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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on MINIX NEO X7Mini vs NEO X7 Android Media Players Comparison

MINIX NEO X7Mini vs NEO X7 Android Media Players Comparison

MINIX officially announced their first quad core Android media player, named NEO X7, in early July, and it’s now available for around $140 on sites such as Aliexpress and Geekbuying. More recently, MINIX posted pictures and specifications for MINIX NEO X7mini, a cost down version of MINIX NEO X7. Let’s compare the two. The first (very obvious) difference is the lack of external Wi-Fi antenna on the MINIX X7mini, but that’s not all as shown in the comparison table below. NEO X7 NEO X7mini Processor Quad-Core Cortex A9 Processor (RK3188) Quad-Core Cortex A9 Processor (RK3188) GPU Quad-Core Mali-400MP Quad-Core Mali-400MP System Memory 2GB DDR3 2GB DDR3 Storage 16GB NAND Flash + SD/MMC Card Reader 8GB NAND Flash + SD/MMC Card Reader Connectivity Bluetooth, Ethernet, Dual-Band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth, Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi External Antenna Yes No USB 3 x USB Ports + 1 x OTG 2 x USB Ports […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Kaiboer F4 / Ugoos UT1 Quad Core Media Player Is Now Available for as Low as $116

Kaiboer F4 / Ugoos UT1 Quad Core Media Player Is Now Available for as Low as $116

K-R42-1 (aka CS918 aka MK888 aka …) has been one of the first Rockchip RK3188 Android TV Boxes available on the market, and can be purchased for less than $90 US. Kaiboer F4, discovered at the end of June, has similar specs, but comes with 2 Wi-Fi antennas, potentially improving Wi-Fi reception. The only problem. until now, was that it was not available for sale, but this has now changed, and you can purchase it for $116 including on GeekBuying, renamed as Ugoos UT1. It’s also available on Aliexpress at higher prices at the time of writing. [Update: Dealsprime sells it for $109.99] Kaiboer F4 / Ugoos UT1 Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 up to 1. 8 GHz with Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB Flash + 1x SD card Video Output – HDMI, and AV Audio Output – HDMI,  AV, and optical S/PDIF […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on Fedora 19 ARM Remix R1 Release With Support for AllWinner A10, A10s, A13 and A20 SoCs

Fedora 19 ARM Remix R1 Release With Support for AllWinner A10, A10s, A13 and A20 SoCs

After releasing a stable version of Fedora 18 for AllWinner A10 and A13 in February, Hans de Goede, working at Red Hat and a Fedora contributor, has recently announced “Fedora 19 ARM remix for Allwinner SOCs” on linux-sunxi community mailing list. This released based on Fedora 19 for ARM together with linux-sunxi kernel and u-boot, adds support for A10s and A20 based devices, and 38 boards and devices are now supported. To give it a try, download the 665MB image:

then write it to an SD card (8GB or greater):

Where you have to replace [device] with your actual SD card device, e.g. sdc.Since u-boot is board/product specific, you’ll also have to update u-boot for your hardware. Remove the SD card, re-insert it, and run:<

to display a graphical menu (if dialog is installed on your Linux PC), or a list supported boards and products:

Select […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on The Little Black Box XBMC STB Gets Users’ Feedback, Becomes Available on Amazon

The Little Black Box XBMC STB Gets Users’ Feedback, Becomes Available on Amazon

The Little Black Black Box (TLBB) is an set-top box running XBMC powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3 with 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash that comes with a dual sided RF remote control. The device became available for pre-order in April, and the first customers have started to receive the media player, one of them (flipfoelyfe) has uploaded a video, and posted some pictures. After initial issues setting up Wi-Fi (A bug seems to prevent the use of long passwords), his tweets about the device are rather positive, and he uploaded a short video demo showing Sports-a-Holic plugin playing a live NBA match, and a ESPN Boxing program. Whereas you had to pre-order and be patient for the first batch, LTBB is now available on Amazon for $129.99. Considering it also includes a dual sided RF remote control with a QWERTY keyboard, this single core set-top box is about the same price, or […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Juice Extreme 2 Android TV Home Gateway Features 4 DVB Tuners for Multiscreen Support

Juice Extreme 2 Android TV Home Gateway Features 4 DVB Tuners for Multiscreen Support

Antik Technology, a Slovakia based company, has developed a Android set-top-box powered by STMicro StiH416 SoC. I wrote about the StiH416 development platform previously, and although it’s just a dual core Cortex A9 SoC, its video capabilities are impressive as it supports multiple simultaneous video decoding streams. The set-top box called Juice Extreme 2 leverages those capabilities with 4 DVB tuners (DVB-T or DVB-S2) that provide four different streams, and transcode them, to all video playback devices around your home such as TV, PC, tablet and smartphones, or record them to an internal SATA drive. JUICE EXTREME 2 key features: SoC – STMicro STiH416 (Orly) dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.2 GHz + ARM Mali 400MP4 GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 1 GB Flash + internal SATA connector + SD card slot Video: Quadruple DVB Tunner CVBS/Y Pb Pr (3.5mm jack) Tuner board connector RF IN/OUT […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on MINIX NEO X7 Quad Core Set-top Box Redesigned, Available Soon

MINIX NEO X7 Quad Core Set-top Box Redesigned, Available Soon

When MINIX unveiled their RK3188 based MINIX NEO X7 at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April, they showcased a new enclosure design. Many people seemed to dislike the new “Lamborghini” casing, but the company listened to complains, and redesigned it to a more traditional casing, very similar to the one used for NEO X5. The company also disclosed the official specifications. SoC- Quad core Cortex A9 processor with quad core Mali-400 GPU (Rockchip RK3188) System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB NAND Flash + SD/MMC card reader (SD 3.0, MMC V4.41) Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n Dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 / 5GHz) with external antenna 3G support via external USB dongle (not provided) 10/100M Ethernet (Supports hotspot sharing via Wi-Fi) Bluetooth V4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4a, full HD 1080p, 3D movie file format supported Audio Output/Input – HDMI 1.4a two channels, optical S/PDIF AC3 multi-channel, headphone and microphone jacks USB – […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Cloud Media FreeOTT Player Review

Cloud Media FreeOTT Player Review

Syabas was a company designing set-top boxes such as Popcorn Hour Media Tank that were relatively popular before the Android media player invasion. The company is now called Cloud Media, and they offer a tiny media player called FreeOTT that connects to their Apps Market and bring online video, Internet radio, social media and other streaming media to your television. The device is free (as in free beer), as it’s not actually available for sale to the general public, and the only ways to get it is to have your ISP or telecom provider set it to you, or win one from the regular giveaways organized by the company. I won one via a giveaway announced on their Facebook page, and I had just to pay $5 (via Paypal) for shipping. The company does not provide detailed specifications for their device but we do know it’s a Linux based media […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on JW-11 Android or Linux Media Player Supports Internal 2.5″ Hard Drive

JW-11 Android or Linux Media Player Supports Internal 2.5″ Hard Drive

If you’re not simply watching movie streamed from the Internet, one way to store your media files is in a NAS, and another way is to store directly into your media player with an Hard drive. Unless you run a SAMBA or NFS server within your media player, you may lose the ability to access your files from several devices, but by playing directly from the hard drive, you are sure any video will be played smoothly. There are few low cost set-top box that support SATA, and the ones that do, such as Mele A1000 and its successors, simply offer an external SATA connector leaving your hard drive without protection from dust. I’ve just noticed there’s a low cost solution with an internal HDD enclosure thanks to an Android set-top box powered by Amlogic AML8726-M3 called either JW-11 or Slav, and maybe some other names I’ve missed. Here are […]