New Android Firmware For Tronsmart Draco AW80, want to hear your voice again

[MAS]

Mr. Geekbuying,
Not aiming to start a riot but would i still be able to claim a refund?
The lack of support from whom ever is responsible(tronsmart, allwinner) is not worth the high amount of cash we had to pay
Nor is it worth the time we have been waiting.
I now have an expensive paper weight.

[vider]

I'll take a refund too.

I am really disappointed at the promises and lack of delivery.

Selling a device as 1.8 Ghz but delivering it with a kernel locked at 1.6 is dishonest and underhanded.
Putting a SATA port on it that is restricted by the USB2 hub it's connected to is misleading and dishonest.
I don't use the USB3 port at all because my box regularly freezes up when I do.
The internal SD is sooo slow, it's embarrassing.

So much promise on the outside candy coating, but nothing but more chinese dishonesty inside.

When will I learn?

My next box will be built on Intel or Qualcomm. Allwinner or Rockchip, never again.

[toonman]

About New Android Firmware Progress

Hi Guys

I think we should talk something about our new android stock firmware for the Draco aw80.
First, we never hide ourselves, or stop supporting our device, we are checking each of the problems you guys report, and transfer to our engineer.

We might make some guys feel upset because we have promised to have the android firmware released earlier, however, due to lots of reasons, we haven't made it happen.

We have lots of beta versions, but we don't want to release that till we solve most of your problem. but i think it's time to report the progress to let you guys know we are really doing something.

Here is our progress:
1 live wallpaper problem fixed. Now you can choose live wallpaper in settings, and install other live wall paper;
2 USB hub problem fixed, we get complaint , when connect with USB hub and connect serval hdd to the hub, you can just read one of them, now it is fixed.
3 some guys report can't wake up the draco aw80 with the remote, now we improve this. but please note:
if your tv are already power off, you can't use the DRACO AW80 to make the wake up the TV and draco aw80, because lack of the HDMI CEC support, allwinner said they will add this in the kernel after the china new year, we will see .
4 screenshot app can't work problem fixed. before customer complaint they just can use the built-in screenshot function, but other 3rd party screenshot app don't work, now it is fixed. tested with screenshot it app;
5 can use the stock file manager to read/write local net files, before it always report access fail;
and other tweaks

but i know, maybe above is not what you guys really need. here are two things we already see that you complaint;
1 Netflix has lines when play videos. It's really strange, because we have no such problem in the 1218 firmware, the version without lines for netflix is here:


but after that, allwinner update the sdk and the lines happen, so recently, we just get the netflix account to test, and find the problem, we are working with allwinner and will release the fix soon.

2 about DTS passthrough.

Yes, the problem for DTS passthrough is here: if you use xbmc , Then DTS passthrough is not working. but if you use the stock video player(Tvdvideo), the DTS passthrough is working like charm. so here is a short instruction for what you should do to make DTS passthrough working in the stock video player:

a) go to settings, sound setting, and click " enable pass through"



b) connect with your receiver via spdif or hdmi, and then choose "audio output mode" in sound setting;



and then play your video file with the vodplayer, the dts passthrough will work well.

But till now, we haven't found why the xbmc can't give the correct dts passthrough, we are stuck here, but we will try our best to fix it, we know xbmc is important for you guys.


We will try our best to improve this video playback in the draco aw80. Now it is China New year holiday, most of the engineer has stopped working, so we will try to release a new firmware after the china new year.

Thanks for your understand.

Tronsmart Team

[toonman]

Message for Tronsmart for the news ROM 25 Feb 2015 08:21

Yes, Of course we will find the lines problem,and fix it. We are back from the china new year holiday, working on the new rom. Stay tuned.

[Boxx]

Yes, thats old news.
On their forum, tronsmart says it will be released around 18th march.
From what you can read above, not very promising.
If there is no significant improvement, i'll get rid of this box and wait for the nvidia shield to be released.

[scooter2014]

Oh my stop crying about what's not working in a beta release of software and put issues up with the screens so they can see what's going on. All the manufacture got the same release for allwinner they all working the bugs out now. This box out preforms all my other ones so I'll add my input as video issues and that blurry line at bottom my biggest bitch right now.

[toonman]

Boxx. .... just trying keep people happy with some good news .

[scooter2014]

Any update on this rom?

[mstormo]

Hi Guys

I think we should talk something about our new android stock firmware for the Draco aw80.
First, we never hide ourselves, or stop supporting our device, we are checking each of the problems you guys report, and transfer to our engineer.

...

We will try our best to improve this video playback in the draco aw80. Now it is China New year holiday, most of the engineer has stopped working, so we will try to release a new firmware after the china new year.

As far as I know, the Chinese New Year 2015 begins on Thursday 19 February, and end on 5 March. Given that your post was on 9th of March, it was already after Chinese New Year celebration..

If you want to show your customers that you are serious about your products, support them, and want them to thrive, I suggest that you keep the updates coming on a weekly basis here. If you cannot release, be honest and forthcoming about why, and what the next steps are. People will understand if they know what the problems are, you might even get valuable input on how to solve it! If you don't keep people updated, you will fail, and people will not trust you again.

