MINIX NEO X7 quad core tv box review part 1

[darebee]

ROM Benchmarks

I did some testing on 4 different ROMs and I find they all still have trouble with 1080p content. I have 25 GB mkvs for most of my movies with HD audio (which we have to turn off).

AnTuTu 3.3 Benchmarks:

Firmware	Overall	RAM	CPU Int	CPU Float	2D	3D	DB io	SD Write	SD Read	CPU Freq	Comments
MINIX Neo X7 - 720p + VSYNC Fix, 1.8ghz OC, Root & Multiuser.img	18509	3118	4665	4041	1635	4160	555	131 (13.1 MB/s)	204 (>50 MBs)	1800 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC No Ethernet No Power Light Audio is out of sync
MINIX Neo X7 - 720p + VSYNC Fix, Root & Multiuser.img	15232	2673	4137	3528	1564	2426	550	150 (19.2 MB/s)	204 (>50MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC No Ethernet No Power Light Audio is out of sync
X7_box_4.2.2_20130801_1080.img	14192	2785	4181	3563	1067	1718	560	114 (11.4 MB/s)	204 (>50 MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is okay but I swear it drops frames, 1080p is terrible Archos crashed my system 3 times I gave up
Stock	15655	2846	4184	3527	1558	2717	535	83 (8.3 MB/s)	205 (>50 MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC

[Mike_77]

Looks like we have to combine the best of both. I might play with that if i have time, but probably still a week away

[Guest]

I did some testing on 4 different ROMs and I find they all still have trouble with 1080p content. I have 25 GB mkvs for most of my movies with HD audio (which we have to turn off).

AnTuTu 3.3 Benchmarks:

Firmware	Overall	RAM	CPU Int	CPU Float	2D	3D	DB io	SD Write	SD Read	CPU Freq	Comments
MINIX Neo X7 - 720p + VSYNC Fix, 1.8ghz OC, Root & Multiuser.img	18509	3118	4665	4041	1635	4160	555	131 (13.1 MB/s)	204 (>50 MBs)	1800 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC No Ethernet No Power Light Audio is out of sync
MINIX Neo X7 - 720p + VSYNC Fix, Root & Multiuser.img	15232	2673	4137	3528	1564	2426	550	150 (19.2 MB/s)	204 (>50MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC No Ethernet No Power Light Audio is out of sync
X7_box_4.2.2_20130801_1080.img	14192	2785	4181	3563	1067	1718	560	114 (11.4 MB/s)	204 (>50 MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is okay but I swear it drops frames, 1080p is terrible Archos crashed my system 3 times I gave up
Stock	15655	2846	4184	3527	1558	2717	535	83 (8.3 MB/s)	205 (>50 MB/s)	1608 MHz x4	XBMC 720p is great, 1080p very choppy no CPU load so all GPU Archos Video Player Great on 720p content, 1080p is a bit choppy but much better than XBMC

Have you tested the Nexus sdk2 multi-windows 1.2 on this device ? without any modification please.

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?5847-T428-Nexus-Rom-SDK2-and-Multi-Windows-Official

[darebee]

I'll give a try strauzo and let you know how it goes. I haven't had any luck getting Ethernet to work in any of these ROMs yet though. I tried adding the rtl8150.ko but it didn't work.

[darebee]

Okay, I flashed the ROM. The device boots up and shows the bouncing google, comes to the Welcome screen but no input device works. Not the remote, nor the USB keyboard or mouse I've been using. Not sure what to do from here. Any suggestions?

[Mike_77]

Okay, I flashed the ROM. The device boots up and shows the bouncing google, comes to the Welcome screen but no input device works. Not the remote, nor the USB keyboard or mouse I've been using. Not sure what to do from here. Any suggestions?

Same thing for me..

Also, with the stock 1080p firmware I get constant lockups.. looks like I'm gonna have to spend some time and make one that does what I want.. or maybe Strauzo can get his Nexus working completely with this.. I'll gladly help with testing..

[thebox]

I got mine on Wednesday, and it keeps freezing up, and have to reset it all of the time!
Is anyone else having this problem? I emailed geek buying about this on Friday night but have not heard a word back yet?

[DomZ]

I got mine on Wednesday, and it keeps freezing up, and have to reset it all of the time!
Is anyone else having this problem? I emailed geek buying about this on Friday night but have not heard a word back yet?

You are not the only one, there is many reports like yours on forums, minix forums, minix facebook page ...

There is a chance that freezes problems are due to hardware and could not be fixed by software upgrades, I hope that I'm wrong since I ordered mine but still waiting it ...

[thebox]

You are not the only one, there is many reports like yours on forums, minix forums, minix facebook page ...

There is a chance that freezes problems are due to hardware and could not be fixed by software upgrades, I hope that I'm wrong since I ordered mine but still waiting it ...

I ordered the x5 also, but they sent it via snail mail. If the problen is a hardware fault, I want my money back!

[pr0xZen]

It was a little unclear to me if this was already covered, so forgive me if I'm beating a dead horse here; Does it actually do proper multichannel passthrough on the optical S/PDIF (DTS, DD, AC3 etc)?

My TV doesn't do passthrough, and my reciever doesn't support HDMI - although it does decode AC3, DD, DTS etc. I'd love to exchange my old Xtreamer MK1 for an Android solution, but that means multichannel passthrough over the S/PDIF connection is dealmaker or breaker for me.

Oh, and the Miracast part - does the X7 work as a standard client, or can it work as an Miracast reciever? Last part would be epic.

[alwaysbless]

The x7 rom is very temperamental - after booting it needs at least 1-2 minutes of not touching it at all for it to load everything up other wise it will freeze up real quick (I think airpin really screws with startup). Also, I noticed the contacts.apk is missing in the stock rom - and according to this thread - http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc...xpectedly.html - it may be responsible for a couple of things not working and the random throwing out process errors. Heres a link to dl the apk if anyone who is getting that error would like to test - https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vbr16dkqdtn3j2/Contacts.apk

[rank78]

You are not the only one, there is many reports like yours on forums, minix forums, minix facebook page ...

There is a chance that freezes problems are due to hardware and could not be fixed by software upgrades, I hope that I'm wrong since I ordered mine but still waiting it ...

Yikes, between that and other issues I'm glad I've waited to order until customers were able to offer feedback. Bad hardware batches aren't unheard of for electronics but common software issues are more troubling to me in that something as longstanding as jittery video playback should have been corrected before going to market. The x5 and many other devices experience it and it has been up to devs to fix it, how can Minix release the x7 which is supposed to be an upgrade if it has problems similar to the old model?

I was interested in one of the Android sticks but heard about the x7. I figured at this price at least the x7 would work right out of the box, but I might have to research the sticks more because functionality-wise it seems the much cheaper sticks work better since devs have improved the software. I'll probably wait a bit longer because I always have confidence in Android devs but Minix has left a bad impression on me as a company more concerned with rushing to market than releasing a solid product.

[reefmonger]

Re: MINIX NEO X7 quad core tv box review part 1

Part 2 of the review seems to be taking along time. Could it be they want to ship the rest of the backorders first?

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

[coolio2004]

... or the results of XBMC and others are not so good as expected.

[Mike_77]

... or the results of XBMC and others are not so good as expected.

XBMC works fine for me at720p streaming wireless over both5ghz and 2.4ghz. 1080p is choppy but hopefully that gets fixed soon. This is using the1080p ROM from MINIX