Choosing a S905 / S905X / S905D / S905W / S912 box guide

    Quote from romcrazy

    A95x plus

    No SD Card Slot

    Quote from romcrazy

    4k not needed (my tv max resolution is 1080p).
    HDR never used. Couldn't care less I am only starting so these fine things are not main requirements at all.

    Netflix 720p or 1080p will be fine for me.

    wireless remote and/or mouse and/or voice control remote. Never used any so I could use some suggestions on these too. Anything will be fine as long as it works smooth since a novice doesn't have any experience to compare stuff.

    Choosing a S905 / S905X / S905D / S905W / S912 box guide

    Quote from romcrazy

    Can I expect something in the month it takes to deliver

    Not Unless Father Christmas Delivers a working image :)

    Quote from kostaman

    No SD Card Slot

    Choosing a S905 / S905X / S905D / S905W / S912 box guide

    Not Unless Father Christmas Delivers a working image :)

    I never knew it didn't have sdcard. My mistake.

    Tanix tx5 looking good s905x2 device. but ddr3 ram. isnt ddr4 better sir? Strangely heading is saying LPDDR4 on both gearbest and aliexpress and scrolling down specs, gearbest shows ddr4 and aliexpress ddr3. This is getting confusing. Is one of them lying sir?

    Sorry for the last stupid question regarding the expectation that was foolish. I meant will it be picked for development or not, but that is not important anymore as they haven't given a sd card slot.

    I am lost again.

    Edited once, last by romcrazy (December 24, 2018 at 8:36 AM).

    Hi,

    Someone knows what is the upscaler algorithm used by amlogic 905 (Odroid C2) ?

    With or without "HQ scalers" option ?

    And "HQ scalers" has effects if "amcodec hardware acceleration" is enabled ?

    Thanks

    Quote from mika91

    Hi,

    Someone knows what is the upscaler algorithm used by amlogic 905 (Odroid C2) ?

    With or without "HQ scalers" option ?

    And "HQ scalers" has effects if "amcodec hardware acceleration" is enabled ?

    Thanks

    I thinkt it's the same as deinterlacing algorithm when hw acceleration is enabled - it's just "hardware" method without ability to change anything. But it's pretty good still.

    Quote from Liffeyman

    looking for a s905x with 1g LAN. found the Beelink GT1 MINI for 50 euro on aliexpress.looking for other recommendations

    thanks

    Paul

    Don't think the S905X has GigE functionality in the SoC (the S905D does - which is why the Vero switched from the 100Mbs S905X of the Vero 4K to the S905D for the Vero 4K+ to add GigE)

    If an S905X device is being sold with GigE it's either using an on-board USB2.0->GigE adaptor (with ~300Mbs max throughput) or it's a mistake in the specs...

    Quote from noggin

    Don't think the S905X has GigE functionality in the SoC (the S905D does - which is why the Vero switched from the 100Mbs S905X of the Vero 4K to the S905D for the Vero 4K+ to add GigE)

    If an S905X device is being sold with GigE it's either using an on-board USB2.0->GigE adaptor (with ~300Mbs max throughput) or it's a mistake in the specs...

    Quote from chewitt

    S905X does not have GB Ethernet (some S905, S905D and most S912 devices do). I have never seen or heard of an S905X with an internal USB card for GB Ethernet. Far east Android box vendors are well known for copy/paste spec. errors :)

    thanks for the feedback, the box actually has the s905x2 soc. done some googling on it and everywhere is saying it has Gigabit Ethernet.

    Beelink GT1 MINI S905X2 TV Box Ships with a Voice Air Mouse

    if not this box, would you have any recommendations. just looking for something that Gigabit Ethernet and future support

    Quote from Liffeyman

    thanks for the feedback, the box actually has the s905x2 soc. done some googling on it and everywhere is saying it has Gigabit Ethernet.

    Beelink GT1 MINI S905X2 TV Box Ships with a Voice Air Mouse

    if not this box, would you have any recommendations. just looking for something that Gigabit Ethernet and future support

    The S905X2 is a very different SoC to the S905X.

    I don't know if there is any significant support for it in LibreElec yet?

    Planning to dual boot (Android and LE) and wifi only. My house isn't conducive to a wired set up.

    I`m wondering if MIMO will make an appreciable difference to my performance, or if AC wifi will be fine?
    Also if I'm going to be using Android, is 3GB going to help a lot with these versions of Android over 2gb?

    Should I go for the Khadas Vim2 pro? (S912 + MIMO + RSDB + 3GB DDR4)
    Or Khadas Vim1 Pro? (S905X + AC Wifi+ 2GB DDR3)
    Or Minix U1 (S905 + MIMO + 2GB DDR3)
    Or Mecool KI Pro (S905D + AC Wifi + 2GB DDR4+ Widevine)

    I'm guessing there wont be a huge difference, but wondering if there is advantages to one over another that I'm not considering other than the RAM and Wifi?
    The Vim2 is about $30-50 more? Is the price premium worth it over the other 3?

    Which one would you get?
    Or which one do you have and why?

    I have a VIM2 and I would say the extra cost is not worth it. You don't get a usable case, you get a chip which runs hot without heatsinking (which is a diy effort or a choice of their own product which is a noisy squirrel cage design). It only has two USB2 ports. The S912 chip brings little to the table that isn't available from a good S905D box and isn't even supported in standard LE builds. The NAND storage is not very useful when you consider that "InstalltoInternal" is no longer supported in LE. The only thing going for it is rather mediocre Linux support - which you don't need anyway. A bit of a dead end considering they have moved onto a completely different chipset for their latest offering. A bit of a disappointment all round - though it does the job well when running CE builds.

