Buy analog video and audio cable

Posted on 13/07/2016 by invictaz

The MiniX uses a quite different AV cable which I managed to track down to a seller based in The Netherlands. It is called a TRRS in other words a tip ring ring sleeve cable.

As you can see in this blog the length of the plug should be longer than normal plugs otherwise it will not work. It should be 14 + 2,5 or preferably 17 millimeters. I hope it will work with this one as pinouts can be very different on various versions.

Pinout should be:

Pin 1 (tip): video
Pin 2: Audio L
Pin 3: Audio R
Pin 4: Ground

Price is 8,95 euro’s .

https://www.sossolutions.nl/mini-jack-to-3-rca-phono-lead-audio-video-av-kabel-1-5-mtr

Learn more about the TRSS sleeve cables here

http://www.cablechick.com.au/blog/understanding-trrs-and-audio-jacks/

Linux progress with video acceleration

Posted on 19/06/2016 by invictaz

So I had to run Linux on this machine. As a lot of builds for the Allwinner A10 platform are gone (since MiniAnd is offline) I had to look for much newer builds. The ultimate goal is to have XBMC running with 1080P hardware acceleration. As there is a lot of difference in Linux builds it’s best to try out some distro’s. I found the Cubieboard 1 (also with Allwinner A10) to be capable. There are some quirks however. Wifi is very unstable in most of the distro’s.

Cubian X

Has 1080P / Hotplug USB does not work

Qbee-X TMC FR

Has XBMC 12 (quite old), plays 1080P files fine, has HDMI audio, runs in 720P resolution.

Debian Jessie Cubieboard A10

Screen blanks out some time, usb ports fail after that. Runs in 1080.

Armbian Cubieboard 1

Is one of the smoothest in video, lacks wifi driver, lacks ethernet driver, has HDMI audio, runs on 1080P.

For now Qbee and Armbian are the best. What I would like to see is if someone is able to cook up a Debian Jessy with HDMI audio, 1080P, wifi support and hotplug USB and a much newer XBMC as 12 is way too old for any of the add-ons to work.

This needs much more testing, you can help me out.

MiniX Allwinner A20 firmware

Posted on 24/04/2016 by invictaz

I’ve found a firmware image for the MiniX versions running from an Allwinner A20 chipset.

Please beware that this firmware is untested as I do not have an A20 version, mine is an A10. See the firmware page to download it.

MiniX Allwinner A20 spec list

Posted on 09/03/2016 by invictaz

Interesting facts are:

Out of the box Android 4.2
1GB DDR3
Higher specs charger 2 amps
Direct Blu-ray ISO playback
Wifi Miracast
It does not say what the maximum amount of MicroSD storage is you can put in.

Different Allwinner A20 versions

Posted on 09/03/2016 by invictaz

It seems that there still are MiniX versions with Allwinner A20 sold. Some of the versions online do seem to have a build in microphone (?) or a different wifi antenna with screw thread where you can plug a bigger wifi antenna on. As you can see some of them still have the analog video out, and another has the headphone out.