nexbox News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 18, 2018April 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

$38 Nexbox A95X Pro Runs Android TV, Supports Netflix HD

TV box manufacturers should move and more more from Android to Android TV operating systems, so we can expect cheaper TV boxes offering an Android TV experience. One of those device is Nexbox A95X Pro that sells for $37.99 on GeekBuying (pre-orders shipping in about 4 days), and also happens to support Netflix HD (720p). [Update: The promo on GeekBuying appears to be over, but it’s now available on GearBest for $36.99 with coupon GBA95X1] Nexbox A95X Pro TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905W quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI up to 4K @ 30 Hz, AV port (composite) Video – 4K 30 fps H.265, 4K 30 fps VP9 Profile-2, MPEG1/2/4, H.264, HD AVC/VC1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10 Audio Output – Via HDMI and AV ports, coaxial S/PDIF port Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi […]

March 6, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

Mainline Linux on 64-bit ARM Amlogic SoCs, and TV Boxes such as Wetek Hub / Player 2, NEXBOX A1 / A95X, etc…

We’ve already seen Neil Armstrong, part of BayLibre, worked on adding Amlogic SoC (S905/S905X/S912) to mainline Linux via our virtual schedule for the Embedded Linux Conference & OpenIoT Summit 2017. But at the time, although we could see some activity in Linux 4.10 including support for Nexbox A95X and Nexbox A1, they did provide that much details the work that had been done, but since then, ELC 2017 videos have been released, and BayLibre wrote a short post about 3D Graphics support in mainline Linux. We can see that I/Os, USB host, composite video output, Ethernet, eMMC/SDIO, and PSCI and SCPI features have already been added to Linux 4.10. but some important features have not yet including HDMI, Mali support, Audio, and high speed eMMC modes. HDMI is actually planned for Linux 4.12, which could be released in about 18 weeks if we keep the 10 weeks kernel release schedule […]

February 20, 2017May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 4.10 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 4.10: So there it is, the final 4.10 release. It’s been quiet since rc8, but we did end up fixing several small issues, so the extra week was all good. On the whole, 4.10 didn’t end up as small as it initially looked. After the huge release that was 4.9, I expected things to be pretty quiet, but it ended up very much a fairly average release by modern kernel standards. So we have about 13,000 commits (not counting merges – that would be another 1200+ commits if you count those). The work is all over, obviously – the shortlog below is just the changes in the last week, since rc8. Go out and verify that it’s all good, and I’ll obviously start pulling stuff for 4.11 on Monday. Linus Linux 4.9 added Greybus staging support, improved security thanks to virtually mapped kernel stacks, […]

December 31, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Ten Most Popular Posts of 2016 on CNX Software and Some Stats

The last day of the year is a good time to look back at what the year brought us, and I have to say it has been a fun and interesting year on CNX Software. The TV boxes news cycle has been dominated by Amlogic products, but most products have now switched to 64-bit ARM SoC, with 4K and HDMI 2.0 support, and price have kept going down, so you can now get a 4K TV box for as low as $20, although many people will prefer spending a bit more for extra memory and support. Intel based Bay Trail & Cherry Trail mini PCs have continued to be released with Windows, and in some cases Ubuntu, but the excitement seems to have died off a bit, maybe with the expectation of upcoming Apollo Lake mini PCs that should be more powerful. The year have been especially fruitful in the […]

August 15, 2016October 19, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 55 Comments

Amlogic S912 Android TV Boxes List So Far

Following up on the tradition to create list of TV boxes with popular processor, such as my Amlogic S905 TV boxes and sticks list, I’ve decided to generate a comparison table for the first ten Amlogic S912 Android TV boxes announced so far. There won’t be any S912 TV sticks, as the processor probably dissipate a little too much heat to be useful in that form factor. All TV boxes in the table below share the same Amlogic S912 octa-core Cortex A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with an ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU, support for HDMI 2.0a output, HDR, 4K video playback for VP9, H.265 and H.264 codecs, and run Android 6.0, so I only included columns for items that differ between products. Remarks: AV means 3.5mm AV jack with composite and stereo audio, and prices are usually retail prices with shipping by registered airmail from China, except for the ones followed […]

August 9, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

NEXBOX A1 Amlogic S912 Android TV Box Presells for $71

NEXBOX A1 was one of the first announcements of an Android TV box powered by Amlogic S912 SoC, but there weren’t many details at the time. Since then several other boxes has been announced, but few have prices, and GearBest now informed me that they were taking pre-orders for NEXBOX A1 for $70.99 including shipping with coupon GBNA1. NEXBOX A1 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S912 octo-core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0GHz with ARM Mali-820MP3 @ up to 750MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash and SD slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0 and AV ports Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Misc – IR receiver, power button Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions- 9.3 x 9.3 x 1.5 cm Weight – 190 […]

August 6, 2016August 8, 2016 by Karl Johnson - 116 Comments

How to Customize Amlogic Android Firmware – A Tutorial with NEXBOX A95X (S905) TV Box

CNXSoft: Bear in mind that there are multiple versions of Nexbox A95X. Yesterday, I published the review of Nexbox A95X with Android 6.0, with the model based on Amlogic S905X processor. In this article, Karl had a look at Nexbox A95X with Amlogic S905 processor, which he purchased a couple of months ago, but since he was not happy with the Android 5.1 firmware, he decided to customize it. Karl here with a review of the Nexbox A95X S905 box. This took a while to even start. I received the box about 2 months ago and I dived right in and broke it. I didn’t have factory firmware, and wasn’t cautious enough and bricked it. I found some firmware that worked but it didn’t work very well for me. Email’s to Nexbox directly didn’t help and I was stuck with a bricked box… I later found someone who had factory […]

August 5, 2016August 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 120 Comments

NEXBOX A95X (Amlogic S905X) TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 and Kodi 16.1

Last week I publish the first complete review of an Amlogic S905X device with MINI M8S II TV box review, and while the device work in a smooth and stable manner, some features did not work as expect such as HDMI audio pass-through. I’ve now had the change to compare it to another S905X with NEXBOX A95X, not to confuse with its “homonym”: NEXBOX A95X with Amlogic S905 processor. I’ve already taken pictures of the device and accessories, and checked out the hardware in the first part of the review, so today, I’ll report my finding playing with Android 6.0 firmware, Kodi video and audio capabilities, and check whether bugs and issues found on MINI M8S II are also present in the device. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions NEXBOX A95X is really a tiny device, so it’s no surprise that it only comes with two USB 2.0 ports, and […]