[Android TV General] mannanoon:
Thanks to everyone, I've been keenly following this thread.

I'm a long time lurker. Its my 1st arm tv box but have messed about a lot with a load of fire sticks, kindles and Apple/Android phones over the years.

I was deciding on which box to buy my daughter as an AV box, educational, gaming emulation and Karaoke.

I was looking for something compatible with Aidans ATV ROM but after finding the comments here re Phoenix Card last Thursday + uploaded rooted firmware @ post #16 encouraged me to buy the H618 box.

It has been a series of uphill battles but I'm getting more confident as time goes on and as this thread progresses. Lots solved and learned so far.

Mine came with A5 FW and used the app list to upgrade as per post #2 update and it installed 12.1.A7 no problems and confirmed as pre rooted.

It has kernel 5.4.125 but it's #1 not #25 as Oranguman said in post #37. He was on A4 at this stage so wondered if can be updated independently or downgrading it is part of the FW upgrade?

ATV launcher seems better than square home for me, not tried AIO yet.

I have had some issues with using this as a Karaoke box. Firstly Android generally doesn't allow bluetooth mics to input audio in Ultra Star Karaoke app or anywhere other than phone calls. I tried with lesser audio switch, which requires a Magisk patch since Android 11. I got the patch installed after numerous attempts but since a wipe and update it constantly fails to install for some reason.

I then bought a pair of wireless mics and the receiver has 1/4" jack output. I have 2 x USB DACs, a guitarjack2 and an M-Audio mixer. I also tried changing <Select USB Configuration> from "Charging" to both "MIDI" and "Audio Source". Neither setting stuck or seemed to work.

Neither DAC or the bluetooth mics seemed to work for inputs while I had Lesser Audio Switcher and the Magisk patch installed.

I also found the bluetooth keyboard I got worked great other than conflict with the on screen keyboard. The <Enter> key wouldn't work in single input fields (address bars, search etc.), often pressing "q" key on VKB, while working fine anywhere else.

This was a faff to work around so I spent hours unsuccessfully trying to extract the Vendor/Product IDs (paired with my Mac although since found "Gamepad Tester" which works instantly) and key mapping solutions. Changing the key #28 from DPAD CENTER to ENTER failed in either generic.kl or creating a copy named Vendor_XXXX_Product_XXXX.kl .

In the end I found "External Keyboard Helper Demo". This worked to some extent, hides the on screen keyboard and <Enter> worked as it should.

There are a few of issue remaining with this.

Firstly the on screen keyboard doesn't show when the BT keyboard is switched off/at all. I will have a further play with the app settings.

Secondly the IR controller freezes up when I select Android Setting>Device settings and again when selecting anything within settings. One key push on either BT keyboard or gamepad unfreezes it as does changing "Current Keyboard" back to AOSP. It also freezes again after sitting unused until unfrozen as before.

Thirdly while the gamepads continued to work unaffected, this then caused issues with the IR remote dpad and back button.

I have now created custom mappings within EKHD to address this like so

On BT Keyboard

<28><Enter>

On IR controller

<19><Directional Pad Up>

<20><Directional Pad Down>

<21><Directional Pad Left>

<22><Directional Pad Right>

<23><Directional Pad Center>

<4><Back> - This annoyingly doesn't go back to home from the settings menu, tried numerous Keycodes backspace etc. to no avail. I wonder if there is another Keycode android uses for back here or it's related to the second issue.

This worked out of the box over wifi using ADBLink2 both on the original A5 and on the A7 FW. I am on a Mac so used <arp -a> in terminal which shows all IPs on the network.

I don't have a gender bender so haven't tried over USB yet but presuming it will work.