[Android Stick & Console RockChip based Computers] l0coful:
CS968 test

Hello. I've just bought CS968 and have been sitting on this whole weekend, so I can answer some questions. This has been bought for my parents to enable access to internet and lan multimedia using XBMC (because so called multimedia and internet functions in nowadays TV-s is just a big joke), so I can only speak about the things I've tested from this point of view.

First of all, the box is very good as regards the performance. The user experience is IMO the exactly same as on my Nexus 10 (this is not supported by any benchmarks - I don't care about the benchmarks, what is in the running for me is the user experience). I have no any remarks about the device and system - this is just a very good android device.

Now about the problems I experienced. The big one is that there's no power on/off switch on the box itself. You need to use remote controller. This looks not problematic, if you anyway use the RC, but to get everything best from android you need some more advanced controller, like wireless keyboard+touchpad. If you have such device you can forget about putting the RC to the drawer. You're forced to use it just to turn on/off the device, and this is the biggest design flaw.

The second thing, and this concerns probably all android devices, is that the internal resolution of the system is 1280, and then everything is scalled up to 1920. If you don't see a difference between 720p and 1080p, you rather don't be affected by this (I don't), but for people who see the difference, any android media box won't be a good choice (XBMC internally runs in 1280 what can be checked out in the system settings).

Anything I expected to launch on this device works in the way I expected - just fine (my national - Polish - online TV-s, youtube, web browser etc.). The only problem is with the XBMC itself. Unfortunately current XBMC doesn't support the hardware video decoding yet. The 720p is choppy and the 1080p can't be watched completely. On the other hand the ES Explorer + MX Player set works perfectly for 720/1080p material watched from smb resource. So, the device can do it, just XBMC can't.

The most of this weekend I've spent on trying to fix the XBMC problem. And finally I've done it. You need to install the MX Player + MX Player ARM7 codecs, and then install this version of XBMC: makesmarttv.net/how-to-xbmc-with-perfect-hd-1080p-support-on-android-mk802-iii, and do the things they explain (overwrite playercorefactory.xml with the version exchanging the default XBMC player with MX Player). After this the XBMC works perfectly and plays video with MX Player with very good performance. The only thing I fixed in the config is to use the original XMBC player for rtmp and rtsp resources (web streams) because they don't work with the MX. Here is my fixed config: pastebin.com/9W2iPyJc

So, now everything works perfectly and I think the box is definetly worth its money.

The questions:

> 1) is there some rooting guide?

The device looks rooted by default.

> 2) can it play 1080p movies normally from external hard drive?

Yes, using MX Player ARM7 HW codec, not by XMBC, unless you follow the instructions above.

> 3) does it support 5:1 Dts audio surround when connected with optical? Is this plug the standard coaxial plug?

Never tried this.

> 4) can I connect a wireless Logitech mouse +keyboard? Will they work normally?

Yes, without any problems.

> - As it's android 4.2, does it manage multiusers ? This could be useful wit family use...

I don't see this option, but didn't look for this.

> - Anyone tried Skype ? I'm choosing this model for the integrated webcam so...I hope it's working !

Not yet.

> - is it possible to "mirror" screens from other android devices ? Like Nexus 7 or GS3 ? I'd like to be able to display my phone screen on the TV...

I didn't try, but it's adversited with such feature and there's also some app preinstalled, that looks dedicated to doing this (unfortunately in chinesee).

> - is the device already rooted or is there a way to root it ?

Yes, already rooted.

> 1.Does the wifi antenna detachable one or fixed ?,

Fixed, alas.

> 2.rk3188 support H265(Ugoos UT1/Kaiboer F4, both are same chipset rk3188), can u play some h265 file

Never tried, but h264 1080p works without problems using MX ARM7 codecs.

> 3.how is the wifi connectivity ?

I didn't tried this too, because I'm on LAN cord.

> 4. is it true 1080p o/p to display, some say its 720p.

No. See the remarks above.

> 5. did u try connecting a 3G dongle and see that wrks ?

No.

> 6. for OTG, is it microUSB connector ? i could see 4 normal size USB, but not the OTG microUSB, tried connecting a HDD ??

I didn't try this but from the vendor I purchased it, the one USB is advertised as OTG.

> 7. poweoff button on the homescreen in the statusbar, does it switchoff the andriod system completely ???

The poweroff button from android status bar powers it off completely. This is funny part, because I didn't find the way to turn it on again (RC doesn't work after complete poweroff, you need to unplug the power, and plug it again to start the device). On the other hand the "off" button on RC only switches the device to standby mode

> 8. anyplace to get firmware updates for this ?

I don't know that.

PS. Sorry that links don't work (you need to copy-paste them), but this is stupidity of this forum, which doesn't allow me to insert links.