it was rightly pointed out to me that Amazon Fire TV Cube TV box already supported Dolby Vision with Amlogic S922Z processor that looks to be about the same as Amlogic S922XJ. Ugoos is now offering another Dolby Vision/Audio option with an upgrade to their existing Ugoos AM6 TV box replacing Amlogic S922X processor with S922X-J and increasing the memory and storage capacity. Ugoos AM6 Plus specifications: SoC – Amlogic S922X-J hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 2x ARM Cortex-A53 cores, and an Arm Mali G52 MP6 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up to 32GB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Linux 5.5 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.5 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.5 Changelog

Linux 5.5 has just been released by Linus Torvalds: So this last week was pretty quiet, and while we had a late network update with some (mainly iwl wireless) network driver and netfilter module loading fixes, David didn’t think that warranted another -rc. And outside of that, it’s really been very quiet indeed – there’s a panfrost driver update too, but again it didn’t really seem to make sense to delay the final release by another week. Outside of those, it’s all really tiny, even if some of those tiny changes touched some core files. So despite the slight worry that the holidays might have affected the schedule, 5.5 ended up with the regular rc cadence and is out now. That means that the merge window for 5.6 will open tomorrow, and I already have a couple of pull requests pending. The timing for this next merge window isn’t optimal […]

Posted on by Karl Johnson - 28 Comments on Ugoos AM6 Review – An Android 9.0 TV Box with Plenty of Options

Ugoos AM6 Review – An Android 9.0 TV Box with Plenty of Options

Ugoos AM6 Review

Karl here….With another review. Today we look at the AM6 from Ugoos. Ugoos has been around for quite some time. I recently did a review of the Beelink GT-King with the same S922X processor and I will do some comparisons with that. I have to say with everything except the UI, I like this box much better (You can read my rant in the Beelink article about Android on the TV). The AM6 is built well. It is solid with a metal enclosure and just feels good when you pick it up. I know weight doesn’t really matter but it feels substantial. Like I stated I don’t really like UI but Ugoos ticks quite a few boxes that appeal to my nerdiness. I will go more into that later. Below are the specs per Ugoos Website. I highlighted the interesting ones. Hardware Specs: Operation System – Android 9.0 Language – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Ugoos X2 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box also Serves as a SAMBA Server

Ugoos X2 Cube Android 9.0 TV Box also Serves as a SAMBA Server

Ugoos X2 Cube

Ugoos X2 Cube is a tiny Android 9.0 TV box powered by the latest Amlogic S905X2 processor coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash storage. The new Amlogic processor happens to have a USB 3.0 port which provides good storage performance, and the box is also equipped with a Gigabit Ethernet port, which should make the device especially suitable for network storage beside the usual 4K HDR video playback or streaming offered by any typical Amlogic S905X2 TV box. However in most cases, the firmware provided for such TV boxes does not offer an option to easily configure a SAMBA server (aka Windows network share), so you’d need to either mess up with the firmware configuration yourself, or install a paid app. Ugoos is different since they long have had the option to enable NFS & SAMBA client and/or server in the settings, and Ugoos X2 Cube is no different. […]