Alfawise A8 TV BOX Rockchip 3229 Android 8.1 - 2/16GB 2.4G WiFi 100Mbps Support 4K H.265

[dimkonst]

dimkonst,

We really dont know what to do, we did send a lot of emails to alfawise and they do not answer to our questions or provide any kind of help! Just go for the warranty!!! Ask for help!! That may be a hardware problem!!!

thank you,

thank you Bnt007

[MickeyMouse]

Here is the new firmware link for Alfaswise A8 (8.1 Android)

http://chiptrip.webok.net:5050/fbsharing/7LYVQffY

There's nothing in the link, is there another link?

[Djulz91]

Hi,

I just got this android box, and although the operating system is 1080p, Kodi is only using 720p without the possibility to change the resolution.

--- edit ---
As you can see in trebor's second cpu-z screenshot, screen resolution is stuck in 1280x720 (720p), whereas in the android video settings, it'd full hd.


For those who manage to update the firmware, does it fix this resolution problem ? Could you post cpu z screenshots please ?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards.

[mo123]

The device runs a 720p frame-buffer, nothing you can do to change that.
The Android resolution is just for upscaling, not real 1080p.
Only video playback will be in actual 1080p or 4K but then your firmware has to support auto frame-rate switching which this definitely doesn't support.
Only solution is perhaps RKMC, FTMC but not sure if it's even supported on Oreo on RK3229 devices.

[Bnt007]

Hello,

Just bypassed the loader failed by making a sd boot with rockchip upgrade tool...blue light again and recover system! But trying to install from sd it fails!! i do not know how to go true this phase...should i put the img file in the sd, in zip or img, the rockchip upgrade tool does let make a sd upgrade system but it fails making both(boot more firmware upgrade). what should i do now?
it´s working ok with the mx4vr img file.

thank you

[doannam]

Here is the new firmware link for Alfaswise A8 (8.1 Android)

http://chiptrip.webok.net:5050/fbsharing/7LYVQffY

Link don't work. Please give me a link from google drive. Thank!

[Ernesto78]

Here is the new firmware link for Alfaswise A8 (8.1 Android)

http://chiptrip.webok.net:5050/fbsharing/7LYVQffY

you could help me, you can upload it again, the link has expired
Thank you

[barleybob]

Heres a mirror to the firmware posted https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HiK...ew?usp=sharing i tried to use it but pc wouldn't recognize box just get blue flashing light on front of box anyways hope it helps someone

[Vienna]

Hello everybody,

the Alfawise A8 is the first Android TV Box I bought and I already wish I had bought something a little better, but you have to stay realistic with a device that costs only +/- € 25,00/US $ 29,99.
There's a lot of wisdom in the words "You get what you pay for" and sometimes it makes sense to invest a few dollars more. So far all the "Smart TV-functionality" in my living room came mostly from a Samsung blu ray-player. The TV also offers some smart TV features, but almost none of them are still working because there have been no firmware updates in the last two years. The Samsung player works - sort of - but has become so painfully slow that I don't wanna use it for anything else anymore than playing blu rays and DVDs. Additionally it would be a nice feature to be able to play videos from the 5 TB-harddisk of my Enigma2-Satreceiver via FTP or Samba.

The Alfawise A8 is cheap and feels cheap, very cheap as soon as you hold the device in your hands. I don't think I've ever seen a cheaper type of plastic before and the box weighs almost nothing, but four large rubber feets keep the A8 on its place. It uses the same remote control as a lot of other android TV boxes, you have to point it directly to the box, but it works well enough to get things done. It's ok but I'm sure very soon you will also replace it with something more efficient & comfortable to use like an Air mouse or whatever better options are available. WLAN-performance on the A8 isn't great but I have seen a lot worse from other devices. More annoying was that after switching the box off or rebooting it the WLAN-connection was lost. I had to go to network settings, enable WLAN and connect manually. After a few times I wasn't able to enable WLAN, it always switched itself off after a few seconds. Using a cable connection now and it seems it also improved the performance of the box little bit.

Comes with android 8.1, no updates available so far. Opened the EMedia Center app, connected it via FTP to the harddisk of my Formuler F1 E2-Receiver and it worked flawlessly. Opened the mostly 720p videos right away, playback was very smooth and I was very impressed with the picture quality of this little € € 25,00 device. A lot better than the much more expensive Formuler F1. Youtube in 1080p and no annoying waiting times anymore. Only the youtube-app takes some time start. Configuration of RKMC (preinstalled and apparently a fork of Kodi) was a bit more complex and time-consuming, but no problems there either. Unfortunately RKMC seems abandoned. Trying to download the german language pack, trying to download others skins failed with an error message saying something like server not available or can't be reached.

