Respect
Please consider this thread as it is : a simple and collective way to share knowledge and progress on the GS-King X device and its CoreELEC support. This means you should respect any user participating to the discussions and accept the fact that you may have a different view and/or opinions than others.
Please do avoid repeatedly asking for the same thing again and again… If you are willing to develop and share something, just do it. If you just need to complain, just don’t.
What
The GS-King X is now available for sale : it’s a TV+NAS box from Bee-link, based on the S922X soc, as is the GT-King. The main differences are:
a great dac (ESS sabre ES9018) in dual mono and good opamp for audio (with 3 quality outputs)
2 3’5" bays for internal storage, connected with USB3 internally
an aluminium case with active cooling
I cannot comment on the android (non-ATV) experience, but the GT-King is performing really great when running CoreELEC, I have virtually no issue with 9.2.2 !
Why
This topic aims at gathering information about CoreELEC support/use.
Please share your question and your information on this box here.
working : yes, internal HDD detected too, use the revA gtking DTB for now, I’m using CoreELEC-9.2.3-ng
builds: check the nightlies to get last updates and give feedback to the developers
image name : Amlogic-ng Generic image
How to switch to CoreELEC
Download the 9.2.3 ‘ng’ image, flash it on a SD-card with Rufus (or any other software you are comfortable with). Then copy the DTB file with GT king revA name from the device_tree into the root folder of the SD-card afterwards ; simply rename it to dtb.img.
Then, with the box powered-off and the cable unplugged, put the SD-card, use a toothpick to push an internal switch (there is a small hole in the bottom of the chassis, next to the output ports). When it clicks, put the cable power and wait until the CoreELEC screen appears.
Let me know if this helps or if you have another issue.
It does look like a very decent device. Did you order one @broleke? Some team members are getting a sample device afaik. Personally I don’t think I would use CoreELEC on a device like this. I would probably use it as a NAS with Ubuntu running on it.
Well, I do believe that this new device could be used to bring video and more audiophile audio feature in a single box, with the ability to store very large amount of music/video/data too (and CoreELEC has all the necessary bits, as far as I know). I’m quite interested by the all-in-one factor too, with low power consumption.
The fact that you (among other) think about NAS here also make sense : I think that the box is actually versatile and powerful enough for any of those tasks.
There is nothing against using CoreELEC on that one. CE can provide everything you need to run a full NAS.
If you have your device let us know the power consumption. I am always interested in that kind of stuff. I am using a N2 as a NAS with a USB3 disk. You could even run emby server or plex server on it.
Ah and let us know the read/write in MB/s over Gigabit Ethernet.
It is an interesting device, clearly aimed at being a media/gaming device and I am sure that the twin HDD bays and added audio features will add to the appeal.
For once, when I see such a more high end device for the class of machine, the price does look reasonable at the current ‘offer’ value and I can see it being potentially popular if it remains at the price level.
Cooling will be a key area for Beelink to have addressed with two bays being populated and heavy usage in play.
With the option to add quite vast storage options, I would also hope to see more options to support multi boot OS provision ala the likes of petitboot or even better that would cover the options of what could be used for every conceivable purpose.
Looking at the ‘reviews’ there is nothing in them that constitutes a review because none of the promoters have units in hand to make a review, just information about the specs of the box, so I would recommend modification of the review title to something more appropriate as my initial excitement to obtain real world experience was quickly curtailed by little more that information already available on the manufacturers website.
Regarding the “reviews”, you’re right and I’ve updated the OP.
I do like the vast storage made available and I’d love to see it easily available through the OS with high rw speed. As for the audio part, I’m puzzled by the fact that no one so far seems interested by it. I don’t have information about cooling, but I hope it remains inaudible or - better - passive.
I am an audio fan and here are my thoughts:
-I would use it as a NAS and TVHeadend server, but in that application the audio becomes redundant as these applications are best run 24/7 in a headless setup in the background. In this application having a SATA pair of drives is very appealing. However having said that the speed advantages offered by SATA are not really significant as a media server.
-balanced audio is a bit of a gimmick and will have only minimal take up among users. I have to ask why they didn’t use the standard balanced XLR plugs which would have made it fit into any standard setup with XLR.
-its nice to have a good quality DAC onboard, but I have two observations
a) the DAC that is built into the s922 is very good quality already and only needs to be exposed via hardware. This is done on the Hardkernel N2 to great effect.
b) I like the flexibility of a plug in DAC and for this something like the Khadas Toneboard makes an excellent cost effective option.
So my opinion is that this is a bit of a curates egg of an offering which will probably have a very limited market despite its excellent features.
Another point to note, neither CE or Android make particularly great servers - so will this be offered with a tricked out Ubuntu ?
Well in some way, Shoog’s comment makes sense:
I think that Synology Play model are claimed to be NAS product with media playing capabilities.
And this GS-King X claims to be a media player with NAS capabilities.