    Shoog

    As

    Quote from chewitt

    There is zero support for S905X2 (and Y2/D2 or S922) and that's not likely to change for some time.

    Listen to chewitt... the x2 is a totally different animal and not as simple to to migrate as a lot of dealers will lead you to believe.

    I had a X96 MAX Amlogic S905X2 sent to me as a sample to play with and there is no way i would ever tell anyone to buy it.

    At this point in time this is just another example of Amlogic throwing a few nice additions to hook buyers but whats the point if the boxes run worse then most of the currently supported older boxes. Even Android 8.1 which is on them performs poorly and locks up and with 4gig of sram you would think there should be no issues with lockups, to be fair, maybe with some playing and shutting off some of Android's running garbage the box might run better but that's not something i would waste my time on as i believe Linux is the only way if you want real solid Kodi use.

    The 4 gig Sram and 32g Flash are nice features but if they cant make the box run solid on their own version of Android its probably gonna be awhile before the public sees something like LibreELEC running unless your a serious hacker and able to do your own codiing.

    And its not just one bad box i had sent to me as I have had a few sent to me and they all act the same way.

    Personally I would advise people to stick with whats currently supported by asking people like Chewitt and the other coders around here and not be fooled by the misleading marketing that seems to drive this sport. Lots of dealers sell this stuff but very very few handle software other then what they can pinch from others... Stick with what is currently supported and known to work.

    HI guys

    I managed to get my old minix xh8 plus revitalised to Leia RC4 , thanks to Datrh

    I do realise tho that its time to upgrade.

    I had initially intended to order a 905x2 based on a review by chiqz.

    But with the minix now working im not under pressure so to speak.

    Looking through this forum my head is spinning and I’m sure I’m not alone.

    It looks like s912 is at end of life.

    So the next option looks to be the 905d

    however options in that area are scarce.

    Mecool springs to mind. K1 pro and k2 pro

    I was keen on the Tanix TX92 until I found out the s912 is at eol and may be dead in the water.

    Having been caught with the minix lack of support previously, im loath now to spend up large ie a shield. Or another minix

    Reading comments by those in the know here, the future seems to be s905d as far as LE goes.

    But what build to use on that?

    I understand that kszaq is retired, so that in itself does not help.

    My alternative is just to get an interim android box (t95Q) as mentioned above, and wait and see what happens.

    (re the S905X2, there appear to be different iterations as shown by the charts linked to earlier. Bit like Russian roulette)

    So if anyone has some info / guidance, that would be of help, im sure I would not be alone in appreciation.

    In a nutshell im asking where to now with (HDR capable ) hardware to buy and the builds to use, that are current and good for the foreseeable future.

    Regards.


    Regards.

    Well let me say inspite of my thoughts on the current predicament of S912 ( or i should say anything maliT820 ) i not so sure i would say its at its end of life to be fair. Playing with linux on a box is always a game of catch-up when it comes to new boxes being introduced and better software being developed and released, so who knows but maybe by the time the next new generation is releases the current S912's will be in a better position.

    The other part of the equation is what your expectations of the box come down to... meaning if your only interested in receiving leading edge technology driven streams then i quess keeping up with the newest may be the thing to do, BUT if your only looking for decent 1080 or marginal 4k streaming the current status of software like LibreELEC and CoreELEC (rom emu's) are not bad at all.

    I maintain a small network of T95U/Pro and the T95K/Pro boxes running Leia and Krypton which work just fine. I've been using those Sunvell boxes since they came out. The missing software to truly using the boxes full hardware may be missing but is not preventing it from still being usable. It all comes down to what your needs are based on.

    I have managed to compile both LibreELEC and CoreELEC from their most recent Leia rc4 commits using the S912 project and both systems actually run fairly well. short of a few cosmetic things like the front display not working but bluetooth, wifi, ethernet, and audio all work fine with the right dtb. CoreELEC and the rom emulators are fun to play and bluetooth Ps3/4 worked right out of the gate. The only real adjustments to get basic operation was to setup the remotes that came with the boxes. So to be fair (even tho i am not a Amlogic fan anymore ) the boxes are workable and who knows but things should get better over time with the graphics support.

    My normal usage is 1080/720 streaming from on line sources or streaming from my network storage array in the house where i maintain a rather huge collection of media. Even 4K is not to bad if i pull from a source with a decent connection. My tv's are all basically running 1080 or 4k but nothing really high end so for my purposes they work ok. I just have a problem with a company (amlogic) that would introduce a product and not even licence the ip-cores for part of the product the pushed on the downstream market so i have a issue with recommending something like that to others.

    So truly your requirement or needs should be the thing to think about.

    Also keep in mind that the x2 SoC's are once again another NEW gpu ... Not Mali T820 this time but Davlin Mp2's. and my quess is that Neil and the guys at BayLibre aren't gonna drop their current efforts on fixing the existing used GPU's in favor of moving onto another new GPU entry into the mix right off the bat.

    Also just to qualify what I said above, all of my boxes are running on Linux as Android has been removed, so if Android is a requirement for your needs then its best to ignore what I have said and rely on others here that have actual experience running on Android and LibreELEC.

    Hope that helps take a bit of the negative edge i put out there on Amlogic and the S912 based units as they can be as usable as any of the others if your running the version of Android that comes with it. I just don't use Android in any way as i see it as the source of buggy boxes in most cases and i only require media playing and some game roms.