NEW - Draco AW80 - Finless ROM 1.1 - BETA2

[etyrnal]

So has AllWinner left this in the dust?

I have not worked on this box in a while because simply...... No where to go!

This box had huge potential and now after all these months..... It's kind of a bummer.....

I am hoping to see AllWinner do something but alas at this point I fear this platform may be going by the way side

BOb

In my case, Kodi will play absolutely any video file I throw at it, while Plex is picky and won't play back some individual video files that Kodi will.

it feels like the difference maybe has something to do with Kodi having built into itself internally all of the codec playback software, while Plex maybe is relying on the Android systems video playback abilities?

Or if that assumption is incorrect, why would Plex struggle with some video files, while Kodi can play Everything? I kind of prefer using Plex in many cases just because it generally seems quicker to get to the media of choice, while the interface on Kodi, if all you have is a mouse, is a little bit clunky. Plex makes it very quick to do just about anything even if you have a mouse, especially because when you interact with the keyboard I can use the microphone from the web camera that I have plugged into it, to speak the names of movies into search boxes. On Kodi I cannot do that.

I think the only two problems that bother me with this ROM are the fact that while using Netflix the controls only show up for a split second, and the fact that Cody can play every video I throw at it, and Plex seems to have trouble with some. That's it. As far as I know the only problems that bother me on that machine. That machine gets used all the time at my house. It runs fantastic with the exception of those two problems.

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[scooter2014]

I know Trebor posted a rom that came out. Not much will change with Allwinner devices they don' provide any support for their chipsets so keep that in mind when you see thier devices on sale.

[etyrnal]

I haven't seen Finless around for sometime now. But absolutely loved his work a few years back. I personally like the Amlogic S912 processors currently. I dig the Alfawise S92 TV Box. Octacore processor 2Gb/16Gb. Gigabit ethernet and good wifi. At last check $55.99 US. Superceleron is creating some fantastic custom roms for this box and other S912 TV Boxes like it. Check out the Superceleron threads if you havent already. Cheers!

Just saw this. Thanks.

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[Scotdog]

@ etyrnal - Quick update, I ran into Finless Bob in the Minix forums. He's developed several roms for Minix tv boxes.

[etyrnal]

@ etyrnal - Quick update, I ran into Finless Bob in the Minix forums. He's developed several roms for Minix tv boxes.

Where are these forums? On freaktab? What Minix's best box? Is it even comparable to the top of the line Draco?

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[Scotdog]

Minix has their own forums. They're proud of their TV boxes which means they are a bit more expensive than other Asian made tv boxes. But their customer support is excellent and firmware updates are every few months adding features and dealing with bugs and the like. I like their products but theyre not as much fun as the cheaper Chinese boxes and the custom roms you find on Freaktab. You can google Mini and check it out. I dont follow Allwinner products any longer. Poor customer support. The boxes you would most likely be interested in is the U1 or U9H. Finless made a custom rom for the U1 and last I heard, Minix was sending him a U9. Stay tuned.

[prm123]

more expensive than other Asian made tv boxes. But their customer support is excellent and firmware updates are every few months adding features and dealing with bugs and the like. .

They do not support their equipment past two years, that is not excellent service. Some cheap devices last longer than that.
AVOID MINIX PRODUCTS.

[trebor]

You could say Avoid all boxes but that's been silly....they all have a shelf life...just some go stale quicker than others. But
Thanks to all the Devs they can keep them keeping on a lot further way past EOL...and that why we do what we do.
And ya'll should be thank full for that

Support our Devs

[Scotdog]

Well said Trebor! Dilly! Dilly!

[etyrnal]

In the last few months my transmart Draco running the finless ram, has suddenly slowed down to a crawl. We haven't installed or uninstalled anyting. So I'm not sure why the speed would change. Do these things cores physically die eventually? I'm not running out of memory space. I don't store anything on the device. All of the videos and media that the device accesses is stored Elsewhere on my network. The whole house is gigabit Network and no other device has trouble with speeds. But the speed issue has nothing to do with media access it's just the whole interface and the whole machine seems like it dropped down to a single core or something. It takes forever to boot now, and once it is up and running, everything is sluggish. I have done things like clearing the cache for all the apps. How do I troubleshoot the machine? Is it the physical machine? Is it the operating system? What actually causes the slowdowns? Would it be as easy to fix as just doing a reset? For example resetting back to a clean installation of the finless ROM? Or is the Box actually physically dying? That part doesn't make sense to me though.

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[spideymon]

In the last few months my transmart Draco running the finless ram, has suddenly slowed down to a crawl. We haven't installed or uninstalled anyting. So I'm not sure why the speed would change. Do these things cores physically die eventually? I'm not running out of memory space. I don't store anything on the device. All of the videos and media that the device accesses is stored Elsewhere on my network. The whole house is gigabit Network and no other device has trouble with speeds. But the speed issue has nothing to do with media access it's just the whole interface and the whole machine seems like it dropped down to a single core or something. It takes forever to boot now, and once it is up and running, everything is sluggish. I have done things like clearing the cache for all the apps. How do I troubleshoot the machine? Is it the physical machine? Is it the operating system? What actually causes the slowdowns? Would it be as easy to fix as just doing a reset? For example resetting back to a clean installation of the finless ROM? Or is the Box actually physically dying? That part doesn't make sense to me though.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Try a fresh rom install. I have found the Danilov sa Roms to be the latest and run pretty good. This box has a LOT of horesepower, but its limited by roms which just arent optimizing everything - I think. You can also check the cores by downloading any of the CPU checking softwares to see how the cores are running. The box does boot very slowly. Internet surfing on this thing is not the best at all. It never has been IMO.

Sadly, might be time to turn this metal hunk into a headless file server. You can get a $50 s912 box that works so much better. I paid like $150 for this thing several years ago. It's now a glorified fileserver for my office. Actually is very reliable in that way.

[Scotdog]

Well Spidey, at least you found a good use for this box. Good job! It was expensive. Mine has been piled up in a closet for years with all the rest of my old tv boxes/mini computers. I keep wanting to re-purpose the case though. I always thought it had a cool metal case

[spideymon]

With the USB 3.0 port, you can get a powered hub attached to it and then set up as a backup station. Been using some Syba HDD enclosures set up as Raid 1. I think the E-SATA keeps the HDD on all the time, so, never really tried that much. Also can use Remodroid in conjunction as a torrent downloader - all can be done headless. it'll play movies reasonably well with MX video player.

[etyrnal]

What's the closest decent hardware to the specs of the Draco that can run a CURRENT version of Android TV, which will ALSO run Google apps, playstore, netflix, hulu, etc?

I still have not found a well-spec'd android tv box on par with Draco specs that can run an up-to-date version of android tv, plus/or soemthing like finless...

Any suggestions? I'm tempted to look for another box because i finally can't run hulu or some other apps due to the aging android on the finless rom.

Who can tell me an android tv box that has comparable specs to the draco, that's running android 8 or better?

And is there a way to update the finless rom for the draco to be at a more current android tv version? is it possible, or is it technically not possible. I don't need anything better than 1080 -- i don't need 4K at all.

[spideymon]

Get an amlogic s912 or equiv box with 3 or 4gb ram and 32gb external memory. Download the most popular version of Android TV from this site, flash it and don't look back.

I've resigned myself to likely buying a new box every 2years. These Chinese boxes just don't keep up with Android development.

I still use this box for file server stuff. Netflix finally stopped working and it's force closing a lot of apps. It's still got lots of horsepower.... but it was never harnessed properly. Sad.