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

    Quote from Turbobuickguy

    Tim_Taylor Any issues with the Z6? Resolution, and frame-rate switching? Passthrough for Atmos and DTS:X? I am considering picking one up.

    Known issue: rendering subtitles - S912 issue

    Passthrough: works

    Resolution: works

    frame-rate switching - don´t know(I don´t care about this)

    But:

    I´m only watching Videos & Music from NAS - wired network

    WiFi 2.4/5 GHz working, but I don´t use it.

    No 'special addons' no live TV, no DVB-S2 tuner ....

    And

    I´m not making coffee with my box :cool:

    Auto Frame Rate with Android and usability for Amazon Prime + Eurosport Player would be interesting for the vorke box.

    On the Geek...homepage they say it has 120mbit over gigabit. Did anyone check the real network performance?

    A question regarding the S905W.

    These days pretty much of the cheap boxes run hot.

    I found that once a S905X or S912 box runs hot it will decrease the frame rate to reduce the heat. So I see reductions in frame rate to around 40 fps, which I think is no problem as long as it stays above 29 fps.

    At least I don't see any difference in the picture when the stream runs at that frame rate.

    My question now is if the S905W will run less hot, because it by default run at lower frame rate, or will it be a serious issue when/if the frame rate get reduced to prevent the chip from over heating?

    Hi,

    I'm searching for a device, but unfortunately I haven't found what I need.

    My demands are:

    HDR10

    GBit Networking

    USB3.0

    Bluetooth

    I want to setup the device not only for LibreElec but also as a server device in local network.

    Is there any device matching my needs? I have only found the Mecool BB2 with GBit but missing USB3.0.

    USB3.0 seems to me more important, because if GBit missing I could use a USB adapter.

    Any recommendations?

    Quote from Johnny Rocco

    ¿Is there any big drawback of the mecool not having the reset button? If u flash Libreelec to the internal NAND, u can go back to android after?

    Not easily, as far as I know, you will need the original firmware & might need to use the usb burning tool.

    Personally, I didn't think running from internal is much different form running from sd.

    No Amlogic SoC has USB 3.0.

    Quote from sinancetinkaya

    basjke Do what we are doing. Modify a case fan or cpu fan to work from usb port and use it to cool your box ;)

    I'm aware of that, but it didn't answer my question about the S905W.

    On another note, I notice that on S912 the temperature climbs fairly quickly to 80°C, then stabilize, and fluctuate between 79 and 81°C.

    Some devices lower frame rate gradually to lower the temperature by a few degrees, then increase the frame rate again to 60 fps. Rinse and repeat.

    Others keep the temperature at that level even without lowering frame rate.

    So something must be in place that controls the temperature at this point.

    Could we therefore assume that 80°C is a safe temperature for this processor?

    The Gigabit LAN - MINIX U9-H has Widevine L1 and HDCP 1.x and gives me 1080p Netflix 5.1 DD+ Audio, and 1080p for other DRM copy protected video streaming Apps when using @JJ-Kwik's pretty decent Android TV ROM. Snappy device with quality Android 6.x 4K HDR capable Firmware.

    The MINIX U1 and S912 MINIX U9 have the best thermal cooling vs any other AMLogic devices on the market.

    They both have massive heatsinks (see Post #1 of this thread for pictures) and the U9 runs between 15-25 Degrees C cooler than any other AMLogic device I've tested and consequently never gets thermal CPU / GPU throttled or slows down.

    No stuffing around with Reset switches on the U1 / U9 either, you simply hold in the main box Power Button for 6 seconds to initiate LE boot for the very first time.

    You pay for this sort of quality Hardware Engineering.

    BTW I'm NOT noticing - visually - Subtitles and major Frame Skips / Drops with LE Krypton on the S912 U9, although my eyesight is not what it once was. I use subtitles all the time.

    The Vero 4K does not seem to run very hot either. Another quality AMLogic device with proper Hardware engineering.

    Fastest AML S9xx LE device (no HDR) = ODROID C2 with high quality Samsung 5.1 eMMC flash.

    I now have it running stably @ 1.752GHz using the standard heastsink and a minor U-boot code power tweak from Hardkernel. :thumbup:

    Basically with AMLogic you generally get what you pay for.

    For me - it's not acceptable.

    The question is not if, but when, it will malfunction. Like everything else.

    S905/S905X with mods are maxing up to 50°C, S912 gets higher (~60°C), but all depends on the "design", especially with the cheap "karate" boxes...

    I would suggest definitely to consider implementing some improvements of the current "stock" heat dissipating "solution(s)".

    Otherwise - it will run as good as it gets, crash/burn and... You're off to the next 30-40+ $ one... :)