Develop Bugs

Wi-Drive - Use direct WiFi bet PPC & hard disk

Imagine using Wi-Fi for direct connection between your laptop/PPC (and other end devices) to an external hard disk. Imposssible?
Just read this:-
http://www.edslab.com/products.htm
The product will be launched this coming July 06. Initially, it'll connect to your laptop/notebook. After which driver will be developed for PPC application.
No more expensive memory cards :lol:

You can also look at Asus WL-HDD - althogh this one have some advantages, like the battery and 1.8" size.
I just hope it will be released and that the price will not be too much.

RE
If I remembers correctly ASUS WL-HDD requires connection through an access point/router whereas the main selling point of Wi-Drive is its direct connection between end devices WITHOUT the need to go through the access point/router. However, you can also network the drive through an access point/router :lol:

I'm using Wl-Hdd since it's release to get my files from my pda. It's working like a charm. It is an access point and router, and you can make it a full linux server easily

Hi,
Just a question and a thought...
With the WL-HDD, is it stand-alone? i.e. does it have an internal power source - or must be connected via a power adaptor?
And can it connect directly to the HTC Universal (without need of a switch or router?).
My thought is, I wonder if anyone has tried to connect an IPOD to a PPC device? wouldn't that be an ideal external HDD device?
Michael G

michaelg said:
With the WL-HDD, is it stand-alone? i.e. does it have an internal power source - or must be connected via a power adaptor?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The WL-HDD does not have built in battery, you need power adaptor unfortunately.
michaelg said:
...
And can it connect directly to the HTC Universal (without need of a switch or router?).
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried yet (still deciding if I should buy it or not), but since it's an Access Point it should connect no problem.
michaelg said:
...
My thought is, I wonder if anyone has tried to connect an IPOD to a PPC device? wouldn't that be an ideal external HDD device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IPOD is not Wireless, you can use it only as an USB memory device.
People had connected their IPODS to USB Host enabled PPCs like FS Loox and it worked fine. Unfortunately there are no HTC converged devices with USB Host functionality at the moment.

Wl-hdd work perfectly as a stand alone product with any PPC. I'm using it for 1,5 years now and it is perfectly working on my universal. No physical connection needed except power source.
As for the Ipod, if you change the wl-hdd firmware, you can connect any USB device in the USB port to get access to it's files. So you cannot plug the ipod to the universal, but you can plug the ipod to the wl-hdd then access it through universal

RE
Some pictures of Wi-Drive here:-
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/13/live-from-cebit-the-widrive-wifi-drive-enclosure/
The enclosure comes with a female connector for the hard disk which means hard disk like the 1.8 inch Toshiba (which comes with a female connector) cannot be used
That leaves us with the 1.8 inch Hitachi brand which comes with a male connector. Not much choice for the 1.8 inch hard disk since currently only 1.8 inch hard disks are only available from Toshiba and Hitachi

RE
Just spoke to the manufacturer of Wi-Drive today
They will release the drive this coming July. I think I can get one from them before it goes to the market
Capacity : Casing comes with 30 and 60 GB 5400 rpm hard disk (for 1.8 inch)
Best of all!! Can connect direct with PPC besides notebook/laptop. They've an engineering test unit. Just waiting for production now.
Here's the explanation using WiFi. The drive will be recognised as a web folder instead of a drive by the PPC. This web folder will consists of your folders and files and you'll have to use IE browser to access them. Power input is 5V DC using mini USB which means you can charge it from your notebook/laptop USB ports or any external battery pack whihc provides a 5V DC output.
WOW!! Can't wait to lay my hand on one of these

at least there responding to someone...
they dont respond at all to any mails from me :?
i dont know if i like the web folder thingy though...
would prefer if it just showed trough the file explorer, does resco explorer show web folders?
did they tell you the prices with the 30 and 60gb and without any HD?

at least there responding to someone...
they dont respond at all to any mails from me :?
i dont know if i like the web folder thingy though...
would prefer if it just showed trough the file explorer, does resco explorer show web folders?
did they tell you the prices with the 30 and 60gb and without any HD?

RE
Quote
"did they tell you the prices with the 30 and 60gb and without any HD?"
Nope. No pricing figure for the moment. They don't sell to end users because they're the manufacturer. The actual pricing will depend on the retail shops
Quote
"would prefer if it just showed trough the file explorer, does resco explorer show web folders? "
No idea
I guess we just have to sit back and wait patiently

RE
OK, tested the WiDrive on my Universal today
Looks pretty cool...comes with Hitachi 1.8" 30GB hard disk
Managed to get it connected with my Universal using WiFi and access WiDrive using internet by typing a certain address on the address bar. The drive is treated as a web folder
Once login to WiDrive I'm able to download files to play (or save it) on my Universal
Also, can use my external 8800mAH battery pack (purchased from EastGear) to charge the WiDrive
Some issues though
a) cannot upload file from my SD card to WiDrive...hmmm
b) after playing a song I'll need to re-type the address at the PIE address bar in order to return to WiDrive
c) I think music and video cannot be streamed while playing on the Universal. What I mean is I'll need to download the music/video file to my Universal and the concerned program will be auto activated to play the music/video file.....have to check this further otherwise the drive just acts like another drive
Did not buy yet so no testing on notebook carried out. According to the shop streaming was done using the notebook as a driver is required to be installed on the notebook.
Well, I've discussed with WiDrive's boss on the above issues. Will discuss with their engineer tomorrow and feedback here.
Wow, its an experience. Cost about US$263
:lol:

