JXD S7100 / Chinese Android Gaming Tablets

[KidIce]

Downloaded the 720p Simpsons trailer from here, and it plays flawlessly from my crappy 50 year old 1GB microSD w/ the video player included on the S7100. OK, obviously the SD isn't really that old, but I think I bought this when I bought my EZFlash 4 lite deluxe when they were first launched. I don't really feel like benchmarking it at the moment, but IIRC it was fairly slow even back then. (God, I can't wait for my new 32GB to get here.) That being the case I'm reasonably certain that you'd have no problems viewing any 720p video you care to... Especially w/ a better SD or from the internal flash.

The s7100 is perfectly rootable, is completely customizable once rooted and runs any Android app I've thrown at it perfectly... Varying degrees of emulator performance aside, I mean, native apps run just fine from 3D games to replacement launchers.

Haven't really been looking so my knowledge of overclocking an Android device is pretty limited, but who overclocked their s7100 and what did they use?

Edit: I'll check out apad.tv. I hate when people post an answer to my question while I'm typing it. :-)

 

[elgarta]

Downloaded the 720p Simpsons trailer from here, and it plays flawlessly from my crappy 50 year old 1GB microSD w/ the video player included on the S7100. OK, obviously the SD isn't really that old, but I think I bought this when I bought my EZFlash 4 lite deluxe when they were first launched. I don't really feel like benchmarking it at the moment, but IIRC it was fairly slow even back then. (God, I can't wait for my new 32GB to get here.) That being the case I'm reasonably certain that you'd have no problems viewing any 720p video you care to... Especially w/ a better SD or from the internal flash.

The s7100 is perfectly rootable, is completely customizable once rooted and runs any Android app I've thrown at it perfectly... Varying degrees of emulator performance aside, I mean, native apps run just fine from 3D games to replacement launchers.

Haven't really been looking so my knowledge of overclocking an Android device is pretty limited, but who overclocked their s7100 and what did they use?

Edit: I'll check out apad.tv. I hate when people post an answer to my question while I'm typing it. :-)

Yeah I had that issue just before also. I should start refreshing pages before I post to make sure I am not just repeating what someone else says

What launcher are you using? I really like the stock UI on my Acer Iconia but I doubt there is a free version for other devices based on it lol

 

[KidIce]

I'm pretty sure you've been reading the apad.tv forums, you might have seen a post complaining about not being able to remove certain icons. I kind of liked the way they had their launcher laid out, but was frustrated that I couldn't swap out the Chinese apps on the main screen/home screen/whatever for apps I wanted there. The only real fix, as far as I can tell, is replacing the launcher. I tried a couple of highly rated launchers and ended up w/ GO Launcher EX. There may be better out there, but it certainly suits my needs. Very configurable from the app icons to the tool bar (or whatever the bar at the bottom in landscape or left side of the screen in portrait is called in Android lingo). The tool bar can have any of it's apps replaced (bye-bye dialer and contacts) and even has a second page to scroll to.

I'm still messing w/ this thing and hardly any sort of Android expert. When I find something I like and/or works great I tend to stick w/ it until some event suggests I should try something else. I've barely tapped my options for things to try or ways to customize this thing... And damn it! I already finished Plants vs Zombies on the DS, but it was pre-installed on my s7100 and it keeps calling to me and stealing about 1/2 hour of my time a shot. It looks amazing on this thing when compared to the DS version, but that's not the reason I keep playing it. :-)

Hell... So far I spent almost as much time tweaking this thing as I have actually using it. My Wii was like that once custom IOS's and NAND emulation hit. OTOH, I don't really mess w/ my Wii any more, now I just play games on it. This device will probably be no different. And I'd love any input that might shorten my "tweaking" phase... Not to suggest I don't like the tweaking.

 

[elgarta]

Haha I actually downloaded it last night for my phone, but I had to go out to a movie and then work so I haven't had any time to play with it. I actually heard about it from some other site iirc. The default launcher for the 7100 does look nice, but if you can't replace he default apps with it then it is kind of pointless. A shame really.

