Android
lends itself easily to diverse applications. This is evident from the
flood of phones, android tablets, gaming consoles, set top boxes, entertainment
consoles that runs on Android. A while back, VeeDee sent me an Android TV Set top box manufactured by Measy, a Chinese company and requested me to use it and review it.
I used the Android TV Box for three weeks and here are my impressions.
In case you are wondering what a TV box is, read this post
What the Measy A5A Android TV Box has
| CPU | Rockchip RK2918 at 1.2 GHz |
| GPU | Vivante GC800 |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| Internal Storage | 2 GB |
| External Storage | Up to terabytes using USB HDD |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Ethernet 100 Mbps |
| Video Formats | AVI, MOV, MKV, MP4, H.264, H.263, DivX, Xvid, RMVB |
| Audio Formats | WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, DTS, AAC, PCM etc. |
| Ports | 3 x USB 2.01 x Optical1 x HDMI 1.31 x RCA
1 x Power
1 x SD MMC
|
Processor
The Measy
A5A TV Box is powered by a Rockchip RK2918 SOC. This is a single core
Cortex A8 CPU with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz. It secured a score of
14.045 in the Linpack benchmark. This CPU has a built in support for HD
video decoding and encoding, 2D/3D graphics processors with full open GL
ES2.0 among other features.
Box Contents
GPU
The graphics are powered by a Vivante VC800 GPU which has a very good
video decoder and can play almost all video formats. Full HD 1080p videos are played at 30 FPS.
Memory and Storage
The A5A Android TV Box has 512 MB of RAM and it seems sufficient for
video playback. It also has 2GB of NAND Flash on board to serve as
internal storage.
Ports And Interface
USB
The Rockchip 2918 supports up to 3 USB ports and this TV box has all
three USB 2.0 ports. I connected a 32 GB USB thumb drive, a keyboard ,
mouse to it. And they all worked flawlessly. The video and audio files
on the thumbdrive
were instantly detected and available in the video player. I did not
test it with wireless keyboard and mouse but I think they should work.
HDMI
It has a full size HDMI 1.3 port and can stream Full HD 1080p videos at
30 FPS. I played some HD movies through the A5A, Google Android TV Box
and the output was glorious. The A5A does not support HDMI 1.4 so, 3D video is not possible.
RCA
It also has a
RCA port (those cables with one yellow jack, one white and one red
jack) to connect the A5A to an old fashioned TV with CRT. When I
connected it to a 29 inch Samsung DNIE TV with CRT (picture tube),
nothing was displayed. I connected it to an LCD TV and it was playing
all right. I went to the settings and changed the display to TV
(PAL/NTSC) from HDMI and I lost all display on the LCD. I lugged it back
to the CRT TV and connected it using the RCA jacks and I could see the
output now.
The picture quality was awful, I had to squint to make out the text and
it was flickering quite fast. So I changed the settings back to HDMI and
took it off. This whole exercise means
1. It is not at all suitable for TV’s with picture tubes
2. The A5A does not auto detect the video out put receiving device and HDMI is it’s default.
Optical Port.
If you have a high end sound system / amplifier you can connect the A5A to it using the optical port.
Ethernet
The A5A Android TV box has an RJ45 ethernet
port rated at 100 Mbps. I connected it directly to my router and it
worked without any further tinkering or configuration. If you are not
using DHCP on your router you will have to configure it manually.
Streaming Video playback and WiFi
The A5A Android TV Box connected to my WiFi and I streamed youtube
videos and videos from other websites and watched them without any
problem. It supports full Flash Video streaming. The WiFi throughput was
good and it did not drop the connection even once while I used it.
Stored Video playback
I played AVI, MKV, MOV, RMVB, DivX format video files through it and it sailed thorugh every one of them. It can not play BlueRay M2TS container format though.
The above photo is quite big. Click on it to see it in full HD glory. I streamed it through a HDMi 3 LED HD projector. I use it to watch movies or sports. The display is projected on to a big screen on the wall like a cinema theater. A5A performed flawlessly.
Audio Playback
It supports Mp3, WAV, OGG, AAC, WMA among other audio formats. I played few songs
through it and the audio quality was good. If you connect it to a high
end amplifier using an optical cable and use a high bit rate MP3 or non
compressed WAV file or DTS audio stream the fidelity is top notch.
Android Market and Apps
The official Google Android Market is fully supported on the A5A and you can download any apps from it. I downloaded the Kingsoft office and created a .doc and .xls file without any problem. If you download a powerpoint viewer or editor apps such as QuickOffice the A5A can serve well as a presentation device.
I loaded a powerpoint
presentation on a USB disk and opened it using QuickOffice. It worked
smoothly. You can use the included IR Remote to move between slides or
open new slides and that was quite elegant.
It supports almost all apps a tablet running on Android 2.3 can, but
playing games through this does not make any sense to me since the IR
remote is not suitable for gaming purpose.
Interface
The A5A Android TV box has a simple interface built on top of the
Android UI. You can navigate to your videos , audios, browser, settings
and apps using that interface. It is simple and you will get used to it
in 5 minutes.
Remote
The remote works on IR and the buttons are backlit which is a nice touch
and looks good. It is powered by two AAA batteries. It also has a mini
keypad to enter texts but entering text through that was quite frankly, tiresome for me.
Build Quality
The build quality of the device is quite good and the device looks small
and unassuming in all white with a laminated Android logo on top. The ports
are well set and not loose. My only gripe is with the indicator LED
which is green and covered by a translucent black cover. The LED is
hardly visible since it is so dim.
Pros
1. Small footprint and power efficient.
2. Fast
3. Supports wide variety of media formats.
4. Excellent WiFi and ethernet connectivity
5. Good number of ports and external storage or input devices are detected without a problem.
Cons
1. The remote sometimes need multiple presses for the box to respond.
2. The indicator light is hardly visible
3. You can not switch off the Android TV box using the remote and put it on stand by. Pushing the power button on the remote, simply restarts the unit.
4. The built in browser lacks usability and seems limited.I had to download Dolphin HD browser.
5. The built in Youtube player force closes.
6. Flash is fully supported but I do not understand why it is not preloaded.
7. It does not support micro SD cards.
Price?
Price Rs. 6490.00
My Verdict
This is a niche device that will appeal to people who store lots of
videos on their hard disk drives and want to view them on their TV. Also
people who want the facility to browse the internet, watch streaming
videos etc will find it appealing. This
can also serve as a replacement for Laptops or netbooks to make
presentations on a big screen or projector
I had a mixed feeling after using the device. Even though the hardware
is capable enough to do the job it set out to accomplish, the loose
software integration and the basic remote left me underwhelmed.
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