Android set top box recommendations

RetroArch Android devices
#1

Hello all,

It has recently become apparent that the best way to get a great retroarch tv experience at the lowest possible cost is going to be an android set top box. Instead of building a mini htpc with a pico psu which is hacky and time consuming, these boxes are highly integrated, often come with unexpectedly high gpu power, and boot android right out of the box.

The question is, is there something similar to the nvidia shield (tegra 4 level power) in a set top box format? Thanks in advance…

PS - if you go the android route, can you still launch retroarch from a command line shell similar to windows or do you have to use the gui? Sorry if that is a newb question. Want to integrate with advanced launcher in xbmc…

#2

Question would be better asked on an android forum. I guess just check the specs and reviews before making a purchase. There is a lot of choice out there.

I’ve just ordered a slimport adapter for the N7 2 for my tv fix ‘hopefully it runs good’

#3

With all due respect, I am not wanting to ask all android users, I want the specific subset of android users who use retroarch. Therefore, I feel this is the appropriate place to ask such a question. Thank you for your feedback.

#4

Yeah I was just thinking on an android forum people would have more of an idea as to what was the best value powerful box to get. I hope someone can chime in for you here but my guess is that most android users here ‘not all but most’ will be using either a phone/tablet/shield and have no clue as to what box to recommend.

#5

From what I have seen Squarepusher mention I would not want anything less than a Tegra 4 device if you want everything running perfect. I have not heard of a device that has that good of specs that isn’t a tablet (or Shield) or phone. There are the cheaper things like Ouya that I believe might have a retroarch port but there is no way all the cores will run as good as the nVidia Shield. It may run the games pretty well though so you could check into the Ouya. Personally, I would buy the Shield and hook it up via HDMI and use a bluetooth controller.

Edit - after googling this quick I do see there are some set top boxes like this http://nuvola4k.com/ but I have zero information about them so I guess I cannot be of help. Also, that one is $299 and at that price I would buy the Shield anyway.

#6

Ugh, I had a nice, informative reply written for you, but the forum ate it, so here’s the short version: Android sucks but if you absolutely have to go lowest-cost, it’s probably your only option. The MK808s are supposed to be decent for RetroArch, I think, and the Nuvola NP-1 will be a good option if/when it ships. Until then, an Ouya might be your best bet.

Either way, I don’t think there’s any way to launch RetroArch via command line on Android, so you won’t be able to use XBMC as a launcher/ROM browser. FAKEDIT: just saw your P.S., so no, that’s not going to work.

Your best RetroArch experience will be with regular, non-android Linux using KMS mode, which requires open source GPU drivers. This would be a good CPU for that (it’s what I have in my HTPC): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6819116774

#7

I remember the first time I had retroarch running on my tv with a galaxy s2 phone over MHL lol. Thought at the time that I had powerful shit lol. Funny.

#8

I plan on getting a Nexus 7 2013 and connect to tv via hdmi and use a dualshock 3, can you let me know how it works out for you?

#9

Yeah when i recieve the slimport cable next week i will let you know how it runs.

#10

Yeah when i recieve the slimport cable next week i will let you know how it runs.[/quote]

Great, thanks man!

#11

The MK808B is pretty good for the price ($40 on Amazon). It’s not perfect (I don’t think any Android set-top box is) but it can run most of the RetroArch cores fine as long as you don’t use shaders.

#12

MadCatz is supposedly coming with the MOJO, a Tegra 4 power Ouya competitor but it’s not particularly cheap at 250$. http://madcatz.com/mojo/en-us/

If you want Tegra 4, Tegra Note tablets (reference designs sold to OEMs by nVidia) are starting to show up too at 199$ a piece: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7508/nvid … e-7-review

As for set-top boxes, RikoMagic just announced the MK902 (http://liliputing.com/2013/11/rikomagic … ni-pc.html) which looks very similar to one of their previous stick (MK802 III or was it IV? They iterate way too fast!) but in a set-top box form factor.