I wish I knew more about android, once mine comes in I expect to mess with it a bit. I haven't really messed with the settings/launchers on my phone/acer much since I don't actually mind the default ones for them, plus I don't want to alter them too much incase I find a custom rom that ends up re-setting my settings. They do offer lots of potential though, certainly a massive leap forward from my old Blackberry that I had last year

 

[raulpica]

Downloaded the 720p Simpsons trailer from here, and it plays flawlessly from my crappy 50 year old 1GB microSD w/ the video player included on the S7100. OK, obviously the SD isn't really that old, but I think I bought this when I bought my EZFlash 4 lite deluxe when they were first launched. I don't really feel like benchmarking it at the moment, but IIRC it was fairly slow even back then. (God, I can't wait for my new 32GB to get here.) That being the case I'm reasonably certain that you'd have no problems viewing any 720p video you care to... Especially w/ a better SD or from the internal flash.

Thanks for taking time to test it I'm intending to play mainly High Profile L5.0-L5.1 vids (the Simpsons one you tested is a QuickTime profile, which isn't that taxing for a CPU to decode), so I dunno, those are pretty difficult to play back... could you try playing back this sample (if the player doesn't support MKV, you can try the same sample, but in mp4)? That should be enough for my needs!

I'm 99% sure that it'll lag horribly

Thanks again, I truly appreciate you taking your time to test this.

 

[KidIce]

Video plays flawlessly on the both of them on the included video player (Yay! it can play MKV's!)... Sound is completely jacked though. I'm kind of inclined to believe it's a CODEC problem rather than lack of horsepower though. I mean, it looks (or rather sounds) exactly like it does on any other device that is trying to play something through the wrong decoder. Load up an exe into a sound player that is willing to play it as raw, that's what it sounds like. Also the video should be the harder thing to decode, right? It certainly isn't bringing the device to it's knees. The sound doesn't stutter, like it would if the system was over taxed, it's just plain fucked. I can't be bothered right this second to look into another player or codecs or what have you...

Unfortunately I apparently did something very bad in my tweaking and had to reinstall the original firmware (my fault, not the device's), so I need to start over w/ my tweaking. The good news is, it should be a hell of a lot faster this time around. The apps and such are largely already downloaded and I have a FAR better understanding of what I'm doing now. Point A to point B is a hell of a lot shorter now. :-)

 

[raulpica]

Video plays flawlessly on the both of them on the included video player (Yay! it can play MKV's!)... Sound is completely jacked though. I'm kind of inclined to believe it's a CODEC problem rather than lack of horsepower though. I mean, it looks (or rather sounds) exactly like it does on any other device that is trying to play something through the wrong decoder. Load up an exe into a sound player that is willing to play it as raw, that's what it sounds like. Also the video should be the harder thing to decode, right? It certainly isn't bringing the device to it's knees. The sound doesn't stutter, like it would if the system was over taxed, it's just plain fucked. I can't be bothered right this second to look into another player or codecs or what have you...

Unfortunately I apparently did something very bad in my tweaking and had to reinstall the original firmware (my fault, not the device's), so I need to start over w/ my tweaking. The good news is, it should be a hell of a lot faster this time around. The apps and such are largely already downloaded and I have a FAR better understanding of what I'm doing now. Point A to point B is a hell of a lot shorter now. :-)

That's some excellent news. Looks like you just need a better vid player than the included one then... I'm totally going to order one now. Thanks

 

[elgarta]

I'm actually surprised this topic got even as much love as it has . I cannot wait for mine to come out so I can do some tests with it, I love getting a new piece of hardware and seeing what it is capable of. Recent gaming handheld platforms have impressed me a bit, makes me wonder why I took a big break and ignored them all when alot of the hype around early portable emulation was around.

