Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta is a disappointment

[thanasis0]

Prons:
Maybe the hardware (I cannot see the power due to the very bad rom it has)

Cons:
1. From SPMC /TVMC /XBMC (either built-in or latest version) has no passthrough sound (means no DD/DTS 5.1 at all). Only stereo. Even from MX player only few videos can play DD/DTS 5.1 but with somehow stuttered video. On XBMC even with no audio passthrough, the video is stuttered as the resolution increased (SD->HD->FHD).
2. No preparation at all from the manufacturer as a TV box. It’s just an android mini PC with a very bad kernel that does not take advantage the HW. Builtin XBMC plays all videos stuttered.
3. No one (manufacturer/seller), interested to solve these very serious problems that void this piece of HW as a TV box. Even my older little-poor TV box (Tronsmart MK908) was a much descent TV box.
4. Fake antutu benchmarking.

I was flashed the latest rom I've found (the only one so far) and nothing was changed. Even the dpi was not set correctly. I had to increase it from 160 to 240.

I've purchased it from Geekbuying and I wrote this review to their site but they never publish it !!!
They allowed only 3 reviews with 5 stars to appear under this product!!! Consumers BEWARE!!!

[thegergz]

Yeah and still nothing from allwinner/tronsmart, you should at least try a custom rom though.

[geekbuying]

Prons:
Maybe the hardware (I cannot see the power due to the very bad rom it has)

Cons:
1. From SPMC /TVMC /XBMC (either built-in or latest version) has no passthrough sound (means no DD/DTS 5.1 at all). Only stereo. Even from MX player only few videos can play DD/DTS 5.1 but with somehow stuttered video. On XBMC even with no audio passthrough, the video is stuttered as the resolution increased (SD->HD->FHD).
2. No preparation at all from the manufacturer as a TV box. It’s just an android mini PC with a very bad kernel that does not take advantage the HW. Builtin XBMC plays all videos stuttered.
3. No one (manufacturer/seller), interested to solve these very serious problems that void this piece of HW as a TV box. Even my older little-poor TV box (Tronsmart MK908) was a much descent TV box.
4. Fake antutu benchmarking.

I was flashed the latest rom I've found (the only one so far) and nothing was changed. Even the dpi was not set correctly. I had to increase it from 160 to 240.

I've purchased it from Geekbuying and I wrote this review to their site but they never publish it !!!
They allowed only 3 reviews with 5 stars to appear under this product!!! Consumers BEWARE!!!

hi

sorry to hear your problem.
first i can confirm the passthrough is working, please make sure you go to settings, sound setting, and open the passthrough there. and for xbmc, i have to say, allwinner and tronsmart is still working for that, the xbmc is really a nightmare for those chinese chips. and like bob said, the stock player should work well for the videos he test, and the image is better than others, check here:
http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...aco-AW80-today!

second, you are still talking the xbmc, which is not designed for universal products, it need a lot of work to make the xbmc working perfect for those box, but i know tronsmart and allwinner will work on this after they get the hardware accelerate working in linux. i have talked with them

third check the tronsmart forum, they are answering questions,and their customer service, and each us are trying to keep every bugs you guys talking,and submit to the factory and allwinner, some bugs need to be fixed in the SDK, and it depends on the all winner's work.

fake antutu? i have checked how you guys check that, and also report that to allwinner, i hope they can give us some official explanations. the allwinner a80 is really a octa core cpu, and in our normal test, it is faster than the rk3288 or s802, s812.

anyway about our review system, i will ask the staff to check.

Eric

[bloodgnome]

Tronsmart Draco AW80 Meta is a disappointment

Allwinner, who got ditched by xbmc in the past because of the lack of sources, will get jack support from them.

The a80 runs pretty hot and consumes to much power, which is why it has problems especially with tablets.

And the Antutu cheating is another nail in their coffin.

Sent from my thl 5000 using Forum Fiend v1.3.

[Finless]

This box and Proc has HUGE PROMISE!
So much to work with here.

But......

Bottom line if AllWinner wants a part of this market... They need to get off their ASS and start fixing things ASAP and a lot faster than they have to date!