I'm seriously waiting on a new firmware update, and also the Linux release which was promised. Please keep us updated, and remember, a half-baked release soon is 10x better than a perfect release 2 years from now.

Thanks.

[scooter2014]

Weekly updates ??? Are you serious no manufacture would meet your requirements. The softwares here on first page use it and post your comment on what's working and what's not. Your demands won't be heard posting your concerns and positive issues will.

Regards.

[mstormo]

Weekly updates ??? Are you serious no manufacture would meet your requirements. The softwares here on first page use it and post your comment on what's working and what's not. Your demands won't be heard posting your concerns and positive issues will.

Uuhm, yes? Normally a note saying "next release is expected in Q1" is enough. However, when a product release is this delayed (we were promised something in December, if you remember), then yes, weekly updates until a successful release is not a hard thing to swallow. And why should it? How long does it take you to write an email? How much positive PR does a single, easy to write email generate in return? It's a very easy puzzle.

Right now their "status" is pretty low due to unfulfilled promises, so people are turning away from their products, promising to never buy them again. Wouldn't you like to get more frequent updates about when you can expect the next release??

I'm a software developer professional and manager. I've done this for a very long time, both keeping internal users and external users up to date on software release processes. It's not hard, not that time consuming, and buys a whole lot of good will with your users. It's simple math. You want to grow your customer base? Then show you're responsible, take their worries seriously, and you're constantly working on their behalf. Just because you have an active community does not mean you get to neglect your customers! This is customer service 101.

Obviously, once you get a release out, and have gained some of that good will again, that level of frequent updates is no longer needed. But when you are this low on rank, yes it's needed.

By the way, these are not demands, but suggestions on how to conduct your business to keep customers, which btw have said that they are done and want their money back. If Tronsmart doesn't care about customers, fine.

I don't need to reiterate on the same problems everyone else have reported already. I bought my Draco AW80 before christmas, and was following all the various threads here excitedly for over a month, expecting new firmware to follow and seeing how excited everyone was. Now I don't even check it weekly anymore.
Nothing really happens, with the exception of a few dedicated firmware hackers (awesome guys btw! I love your work!), doing changes, being responsible and responsive to the community. However, they are not Tronsmart, and they don't get paid for the work they put it, nor should they be the "support" clutch for the company! AND they themselves are also waiting for the latest release of the firmware, so they can do more good stuff for their devices..

So yes scooter2014 (and toonman), weekly updates not too much to ask for from a company that has promised firmware since December, has not followed through yet, even though we're mid-March.

But hey, this just a suggestion, not a demand (I have no power to enforce a demand anyways). But I promise you this: If they don't care to keep their customers happy, don't give updates on progress/obstacles, and release a new firmware fairly soon, I'm done. I will not buy a single other Tronsmart product again.

Almost 4 months now, and I still cannot use my AW80 as a media device in my livingroom due to the performance glitches, netflix issues etc... I'm tired of it.

[vider]

Msrormo brings good business advice. Unfortunately these companies have less reprocusions than a north american or european based business where customers can and will return the product for a full refund. These guys have our money, and they have moved on to the next product thay can make fraudulent claims about and take others money.
I have made the misake twice (shame on me) by ordering from geekbuying. Now I have to alert and inform as many as I can to not make the same mistake. Never again geekbuying. You made money, they made money. No accountability.
Blaming your supplyer is not how to conduct business. You sold the product. You should offer a refund. You should get a refund from your supplier. Do what's right.

When does the nvidia shield tv box come out?

[leafar]

same old same old

This is what you expect from Chinese fabricant, but let me say its not all their fault,mostly the chipmaker.
I do not understand,they keep repeating the same story,be wise,came on,right now with a lot of products on the market and good ones,peoples prefer quality instead of quantity,remember for mostly of peoples this is a hobby.
It happen to me with a Mele devices A31 good quality no doubt, they always saying waiting from allwinner to release updates, I believe in this in some point, but Male team software the device fabricant,has to do the most of job keeping the device up to date,never happened, so the device still in jelly bean,they shut down the forum, to bad for them,but the device still working and I like because I believe it has the best video quality even better that nvidia shield owned too.
I did said before in this community and others follow nvidia foot steps, they doing great with the shield product line, just problems to keep the device up to date, but this is part of android OS with new hardware implementation, mostly lollipop,but certainly I will buy the new shield console for sure.

I really want to buy this device but I pass until I see pretty good news.

[Boxx]

The shield console is announced for may 2015. Price will be 199$.
It is more a game console than a tv player, pretty powerfull.
hdmi 2.0, 4k video at 60 fps.

I still hope the new firmware will bring big improvements.
i'm using the box mainly for german VOD for now. i hate to say, but atm it really sucks.

[scooter2014]

Yes I can tell a lot upset with the China manufactures trust me it won't change anytime soon. They knock off each other with very little control. Some companies have started to at least support their devices but this has only been a hand full and only within the last year or two. I've yet to see one product launch with everything promised working. They lie about product and this will not stop anytime soon as this is China products. Best to see what coming out them read reviews and see if dev support it otherwise any if these devices are a total crap shoot because this is how China does business.