Hi all,
since I've recently bought this box from http://www.mixeshop.com/atv1200-dual-cor...p1784.html for $110 with shipping, and information is hard to find, i'd like to share my experiences.
First of, I got the KR32 remote - http://www.geniatech.com/img/remote-control-list.jpg - I am guessing the cheapest there is - just a IR remote with the least amount of buttons![Sad]( "Sad")
The problem is you can not input text with it, so have a usb keyboard or mouse ready.
The build on the box was dated 20121121 - and this is the root of the problem - with that build the amplayer enabled xbmc builds do not work! I've found this out the hard way, trying everything there is, and at the end messing up the box and having to do image flashing - and the only available build is:
http://www.geniatech.com/news/mx-atv1200...uction.asp
So what you do is put this on an sd-card, press reset button and power-on the box - you get greeted by the good-old-recovery, through which you can flash this great downgrade![Smile]( "Smile")
Once the downgrade is done, you can download the wonderful RC2 build with the amplayer enabled from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?l5jawloag86o1wg - you can say thank you to the guy who made it here: http://androidtvbox.us/topic/xbmc-12-26-2012-build/
And there you have it! Your $82 dual-core ATV1200 will now work with XBMC with hw decoding.
Ok, so here are my impressions (so far) - first the good:
- XBMC runs fast (in comparison with Raspberry Pi)
- XBMC Plugins work (the once that I tested)
- box boots fast
- benchmarks show that the chip is rather capable (better the last years dual-core exynos found in GSII and Note I)
- the box comes rooted
- the play store is available and working
Now the bad:
- video out on the TV says 1080p, but XBMC and the Android interface are beeing rendered in 720p
- the Remote control is awful, thank God there is Yatze
- XBMC crashes (more then on the R Pi)
- the pre-installed android launcher is rather cheesy (there is a bouncing android figure for app launcher)
The ugly:
- Android networking is a mess - you can not have WiFi and Ethernet active at the same time (in two different networks)
- The command line DNS does not work (it's related to the way busybox is built) - which happens to screw the Subtitles add-on - you will have to fill the hosts file with the ip address and urls of you favorite subtitle sources if you want them to work
- I am not getting DTS/AC3 through optical out - XBMC says Passthrough output device: Error no devices found, and I decided to go with this box exactly because it has both coax and optical audio out...
- nobody wrote this tutorial for me (wife was bitching the whole way through)
The bottom line:
- Android is not Linux - Linux is way, way better![Smile]( "Smile")
- If You want XBMC, and price is not an issue, buy a box that works with Linux builds
- If You want XBMC, and price is an issue - go with the somewhat slower but much cheaper Raspberry Pi
- If You want this box and no other - well read this tutorial
- If the optical/coax do not start to work in the future, well then there is hardly any reason to go with this, and not with some cheaper box
Hope this helps
since I've recently bought this box from http://www.mixeshop.com/atv1200-dual-cor...p1784.html for $110 with shipping, and information is hard to find, i'd like to share my experiences.
First of, I got the KR32 remote - http://www.geniatech.com/img/remote-control-list.jpg - I am guessing the cheapest there is - just a IR remote with the least amount of buttons
The problem is you can not input text with it, so have a usb keyboard or mouse ready.The build on the box was dated 20121121 - and this is the root of the problem - with that build the amplayer enabled xbmc builds do not work! I've found this out the hard way, trying everything there is, and at the end messing up the box and having to do image flashing - and the only available build is:
http://www.geniatech.com/news/mx-atv1200...uction.asp
So what you do is put this on an sd-card, press reset button and power-on the box - you get greeted by the good-old-recovery, through which you can flash this great downgrade
Once the downgrade is done, you can download the wonderful RC2 build with the amplayer enabled from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?l5jawloag86o1wg - you can say thank you to the guy who made it here: http://androidtvbox.us/topic/xbmc-12-26-2012-build/
And there you have it! Your $82 dual-core ATV1200 will now work with XBMC with hw decoding.
Ok, so here are my impressions (so far) - first the good:
- XBMC runs fast (in comparison with Raspberry Pi)
- XBMC Plugins work (the once that I tested)
- box boots fast
- benchmarks show that the chip is rather capable (better the last years dual-core exynos found in GSII and Note I)
- the box comes rooted
- the play store is available and working
Now the bad:
- video out on the TV says 1080p, but XBMC and the Android interface are beeing rendered in 720p
- the Remote control is awful, thank God there is Yatze
- XBMC crashes (more then on the R Pi)
- the pre-installed android launcher is rather cheesy (there is a bouncing android figure for app launcher)
The ugly:
- Android networking is a mess - you can not have WiFi and Ethernet active at the same time (in two different networks)
- The command line DNS does not work (it's related to the way busybox is built) - which happens to screw the Subtitles add-on - you will have to fill the hosts file with the ip address and urls of you favorite subtitle sources if you want them to work
- I am not getting DTS/AC3 through optical out - XBMC says Passthrough output device: Error no devices found, and I decided to go with this box exactly because it has both coax and optical audio out...
- nobody wrote this tutorial for me (wife was bitching the whole way through)
The bottom line:
- Android is not Linux - Linux is way, way better
- If You want XBMC, and price is not an issue, buy a box that works with Linux builds
- If You want XBMC, and price is an issue - go with the somewhat slower but much cheaper Raspberry Pi
- If You want this box and no other - well read this tutorial
- If the optical/coax do not start to work in the future, well then there is hardly any reason to go with this, and not with some cheaper box
Hope this helps