RE
Sorry for the late reply
There're some changes. I'll be getting a 1.8 inch 60GB IDE Hitachi Travelstar and the Wi-Drive casing separately (cheaper this way) by this weekend. If everything works out fine I'll be reporting back
BTW, I was told by the engineer of EDSLAB that OPERA works better than PIE on their drive

RE
Sorry, due falls apart. For the 1.8" hard disk Wi-Drive comes with standard 30GB
60GB version will be released later
Some pictures of Wi-Drive here:-
http://sg.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=3827
:lol:

Hmm... Widrive looks good, but WL-HDD is still better in my mind. It can run off a battery (all PSP emergency batterys work, imagine my joy at finding that out!) ,it has an ethernet port for intergration to home networks (you can use it as a wireless access point) and it has USB host, so you can share USB drives, webcams, everything. It also comes up to 100gb, and i bet you itll be cheaper. you could even swap in a 1.8" hdd into the housing and put the battery in the space left, making it a neat solution.

RE
I've bought the Wi-Drive but only for 30GB model and still testing it
Initial test with OPERA gives pretty good results :lol:

Where can either of these external drives be purchased?

berdinkerdickle said:
Where can either of these external drives be purchased?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol... i wouldnt buy one of those. Max = 100mbps on wireless. On wired USB 2.0 or Firewire = 480mbps or 800mbps i think. I use my diamondmax 11 or my cheetah scsi 15k rpm drive and it goes really quick. I put it on wifi by hooking it up to another computer and mapping it or just use remote access. Anything is possible nowadays, i dont have to tell it to you. But it seems this hard drive can exist independently when signal is available. I dont know how that works but i am sure you need a lcd display to select a network or to enter the key. Just like microsoft Zune? Why dont you guys go for microsoft Zune now that i think of it. ^^

nuclear said:
lol... i wouldnt buy one of those. Max = 100mbps on wireless. On wired USB 2.0 or Firewire = 480mbps or 800mbps i think. I use my diamondmax 11 or my cheetah scsi 15k rpm drive and it goes really quick. I put it on wifi by hooking it up to another computer and mapping it or just use remote access. Anything is possible nowadays, i dont have to tell it to you. But it seems this hard drive can exist independently when signal is available. I dont know how that works but i am sure you need a lcd display to select a network or to enter the key. Just like microsoft Zune? Why dont you guys go for microsoft Zune now that i think of it. ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point of these drives is mass storage on the universal. Read the thread before posting.

3G's USB port seems to work with everything

Hi,
In january/february, i bought a USB keyboard with an USB adaptater to use it with my tablet.
I tried to plug it in the 3G's usb port, it did'nt worked, and because last week I broken it, and I updated my tab to ICS, I tried to plug my keyboard in the 3G port, and it worked !
Maybe it's because of ICS ?
Also, my keyboard has also an usb hub, it works too !

Mine seemed to work from the the start with Rom version: 3.2.69 and that's on 2 different G9 101, however others result have varied and it seems a bit hit and miss to say exactly what's going on.
I know there are 2 different versions of the 10" G9 - A101S and A101H , I've not dug too deep into it and I'm not 100% and what the differences are.
I think ICS generally improved the Usb Host support/integration which is always welcome.
Now I just need a large bag to transfer all these extra devices for my "portable tablet".

Mine won't see USB drives/camera cards formatted to FAT32. No big deal.
Actually, it did connect with my phone and its 16GB microSD card, so I'm happily mistaken.

From the ICS "firmware" update change log:
Archos 80/101 G9
Firmware changes
Version 4.0.4 - March 8th, 2012
Initial Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 firmware release
MediaCenter Video: support for MKV3D on TV with automatic switch to best 3D mode
MediaCenter Video: allow to disable system notifications in video player
MediaCenter Video: collection of VOB files from DVD are now gathered into a single movie item
MediaCenter Music: integrate Music control panel in Lock Screen
MediaCenter info dialog: allow to edit the name used for performing the Movie and TVShow online search
File Manager: display a notification when file copy continues in background
File Manager: improved drag and drop support
File Manager: new option to prevent indexing of some storage/sdcard folders by multimedia library
Applications: more robust video conferencing support (Google talk, Skype etc.)
USB file transfer: a samba server is now activated on the tablet when using USB network tethering for easier file transfer on non Windows based hosts [Samba for "non Windows"??? Something bass-ackwards about that ...]
Archos widgets: new USB network tether widget [Anyone know if this means it will tether off a phone this way ala older Archos models like the 5 or 43 , or is this meant to "share" its internet connection (however it would obtain it, even if not "3G-enabled" - which seems useless)]
External Keyboard: french layout has been expanded to handle AtlGr keys for special symbols
Accessories: Xbox gamepad support
Maybe I shoulda hung on to the new 80 I bought a week ago, and returned after trying it out for a few days. The inability to get the back/3G USB port and MTP tools to work was a big factor in my return decision (along with no network tether option as the 5 and 43 had, and the reality check on the initial Staples web page claiming 1GB RAM - hope springs eternal...)
FWIW,
R

@rokkywoof I think that it's for the micro usb port, because this oen is meant to be an OTG micro usb port, and the original usb port is just for the 3G, but maybe they failed and applied the stuff to the 3G's port?
@Telyx/trevd wow that's strange !
I saw that the A80S (A101S) are the archos with flash memory (8 or 16gb), and the A80H/A101H are the archos with the Hard drive (H for Hard drive )

Telyx said:
Mine won't see USB drives/camera cards formatted to FAT32. No big deal.
Actually, it did connect with my phone and its 16GB microSD card, so I'm happily mistaken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this true? This is the main reason why I was planning on getting this tablet this week because it is (or so I thought) that would have been able to transfer raw files from my CF cards to the internal hd, and backed up on an external HD. I shoot about 300gig a week while on the road.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

It works fine... just have to turn on the "3G Stick" port, then wait a moment before plugging the camera, phone, thumb drive, card reader, etc. in. One camera connects like a thumb drive (mount the "drive" manually and open the folder in the file explorer), the other launches the Gallery app to allow me to import pictures.

