Android What hardware to choose?
#1
At the beginning of the year I bought myself an Apple TV 3.
It has been quite a disappointment with XBMC so far :-)...

Now I am looking for an equivalent android device which is able to play 1080p movies, has DTS out and which I can control with my harmony one remote.

I searched this forum, but the huge amount of different android devices make it hard to find the right one. So far I took a deep look at the Pivox Xios which seems to be the fitting device for me.
Is there anything you could recommend for me?

Regards
Julian
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#2
If you want to try the bleeding edge I would suggest the hardkernel odroid-u2 or odroid-x2

Personally I've been very disapointed with all the android / xbmc "capable" kit I've owned so far:

raspberry/xios DS, they're all just not enough for my requirements
Even my SGS2/3 suck with MHL and all the bling

I want to run xbmc natively or if possible under android (so I can throw in tonns of emulation fun with some PhoneJoy's)

However the odroid-x2 and u2 have just been made available and thats quite exciting

They are Quad core 1.7 CPUs, 2GB ram and up to 64G eMMC (you can buy the size you desire)

Its not pretty (no cases afaik) and its not "really" cheap as its cutting edge specs (you could try the older odroid-x maybe.

That being said
The Mali-400 GPU is brilliant (gives tegra3 a good run for its money, esp as this one is really fast)
I've read some claims that they outperform tegra3 even

It also runs ubuntu (arm) out of the box!!

.....I have just ordered the full compliment of the u2 and it came in around $240
I have ordered the 64GB eMMC, Power, WIFI dongle, bluetooth dongle, HDMI cable
I ordered the U2 because:
-I like the extra USB ports it comes with
-I like the fact that its CPU cooler is sorta its "case"
-Its actually cheaper than the x2 for some reason ( All I can see is that it takes longer for shipment/dispatch (7weeks))

Check out the video's..
http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/p...5341370451

If on a budget, you'll find tons of videos on youtube of people running XBMC on lesser speced droid "sticks" which cost like $30-$50 though I would certainly overspec if in doubt.

Hope this helps, I'll report back in 8 weeks once I've rigged mine up Smile
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#3
(2012-12-03, 12:04)starkers Wrote: <snip>

However the odroid-x2 and u2 have just been made available and thats quite exciting

They are Quad core 1.7 CPUs, 2GB ram and up to 64G eMMC (you can buy the size you desire)

Its not pretty (no cases afaik) and its not "really" cheap as its cutting edge specs (you could try the older odroid-x maybe.

That being said
The Mali-400 GPU is brilliant (gives tegra3 a good run for its money, esp as this one is really fast)
I've read some claims that they outperform tegra3 even

It also runs ubuntu (arm) out of the box!!

.....I have just ordered the full compliment of the u2 and it came in around $240
I have ordered the 64GB eMMC, Power, WIFI dongle, bluetooth dongle, HDMI cable
I ordered the U2 because:
-I like the extra USB ports it comes with
-I like the fact that its CPU cooler is sorta its "case"
-Its actually cheaper than the x2 for some reason ( All I can see is that it takes longer for shipment/dispatch (7weeks))

Check out the video's..
http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/p...5341370451

If on a budget, you'll find tons of videos on youtube of people running XBMC on lesser speced droid "sticks" which cost like $30-$50 though I would certainly overspec if in doubt.

Hope this helps, I'll report back in 8 weeks once I've rigged mine up Smile

I've ordered a U2 as well - but I'm not sure what you mean by "extra USB ports". The U and U2 both have 2 USB host ports and one micro-USB device port, compared to the X and X2 which have 6 USB host ports and one micro USB device port.

The U2 is cheaper than the X2 presumably because the X2 is a bigger PCB (and PCB area is quite costly) - to house the extra expansion facilities the X2 has (50 pin device port, MIPI camera interface, and audio input jack, as well as 4 more USB host ports) I'd have expected the U2 to be cheaper, it is more limited in expansion, and smaller?

One thing that I've discovered from the boards, which is a bit disappointing, is that although HDMI audio (PCM2.0 only apparently - no DD/DTS bitstreaming or multichannel PCM currently) is supported in Android, at the moment it isn't supported under Ubuntu. They also don't have GPU acceleration or any access to a VPU under Ubuntu either - though they are hopeful that they will gain access to both through a Samsung DDK?

Still - it looks like a great fun little device - can't wait for mine (I only went for an 8GB eMMC - but bought the same as you otherwise!)
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#4
(2012-12-14, 03:06)noggin Wrote:
(2012-12-03, 12:04)starkers Wrote: <snip>

However the odroid-x2 and u2 have just been made available and thats quite exciting

They are Quad core 1.7 CPUs, 2GB ram and up to 64G eMMC (you can buy the size you desire)

Its not pretty (no cases afaik) and its not "really" cheap as its cutting edge specs (you could try the older odroid-x maybe.

That being said
The Mali-400 GPU is brilliant (gives tegra3 a good run for its money, esp as this one is really fast)
I've read some claims that they outperform tegra3 even

It also runs ubuntu (arm) out of the box!!

.....I have just ordered the full compliment of the u2 and it came in around $240
I have ordered the 64GB eMMC, Power, WIFI dongle, bluetooth dongle, HDMI cable
I ordered the U2 because:
-I like the extra USB ports it comes with
-I like the fact that its CPU cooler is sorta its "case"
-Its actually cheaper than the x2 for some reason ( All I can see is that it takes longer for shipment/dispatch (7weeks))

Check out the video's..
http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/p...5341370451

If on a budget, you'll find tons of videos on youtube of people running XBMC on lesser speced droid "sticks" which cost like $30-$50 though I would certainly overspec if in doubt.

Hope this helps, I'll report back in 8 weeks once I've rigged mine up Smile

I've ordered a U2 as well - but I'm not sure what you mean by "extra USB ports". The U and U2 both have 2 USB host ports and one micro-USB device port, compared to the X and X2 which have 6 USB host ports and one micro USB device port.

The U2 is cheaper than the X2 presumably because the X2 is a bigger PCB (and PCB area is quite costly) - to house the extra expansion facilities the X2 has (50 pin device port, MIPI camera interface, and audio input jack, as well as 4 more USB host ports) I'd have expected the U2 to be cheaper, it is more limited in expansion, and smaller?

One thing that I've discovered from the boards, which is a bit disappointing, is that although HDMI audio (PCM2.0 only apparently - no DD/DTS bitstreaming or multichannel PCM currently) is supported in Android, at the moment it isn't supported under Ubuntu. They also don't have GPU acceleration or any access to a VPU under Ubuntu either - though they are hopeful that they will gain access to both through a Samsung DDK?

Still - it looks like a great fun little device - can't wait for mine (I only went for an 8GB eMMC - but bought the same as you otherwise!)

Yes it looks like I'm just going to set it up as a gaming station with a couple of PhoneJoys under droid. XBMC-droid should really fly also so that's exciting.

I'm very happy to support HardKernel, spoke with them on their forum today and heard the Samsung DDK should be usable under linux sometime in the next 6 months so we can expect to see even more development.

I'll be a happy boy when I can run a full linux workstation though.

The audio situation is as you say though they should have linux audio working soon. (I have no idea on the droid ETA)
Acceptable for me as all I want is stereo from 3.5mm but I do feel your frustration.

Are there USB audio outputs that would work for you out of curiosity? Either way I think it's a dead cert there will be arm kit finally fully functional and ready to handle anything XBMC thrown at them in 2013.

I could always buy a fitpc but part of me feels like that is cheating

Exciting times Big Grin
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