Personal View site logo
Android Box with HDMI input, 4K HEVC playback, remote and such, below $80
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Called Tronsmart Pavo M9.

    image

    image

    image

    image

    at

    By idea, with good developers, it can record Prores to USB 3.0 HDD.

  • 26 Replies sorted by
  • DrDaveDrDave

    Dang, I just bought an android box a month ago and 4K playback is iffy.

  • fatpigfatpig

    that thing is beautiful! I still like my MXQ though. :)

  • DrDaveDrDave

    My Android box has pretty much the same specs, so maybe wait to see if really can play 4K. It will be interesting to see if these boxes can record 4K powered by a battery, at some point.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/11/review-of-zidoo-x9-android-media-player-and-video-recorder/ Same chipset, I think.

    It has some problemas with different multi-speaker sound types and I've read that it plays choppily its own DVR recordings, but getting HDMI input this cheap is amazing for lots of setups, one of them what Vitaliy has described, some Prores recording thru USB 3.0 or similar (if the chipset supports it, which if it's a budget one might be difficult).

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    As far as I know all Android boxes have some issues, some are very severe.

    This is why if you play lots of media it is just safe for your nerves to use Windows machine (and it is lot of cheap ones now).

    one of them what Vitaliy has described, some Prores recording thru USB 3.0 or similar (if the chipset supports it, which if it's a budget one might be difficult).

    It has nothing to do with chipset. At all.

    It requires knowledge how to access raw HDMI data, after this it is just software thing.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    Right, I mean, the chipset supporting USB 3.0. Bay Trail doesn't supports it, for example.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Bay Trail doesn't supports it, for example.

    You can just get any tablet with Core chips or Core M and HDMI and full size USB port.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    But no tablet of those has HDMI input. I've been searching for it for about two years now. Don't really know if the chipset used in these boxes has a special video input characteristic.

    Core M is coming to the PC-stick format, would love one with video input on it. Or on a tablet, that could do monitoring and/or recording. It is pretty ridiculous to have to buy a monitor AND a separate recording device when sub, I don't know, 150uss chinese tablets have amazing IPS screens.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    This one has USB 3.0 http://www.iandroidtvbox.com/kaiboer-f5-4k-tv-box-64bit-quad-core-2gb-8gb-android-4-3-usb-3-0.html

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @bigshotpp

    Please read carefully that I was talking about.

    HDMI in all this boxes is fully useless, until you are developer or want to hire them.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    I know about that, I understood what you were saying, that is about recording properly from HDMI input which means understanding the HDMI protocol and making software for it. I was asking if this chipset, the one that is used in ALL of these TV-boxes (Mstar MSO9180D1R), had USB 3.0 for supporting the use-case you described some posts ago, and found the Kaiboer one. If the chipset didn't support USB 3.0, capture would be limited by the internal memory or the 20MB/s of the USB 2.0 protocol, right?

    Then I described my dream scenario, which is a tablet with a proper SoC, IPS screen and HDMI input embedded, which is totally possible to do but it could kill some of the monitor and external recorder business.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    I know about that, I understood what you were saying, that is about recording properly from HDMI input which means understanding the HDMI protocol and making software for it. I was asking if this chipset, the one that is used in ALL of these TV-boxes (Mstar MSO9180D1R), had USB 3.0 for supporting the use-case you described some posts ago, and found the Kaiboer one. If the chipset didn't support USB 3.0, capture would be limited by the internal memory or the 20MB/s of the USB 2.0 protocol, right?

    First, you do not need to "know HDMI protocol" :-)

    As for USB 3.0, much more easy was to click on the links in first post and use pair of eyes to witness one.

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    It's actually on one of the slides, I just never saw it. Sorry about being SO so dumb to talk with you, Vitaliy, I will never attempt to do it again :-) Thanks a lot for this amazing site, one of the best of the whole net for this kind of chatter.

    But the tablet I'm describing still doesn't exists and the only reason, in my wacky stupid silly mind, is that it kills other business lines.

  • fatpigfatpig

    couldnt this with the right apps theoretically be used as an external recorder for cameras?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    couldnt this with the right apps theoretically be used as an external recorder for cameras?

    Yes.

  • fatpigfatpig

    Sweet. So now we are looking for an android prores encoder, just like you said. :)

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    First find good money and good developer who will invest tons of his time to understand how to get access to video data from HDMI (as it is new chip, it is very hard task and require private docs and libraries).

  • eatstoomuchjameatstoomuchjam

    It's too bad that it's only able to record 1080p. Between the cost/weight of this + screen + batteries, one might as well just buy an inexpensive 5" monitor/recorder (if your goal is to record).

  • fatpigfatpig

    inexpensive 5" monitor/recorder such as? BMD VideoAssist? Would be about double the cost (if you had the app for free, that is)

  • eatstoomuchjameatstoomuchjam

    Yeah - I was thinking of the videoassist and similar - and I was factoring weight in as a consideration as well as cost - the screen + batteries should be substantially lighter/smaller than recorder + batteries + input device + screen + other batteries.

    If it could record 4k, though (perhaps just save the frames as dng to an external usb ssd if the processor isn't fast enough to do realtime 4k prores encoding), the extra weight/inconvenience might be nicely offset by the money savings.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    If you just need playback and such this one is much better potentially (but will be also glitchy as hell)

    image

    http://www.tronsmart.com/news/tronsmart-will-launch-the-world-s-first-cota-core-64-bit-android-5.1-tv-box-orion-r68

    sales124.jpg
    797 x 693 - 75K
  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    What I don't get is, if this Mstar chipset, which I'd guess is really cheap, has by hardware ability to capture video thru HDMI (and with a Mali 450 GPU), why aren't we seeing that same capability on other SoCs by bigger factories like Rockchip and so on. If 75uss pays for complete system with this SoC, it's evident it is not a cost problem.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    why aren't we seeing that same capability on other SoCs by bigger factories like Rockchip and so on. If 75uss pays for complete system with this SoC, it's evident it is not a cost problem.

    Because no one asking for this.

    Era of VCRs ended, people just use streaming and torrents. If someone want to record something most good TVs can do it for them (to HDD or flash drive).

  • bigshotppbigshotpp

    Right, but Shenzhen produces all kinds of shit-tablets with shit accesories that probably nobody wants, and this, which is still a niche but probably could stop being one if propery implemented by software, isn't.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    There's a market for ppl who like to record their vid games without running any cycles on the host box. Whether they want 4K remains to be seen.

Add a Comment