Telyx said:
It works fine... just have to turn on the "3G Stick" port, then wait a moment before plugging the camera, phone, thumb drive, card reader, etc. in. One camera connects like a thumb drive (mount the "drive" manually and open the folder in the file explorer), the other launches the Gallery app to allow me to import pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you thats what I needed to do turn on 3G in settings and now it all works

3G's USB seems to work with nearly Everything
Hi @ll,
I also tried to get USB devices to work, no problem with USB-Sticks, but USB-HDD's (selfpowered) seem not to Work (neither on Stock image nor on Cyanogenmod). The HDD starts turning but Android doesn't mount it. Can someone give me some pointers?
My Specs:
Archos G9 80 Turbo HDD with an USB-HDD (USB 3.0 (should be backwards compatible)) by Toshiba
Thanks

I would bet the tablet is not able to supply enough power to actually start the USB HD up.
Remember that usb port was designed to be used with Archos' 3G cell stick and really wasn't meant to be hooked up to other things.

If the port is enabled, there is allways power for the hdd, also for a stick a mouse. But some keybords may not work (I don't figure it out).
The app USB OTG Helper will help to mount the hdd/stick.

I used a friends powered usb hub (dlink dub-h7) and was able to use both my keyboard and mouse with my tablet unfortunately my usb thumb drives dont work when attached to the usb hub however they do work when attached to the hub I didnt have my powered usb hard drive with me to test
Powered Hub

usb2lan-adapter?
Hi,
Just bought a G9 101 turbo to play with.
stock 4.0.25 ROOTED flashed and it's hanging nice on my tv.
Can anyone tell me/give me advise if there's any usb-lan adapter that works?
Would love to use a cable instead of the wifi...
THANKS!
--- EDIT ---
- Found something:
http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...between-an-archos-g9-android-4-0-wifi-and-a-l
- probaly will get me a thing like this:
http://star01.en.made-in-china.com/product/UqjmkZcOATri/China-USB-1-1-LAN-Card-Adapter.html

connect external DVD drive to the note 8?

Greetings,
I've been planning on buying an external dvd drive for my laptop. I found an interesting feature in samsung slim drives. For example, the samsung SE-208AB has an AV-Connectivity mode that turns the drive into a sort of external HDD! We know that android and the note 8 can already read flash drives via OTG. If this external DVD drive has this external HDD funcitonality, can we in theory connect it to the note 8 and get external DVD rom functionality? here's a you tube video connecting a samsung drive to the nexus 7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvoyab75QgQ
As an external HDD, the drive is read with files in it so you can't really play the disc as a DVD rom (so no DVD menus I guess) but the VOB and other data files if present can be read. I know that samsung already released a dvd drive (Samsung 218bb) which android devices can detect but the problem there was that there was no app that could recognize DVD, iso formats.
but I recently tried XBMC! and XBMC can read ISO and even NRG images! Tried reading one off of the NAS via WLAN. with this app, is it possible to connect these samsung drives and read them as native roms using XBMC? has anyone tried it?
This is a real deal breaker for me. I don't think that the ASUS or Lite-on external drives have this kind of functionality. If a can get a drive that is read/write for my laptop and potentially "read" (in the least) for the note 8 then this is a no brainer purchase.
So has anyone tried this? Thanks.
UPDATE: after doing some more reading on XDA I found these threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171111
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1086842
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2009186.
There are mixed bits. some say that the note 8 does not support external drives but here there is clearly evidence of external drives being read by android. So is it simply the MHL not supplying enough power in the case of the note 8? in another thread, an external drive with an external power source was suggested while another thread noted that this fried the drive and his note 10? These are all for different devices however. Just want to know if anyone has experience with the note 8 in particular. So far the only video showing this actually works is the you tube video with the nexus 7 shown above.

I own a Samsung Mobile SmartHub <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tsst.app.opticalsmarthub>. It works but in my experience the audio quality SUCKS. Much better to just rip the DVD and stream over standard DLNA.
---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:26 PM ----------
Also, I've never had a USB external DVD drive work with any of my devices (as they would a laptop). Not sure if I've tried on my GN8 though.

Spidey01 said:
I own a Samsung Mobile SmartHub <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tsst.app.opticalsmarthub>. It works but in my experience the audio quality SUCKS. Much better to just rip the DVD and stream over standard DLNA.
---------- Post added at 01:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:26 PM ----------
Also, I've never had a USB external DVD drive work with any of my devices (as they would a laptop). Not sure if I've tried on my GN8 though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh? Thanks for the reply so iI guess video/audio/media playback has better alternatives. but what about reading and copying files off of the dvd while using the AV-connectivity (External HDD) Drive mode? Sometimes at meetings people still have discs instead of flashdrives, the note 8 is already slowly replacing my laptop but lacks this last functionality: reading/copying files off of a local disk. if it could do this than the laptop stays at home completely as the note 8 almost completely replaces it now for presentations, media serving/control and the like. I'll just bring the external disc drive. It's better than still lugging a laptop. Thanks again.

