H265/HEVC Android Box

vyral_143 said:
Do give a review (even a short one will do).
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I havent put anything on it yet. Just updated Kodi and installed MXPlayer. One weird thing I noticed is storage is showing 11GB only instead of 16GB. Memory is showing 1.5GB or something. If this is 16GB version shouldn't the storage space be 14GB nearby?
 
6pack said:
I havent put anything on it yet. Just updated Kodi and installed MXPlayer. One weird thing I noticed is storage is showing 11GB only instead of 16GB. Memory is showing 1.5GB or something. If this is 16GB version shouldn't the storage space be 14GB nearby?
Click to expand...

May be some space gone to OS. Remaining would be available for us and shown.
 
vyral_143 said:
May be some space gone to OS. Remaining would be available for us and shown.
Click to expand...
Must be. I think maybe storage must be corrupt, hence the discount on price.
I tested this device. It does H265 like a two year old gfx card. Lots of pixellation in scenes. It does do spdif output - flac, aac,ac3 & dts. I was using an optical to analog convertor so I think the device outputs pcm via spdif. If it output 5.1 my convertor would have made a rattling noise since it does not do true 5.1 dolby or dts via optical. I have taken a few pics from phone. It can read exfat formatted usb 3 pen drive. fat formatted does not allow 4GB+ file size to be copied.
It can play these video formats - 10 bit/8 bit - both H264 & H265, mkv/mp4.

If I throw away my laziness, I'll write a review on this with the images.
 
Got the Wintel Cx-W8 Pro Windows Box. Costed around 100$ (Rs. 6700) Been playing around with it. Its definitely no slouch. Pretty responsive and runs windows pretty decently. One thing I can say without doubt is that this will make a great machine for Office apps and downloading and watching media. My trusty old friend Pot player works pretty well.

Its size is very small at the same time the weight is pretty decent for its tiny size. Makes you feel a tiny bit re-assured about its quality. Everyone I showed it to was surprized/confused looking the size. Its like 1/6 the volume of an NUC. :D

1.3 gb of ram is mostly used without any apps, after updating to latest windows updates, and using DISM to remove left over update junk, I've managed to lower Ram usage to 900mb and free space to 10GB, without any apps being used. Disabling Defender. The seller shipped with a non-activated Windows 10 HOME. Like come on! If you were going to put something un-activated, should have put Pro. Also because its the HOME edition, it doesnt have RDP :facepalm: So installed VNC and using that over local network. Works fine but file sharing etc isnt supported over free VNC clients. -_-

Thinking of re-installing with Pro later on. Maybe a lighter version of windows 10 if I can find one. It plays 1080p x265 videos very well. Haven't tested 4k. Youtube on chrome cant play 4k without dropping frames. But that I already knew that. Apparently edge plays it well. Also inserted a 32GB microSD card, dont think its coming out again :-/

It gets warm on constant heavy use, I've managed to keep it at that by just elevating it using a small block. Playing x265 1080p , processor used is around 20%. More updates will follow.
 
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Wintel Update -
1) 4k Youtube plays flawlessly on Edge.
2) Video play very well using KM player. CPU usage maximum including whole OS is below 50%. Generally 10-20%. (all based on what I noticed and checked. Might depend on video codec and other tasks running in background. I didnt have anything else running.)
3) Hooked it up using TeamViewer on local network and now I have a headless server or media player that I can control with my Macbook and my iPad and probably my phone. (Thanks @vyral_143 for the tip ). Its literally like having windows 10 on my ipad. Can also transfer files easily. This is very handy :D Teamviewer takes 10-15% of cpu usage per client. Not bad at all cause at max you'll use one client at a time even if you use it all the time.
4) It can handle Office 2010 flawlessly. (meant to install 2016 but didnt have the setup.)
5) Ethernet is god sent. Literally no issue. It doesnt catch wifi one floor below while other PCs do with a little hiccup here and there. Near the router though the wifi is flawless.
6) The blue port is USB 3. Read speeds over 120MBps with my 64GB usb 3 pendrive. One problem was that once yesterday after extended usage, the pendrive just disappeared from explorer. Inserted multiple times and nothing happened. Restarted and it worked fine. Seems like a glitch in the driver. Happened only once.
7) Also installed Avast, VNC, Core Temp, Clean Mem (keeps ram usage low. especially Teamviewer usage keeps increasing). Ram usage after a run and no apps 900mb.
8) It runs warm most times. 65-75 on heavy usage. Normal 50-60. TDP is 90C so nothing to worry. Have set core temp to Sleep PC automatically on reaching 85.
9) 7.3GB free space on install drive after installing all the above (including office). Pretty usable.

