Media Centre for Dumb TV

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  Clear on 24/01/2016 - 13:25

  +1

  Worth mentioning that the Ara X5 review is a little outdated as we replaced it with the Ara X5 Plus. It's now using faster Samsung eMMC 5.0 flash storage, 802.11ac WiFi with removable antenna and some other minor changes.

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    mgrogan on 24/01/2016 - 13:53

    Thanks Clear.
    This ticks all my boxes: budget $AUD205, ethernet, Win10 and USB3 :) :)

    May I ask where you purchased it from?

    http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Tronsmart-Ara-X5-Windows-10-T…

    Thanks
    :)
    Margaret

    • 

      Clear on 24/01/2016 - 13:54

      +2

      I'm the rep for Geekbuying and Tronsmart so I can only recommend that place ;)

    • 

      Clear on 24/01/2016 - 14:07

      And if you do decide to get it, use the coupon from the GB store page on OZB to get $15 off… TrsAraX5Plus

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    mgrogan on 23/02/2016 - 11:06

    Thanks for the recommendation.
    It arrived safely yesterday, ordered 4 Feb arrived 21 Feb.
    I love it.
    Some comments.
    1. The supplied tracking web link http://www.17track.net/ only showed the date it was posted to Australia (11 Feb). Maybe a challenge for those who have to arrange to stay at home to sign for the parcel.
    2. The loosely-packed adapter included with the parcel does not fit the supplied power plug in package. I had to temporarily borrow an adapter from another of my devices to check it all out.
    3. I have an old dumb Sharp TV which is not a real 1080 screen so I needed to resize all the application windows so I can see all the borders of the application windows. The Win 10 Start menu is slightly hidden on the left hand side but still readable.
    4. The Ara X5 package had a label stuck over it for "Plus", but the label under the chassis box only stated Tronsmart X5 - so you wouldn't be able to check the device which model you have, Ara X5 or Ara X5 Plus.
    5. The USB3 socket at the back of the device is very, very, very close to the HDMI socket. I needed to use the supplied HDMI cable rather than one of my own, as the supplied HDMI cable is slightly,slightly narrower than one of my own HDMI cables.
    6. Have successfully streamed iView, Presto using the wifi (but I have it only ~ 5 m from where the modem/router is located. At this stage I've had no need to connect using ethernet, as the wifi has been OK.
    7. Successfully played movies that I have attached using my USB2 drive or USB3 drive.
    8. My only glitch is that I've not been able to play embedded movies within an OpenOffice Impress (Powerpoint show) presentation. I have more work to check out why it is not playing the video (I can play the same movies OK using VLC or Windows Media Player).

    Thanks very much for the recommendation.
    I am contemplating buying the Android version :)
    Thanks Clear.
    :)
    Margaret

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      Clear on 24/02/2016 - 22:16

      I'm glad you're enjoying it. As for some of your comments.

      The supplied tracking web link http://www.17track.net/ only showed the date it was posted to Australia (11 Feb). Maybe a challenge for those who have to arrange to stay at home to sign for the parcel.

      Unfortunately once the package has left China the tracking becomes the responsibility of Auspost. 99% of the time they will not update the tracking.

      The loosely-packed adapter included with the parcel does not fit the supplied power plug in package. I had to temporarily borrow an adapter from another of my devices to check it all out.

      Another downside of Australia still being considered a small market. I've asked too many times for them to use switchable power adapters. I personally use a Xiaomi power strip as it takes AU/CN/US/EU plugs.

      I have an old dumb Sharp TV which is not a real 1080 screen so I needed to resize all the application windows so I can see all the borders of the application windows. The Win 10 Start menu is slightly hidden on the left hand side but still readable.

      Have you tried changing the screen resolution in Windows?

      My only glitch is that I've not been able to play embedded movies within an OpenOffice Impress (Powerpoint show) presentation. I have more work to check out why it is not playing the video (I can play the same movies OK using VLC or Windows Media Player).

      I looked into this and found that Open Office isn't properly optimised to run on Cherry/Bay Trail CPUs.

      A possible fix is to go Tools>Options>View>Graphics Output and untick "Hardware Acceleration" and "Anti Aliasing".

      • 

        mgrogan on 06/03/2016 - 09:13

        I did not want to change the screen resolution, window resizing was OK.
        Thanks @clear for the suggestion for OpenOffice Impress for turning off Hardware Acceleration. Alas Impress still hung when attempting to show a slide with an embedded movie.

        PS. One other challenge is that the unit heats after about 30 minutes (have it sitting on a rack so air can circulate around it) causing the plastic top cover of the chassis to curl up.

        Thanks again for the recommendation.

        May purchase a similar android device but would like to be able to use Impress playing videos. Any recommenations?

        :)

        Margaret

      • 

        kywst on 07/03/2016 - 23:49

        +1

        @mgrogan: Impress -> Tools -> Options -> Memory … bump up those values and try again. VLC is far superior to Impress for video content viewing.

      • 

        mgrogan on 08/03/2016 - 16:59

        @kywst:
        THANKS kywst :)
        That worked.
        I changed Impress -> Tools -> Options -> Memory
        Graphics cache
        Use for OpenOfiice from 20Mb to 256 Mb
        Memory per Object from 5.2 Mb to 128 Mb

        Agree that VLC for better than Impress to view a movie. The Impress presentation was prepared by an 80 year giving a public talk on his lyrebird observations and movies, so it would would have thrown him during his talk to switch from Impress to VLC to play each of the movies.

        Thanks again.

        @clear I did notify your support by email but I never received a reply, so this solution may be of interest to them.

        Thanks
        :)
        Margaret

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        Clear on 08/03/2016 - 17:08

        @mgrogan: Good to hear. I'll let the Tronsmart team know.