Results with the official versions of Kodi 17.6 and 18.0 Beta 3 were unfortunately pretty bad. Kodi runs, but it is impossible to play even 576i-videos without the danger of getting an headache. The playback is very choppy (especially with a lot of movement on the screen). It pauses, stutters and freezes a lot and with 720p-videos it got even worse. All four cores were constant at 100% and it was still not watchable. I guess hardware-acceleration is the issue here, read some articles and how to enable it correctly in Kodi. Switched the settings to expert, tried everything I could find, but there was no improvement at all. Unusable imho! RKMC it is then I guess. No big issue it works fine for what I need it, would be nice to have all the nice fanart, covers and so on Kodi downloads from sources like imdb. Even that fails on RKMC. Maybe it is possible to get a least some of the features working again, seems a lot of urls are down/not existing anymore. MX player worked also very nice with even more demanding 1080p high-bitrate trailers in HEVC/x265.

The biggest disappointment for me when it comes to the Alfawise A8 is the Netflix-app. As most of you probably know (I didn't because I was too lazy to do some research before I bought the box ;-) Netflix only plays in SD 480p-quality. That's not good, but not even the biggest issue. The Neflix-GUI/Interface looks completely different than on my blu ray player. A bit clunky, not very stable and doesn't work very well, at least not with the remote control that comes with the box. I guess it uses the same interface as on tablets and smartphones. Version number is 4.16.1 build 200147. Tested also other version of the Netflix-app, most of them were even worse or did not work at all. Most annoying imho is that the app (or android or the box whatever) has some problems with the continuous playback of episodes. For example: Watching "New girl" Season 5 Ep.1. Episode 1 is finished, now there's a countdown of 10 seconds or so and then episode 2 will be played automatically. Mostly it doesn't work. It counts down to 1 second, then there's an error message with some a bit cryptic code (not always the same) that says the Netflix service can't be reached. Then you have to close the Netflix-app, restart it again and everything works fine till the next episode. Very annoying! If you want a good Netflix experience and in HD, the Alfawise A8 clearly isn't the best choice for you. Better stay away from it.

So far the Alfawise A8 has been some sort of a mixed bag for me. It is a low-end, low performance TV box, but if you're looking for one that plays Youtube in HD, offers a half decent mediaplayer (1080p max I'd suggest), then it does the job quite good for such a cheap device. Don't forget and ignore the shortcomings and there's one thing that I would like to add and that worries me a bit when it comes to this box. The chipset likes high temperatures, average is pretty much 90 ℃ and above. It even runs at 92 ℃ when it is pretty much doing nothing. First I thought the measured temperatures are not accurate, but they sadly seem to be true. Watching a 720p-video for an hour and the box reports 98 ℃. Not a healthy temperature for such a device, especially when it runs so hot all the time. I guess the lifespan of the Alfawise A8 will be rather short, maybe it will slowly melt away...

[Vienna]

A short question: Is it possible to disable or even uninstall the voice control-app on top of the homescreen?

I find it a bit irritating to have constant suggestions how to use voice control when there's no such functionality or does it work with a special remote control?
Thank you!

[dimkonst]

Ιf anyone knows how I can shutdown the TVbox and not put it in a sleep mode.
Thank you.

[itsjustvenky]

you could help me, you can upload it again, the link has expired
Thank you

https://files.fm/u/gz2fjcjn

[JG420]

So I bought one of these crap boxes BEFORE reading reviews lol....has anyone figured out root or at least TWRP yet?!?!?!? I'm ok with the default UI but I need root for sure!

[juesus]

yes ,really crap box .and I bought 3 pcs

[Bnt007]

Finaly arrived my second tv box alfawise a8 since the first one stoped working. I open it to insert a 5v fan(made it) and realize that this one got some kind of glue in some specific soldering points, rk3229 chip still have a cheap heatsink module sticked with poor heat paste, and a static stick in memories...but guess what? I am testing the box for 24h and it is working great very stable(with the 5v fan always working), wifi can handle iptv and youtube if the rooter is not too far, ethernet is fast and works great! Remote ir control it's easy to use and doing fine. I also tried a sd card boot that i made with sd firmware tool 1.46(use the firmware provided by gearbest in the website) and tv box restarts in recover mode with all options...let's see if this bastard litle box will keep working!!

[dimkonst]

I bought the "Alfawise A8 TV BOX Rockchip 3229 Android 8.1" and I have a problem: I press the red button to shut it down the TVbox goes into standby, when I reopen it after some time does not have a wifi connection or does not work the on-off wifi button in the settings so I'm forced I reboot to get back into the internet connection. I tried connecting it to a different modem with wifi or go to the modem near the TV box but the problem remains, i'm waiting for your help. (sorry for my bad English).
Thanks

[mo123]

Known issue with a lot of these cheap devices. As they get no firmware updates, it won'be fixed