Amazon Fire TV Recast DVR Records up to 150 Hours of Video

Amazon has a hardware event yesterday where the company announced new Alexa smart speakers with better audio, Echo Input similar to ChromeCast audio and to be plugged into your own speakers, a new revision of Amazon Echo Show smart display, and some completely new Alexa powered products like Echo Wall Clock, Echo Auto connecting to your smartphone and your car’s speakers, and even an Alexa Microwave selling for $59.99. But I’m going to focus in another of their new product in this post: Amazon Fire TV Recast digital video recorder and media streamer with up to four ATSC tuners. Amazon Fire TV Recast will be available in two configurations: 500GB storage with two tuners, or 1TB storage with four tuners. Specifications: SoC – Unnamed dual core processor System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage 500 GB hard drive storing up to 75 hours of HDTV OR 1TB hard drive storing up […]

$9 SQ8 may be the World’s Smallest Car Dash Camera / Action Camera

There are so many car dash DVRs and action cameras on the market that barely differentiate themselves on the market that I don’t usually write about those anymore. But SQ8 “mini car video recorder full HD sports DV camera” caught my eye First, because at $8.99 on GeekBuying it’s really cheap, but most importantly because it’s incredibly tiny, even smaller than JeVois computer vision camera I reviewed last year. SQ8 camera specifications: Chipset – “AnGuo” Storage – micro SD card up to 32 GB Camera 12MP CMOS image sensor for 1080p30 videos  (AVI/MJPG) 65 Degrees Wide Angle 3mm lens Motion Detection, Night Vision Audio – Built-in microphone/speacker (AAC) USB – 1x mini USB port Misc – On/off and mode buttons, reset pinhole, LED indicator Battery – 200 mAh good for about 100 minutes Dimensions – 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.0 cm Weight – 25 grams Operating Temperature –  0 – 60 […]

$99 Inforce IFC6420 Qualcomm Snapdragon 600E Board Comes with 3 HDMI Out/In Ports

Inforce Computing has introduced the first board of their “Application Ready Platforms” family with Inforce 6420 SBC powered by Qualcomm Snpadragon 600 / 600E processor, and equipped with three HDMI ports including one HDMI input, and two independent HDMI outputs making suitable for products needing streaming, content sharing or rendering on multiple displays. The board also comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc… for “edge computing in the IoT space”. Inforce 6420 board specifications: SoC –  Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 / 600E (APQ8064 / APQ8064E)  quad core Krait 300 CPU @ up to 1.7 GHz with Qualcomm Adreno 320 GPU, and Hexagon DSP System Memory – 2GB on-board DDR3 (PCDDR3-533MHz) Storage – 4GB eMMC flash (expandable to 64GB) Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet via Atheros8151, dual band dual stream 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 via QCA6234 Video – 2x HDMI 1.4a outputs up to 1080p, 1x HDMI input up to 1080p Audio – […]

Xnano X5 4K TV Box with Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI Input, USB 3.0, and SATA Goes for $68 and Up

Realtek RTD1295 processor allows for 4K TV boxes with DVR and PiP function through HDMI input, and USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 storage interfaces. I previously reviewed Zidoo X9S and EWEAT R9 Plus based on the solution, and I especially liked support with NAS function through OpenWrt running side-by-side with Android 6.0. Those are high-end devices that cost well over $100, but we’ve recently seen cheaper models, likely with less refined firmware, no metal case, and possibly lacking OpenWrt that go as low as $78 shipped with LAKE I Home Cloud TV box. We can now get an even cheaper model, albeit with just 1GB RAM and 8GB flash, thanks to Xano X5 sold for $68.32 including shipping on Aliexpress. There’s also a 2GB/16GB version on the same page going for $82.76. Xnano X5 Smart Box specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1295 quad core Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali-T820 MP3 […]

Axiomtek tBOX100-838-FL Fanless Transportation Computer Features BNC Video & Audio Inputs for DVR Function

