[wrxtasy]

Yes agreed with the above. Nice no nonsense review nice work.....now the serious questions...

I haven’t done any benchmark scores, but I did test Wi-Fi, Ethernet throughputs and the results are given below:

802.11ac TCP/IP – Down: 237.16Mbps Up: 276.14Mbps
802.11ac SMB – Down: 3.39Mbps Up: 3.29Mbps
Ethernet TCP/IP – Down: 94.14Mbps Up: 95.20Mbps
Ethernet SMB – Down: 30.38Mbps, Up: 26.98Mbps

What is wrong with WiFi and SMB on these S912 boxes. This is the second review I've read that shows really poor SMB WiFi performance ?
So the real question is can you stream 2160p or 1080p clips / Bluray Rips via WiFi ?

There were issues with 4K H.264 50, 60fps videos, but I think that is because 50/60fps are out of spec. for the SoC.

Yes that combo is out of Spec for all S8xx / S9xx AMLogic SoC's.

Q. Do you have to manually switch Android resolutions from 1080p to 2160p or is Auto Resolution switching working with this Firmware ?

The reason I ask is that 480/720/1080p content upscaled to 4K with all Android AMLogic S8xx / S905's boxes I've seen produces a soft picture output vs 1080p and the TV upscaling content to 4K. The S905's / S912 CPU's do not have enough ponies to do SPMC Lancos3-optimised scaling as you would see with the nVIDIA Shield.

Suggestion: add a $$$ value purchase price at the Top of the review and the review date for future reference purposes.

[wesk05]

Ditto... excellent, clear, to-the-point A/V performance review!

You have an excellent format and I just followed it This may be my only review. Can now check this off from my bucket list

Great Review!!!

Thanks for the review!

Thank you both!

i wanted to know regarding PQ, and finally your were able to anwer that, so amlogic = tegra = realtek = hisilicon all those offer the same PQ

still hesitating between himedia and u9.... one thing you did not test maybe is subtitles: the other boxes have their issues mainly with hardcoded subs...can you give us a view on that

also can this box stream from a local PC 1080p and 4k movies with surround sound ? using AC modem of course.... for that matter was it even possible with zidoo, shield or himedia ?

Personally, I didn't notice any huge difference in picture quality. Have you downloaded and compared the HDMI captures that I have uploaded? I was going through them again today and I noticed that the Minix clip is a little darker and saturated when compared to the others. Once I have analyzed the clips, I will be able say positively about it.

Sorry! I haven't tested subtitle playback. Usually you have subtitle problems when an external player is used. Since that is not the case with U9-H, I am not expecting any issue, but I will check it and report.

Hmm... that's a very good question. I did all the testing with a portable SSD drive. Haven't really tried streaming from a NAS. Will check that also...

What is wrong with WiFi and SMB on these S912 boxes. This is the second review I've read that shows really poor SMB WiFi performance ?
So the real question is can you stream 2160p or 1080p clips / Bluray Rips via WiFi ?

Q. Do you have to manually switch Android resolutions from 1080p to 2160p or is Auto Resolution switching working with this Firmware ?

I'm not sure what the problem is with WiFi SMB performance. The numbers that I have reported for Ethernet TCP/IP is also low. given that it was connected to a Gigabit network. It could be a problem of the app that I used for testing: WiFi Speed Test Pro

No, it doesn't switch resolution.

Suggestion: add a $$$ value purchase price at the Top of the review and the review date for future reference purposes.

Working on the first one second one done.

[hdmkv]

Re: resolution switching, if you have a 4K display, I assume this is just the UI resolution & you'd just want to leave it at 2160p, and if 1080p display, leave at 1080p right? Question is, when a 1080p video is playing, is the output at 1080p or upscaled to 2160p?

Refresh rate switching can also be set in “Playback” settings via “HDMI self-adaption” Level 2. It is recommended that you enable only one of them. Except for some minor issues, playback was OK for most audio and video codecs.

I'm guessing the automatic framerate switching works well with the usual framerates... 23.976, 24, 25/50 & 29.97/30/59.94/60.

[Sheppard]

Hi guys

Im currently using wetek hub with the Android 6.0 community build and I have Netflix 4k running good so far.

I want to upgrade to a newer box and I'm studying minix u9

I'm trying to find if minix has hdcp 2.2 working but so far nothing

Does it have or not hdcp 2.2?

Thanks

[wrxtasy]

What does the review Page #1 say.... did you bother reading at all ?

Mainstream Online Streaming Services:
U9-H is the first Minix device that has Google Widevine L1 and Microsoft PlayReady 3 licenses. HDCP implementation seem to be limited to ....

[hansolo]

Post #2 updated with a mini review. There are some clips that you can download and compare the picture quality with nVIDIA Shield, Xiaomi Mi, Zidoo X9S. These are for 1080p. If this is any useful, I will upload the 2160p captures also.

Great review!
How is color space evaluation? At least ramps/chroma clipping...
As a side note, is this player capable to run SM2 ISO?

[nenito2k]

@wrxtasy

i know how much you hate cheap S912 junk coz of buggy firmware. And no support for liblreelec etc..do you think it is "risky" to get this U9...?