ProjectER said:
the note 8 is already slowly replacing my laptop but lacks this last functionality: reading/copying files off of a local disk. if it could do this than the laptop stays at home completely as the note 8 almost completely replaces it now for presentations, media serving/control and the like. I'll just bring the external disc drive. It's better than still lugging a laptop. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't say that I've tried it in that mode. Picked up the unit dirt cheap and almost never use it because of the streaming quality. Was so disappointed I basically gave up on it lol.
Using a USB OTG cable it's possible to access FAT and NTFS volumes on USB Mass Storage devices, like flash drives and external HDDs. I'm using the one from my moms Acer A700 but they're quite cheap off Amazon. Sometimes useful. Anything that is exposed like that (class 08h / UMS) should work. Hubs, most HID devices like keyboards and mice also work via the same means. I haven't tried the drive that way, just a little ASUS unit, which doesn't function as a USB mass storage device.
USB OTG works a hell of lot better on my GN8 than my nexuses, and if memory serves tthe optical hub bridges the disc to a FAT based UMS.
At home, rather than use an external hard drive or optical discs, I use DLNA for movies and things like Dropbox/Google Drive for files. I rip my movies with MakeMKV, store them on my server machine (bigger HDDs then my gaming PC), run a DLNA server on that and point an app from my tablet at it. Least pain I've had, give or take Chromecast and video apps. I can get Chromecast to play the content via DLNA as well but where as the Galaxy Note can handle 30 Mbit/s full HD video (Wi-Fi permitting) the Chromecast really should be kept under 3 or 4 Mbit/s.

thanks for the reply
Spidey01 said:
Can't say that I've tried it in that mode. Picked up the unit dirt cheap and almost never use it because of the streaming quality. Was so disappointed I basically gave up on it lol.
Using a USB OTG cable it's possible to access FAT and NTFS volumes on USB Mass Storage devices, like flash drives and external HDDs. I'm using the one from my moms Acer A700 but they're quite cheap off Amazon. Sometimes useful. Anything that is exposed like that (class 08h / UMS) should work. Hubs, most HID devices like keyboards and mice also work via the same means. I haven't tried the drive that way, just a little ASUS unit, which doesn't function as a USB mass storage device.
USB OTG works a hell of lot better on my GN8 than my nexuses, and if memory serves tthe optical hub bridges the disc to a FAT based UMS.
At home, rather than use an external hard drive or optical discs, I use DLNA for movies and things like Dropbox/Google Drive for files. I rip my movies with MakeMKV, store them on my server machine (bigger HDDs then my gaming PC), run a DLNA server on that and point an app from my tablet at it. Least pain I've had, give or take Chromecast and video apps. I can get Chromecast to play the content via DLNA as well but where as the Galaxy Note can handle 30 Mbit/s full HD video (Wi-Fi permitting) the Chromecast really should be kept under 3 or 4 Mbit/s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply!
so there is hope that it can access data files on the disk. Plan to use it mainly for raw data transfer at work but only for those still not keen on a flashdrive. It's rare but some still use discs...(i guess it's more resistent to viruses and malware...).
Don't plan to use the external drive really for playing media. As you already enumerated, there are a ton of options for that already, The review for that samsung wifi optical disc media hub is that its a great idea introduced way too late and executed too poorly for it to compete with our NAS's and WLAN's. I personally use XBMC for android, it runs on all devices now, android, windows, linux and even iOS i think. Then I have yatze or bubble upnp as well. I realized that with XBMC, don't really need chromecast anymore, although I use "cheap cast" with my android minipc I realized it's simply easier to send the you tube link to xbmc. Instead of having a you tube play list(for chrome cast), I can send the vid to xbmc and play it there and still play another you tube video on the note 8. XBMC now also reads Iso's and NRG's so all those dvd's ripped into images just run on it even via the wlan/upnp/network. Just my take on the whole video streaming option.
But I haven't tried this MakeMKV app you suggested. I hope to compress my stored DVD collection. Is it like handbreak? Can it compress a 4 gig dvd into a smaller MKV file? My NAS is slowly getting filled up. Anyway thanks! More power to XDA!
BTW: Since we're on the topic of streeaming, I'm thinking of starting a thread on the note 8's miracast/ALLSHARE CAST/screen mirroring. I realized that Samsung's screen mirroring is not really miracast compliant (just like the S4) in the sense that it doesn't work with all screen mirroring devices (something with HDCP and samsung proprietary software which i think is just there to "encourage" you to buy they're all sharecast dongle).
Here's the link: http://android-minipc.azurewebsites...ast-fails-to-mirror-samsung-galaxy-s4-screen/
Do you know of a fix for this? or should I start a Q/A thread for it? Thanks...

With regard to MakeMKV, it seems to decrypt the disc and remux the content streams into Matroska (.mkv) files, or at least about as lossless as you can get off the disc. You'll get the same MPEG-2/AC3 stream off a DVD as what's on it. No compression.
I do conversions either via Handbrake on my gaming box or by directly running ffmpeg on my server with about the same options as handbrake uses. My server's faster at it, hehe.For DVD, I normally use H.264 with x264's constant quality set to 22 or 23, and convert the audios; normally stereo with Dolby Pro Logic II downmix and another stream that's AC-3 pass through. Good enough that I don't usually notice quality loss vs the original DVD. DVD's usually end up under 2GB and especially for things like episodes of The Simpsons, can be really small. Sometimes a movie is still like 3~4GB though.
Some of Samsung's devices are certified, never tried them with another dongle. Miracast's latency is high enough that it's more limited then the MHL cable, and my old GS3 tended to soft reboot when using any video output until the 4.1 update lol. One of the CM developers had posted about issues between Samsung, Google, and perhaps a few other implementations. I think they support different HDCP versions but I'm not sure of the details.

