BuzzTV XRS4900 - What's up with these devices?

[AthieN]

I picked up a BuzzTV XRS4900 (Info/Specs: here) at a pretty good discount recently and have been trying to figure out if there's any way to throw a custom ROM on it? The specs are almost identical to the Beelink GT-King as far as I can tell (with the exception that the XRS4900 has 128GB eMMC) so one would think that ROM's made for the GT King would work on this device... Right? Or pretty much any other ROM made for the S922X with similar specs...

The problem is that no matter what I try, I can not get it to take a new ROM.

Here's what I've figured out so far -
The bootloader is unlocked because I can boot to it (with the help of the Amlogic Bootloader Console by first booting to uboot and then running 'init fastboot') and can write stuff to it...

I have a copy of the full ROM (in zip format) that they sent me, so I have the recovery and boot partition information. However, none of the tools I've tried can seem to properly extract them or allow me to inject stuff like TWRP or Magisk into them.

Even though I see a ramdisk parition in the ROM, Magisk does not see it, so I cannot burn to the boot.img file. And when I try the recovery.img method, it will never boot with Magisk enabled...

So my questions are as follows -

1. Is this one of those "sell it and forget it" devices? Where they are completely locked down and there is zero chance of getting it rooted and/or getting a custom ROM installed?
2. Why does nobody ever talk about these devices on any of the forums? They are very nice overall. My issue is that I personally prefer AndroidTV over the mobile version, because I have it hooked up to my TV and want that experience. So I am trying to get it loaded up with an aTV ROM if possible...
3. Can someone explain how this works? I know quite a bit about customizing Android devices and actually used to compile my own ROM's, but this one has me scratching my head... How are they SO locked down that you can't do anything to them, even with a fully unlocked bootloader? How do you get around that? There has to be SOME way, right?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've tried every which way possible that I can think of to break into this thing and I'm about to chuck it in the garbage! So frustrating! :/

Thanks all!

[gefattern]

I picked up a BuzzTV XRS4900 (Info/Specs: here) at a pretty good discount recently and have been trying to figure out if there's any way to throw a custom ROM on it? The specs are almost identical to the Beelink GT-King as far as I can tell (with the exception that the XRS4900 has 128GB eMMC) so one would think that ROM's made for the GT King would work on this device... Right? Or pretty much any other ROM made for the S922X with similar specs...

The problem is that no matter what I try, I can not get it to take a new ROM.

Here's what I've figured out so far -
The bootloader is unlocked because I can boot to it (with the help of the Amlogic Bootloader Console by first booting to uboot and then running 'init fastboot') and can write stuff to it...

I have a copy of the full ROM (in zip format) that they sent me, so I have the recovery and boot partition information. However, none of the tools I've tried can seem to properly extract them or allow me to inject stuff like TWRP or Magisk into them.

Even though I see a ramdisk parition in the ROM, Magisk does not see it, so I cannot burn to the boot.img file. And when I try the recovery.img method, it will never boot with Magisk enabled...

So my questions are as follows -

1. Is this one of those "sell it and forget it" devices? Where they are completely locked down and there is zero chance of getting it rooted and/or getting a custom ROM installed?
2. Why does nobody ever talk about these devices on any of the forums? They are very nice overall. My issue is that I personally prefer AndroidTV over the mobile version, because I have it hooked up to my TV and want that experience. So I am trying to get it loaded up with an aTV ROM if possible...
3. Can someone explain how this works? I know quite a bit about customizing Android devices and actually used to compile my own ROM's, but this one has me scratching my head... How are they SO locked down that you can't do anything to them, even with a fully unlocked bootloader? How do you get around that? There has to be SOME way, right?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've tried every which way possible that I can think of to break into this thing and I'm about to chuck it in the garbage! So frustrating! :/

Thanks all!

Hi ,

this is for sure , a like you call "sell it forget it" Box , cheap produced with nice looking chase , but not support ,

did you contact them , do they answer , did you ask for ATV Rom ???

is BuzzTV not a Streaming App too ??? , are they working together or only using the name .

How long is this Box already on the market ??? Sorry i am not a Pro in that , but sure that you can find online

many Infos about making a AML Rom for your specific SoC , there are some Devs here that work with this

SoC , maybe you can ask with PM for help , but remember not every SoC use the same Wifi Chip , u need the

right Rom or Drivers and know how to do , you need for sure the SDK , i think , no Pro ???

further good luck / gefattern

[sagert]

Look here. Here is a device with a similar processor. Although the drivers may be different and something does not match. Although I don’t know amlogic s922 and I can’t say anything specifically:

https://4pda.to/forum/index.php?showtopic=948693&st=20540

[gefattern]

Look here. Here is a device with a similar processor. Although the drivers may be different and something does not match. Although I don’t know amlogic s922 and I can’t say anything specifically:
https://4pda.to/forum/index.php?show...48693&st=20540

Hi ,

this is a Rom for the Ugoos AM6 Models , some of them use the XJ Version of CPU , not sure if it fits ,

think he need the AML SDK , to build it for his Box , we all know how bad the support is for nearly all this

cheap Asia China Boxes , always better to buy a Shield or look for alternative Ways to get what your needs

wants ,

hope you get it ,

good luck / gefattern

[AthieN]

Thanks for replying guys. I guess I didn't realize this was a "cheap asian" box since it is one of the sponsors of Freak Tab. I will look into the UGOOS ROM and see if it may possibly work. Or I may just sell it and be done with it too. I don't know. I've spent way too much time trying to break in to this thing and it really doesn't make a lot of sense why I haven't been able to.
I did contact them and they provided me with their ROM (in a zip) but they stopped responding when I asked about an ATV ROM or for any other help. So I hit a dead end there, which is why I am reaching out to you all here to see if anyone happens to know if it's possible to re-flash this thing...

It has good specs and seems like a waste if I can't get it to perform the way I want, know what I mean?

And I already have Shields for my TV's. This was just something I picked up out of boredom and wanted to mess around with... That's all.

[mo123]

Thanks for replying guys. I guess I didn't realize this was a "cheap asian" box since it is one of the sponsors of Freak Tab. I will look into the UGOOS ROM and see if it may possibly work. Or I may just sell it and be done with it too. I don't know. I've spent way too much time trying to break in to this thing and it really doesn't make a lot of sense why I haven't been able to.
I did contact them and they provided me with their ROM (in a zip) but they stopped responding when I asked about an ATV ROM or for any other help. So I hit a dead end there, which is why I am reaching out to you all here to see if anyone happens to know if it's possible to re-flash this thing...

It has good specs and seems like a waste if I can't get it to perform the way I want, know what I mean?

And I already have Shields for my TV's. This was just something I picked up out of boredom and wanted to mess around with... That's all.

The Ugoos ROM is encrypted so flashing it can brick your device permanently.
You can only use the firmware in the buzztv forum unfortunately and it doesn't seem like this is a good supported device and it is quite expensive.