More updates coming. Might reinstall with a cut down version of Windows 10 with drivers slipstreamed. Still looking for right software to do that. Might do that later on after a few months since this is stable and the bios is a bit finicky as per folks who tried.

Some Speccy SS.

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swagatrath said:
10-bit x265 or 8-bit?
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8 bit
 
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Ah. No probs.

On a side note, I was seeing some stuttering during panning scenes and scenes with fast action. So I installed kernel auiditor or something and changed the default values to performance and deadline mode. Now I'm getting considerably smooth playback during action scenes and the stuttering in panning scenes has reduced a lot. Huge drawback is the box gets really hot. Like piping hot. Thinking of dismantling the box and modding a custom cooling solution for it.
 
Avish said:
They struggle a bit with fullHD H264 10bit content (cause there are no hardware decoders for 10-bit H264 yet), but not with HEVC 10 bit files. Like I said on page 2, I have the 3rd gen Mi TV Box, purchased from ebay for 5.1k. It comes with Amlogic S905 processor. And between Kodi, MX player and it's default player, it has managed to play everything I have thrown at it quite comfortably, including few 10-bit HEVC 4K clips. Only negative is Chinese UI, but that's easily fixable.
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Hi,
Can you answer this below ques of mine

1.Mi TV Box 3 can out put sound via 3.5 mm / optical SPDIF out / Coax Out ? Either way works for me. My requirements are Picture on the TV via HDMI at the same time sound must come from the mentioned route....Is that AV port is provided for that purpose - If Yes - Does it emit Red Light - that means SPDIF capable ? Can you confirm ?

2. How much USB storage can be attached or compatible with Mi TV Box 3 ?

3. What is the voltage rating of that adopter ? Is that thing work in Indian Current ? If Yes - I got some belkin surge protector - Is that Chinese fit in that ?

Thanks in advance.....
 
6pack said:
Ah. No probs.

On a side note, I was seeing some stuttering during panning scenes and scenes with fast action. So I installed kernel auiditor or something and changed the default values to performance and deadline mode. Now I'm getting considerably smooth playback during action scenes and the stuttering in panning scenes has reduced a lot. Huge drawback is the box gets really hot. Like piping hot. Thinking of dismantling the box and modding a custom cooling solution for it.
Click to expand...


Check these mods out. These are two different mods -

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UT8J.AJXutaXXagOFbX1.jpg
UT8YwEIXt8bXXagOFbX9.jpg
UT84ykJXzFaXXagOFbXL.jpg
UT8lz.LXuFXXXagOFbXz.jpg



Second-

UT81sJwXJ4XXXagOFbXp.jpg
UT8xDVuXUNXXXagOFbXK.jpg
 
@Party Monger, I opened the box to find the heat sink at the bottom. I was thinking of getting an after market cpu heatsink like the one in your pic. Since it was at the bottom, after thinking a few minutes, I decided to drill some equidistant holes at the bottom of the box to allow some air flow. Box already had some type of thermal paste applied to the top of the metal covering the chip. Some pics below:
oct001.jpg
oct002.jpg
oct003.jpg
oct004.jpg


Not as fancy as the ones you showed, but hopefully it reduces the temps a bit. I ran the box for half an hour and temps were around 60 - 65C. If no app was open it would fall down to 38C after some time.
 
dissel said:
Hi,
Can you answer this below ques of mine

1.Mi TV Box 3 can out put sound via 3.5 mm / optical SPDIF out / Coax Out ? Either way works for me. My requirements are Picture on the TV via HDMI at the same time sound must come from the mentioned route....Is that AV port is provided for that purpose - If Yes - Does it emit Red Light - that means SPDIF capable ? Can you confirm ?