I finally baught the samsung external dvd drive se-208. I tried AV connectivity mode so it get's recognized as a fat 32 flash drive. Well my laptop recognizes it (but my laptop recognizes it as a disc as well so that really isn't the point). Tried AV connectivity mode and connected it to my note 8. The drive just keeps spinning but my note 8 never recognizes it. Really sad. I then connected it to my samsung TV which allegedly can play media files off of a USB thumb drive. The drive still isn't recognized. Weird cuz on you tube, they connected it to a samsung TV and it worked. I tried media files and data/doc/pic files, the drive never gets recognized. Only my laptop recognizes it as a "flashdrive." Any suggestions? (I know switching to AV connectivity means pressing the eject butto for 1.5-3 seconds so I'm sure it's in AV connectivity and not in ODD or optical drive mode). Could it be power? but the drive lights up and spins when connected to the note 8 and the TV. Thanks for any suggestions.
BTW, i'm not interested in streaming as i already have a NAS for all my videos. Just want the functionality of an optical drive reader without having to bring a laptop around. The note 8 is already amazingly functional...this would just max it out even more. Thanks.

The bottom line is the device (whether it's the tablet, computer, TV or whatever) needs to have the drivers built in not just to access the optical drive, but also to read the file system on the optical disc (which I think is UDF, but don't quote me on that). You could try to find a custom kernel that has that support, see if there's a program on the Play Store or elsewhere that has that support built-in, or compile your own kernel with that support built in. But usually, when it comes to hardware support, it almost always comes down to driver support (I'm assume there DVD drive plugs into the wall so it's not an issue with lack of power).

Spidey01 said:
Can't say that I've tried it in that mode. Picked up the unit dirt cheap and almost never use it because of the streaming quality. Was so disappointed I basically gave up on it lol.
Using a USB OTG cable it's possible to access FAT and NTFS volumes on USB Mass Storage devices, like flash drives and external HDDs. I'm using the one from my moms Acer A700 but they're quite cheap off Amazon. Sometimes useful. Anything that is exposed like that (class 08h / UMS) should work. Hubs, most HID devices like keyboards and mice also work via the same means. I haven't tried the drive that way, just a little ASUS unit, which doesn't function as a USB mass storage device.
USB OTG works a hell of lot better on my GN8 than my nexuses, and if memory serves tthe optical hub bridges the disc to a FAT based UMS.
At home, rather than use an external hard drive or optical discs, I use DLNA for movies and things like Dropbox/Google Drive for files. I rip my movies with MakeMKV, store them on my server machine (bigger HDDs then my gaming PC), run a DLNA server on that and point an app from my tablet at it. Least pain I've had, give or take Chromecast and video apps. I can get Chromecast to play the content via DLNA as well but where as the Galaxy Note can handle 30 Mbit/s full HD video (Wi-Fi permitting) the Chromecast really should be kept under 3 or 4 Mbit/s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, have you tried if screen mirroring works between the Note 8.0 and Chromecast? I'm thinking of buying the dongle, but I'm interested mainly for screen mirroring, so I wish to know if it works well.
Thanks

gabripranzo said:
Hi, have you tried if screen mirroring works between the Note 8.0 and Chromecast? I'm thinking of buying the dongle, but I'm interested mainly for screen mirroring, so I wish to know if it works well.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Performance when mirroring to Chromecast sucks but it does work. I would say latency is around 0.75 seconds to 1.20 seconds from when I scroll left or right in Nova Launcher to when I see it finish on the TV. Encoder quality also sucks at rendering transparency or anti aliasing and it tends to peg the CPU to full clockrate most of the time. I haven't tried video on it. I believe my Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is simularly Crappy. Nexus 5 and Galaxy S5 work better, so it seems like only my Snapdragon 800+ chipsets seem to have decent mirroring performance over Chromecast. I don't think Google has optimized things very well for Exynos & Mali. I can say the GS5 will mirror to it well enough to watch a video not that I'd advise it. Really, Samsung's very crappy AllShare Cast dongle works better in terms of casting performance. Miracast is only useful for videos or stuff like email/websurfing because of the latency (e.g. not gaming) but Chromecast is the worst mirroring I've ever used, and I've even SideSync mirrored my tablets to my PC before. My Amazon Fire TV box works awesome sauce as a Miracast Display to all of my current devices (GN8, GNP12.2, and GS5) in terms of performance but sometimes will not connect; I've yet to determine why, maybe it just hates my monitor/switch more than my TV.
If cash is a primary concern and mostly mirroring: I would suggest a Fire TV Stick (which is Miracast Certified) or some real Miracast adapter like the Netgear PTV3000 ($50) or Belkin Miracast Adapter ($60). Chromecast is great for leaning back and casting video from apps like Netflix, Plex, AllCast, etc but not so awesome at screen mirroring. Perhaps like Chromecast's video decoder it will improve with time but it's just not that awesome for mirroring right now. MHL wired adapters are still better for screen mirroring IMHO.

Well, I wish to use the screen mirroring function mainly to stream videos: sometimes it happens that my Bd player hasn't the right codec for the video, so I wish to stream it directly from tablet to TV.

