Android Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - Printable Version +- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv) +-- Forum: Discussions (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=222) +--- Forum: Hardware (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=112) +--- Thread: Android Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box (/showthread.php?tid=227630) |
Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-05-22 GearBest reached out about reviewing one of their latest Android boxes on sale & I opted for the Beelink i-one (i826). I had been interested in trying out an Amlogic S812 box anyway (had considered the Minix X8-H Plus at one point; similar specs), so saying "yes, sure" to GearBest was easy . The HDMI input on the i-one (similar to Zidoo X9, which doesn't have as nice specs) was also intriguing, and is unique in an Amlogic box. For this review, I'm going to focus on Kodi & video playback mainly, and compare to Amazon Fire TV and Chromebox. I didn't test any 4K content as I don't have any 4K-capable displays, though based on reviews I've read of similar S812 TV boxes, the i-one should be able to play 4K videos w/o any issues. For me, I'm not jumping into 4K just yet; waiting a while. It's best to think of the Beelink i-one as an Amazon Fire TV box alternative. A solid one at that, similarly priced... it performs better, more video types play (or play better), supports 4K, has 16GB of storage (vs. 8GB), and isn't an closed ecosystem like Amazon's. In fact, it seems Beelink is aiming for i-one to be a more versatile FTV alternative with its box and remote design, even down to the minimalistic power adapter. I tested the i-one directly connected to a 65" LG 1080p HDTV, via wired network (SMB) connection to my Synology NAS. I did do brief tests over wi-fi, but performance wasn't that good (even 30Mbps Birds & Jellyfish clips stuttered). I didn’t test in my dedicated home theater via an AVR as the i-one doesn’t support HD audio nor 23.976 framerate sync. Sorry for the pics with reflections on my TV as I tested during the day with sunshine outside. In video settings, I left all three H/W acceleration options enabled. Beelink’s i-one comes installed with firmware 115k4 (dated 3/19/2015, appears to be latest). 'XBMC 13.4.0 (Oman)' is also pre-installed. I'm guessing this is a build tailored for this box, but I found performance via latest Kodi 15 Beta 1 no different, so relied on it instead for most tests. YouTube, Netflix and other apps also come pre-installed. It's a good idea to keep an eye on Freaktab forums as Oman (the dev behind firmwares & ROMs) posts there. Beelink i-one's strong suits:
What is lacking or should be improved:
For games, I tried out whatever APK’s I could quickly get at: Beach Buggy Racing, Cordy 2, Helium Boy, Leo's Fortune & Asphalt 8. All were sideloaded, except Asphalt 8, which I downloaded directly on i-one via the Play store. All games played very well to excellent (no performance issues), except Asphalt 8 failed to open/launch (maybe sideloaded will work). I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Amazon game controller worked with these games; no remapping of buttons/options necessary. So, the bottom line is that the Beelink i-one is a very reasonably-priced, quite capable Kodi box, with solid gameplay as an added bonus. If you want something like the Amazon Fire TV, but don't want to be confined by its closed ecosystem, this is the box for you. It also beats Fire TV for video playback performance (and even RPi2). It's a solid box for your living room, family room or bedroom, but not really for a serious/dedicated home theater (due to lack of HD audio, 23.976 & perfect VC-1 playback). What would really make the Beelink i-one stand out is if a PVR feature was added to take advantage of the HDMI input. Also, this is basically the same box as Minix's X8-H Plus, for le$$. I’d like to thank GearBest for sending me the Beelink i-one to play with. I like it enough to use this in my bedroom, replacing the Amazon Fire TV I had there. It's a nice, lightweight, well-designed box with a comfortable Amazon Fire TV like remote. GearBest also passed along a coupon if anyone is interested (BI826GB) that knocks the price of the Beelink i-one to $94.99. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - Ned Scott - 2015-05-23 Did it come with any add-ons pre-installed? Feel free to be totally honest (pirate or not pirate, etc), I won't close the thread or anything like that, I'm just wondering if they've stopped doing that yet ;) RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-05-23 Nope, no add-ons of the Aargh, Matey! sort . RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-06-01 Thanks, I'm liking this box the more I use it. To me, it's basically a more powerful Fire TV w/o the closed ecosystem. Box comes pre-rooted, runs little faster, plays video types that FTV can't, has 16GB storage (vs. 8), and all games (not requiring touch of course) run well. Only minor issue is the remote needs direct line of sight and home UI can't be customized a whole lot (unless an alternate launcher is used). RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - wrxtasy - 2015-06-01 Questions to HDMV to help users reading: - dynamic refesh rate switching available when using SPMC 14.2.0 or Kodi Isengard ? - 24, 50 and 60Hz refresh rates selectable via Android settings ? - deinterlacing quality of mpeg2 / 1080i content with Amcodec hardware acceleration enabled ? (the new AMlogic S805 SoC's deinterlaces video content very well) -version of Kodi installed ? (EDIT: just re-read the review....XBMC 13.4.0 (Oman)) Because the official Kodi 14.2 will not be able to access files shares from a PC/NAS using the new SAMBA3 protocol. This is already causing issues for some Kodi 14.2 users. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - MediaPi - 2015-06-02 nice review hdmkv thanks, one question what is it with remotes nowadays that are favouring like 10 buttons? they are really dumbing down users. apple started it!! oh and how can you say video playback performance is better than RPi2? what has this box got that is better (in terms of video performance) than RPi2 RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - wrxtasy - 2015-06-02 This will help you compare AMlogic SoC's and their features... http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/04/25/amlogic-stb-socs-comparison-aml8726-mx-s802-s805-and-s812/ RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-06-02 wrxtasy, re: your suggested items to check above... - dynamic refesh rate switching available when using SPMC 14.2.0 or Kodi Isengard ? How do I check this? - 24, 50 and 60Hz refresh rates selectable via Android settings ? Yes to 24 and 60, but I'm not seeing 50. - deinterlacing quality of mpeg2 / 1080i content with Amcodec hardware acceleration enabled ? (the new AMlogic S805 SoC's deinterlaces video content very well) Very well. No tearing, judder or other artifacts noticeable. I wanted to check if any skipped/dropped frames, but the menu button won't bring up the context nor the codecinfo. MediaPi, agree with you about manufacturers dumbing down remotes these days. Have you see the new nVidia Shield remote? Just D-pad and 2 other buttons... for $50 no less! Re: playback performance, Amlogic S812 is faster than the ARM Cortex-A7, and VC-1 files play better as does MPEG2. With Pi2, I had stuttering issues with some 1080i live OTA feeds. But, to be fair, I haven't played with my RPi2 and one of the latest builds in some weeks. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - IhuckleberryI - 2015-06-03 Thats a generic remote hardkernel sells it 5 bucks for ir. I bought one that was an "air mouse" by vigica for 7 off ebay. Not bad, works fine but no stop button as you can see in the photo.Its not a bad feel but the air mouse version I bought was "click mouse button" to enable. Then it was dpad for mouse cursor movement. So it was virtually useless in android but I only had jellybean to test it. Not a real airmouse/wiimote movement at all. In kodi if you have the mapping for return to stop video like the firetv mapping its not too bad. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - wrxtasy - 2015-06-03 (2015-06-02, 18:01)hdmkv Wrote: wrxtasy, re: your suggested items to check above...http://spmc.semperpax.com/ + you also need a Terminal emulator app installed and the device needs to be Rooted as well. Then in Terminal: Code: su An Android device with per-Rooted Firmware increase its video viewing sync compatibility and versatility. I personally would not buy in 2015 an Android OS based device that does not have this capability moving forward into the future. Kodi Isengard supports dynamic refresh rate switching on AMlogic and some Rockchip devices. A 50Hz output display mode is also needed for those that want to view broadcast TV in the UK, Europe, Oz and NZ where TV is 25 or 50fps. AMlogic SoC devices produce excellent TV deinterlacing results, far far better than an Amazon Fire TV. They also make cheap PVR's if you can run OpenElec and attach a HDD. Nice review and a slick Box from Beelink, but as usual better Firmware needed for increased versatility to improve the viewing experience. Especially with the release of Kodi Isengard shortly. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - BORIStheBLADE - 2015-06-03 Thanks for the review! RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-06-03 Thanks BORIStheBLADE... I recognize you from Cloud Media forum, going back to PCH A-110 days I think. Haven't kept up with Cloud Media and Open Hour. Anything good, with Kodi ideally? wrxtasy, thanks, but not sure how to execute the terminal commands you posted. I'm familiar with PuTTY, but not sure how I'd log into this box. I do know it's pre-rooted, and I have been using Kodi 15 Beta 1 on it. But, you're right about firmware improvements being necessary. I'd love to have Beelink add a recording via HDMI app. I'll e-mail Selina (GearBest) and request she pass a link to this thread to Beelink. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - noggin - 2015-06-03 (2015-06-02, 18:01)hdmkv Wrote: wrxtasy, re: your suggested items to check above... Try playing files with 23.976/24.000/25.000Hz refresh rate and see if your TV re-syncs - and if your Amp or TV has an OSD display that shows frame rate (my Onkyo amp will tell me whether I'm running 24p, 50p etc. though reports 23.976 and 24.000 Hz both as 24p) Try playing files with i25/50i (same thing) and i29.97/59.94i and see if you get full 50/59.94Hz (rather than 25/29.97Hz) motion and whether you get resync to 50p or 59.94/60p RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - wrxtasy - 2015-06-03 (2015-06-03, 15:59)hdmkv Wrote: wrxtasy, thanks, but not sure how to execute the terminal commands you posted. I'm familiar with PuTTY, but not sure how I'd log into this box. I do know it's pre-rooted, and I have been using Kodi 15 Beta 1 on it.Kodi 15 Beta 1, does not ask all the root access requests anymore that Kodi 14.2 or SPMC does on AMlogic devices and Firmware, so its not an accurate guide unfortunately. You could test by downloading the "Terminal Emulator" app from the Play store and install. Attach a Keyboard to the Beelink, open up the app and start typing. When you type "su" a rooted Firmware will pop up a request box asking to approve root access. On my pre-rooted S805, the Android image came with a root access app called Superuser which allows this. If you can execute the next "chmod 666 /sys/class/display/mode" succesfully, the box is definately pre-rooted and the next time you start Kodi Beta 1 and enable: Kodi > Settings > System > Video > Playback > Adjust Display refresh rate > On Start/Stop and play 23.976fps and 60 fps video, your TV will change to 24Hz and 60Hz respectively. This can make for a much smoother video sync playback experience without having to manually stuff about setting GUI refresh rates. I would be interested in HEVC 24p video sync performance with the AMlogic S812 SoC with a GUI set at 24Hz. RE: Review of Beelink's i-one (i826) Amlogic S812 TV Box - hdmkv - 2015-06-30 Have been traveling for work, so haven't had time to play with this box or others. Installed the latest firmware ione_115k4_16G_20150513.img today, but don't see any noticeable improvements. Was at least hoping Beelink would update their launcher to replace XBMC 13 with Kodi 14. |