[wrxtasy]

The MINIX U9 looks to be best AMLogic Android S912 (and S905(x)) - Kodi Krypton capable box out in the market running Android Marshmallow.
It has working Kodi dynamic refresh switching (a first for AML Android MM) and what appears to be Google IEC61937 Audio standard code in its Firmware. As @wesk05 tested - Kodi Krypton has working HD passthrough Audio. This is all looking good for decent Kodi Krypton support.

The U9's Firmware appears to be of a pretty high standard already and you will get the usual - continual OTA Firmware updates from MINIX. This is what you are ultimately paying for. Support.
That MINIX A3 Lite Wireless Air Mouse keyboard remote is really nice too. (I use an A2 Lite with various devices).

Unknowns are OTA TV and DVD deinterlacing reliability when using Android Kodi (mediacodec) and older codecs AMLogic Android Kodi boxes normally struggle with. Something weird is going on with S912's boxes - SMB WiFi by the looks of it as well. Hi-Res audio has limitations when using Android and Auto resolution Apps switching is broken on all Android devices but the FireTV. HDCP 2.2 looks like its unsupported.

As to the question of Android OS upgrades from MINIX. Who knows.

---

Personally: I prefer LibreELEC Kodi for media playback duties as you then have very few A/V usage limitations. It all just works.
And for Android - use that only for Apps on a proper easy to use Android TV OS platform, with a nice simple wireless remote. Android TV OS platforms that come with all the proper HDCP 2.2 and DRM certificates and Netflix approvals.

[hdmkv]

Minix U9-H + A3 remote costs $160... to me, it seems more than worth it to spend $40 more & get nVidia Shield TV. That $40 additionally buys you a nice voice game controller, Netflix 4K (not a hacked APK that may not work later), Amazon 4K, free Live Channels + basic DVR, and a true Android 'TV' experience.

[wesk05]

Something weird is going on with S912's boxes - SMB WiFi by the looks of it as well.

I am not sure whether it is just the S912, it isn't that different with the S905X also. I also don't think that we should rely on the speed test results that much. I did some tests today on nVIDIA Shield, Xiaomi Mi and Minix U9-H. I streamed 1080p and 2160p videos from SMB share using Kodi 17.1 RC and monitored the Wi-Fi traffic (802.11ac) on my router. While all three could stream the 1080p video (The Martian - avg. bitrate - 26.8Mbps), only the Shield was able to stream the 2160p video (LG Chess HDR demo, bitrate - 61.8Mbps). On Mi and U9-H, the clip started stuttering, slowed down and lost audio after a while. In the screenshots below, you can see the traffic monitored by the router while streaming the clips.

nVIDIA Shield 1080p


Xiaomi Mi 1080p


Minix U9-H 1080p


nVIDIA Shield 2160p


Xiaomi Mi 2160p


Minix U9-H 2160p

[nenito2k]

great tests there! i was told the Q pro from himedia could also stream 4k....but not sure

[wesk05]

great tests there! i was told the Q pro from himedia could also stream 4k....but not sure

I don't have the Q10/Q5 Pros. So, can't comment on their performance.

BTW, I did check subtitle playback with the clips in Kodi Wiki Samples and both of them were fine.

[wesk05]

Re: resolution switching, if you have a 4K display, I assume this is just the UI resolution & you'd just want to leave it at 2160p, and if 1080p display, leave at 1080p right? Question is, when a 1080p video is playing, is the output at 1080p or upscaled to 2160p?
I'm guessing the automatic framerate switching works well with the usual framerates... 23.976, 24, 25/50 & 29.97/30/59.94/60.

You leave the UI at 1080p. When you play 2160p, it would switch the resolution to 2160p. I am not sure whether the reverse (2160p to 1080p) works in Kodi on any platform. Will have to check that.

Yes, automatic refresh rate switch works correctly for all DRM free content. 2160p/1080p 25/30fps will be at 50/60Hz (if the display supports those refresh rates @4K).

Great review!
How is color space evaluation? At least ramps/chroma clipping...
As a side note, is this player capable to run SM2 ISO?

It is the same as on other Amlogic SoCs. All of them hard clip and so you won't get 0-15/0-63 or 236-255/941-1023 in the test patterns. Banding is very minimal in the ramps. Yes, you can play SM2 ISO. I just don't know how to get back to the main menu once I leave it.

[digitalfranz]

Hummm...the lack of hdcp 2.2...do you think it is a problem versus other media players that do have it?
Also...does this box read correctly soft and hard subs...?
Seems no recent Android box can even do that..jeez!

hdcp 2.2 will be released in the next fw updates: (confirmed from official Minix Team Member :-) )

http://www.minixforum.com/threads/drm-wi...ost-123438

[looun]

...They recommend a known Netflix hack that allows the normal android version of Netflix to play UltraHD content.

Who exactly is "they" or is this just more unproven internet Parroting Gossip ?

"Example Short" is the clip that should be used for testing Netflix resolution. Until that is done every post you see is just speculation and gossip.

Next you will be telling us the AML S912 can actually run LibreELEC Kodi .....

"They" is the Minix review that Wesk05 posted in the first post. That article makes a reference to this APK --> http://minix.com.hk/downfile/Netflix_HD.apk -- which is the hacked APK to get unsupported Netflix devices to watch Netflix content in HD (or UltraHD if you get that particular APK). There is an observable and marked difference between using Netflix on the android play store and these APK (regardless if its "true" HD or not).

it's old hack http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/11/28/h...vel-1-drm/

Code:

"enableWidevineL1": true,