2. How much USB storage can be attached or compatible with Mi TV Box 3 ?

3. What is the voltage rating of that adopter ? Is that thing work in Indian Current ? If Yes - I got some belkin surge protector - Is that Chinese fit in that ?

Thanks in advance.....
Click to expand...
1. It has 3.5 mm port. You can output audio separately. Mine was setup exactly like you mention. Not sure about SPDIF capability.

2. So far I've only tried 32GB USB drive. But I've read that it can read external HDDs with ease. Never tried myself though.

3. Yes, it works with Indian current. Adapter has US plug, so you'll need universal socket to plug it in. If your belkin has that, then you're good to go.
 
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6pack said:
@Party Monger, I opened the box to find the heat sink at the bottom. I was thinking of getting an after market cpu heatsink like the one in your pic. Since it was at the bottom, after thinking a few minutes, I decided to drill some equidistant holes at the bottom of the box to allow some air flow. Box already had some type of thermal paste applied to the top of the metal covering the chip. Some pics below:
View attachment 67031 View attachment 67032 View attachment 67033 View attachment 67034

Not as fancy as the ones you showed, but hopefully it reduces the temps a bit. I ran the box for half an hour and temps were around 60 - 65C. If no app was open it would fall down to 38C after some time.
Click to expand...
Wow looks good. What you can do is cut out that part and put a usb fan over it. So from outside you can only see fan. Will be much cooler imo. What mine does is that it reaches 80-85 very quickly on consistent 80-100% load, even though its very stable and works at that temp for 12hrs in a row. So im beginning to think its necessary.

20-pieces-lot-font-b-PC-b-font-Computer-font-b-USB-b-font-Connector-80x80x15mm.jpg



Also Place the device on its side so its standing. Im doing the same. Lowers the temps a few degrees.
 
I installed LibreElec on sdcard on my Beelink box. It plays everything really smoothly and also switches refresh rates of TV. Apparently Kodi on Android is incapable of switching refresh rates and only increases fps of the video to match the tv refresh rates.

Without Android, Kodi gets around 1.6GB memory. Some high bitrate 1080p files stutter a bit while playing or you get audio video mismatch.

Some cons -
first is the LibreElec version I'm using is still on Jarvis 16.1 since there's some problem in amcodec in 17.
Second - LibreElec loses OTG attached external audio processor like Fiio DAC if the DAC switches off due to low battery. After this restart is the only option to see it again. In Android, if we switch on charging mode in fiio dac, it gets used immediately by the OS.

Another con is YouTube plugin needs some mind wracking. I've still kept the original firmware only to watch YouTube in 1080p.
 
6pack said:
I installed LibreElec on sdcard on my Beelink box. It plays everything really smoothly and also switches refresh rates of TV. Apparently Kodi on Android is incapable of switching refresh rates and only increases fps of the video to match the tv refresh rates.

Without Android, Kodi gets around 1.6GB memory. Some high bitrate 1080p files stutter a bit while playing or you get audio video mismatch.

Some cons -
first is the LibreElec version I'm using is still on Jarvis 16.1 since there's some problem in amcodec in 17.
Second - LibreElec loses OTG attached external audio processor like Fiio DAC if the DAC switches off due to low battery. After this restart is the only option to see it again. In Android, if we switch on charging mode in fiio dac, it gets used immediately by the OS.

Another con is YouTube plugin needs some mind wracking. I've still kept the original firmware only to watch YouTube in 1080p.
Click to expand...

Hi,
Can you confirm the fact that Beelink Box can detect Fiio USB DAC out-of-the Box ? Like running on default Android ?
In my case it's Fiio E17k.
 
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