S905? Which to get

Help & Support Hardware
1

I looked at the Wiki page and looks like the S905xx boxes are supported with many variants listed.

But I see X, L, D, Y, Z…

I assume that the 2, 3, 4 are generations, and the higher the number the newer/better it is.

The letters I haven’t sorted out yet. Looked on Wiki, and it seems you pick one and gain/lose something over the other version. S905X looks good but older HDMI, S905L has the newer HDMI but loses VP9, etc.

I think I have it narrowed to S905X4 and S905Y4, both about the same cost but honestly, no idea which is better. Y4 seems newer, but a few benchmarks made the X4 seem faster. Not worried about Android speed, I have a Beelink now and loathe the Android part of it and never use it. I just use KODI plugged into my TV and NAS, HDMI and Cat6 ethernet connected… no wifi, bluetooth, games etc.

So, which to get? Which would be better and I guess which supported longer? I have a Beelink GT1 Ultimate S912 now that I bought near the end of it being supported.

Also, any specs in particular to search? I saw that 1GB ram works, 2GB better, but most I think are 4GB anyways.

Amlogic S905X4 (Q4 2019): Mid-range SoC pin-compatible with S905X2 and -X3 processors. Adds 4k 120fps AV1 decoding.

Amlogic S905Y4 (Q3 2022): Quad-core ARM Cortex-A35 based SoC with a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU. Adds AV1 hardware decoding (AV1 MP-10@L5.1 up to 4Kx2K@60fps)

2

What? Google Cert. devices don’t work?

This is exactly what I was looking at BECAUSE it was Google Cert I figured gotta be better than most generic ones… apparently not?

3

Means nothing. uboot is ignored, and they’re leaning on an existing blob from the android partition for DoVi. Obviously all SoCs support it if it’s loaded early enough, but they’re following DRM closely.

4

Umm… I’m not sure what that means or if it answers my question :rofl:

5

So this was heavily censored content from the team here - hoping for a fresh conversation. The boxes before with the s905x3 and similar were confirmed to be funded by an external party and guaranteed to tear over a S905 soc. Is the new NE SoC setup fucked as well? or does NE mean that CoreELEC works once again for all content (including pausing) post kszaq.

6

What do you mean by this? If you think about money then you are wrong. As written multiple times some external party provides resources to even get CoreELEC running. In SW form. And sure in HW samples to actually work on something.

7

Both S905X4 and S905Y4 are catered for in CE

But knowing which devices work on CE is not so simple.

  1. Check if your device is listed here: CoreELEC - Device Trees
  2. If it’s not, check the forums (there is currently no one place to check this)

Also, 2GB is totally fine for CE.

8

I gotta say the other responses of blobs and money funding were over my head with regards to which version of S905 to get to be honest… I understand that generics are 50/50 to work from when I bought the Beelink, and is why I bought the Beelink.

Was reading on the Coreelec Wiki about Amglogic NC vs NE, and I guess “New Era” (dumb name, what happens when the next new era comes, new new era?) is the way to go.

So, S905X4, S905Y4, S905W2 and A311D2.

Not sure if SC2 or S4 is better though.

A311D2 I see is in the Beelink GT King II, but costs 2x what my Beelink GT1 Ultimate cost and 0 stock anywhere. Maybe AliExpress, but not risking buying a box off that site.

Few things I have noticed though…

My S912 has 3GB DDR4 ram, all the current S905X4’s seem to have 4GB but went backwards to DDR3

Also, on comparison sites, my S912 seems like it’s more powerful for many things, though I think mostly focused on games.

Upgrading would though allow for more current software, and Dolby Vision. Otherwise video playback seems the same.

Problem I’m having and might post in the proper section is 10bit HDR BT.2020 4k. When I set my TV to the proper HDMI it works, but random stuff like closing a YouTube video, when the screen flickers to go back to KODI, the TV pops up and says no signal found. I have to go and switch HDMI back to auto which drops it down to HDMI1.x again. Then when I play HDR again, same situation. So, been using 10bit SDR BT.709 4k and works and looks great but, still nice to use the TV for features I paid for. Wondering if newer hardware with newer HDMI will work.

9

Dumb is to not even write correctly the abbreviated project name.
And who are you to judge about the name!

10

I’m getting a bit tired of some abusive behavior of 2 or 3 users. Maybe we can name the next kernel -de (dumb era) because there’s a lot of nonsense floating around.

1 Like
11

@vpeter What are you, 10yrs old?

@Vasco I hope you’re talking about this guy and not me.

NC or NG, whatever… does it really matter? I mean, a typo… THAT is your comeback? over something that frivolous?

As for “who am I to judge”… I’m a person who is entitled to have/voice an opinion. “New Era” makes no sense when every 5-10yrs a new one comes out. Just making things confusing when the next iteration is released and people like myself who aren’t tech-savvy, are researching what to get, we’re going to assume the one called “New Era” must be the new one.

How does your name have “Problem Solver” next to it, with a response like that?

12

I’m a developer spending a lot of time on this project for free. And for what? For such users like you having no respect! And NE is just a name. Deal with it.

Working on this new MT7668 BT driver but have no more interest! Now every feature I work for is only when I see :moneybag: Then I will deal also with insults!

1 Like