[new]R-BOX RK3229 Android 5.1.1, 2/8GB 4K,1000M LAN BT4.0 WiFi HDMI

{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
First 2GB/8 RK3229 Media Player
R-BOX Android 5.1.1 RK3229 2G/8G
Silver or Black
Android 5.1.1
RK3229, quad core Cortex-A7 Up to 1.5GHz
2GB DDRIII , 8GB EMMC
TF CARD Support 1~32GB
802.11 b/g/n, RTL8723, 10/100 BaseT, Bluetooth 4.0
HDD File System FAT16 / FAT32 / NTFS
Support Widevine Level 1, DRM PlayReady,Verimatrix, built in Trustzone,
HDCP 2.2/1.4, Support 4K 10-bit H.265/H.264/VP9 video playback and display
1*HDMI 1.4b with CEC, 1*Micro SD Card (TF) ,3*USB HOST 2High speed USB 2.0,support USB DISK and USB HDD
1*SPDIF, 1*RJ45, 1*Digital display tube; Digital display tube
1*Power input, Power 5V/2A
What's in the box
1 x TV box
1 x IR remote
1 x HDMI cable
1 x Power adapter (A right AC Adapter will be sent as your shipping country)
1 x User manual
Geekbuying

Looks like a great option for the price, given the 2Gb of RAM.

Kind of Old School with the RED DIsplay, I had a watch like that eons ago and it does look groovy.:good:

Geekbuying list 2GB of RAM in the specs however the Kodi System Info screen shows a max of 1GB. Makes me wonder if it'll really be 2GB.
Edit: looks like it will actually be 2GB
http://freaktab.com/forum/advertise...-rk3229tv-box-2g-8g-34-99?p=576530#post576530

There has been an update.
The Unit is 2/8 Gb confirmed.
Images supplied for KODi was a stock from the 1/8gb version.
10/100 lan.
3 USB ports as seen why they said 4 who knows

Hi anyone know where i can get firmware for this as the one i have just keeps rebooting after 5 mins

R-BOX Android 5.1.1 RK3229 Update
Well further on this little media player is turning out OK,
There is an OTA update that appears to take forever to complete and will do a few resets and weird stuff until its fully downloaded.
Then applying the update it does a few more resets, not to sure why but after it all said and done the box is stable and working well, it's no speed demon but will make a fairly good media streamer.
Keep on forcing the update until its complete I found.
A few Images of what's going
No Red Clock due to the colour of Bezel on front but looks pretty good
Whats in the box
What Ports etc we have
A bit of a look inside
Wifi and Ethe net performace
Look at the GUI
A few basic performance test for those that like numbers.
Full Geekbench report http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/6916087

Does anyone know if this box is better than the 1st Amazon fire Tv on performance? Thanks

cenbit said:
Does anyone know if this box is better than the 1st Amazon fire Tv on performance? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say it's a bit worse than the FTV gen 1. It's usable, though, and it is prerooted and has the play store installed.
I was able to install Amazon Underground and then the Prime Video app.
The real issue I'm having is with reboots. In Kodi, library updates consistently trigger a reboot but eventually complete. Very annoying, though. If you add a USB device with it plugged in, it will often decide it wants to restart - so swapping keyboards in and out is not advised.
Audio over HDMI is pretty bad compared to the FTV. I have it purportedly set to bitstream, but that doesn't look to be working. There's an SPDIF out that I'll try - I have a couple of cheap (but more expensive than the r-box!) d/a converters. There's also an a/v out that I'm going to look into just pulling audio with.
So, what do I mean by pretty bad: I run HDMI into an Oppo 103 player, then feed the analog outs from that to a multichannel integrated amp that drives a set of Thiel full range speakers and a sub.
The system will output 5.1 audio in bitstream mode, which has lots of dropouts and when it's not dropping out, it often sounds like people are speaking from inside a toilet.
Mixing down to 2 channel sounds just about as bad.
I'm trying to get the update now, but it's really ticking me off. The wifi on the unit isn't very good so I feed it from an ethernet handoff - which works for everything EXCEPT the stupid update app.
The only route I know of to get the system to treat wired ethernet as if it were wifi requires that I be able to run Xposed, and running Xposed requires flashing from recovery.
The stock recovery is promising, in that it supports an update from ADB, but it's not coming up as an ADB device.
I will try getting the Xposed installer on an SD card - that may be readable in recovery but there was no option for it when I rebooted into recovery without an SD card in the system.
I'd be much happier if I could find a firmware for this pup online - shipping a device with root active and a recovery is great, but with no visible option to recover in a pinch I'm a little concerned. (Of course, the recovery partition may be a viable source for a recovery as well.)

R-BOX Android 5.1.1 RK3229 Update
Update June 16th
This is after OTA update has been installed
Has been mentioned and also noted here the unit can reset while streaming over ethernet (few hours) does not appear to do so over Wifi,
The Ota Update can and will do a few resets I found using ethernet.
At a guess using WIFI this may not happen. ?
The Kodi Installed is bloated, suggest SPMC or ZDMC

firmware update
There was another OTA update today.
I just used wifi only to update went 100% no reset.
I can see they have added an Off icon to the Task Bar and some improvements in Kodi

Firmware update R-box
Can be found at blog.geekbuying
SD-Update
PC Upgrade

Firmware update R-box
Can be found at blog.geekbuying
SD-Update
PC Upgrade

thanks for posting the link. Now if only the adb flash process worked. Getting the thing to power on with the USB active is a challenge, and I have yet to get the usb component recognized after booting it into recovery and issuing the write image from adb command.
The recovery doesn't seem to know that it might want to look at the sd card.
the computer tools for a recovery are in Chinese and without the USB device being seen in the recovery, I'm not optimistic they'll work.
There may be a way to create a bootable SD card, I'd give it more of a try but my laptop can't read my card reader, has to wait until I get to a better system.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/12...d-from-an-sd-card-on-rockchip-rk3288-devices/
looks as if in conjunction with the .IMG file in the "PC Upgrade" the create-sdcard scripts may work.