To be honest due to the lack of commitment by AllWinner so far, I have kind of lost interest in this box! And that is a bummer because it has HUGE potential!

Look at the WeTek Play which is not even a quad core and actually is a pretty old SOC now.... FREAKIN AWESOME for an Android box!
Why? Because they KNEW that a good ROM is the key... NOT HIGH END HARDWARE! They hired and got developers that KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING to make it work.

Eric, AllWinner now needs to step up if they are going to play in this market seriously!
Waiting 2 months for a ROM that doesn't do anything is not going to fly anymore with the competition in the market now.

My .000002 cents!

Bob

[leafar]

This box and Proc has HUGE PROMISE!
So much to work with here.

But......

Bottom line if AllWinner wants a part of this market... They need to get off their ASS and start fixing things ASAP and a lot faster than they have to date!

To be honest due to the lack of commitment by AllWinner so far, I have kind of lost interest in this box! And that is a bummer because it has HUGE potential!

Look at the WeTek Play which is not even a quad core and actually is a pretty old SOC now.... FREAKIN AWESOME for an Android box!
Why? Because they KNEW that a good ROM is the key... NOT HIGH END HARDWARE! They hired and got developers that KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING to make it work.

Eric, AllWinner now needs to step up if they are going to play in this market seriously!
Waiting 2 months for a ROM that doesn't do anything is not going to fly anymore with the competition in the market now.

My .000002 cents!

Bob

Same old story with Allwinner A31 almost two years ago.
The peoples from Mele,they are not using anymore allwinner for this reason no support and lies.
I do own and still using the mele A1000g A31 good box , still jelly been, buggy, 720p , but good video better than rockchip.

I do not understand their political and no more allwinner until,when A80 is ready for the show, because I believed this it's a powerful SoC

[ELTokko]

I'm willing to pay money for the developer that makes a good firmware with hardware acceleration.
If more people are willing to pay some money for the development maybe we can persuade a developer. Otherwise i'm afraid this nice hardware will be a very expensive paperweight.

[Moulin1980]

Hi ELTokko, we have already paid to tronsmart et geekbuying, it is they who must make a good firmware.

we can not always ask the developers.

The tide is turning, this may be the end of the box, with just android.


The advantage with Windows 8.1 or 10, is that the OS will not have a problem with the video or other, there is no more to install 10.000 firmware.

Pipo X7 + windows license, for 90.00 $ ...Mass is said.

I'll despite all, continue to ( playing ) with android.

[myc]

Bob: My sincere thanks for your excellent assessment.
I was holding out on getting it with worries of this (and the lack of bitstream hd-audio passthru). Was actually going to ask you, but you beat me to it!

Erich@gb: What is Tronsmart's position on this? They are not talking to us. Are they talking to you? Are they working on improving video performance? Are they working on anything? Is there any hope?

Sorry to put you on the spot, this is mostly a Tronsmart issue. But I'd be buying this box from geekbuying so I'd be asking you anyways.

If not for no usb3 on the minix neo x8-h plus, I would have gone with it by now. Looks like best value, support and experience may be in saving up a couple hundred more and building a decent Linux htpc+ from scratch. Guess I can pay the friendly neighborhood computer store and buy local. Spend a bit more, get a much more stable and versatile solution.

As it is, these boxes don't seem to be worth anywhere close to what they cost.
I don't know how much longer ill bother waiting.

This box and Proc has HUGE PROMISE!
So much to work with here.

But......

Bottom line if AllWinner wants a part of this market... They need to get off their ASS and start fixing things ASAP and a lot faster than they have to date!

To be honest due to the lack of commitment by AllWinner so far, I have kind of lost interest in this box! And that is a bummer because it has HUGE potential!

Look at the WeTek Play which is not even a quad core and actually is a pretty old SOC now.... FREAKIN AWESOME for an Android box!
Why? Because they KNEW that a good ROM is the key... NOT HIGH END HARDWARE! They hired and got developers that KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING to make it work.

Eric, AllWinner now needs to step up if they are going to play in this market seriously!
Waiting 2 months for a ROM that doesn't do anything is not going to fly anymore with the competition in the market now.

My .000002 cents!

Bob