Hey guys,
I thought I create a thread for the Tanix TX7 Android TV box to share our experiences.
Here is a good review of this ~40€ box.
I bought the TX7 to replace a RPi3 because of its serious disadvantages. The TX7 does a significant better job as a LibreElec platform (much better WiFi, much better HW decoding, enough power over USB for a DVD drive, fanless, 32GB internal storage vs 0, more RAM, remote included...). Even the price point is better, if you consider the costs of heat sinks, case, power adapter etc.
Specs:
- CPU: S905X
- GPU: Mali-450
- RAM: DDR3: 2G
- ROM: eMMC Flash: 32G
- Radio: Broadcomm AP6255 chip with Blutooth 4.0 and Wifi b/g/n/ac dual band (2,4 and 5 GHz)
- LAN: 100 mbit ethernet only could be too slow for 4K HDR remuxes
- Android 7.1.2
- Widevine security level L3 only
Using on Libreelec:
I could boot the latest Libreelec 8.2 with Kodi 17.6 (kszaq´s build with 2g device tree) and latest 9.0 mit Kodi 18 alpha (from GDPR-2 here, choose LibreELEC-S905.arm-8.90.3.img.gz) without any problems (Toothpick method, it has a small hole on its buttom with reset switch). Everything works out of the box like Bluetooth and WiFi, thanx to kszaq . Tested some h265 1080p files without any stress on the system (CPU <15%), with flawless HW-acceleration. I still have to test native Netflix on Kodi 18.
- IR remote works
- CEC works
- Temperature sensor works
- HW acceleration for h.264 and h.265 works
- WiFi works (dual band ac)
- Bluetooth works
- Install LE with reset switch and boot works
Netflix + InputStream adaptive Addon:
i tested Netflix a bit with the latest Leia Build for s905x. I can login and browse without any issues. Unfortunately I get SD streams only (480p top) at a very choppy quality at <1000kb/s only. Interestingly if I boot to Android, the Netflix plugin there gets only SD too.
The box has widevine security level L3 certification (checked with DRM Info on ANdroid) and gets max. 720p stream from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video under LibreElec with that, no 1080p or 4K. The video is software encoded only of course (early stage Leia limitation), at 720p CPU usage is ~30% at 55°C temp.
Amazon Prime video plugin works too (after a widevine update)
IR Remote:
quite usable, works with Libreelec out of the box. It can wake the box out of standby.
CEC:
it works. It is listed as libCEC 4.0.2 firmware v5 inside Libreelec. I can use the TV remote for basic navigation in Libreelec. It can switch TV off too (but not on, tested on a cheap Philips LCD with the HDMI cable provided).
USB Power:
The TX7 delivers enough power over one single USB port to use an external DVD slim drive without own power supply! Amazing... My RPi3 could not do that. DVDs work flawless.
Firmware / TWRP
Tanix offers Firmware downloads on its website but unfortunetly the one for TX7 is not listed Tanix website
An another option would be to do my own backup with TWRP but as writing I could not find a version that works with this p212 board and Android 7 Nougat