Driver Assist 4.4 rk 322*
User DriverAssist 4.4 to support RK322* chipset
USB 1 appears to be the OTG port,
Run Rockchip batch tool
Load firmware
Plug USB A to A in USB1 push reset and then power on button.
Detects and click upgrade.
Done
New Image in, about 12 minutes to set up Android
Same version as latest update 20160615.104202 test keys
Still appears a quirk while streaming of ethernet, Wifi Ok ?

o-I-c said:
User DriverAssist 4.4 to support RK322* chipset
USB 1 appears to be the OTG port,
Run Rockchip batch tool
Load firmware
Plug USB A to A in USB1 push reset and then power on button.
Detects and click upgrade.
Done
New Image in, about 12 minutes to set up Android
Same version as latest update 20160615.104202 test keys
Still appears a quirk while streaming of ethernet, Wifi Ok ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 issues:
- on my windows box, win764 bit, the ADB driver never heats up. I do get the r-box class device, but no ADB
- the batch tool crashes once I load the upgrade image. I'll try again after using usb 1 to connect to, and possibly it will be happier if the device is attached? The ini file isn't loading, and the display is all in Chinese as a result.
The good news is the SD card tool shows the box could be booted from an SD card at least in theory. Unfortunately, basing the card on the sdboot_3288 files and the rk3229 upgrade results in a hang - but the device did attempt to boot from the sdcard, so an sdboot for the rk3229 card is worth a run.
I continue to have the crash after loading the .img file and the no ADB drivers when I spun up an old XP virtual machine. I don't have physical hardware that runs a 32 bit OS in the house.
I will try finding an older release of the tool - one version of the tool can't even try installing an ADB driver, one release does, so perhaps the batch tool is similarly of varying quality from release to release.

Using win10 64bit here,
You could try running as administrator,
I have seen usb ports go silly when drivers are loaded for some devices
Check to see if you have any unknown devices in your device manager,
Uninstall then refresh may pickup driver ok.

Success!
V 1.8 of the batch tool worked great for me to flash the system image, dialogs
were in English and the file was read.
https://androidmtk.com/download-rockchip-batch-tool
On the geekbuying site, they call out a specific release of the driver installer - it works, and as far as I could see, the one in the bundle with the 1.7 tool did not work.
Unfortunately, the Xposed framework doesn't support this box well - you install it, and it boots, but it looks as if the launcher doesn't work properly afterwards. So getting the OTA over the wired network won't work for now.
The first couple of times Kodi tries indexing my library, the box locks up and restarts, but I suspect it'll eventually complete as it did the first time I set it up.
I'll do more audio testing this week.
The rebooting mystery is solved, for me, at least. The CPU was sitting at 96 degrees during a reindex.
I flipped the box upside down and blew in through the vent. The CPU cooled off.
I pulled it open, pulled off the heatsink and the thick pad of adhesive holding it in place, and replaced that with CPU compound. I've tied the sink back in place for the time being, and I'm seeing temps of 93 c. A slight improvement.
I think thermal management for this system is going to be a real issue, fortunately, simply turning the box so that the LED light is upside down will help quite a bit.
I have a bunch of small aluminum sinks and once this test run is over will probably slap those in as well, but I'm also going to look for a cpu throttling utility on the play store as I don't have a USB fan free at the moment.

thermal management of the r-box
After chasing temperature as a root cause for a bit, I find that there is one particular music folder the app cannot parse.
I tested the files in that folder, and it looks as if they were corrupted when they were copied in. I think that rather than CPU overheating was the root cause of the restarts. I did feel better having redone the heatsink. Since the case is plastic, if you have one of these and want to keep using it, you might want to drill a few holes in the "top" and lave the box placed vertical with the vents open on both sides - that was what gave me the best CPU temps.
For me, the audio is still terrible. Frequent brief dropouts passing bitstream over HDMI.
I will probably get a firetv stick for the second set, or a used gen 1 firetv box, and ditch this - but for 35 dollars, not a terrible learning experience.

Ok thanks for firmware ive now managed to flash it and get box working again. One question though what version of kodi do i install on this device? I just tried updating with arm version but it wouldn't install? Trying to update to latest version of kodi?

Mini M8S II 4K Amlogic S905X 2/8GB WiFi 10/100 LAN BT

Mini M8S II Amlogic 905X
New Amlogic 905X Media Player bit of a tear down of what we have under the Hood
Thanks to Gearbest and DHL super fast to AU
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
So what we have is
Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz
2GB DDR3, 8GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
HDMI 2.0b up to 4K @ 60 fps, S/PDIF
VP9 4K @ 60 fps, 10-bit H.265 4K @ 60 fps, H.264 4K @ 30 fps
10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0
2x USB 2.0 host ports
DC 5V/2A
Now for the meaty stuff inside this box.
Couple Bucks Coupon for those interested
GBM8SII coupon

First Impressions
My first impressions out of the box and up and running very, smooth, clean.
No weird or unusual lockups, Speed Ok, No Major heat issues as even tho there is no ventilation.
Running thru some bench tests performance appears Ok
What we have is the 2/8Gb version, 2.4ghz Wifi, 10/100 lan and BT, basic remote control does the job, power pack usa style 110~240v 5vdc/2Amps
HDMI Cable and a basic instruction for setting up as in what to plug in where, Running Android 6.01. No Root not to much Bloat.

More Testing and Benchmarks as we go along

Nice!
Bought one for myself.

Problem with wireless connection
I got my Mini M8s II on 14th July, the WiFi is not working at all, youtube videos pausee, stop or freeze a few seconds later, with kodi, watching movies or TV shows (exodus, salts, Phoenix) is the same problem, get stopped suddenly. I tried changing settings modem Wpa2, wpa+wpa2, wep and the only setup that working is set in Open (no protection) but that is not cool.