Axiomtel tBOX100-838-FL is a fanless Bay Trail rugged embedded computer powered by an Intel Bay Trail-I E3845 processor with 5 BNC input ports for video and audio, and targeting vehicle, railway and marine markets. Axiomtek tBOX100-838-FL rugged mini PC’s specifications: SoC –  Intel Atom E3845 quad core Bay Trail-I processor @ up to 1.91 GHz with Intel HD graphics System Memory – 4 GB DDR3L-1333 Storage – 1x 2.5” SATA slot up to 9.5mm, 1x mSATA connector, flash for AMI BIOS Video Output – 1x VGA port Video / Audio Input – 4x video in BNC connector, 1x audio in BNC connector Connectivity – 2x M12 A-coded GbE LAN or 2x RJ-45 GbE LAN (via Intel i210) Serial – 1x RS-232/422/485 (DB9) USB – 2x USB 2.0 port Expansion – 1x Full-size PCIe Mini Card with mSATA; 1x SIM card slot Misc – 1x remote switch; 1x reset button; watchdog […]

Junsun H552C Android 4.4 Car DVR and GPS Navigation System Comes with a 7″ Display

There are plenty of Android car systems for sale with DVR and/or GPS navigation capabilities on the net, but sometimes they lack some features, or come in a 2 DIN form factor, which is nice if you know how to disable your car dashboard, but it might be a little complicated if you don’t. An alternative is to get an Android rear view mirror, but obviously the display is much smaller, and it reduces the usable space on the rear view mirror to see what’s going on behind. However, this morning I’ve come across Junsun H552C Android 4.4 system with a 7″ display, rear and front cameras, and GPS navigation system that might be easier to install since it sits on top of the dashboard, and is selling for $118.54 on Dealextreme. Junsun H552C specifications: Processor – Quad core CPU @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – […]

Zidoo X9S Android TV Box HDMI Input Testing – Video Recording, PiP, and UDP Broadcasting

One of Zidoo X9S media center‘s key features is its HDMI Input port with support for PVR, picture-in-picture, and video broadcasting over UDP. The company has come a long way since the implementation of HDMI input on Zidoo X9 TV box, which would only support PVR function, and exclusively work in the foreground. For this review, I connected K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV box to the HDMI input of Zidoo X9S, and started HDMI In app.The first good news is that HDMI input does work, as we can see K1 Plus user interface preview inside Zidoo X9S’ HDMI IN app. Before testing all features, let’s go through the options for Video, Audio, and Output. You can select various video resolution up to 1080p, but I left it to Auto, which for this test meant 1080p. Framerate cannot be changed and is set to Auto, while bitrate ranges from 1M […]

Rockchip RV1108 Cortex A7 + DSP SoC is Made for Audio & Video Conference and Recording Applications

[Update May 2017: Rockchip has renamed RK1108 to RV1108.] Rockchip has introduced RV1108 ARM Cortex A7 SoC with a 600 MHz DSP targeting visual communication, consumer electronics, automotive DVR, and security applications thanks to its 8-channel I2S audio codec and 1440p H.264 video encoder and decoder. Detailed specifications can be found on the official Rockchip Wiki: CPU – Single-core ARM Cortex-A7 Core processor with NEON and FPU,  32KB/32KB L1 I-Cache/D-Cache, Unified 128KB L2 Cache, and Trustzone Video/Image DSP – Up to 600 MHz, 32KB I-TCM and 32KB I-cache, 128KB D-TCM Memory 12KB internal SRAM DDR3/DDR3L interface – 16 Bits data width, 1 ranks (chip selects), up to 512 MB RAM NAND Flash Interface – 8-bit async NAND flash, 16-bit hardware ECC eMMC Interface – Compatible with standard iNAND interface, eMMC 4.51 standard. SD/MMC Interface – Compatible with SD 3.0, MMC 4.41 System Component 2x 64-bit timers with interrupt-based operation 8x […]