There’s the Minix NEO series from J&W too. The main SoC is the same as the MK8xx and MK902 though (Rockchip RK3188 or RK3066) (http://www.minix.com.hk/Products/MINIX-NEOSeries.htm) so don’t expect great shader performance. I would expect a tad better official support and build quality but I can’t say for sure. I’ve used some of their Mini-ITX AMD motherboards a few years ago and was quite happy with it.

But the problem is that all of these Rockchip and Allwinner (A1X) SoC-based sticks and set top boxes suffer from the same issue : weak GPU (graphics are handheld by a Mali 400 which is starting to show its age). But if you couldn’t care less about shaders then, as steev said, most of these pack a decent punch for the price.

Also, you can go Linux on the RK3xxx sticks with PicUntu but since there is no driver for the Mali GPU (maybe down the line with the LIMA project?) you won’t get hardware acceleration/shader support.(http://liliputing.com/2013/10/picuntu-4 … vices.html).

If you want something x86-based, Zotac or Giada may have some Celeron 857 or 1007 mini-bare bones worth looking at. But don’t expect great graphics there too.

Personally, I’m waiting on Bay Trail desktop motherboards (Pentium-J 2850) since Intel has a decent track record with Linux drivers but I’m not expecting miracles from the castrated Intel HD on there.

@hunterk: how does the HD 4000 behave with the most demanding shaders (crt-halation etc…)? I have a 720p TV and I think I might just save a bit more and go with one of the Haswell-based Gigabyte Brix (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=47&ck=104) if the performance is alright…

#13

@Tanuki It’s great. It can handle the halation CRT shader at 720p but not 1080p, and pretty much everything else is fine, too. I think it provides the best integrated RetroArch experience, since it can do KMS, as well.

#14

I don’t know how its with rockchip , but last time i had checked linux on A1X ,i was able to get hardware acc with the mali. was also tricky . http://linux-sunxi.org/Binary_drivers https://github.com/linux-sunxi

seems someone have succes also to get it with rockchip: http://hwswbits.blogspot.fr/2013/04/3d- … linux.html

BTW , as stated above ,i agree , Mali 400 is starting to show its age. should better wait to see if some good tegra4 based device will arrive .

PS - if you go the android route, can you still launch retroarch from a command line shell similar to windows or do you have to use the gui? Sorry if that is a newb question. Want to integrate with advanced launcher in xbmc…

Yes you can ,using am start , but also tricky :slight_smile: for example , if i want to start mame0151 core with the 1942 game with a recent retroarch on my htc , i have to do :


am start -a  android.intent.action.MAIN -e ROM /mnt/sdcard/ROMs/MAME4droid/roms/1942.zip -e LIBRETRO  /data/data/com.retroarch/cores/libretro-mame0151.so  -e CONFIGFILE /data/data/com.retroarch/libretro-mame0151and.cfg -e IME com.htc.android.htcime/.HTCIMEService  -n com.retroarch/com.retroarch.browser.RetroActivity

:slight_smile:

#15

Yeah when i recieve the slimport cable next week i will let you know how it runs.[/quote]

Great, thanks man![/quote]

Recieved slimport cable today and tested MK2 on the MAME core without speedhack and it ran smooth :slight_smile: only game I tested but MK2 is demanding. happy days so far.

#16

Neat! Tricky but neat! I wonder what kind of performance they can get with RetroArch.

Alright, it’s decided then! Thanks for the feedback =)

#17

What about slapping an android dev board inside some sort of enclosure? This is a high end one but maybe someone can find an example which has the right balance of performance / price?

http://shop.intrinsyc.com/products/snap … ment-kit-1

#18

Nice. If these rumours about the power of the Nexus 10 2 are true, I might hold off and get one of them instead of the Nexus 7.

http://www.product-reviews.net/2013/11/ … h-tegra-4/

#19

This was just announced:

https://developer.nvidia.com/jetson-tk1

Thoughts? $192

#20

It should be good. Running ARM linux should be way better, performance-wise, than running android.