Yonofuimecae said:
I got my Mini M8s II on 14th July, the WiFi is not working at all, youtube videos pausee, stop or freeze a few seconds later, with kodi, watching movies or TV shows (exodus, salts, Phoenix) is the same problem, get stopped suddenly. I tried changing settings modem Wpa2, wpa+wpa2, wep and the only setup that working is set in Open (no protection) but that is not cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your experience. Have you tried it with a wired connection? Hope you get it fixed.

Wired it work fine, but the TV Box is far away from my TV.

Again, for the price, this seems to be the better one for me. I hope that the bad wifi can be worked around with an external antenna like the M8S (but I also had to apply a patched fw that someone created).
I need 2G of RAM (even without playing games doesn't take long before it slows down with 1G).
I need BT (headphones, mouse, keyboard)
missing is dual band wifi (would love to offload most of the wifi usage off of 2.4g)
one more USB port would be nice
longer power cord would be nice
external antenna would be nice

Does this box having Android 6 fix the problem where the audio drops every few seconds when passthrough is enabled?

got mine last week, but im having an issue with the language setting, it always changes back to chinese or something like that by itself even without restarting the device, despite that it has been working fine. is anyone having this issue too?

I'm a Chinese, I bought one in China, I do like the spec, exactly what I want,
but I got wifi connection problem too. I try to play movies shared from my PC, and the speed is very unstable, peak could be 3m/s, but 1 or 2 seconds later, it drops to 0, most of the time, speed is under 100k/s
I am asking the seller if there is any ROM update that could fix this problem, he/she said(about half an hour before) that he/she will ask the engineer
I am thinking whether to wait or to return it

stanley_opt said:
I got wifi connection problem too [...] the speed is very unstable, peak could be 3m/s, but 1 or 2 seconds later, it drops to 0, most of the time, speed is under 100k/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They provided an update (rel. 2016-07-19) that fixes the WiFi issues: I get around 40 Mbit downstream easily over WiFi now...
They don't offer the update via OTA right now, it was online for short period but caused problems when downloaded, so they released it and people can copy it to the SD card.
Link:
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1bpDQFhX (Password: nd93)
or
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B5VjVTtm8AqmX3gxa0pOcU5kNjg&export=download
whatever download source works best for you.

Bingo Bronson said:
They provided an update (rel. 2016-07-19) that fixes the WiFi issues: I get around 40 Mbit downstream easily over WiFi now...
They don't offer the update via OTA right now, it was online for short period but caused problems when downloaded, so they released it and people can copy it to the SD card.
Link:
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1bpDQFhX (Password: nd93)
or
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B5VjVTtm8AqmX3gxa0pOcU5kNjg&export=download
whatever download source works best for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much, but I don't know how to flash it

stanley_opt said:
how to flash it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To update:
Extract the 3 files (update.zip, factory_update_param.aml & recovery.img) to the SD Card (root of the SD card, no subfolder please ^^)
start the "update / backup" app on your box
select the update.zip and confirm
box will restart and install the new firmware

Language issue
I am also having the language reset issue.
Whenever I shut the box down after watching tv, the next time that I start the box, it starts with English and then reverts to Chinese after about 45 seconds.
This is a royal pain when you have to change the language back to English every time that you power on the box.
The other thing I've noticed is a long lag in Kodi when moving an external Logitech mouse or entering data with either the built-in or external keyboard.
It definitely stutters.
Otherwise, this would be a great box.
Any fixes for the above issues?

About 10 minutes after the box powered up for the first time, it has found july 4th firmware upgrade (small file about 14mb), then rebooted and almost immediately prompted for July 19th upgrade (430Mb if I remember correctly).
In the old days there was a "project" that had a ISO image of various video samples in all imaginable codecs on AVForums, but I can't find it anymore. Does anyone know if there is something similar with H265 and VP9 files as well? I would want to run through all of the codecs and verify what works and what doesn't.

thanks a lot!
I got OTA and updated my box, the stability feels better, but signal strenth is still not good enough. I tesed it beside router, and it's fast as expected, then put it back to my TV side, where there is a wall between, the speed is poor again. as reference, my phone, oneplus one, can have full wifi speed at the same position. I think Ihave to move my router to a better place

Has anyone found a working root for these S905X boxes yet? If anyone can make it happen I will gladly pay for it.

Does anybody know how to activate ADB via USB with this device? I tried connecting the box to my PC using a special USB cable (offering two Typ-A plugs) but the PC did not find any USB device. So no connection via USB. Without USB connection I cannot activate ADB support. Without ADB support it seems there is no way to have remote access (VNC, RDP etc.) to the box.

FantasticNG said:
Without USB connection I cannot activate ADB support. Without ADB support it seems there is no way to have remote access (VNC, RDP etc.) to the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why can't you activate ADB support? Or do you mean a specific support besides ADB debug in the developer options?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=67915384&postcount=4
I used ADB over WiFi, I didn't even try to use USB because those boxes without an OTG port can usually just be reached via burning tool, for example...
[email protected] said:
- Unplug power and male USB from the box.
- Load burning tool on the PC
- Press the reset button, keep it pressed and plug in the male USB
- Keep the power lead out at the moment when you see it says on your PC "connected successful" in the burning tool
- Release the button and plug power in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Btw. burning & customization tool hopefully can be used again in the future when they manage to release an IMG of the firmware and not only ZIP files. -.-
Those noname device engineers are still struggling with Marhsmallow, it seems... :laugh: