Hi,
I’ve tested several Android player hardware now and continue to have issues with performance. My requirements: 1080p and 4K playback, streaming video (8Mbps) and text compositing on screen. I’m looking for more animations on-screen and GPIO for other integrations. Additionally I need to be able to do some encryption (VPN) and the devices need to operate 24/7 in extended temperature ranges. Ideally I’d also want to be able to capture HD video (720p+).
Here are my results:
Amlogic S805 series - too slow to do anything with, stuttering animations and video.
Amlogic S905X (ODROID, GeekBox etc) - works pretty well and is stable. Can do video streams however most of the jQuery animations Xibo uses (such as Marquee) are jittery. Large screen changes can likewise seem laggy to draw. CPU usage for simple video and text is over 70%. Usually your device is limited to 100Mbps and Android 5 or 6. Most of these devices get too hot to touch when Xibo is running, cheaper device may overheat and crash.
Amlogic S912 (DS Devices, MINIX) - Same problem as S905X in regards jittery drawing. Seems to do better although I’ve now sent back 3 devices from various sources that simply overheat after a few hours.
Snapdragon 615 - Seems to do well in all my tests although I haven’t found a ‘good’ packaged/finished device. It seems I need to order a custom board and that’s not going to happen for orders <100 devices.
Intel Compute Stick - Crashes, can’t simultaneously use BT and WiFi without crashing one or the other, Intel seems to have abandoned Android on it. Android x86 is very unstable.
Intel NUC - Again, Android support has been abandoned by Intel and has it’s quirks (Android 4.4) but otherwise has decent performance. Also, pretty pricey for what are now ~5 year old processors.
So basically, the current Amlogic with Mali 400-series GPU’s seem to be out of the question for high quality Xibo. They will do videos and simple animations well enough so they might be ‘sufficient’ for you right now however I haven’t been able to find anything that has the capability of an Intel device.
What are your results? Any options you have tried? I don’t want to use the Windows player because it’s missing functionality and the support costs are too high.
