I have reviewed this in English, if you cant understand BACKGROUND translating software.
Review:
I tested with the Official Firmware and the beta firmware (s) provided by MINIX forum. As on 07.17.2014.
Tested with: Samsung UE40ES6710 LED TV and Yamaha RX671 AVR
HDMI cables from Oehlbach, MINIX and cable Direct. Toslink cables from CSL, Monster Cable and Direct. Logitech Wireless Keyboard KB400, 1TB HDD, 32 GB USB drive.
Pros:
1. Very good class leading HW specification on papers.
2. Looks good and build quality is better than other cheap boxes.
3. 4k sample videos play well.
4. Menu looks good.
5. Active unofficial support forum provided by MINIX. As I said the support is only in English at the International Language. So Im afraid how much its useful for German native speakers only.
Cons:
The below list is not full but highlighting some very important issues.
1. Flimsy firmware with lots of bugs. IMO alpha quality Official firmware. Beta firmware releases are not stable and did not fixed all bugs. As on 07.17.2014.
2. Tried with different Android video player and MINIX official player, most can not play different video formats. My 2012 Samung Tv Sony Bluray and plays almost all video formats I tested. Basically the problem is with base firmware or decoding software decoder or driver.
3. Issues with streaming apps. Tried different Android apps, 90% of the streaming apps have issues. Tested thesis apps on Nexus4 and Nexus5, all Played smoothly, no issues. So I have tested hypothesis apps on X7 and works pretty well.
4. Multichannel audio playback issues. I am only able to get DD, DTS streams over HDMI in XBMC for 10% files I tried. Basically I need to play with settings for 10-15 minutes to watch a video file, Which is really disgusting. Noticed significant sync issue with audio and video playback with multi-channel sound.
5. The free Air Mouse M1 is more helpful, but the firmware in X8-H is so flimsy. Sometimes it is so difficult to control and the cursor movement Becomes sluggish. Need to powercycle the M1 mouse to get it back alive. So I Noted That in some Menu screen, the mouse movement Becomes sluggish. I tested M1 mouse with X7 and works fine without any issues.
6. Poor ports / connector design. Eg: Optical Toslink cables in port wine does not fit locked in the port The port is little Placed inside the case Which makes difficult for the Toslink cable connector to lock properly... But you will get the silent audio. Same for X8-H and X7.
7. Poor IR remote control reception. Very narrow range IR operation. The problem may be iR receiver on X8-H or the firmware. Found no issues with X7 IR reception with same remote control. Very few basic buttons on remote control.
8. Audio cracking sound over HDMI Which is really a nuisance. This happens Only When routed via the HDMI AVR.
9. MINIX unofficial support forum: The forum is Good for a geek with some technical knowledge, not good for a layman. So highly defensive / arrogant / impolite MINIX support team / teams When an issue is reported in the forum. I have personally gone through almost 80% of the forum threads and I feel like the MINIX support team / teams are the Treating customers like testers employed by MINIX. I feel it like Software Developers rejecting bugs reported by software testers. , May be Because of the lack of polite English usage by MINIX support team / teams. I live in a country where customer is treated like a King.
Conclusion:
IMO MINIX X7 is more than enough for Full HD and is having a stable firmware. So it cost almost half the price of its brother X8-H. May be after 6 or more months the X8-H Firmware Becomes stable and can be Considered. Most of the reviews Which are in Internet about X8-H may be paid by MINIX.
Still thesis Andorid boxes can not be used like a simple Bluray player or set top box. Need to know some basic technical stuff. Not recommended for a layman IMO.
Thanks for reading this review. Hope it helps.