 

[KidIce]

I'm actually surprised this topic got even as much love as it has . I cannot wait for mine to come out so I can do some tests with it, I love getting a new piece of hardware and seeing what it is capable of. Recent gaming handheld platforms have impressed me a bit, makes me wonder why I took a big break and ignored them all when alot of the hype around early portable emulation was around.

I was kind of surprised to see someone here asking about it shortly after I had placed my order. :-)

I'm pretty sure you'll like it when you get it, at least I'm liking mine. I had never even considered a tablet before this, and that only changed because of the physical controls. I was one of those "The hell would I want w/ a tablet?" guys, but the more videos I watched and forum posts I read the more I wanted it. :-D

 

[KidIce]

OK, I think I may have figured something out about the video player and what's going on. The video is supported by the hardware decoder the audio is not (thus the garbage sound). The problem is, you were right about these video samples bringing this thing to it's knees... If it's NOT using the hardware decoder. So all the players I've tried that will play the video through a software decoder, the sound is fixed but about 2 seconds in to the video sync is lost and the stuttering begins. If I could find a player that would let me decode the video through hardware and the audio through software there's a chance that this could play your sample vids, but I have yet to find one (not that I've tried even half of them on the market, mind). I think another option might be to re-encode the audio in a format supported by the hardware decoder. Obviously this isn't ideal, as I'm not real fond of having to covert or store multiple copies of a video so I can play it on various devices.

Sorry if this is a deal breaker for you, RP... Particularly if you've already ordered one, it just took me a while to figure out what was actually going on. :-/

 

[raulpica]

OK, I think I may have figured something out about the video player and what's going on. The video is supported by the hardware decoder the audio is not (thus the garbage sound). The problem is, you were right about these video samples bringing this thing to it's knees... If it's NOT using the hardware decoder. So all the players I've tried that will play the video through a software decoder, the sound is fixed but about 2 seconds in to the video sync is lost and the stuttering begins. If I could find a player that would let me decode the video through hardware and the audio through software there's a chance that this could play your sample vids, but I have yet to find one (not that I've tried even half of them on the market, mind). I think another option might be to re-encode the audio in a format supported by the hardware decoder. Obviously this isn't ideal, as I'm not real fond of having to covert or store multiple copies of a video so I can play it on various devices.

Sorry if this is a deal breaker for you, RP... Particularly if you've already ordered one, it just took me a while to figure out what was actually going on. :-/

Thanks for testing it! I'll probably still get one, as I'll try to tinker with it myself.

Hardware decoding is the only chance for those devices to actually support h264 in 720p/1080p. It looks funny that the player doesn't support AC3 but oh well.

Would you mind testing for the other Audio types around?
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_1080p_hp_4.1_10mbps_dts_unstyled_subs_monsters.mkv DTS (I'm sure that this won't work too)
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_720p_hp_5.1_3mbps_vorbis_styled_and_unstyled_subs_suzumiya.mkv VORBIS
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_720p_hp_3.1_600kbps_aac_mp3_dual_audio_harry_potter.mkv AAC/MP3 (this one has a fairly low Video bitrate, so it might decode the audio in software and it should still work)
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/h264_720p_mp_3.1_3mbps_aac_shrinkage.mp4 AAC

This should clear up everything If it's only a problem about AC3, I could survive without it, few things are encoded with it.

Anyway, what's the name of the internal player? I'll try searching around for some other hardware decoders.

EDIT: The AMLogic 8726 supports hardware decoding for the following video formats: 1080p video for H.264, VC-1, WMV, MPEG1/2/4. That's pretty much 90% of everything floating around I'll try searching for audio decoding support.
EDIT2: A mediabox sporting the same CPU says this: Support DTS, AC3 Digital audio decoding,decoding L/R track directly. Funny, AC3 _doesn't_ work!
EDIT3: Found this: "AML8726-M’s problem is that of DTS, AC3 audio track in terms of support, but can besolved manually replace the licence file." Looks like it doesn't decode them because of a license issue. I wonder how this license replacement thingy works...
EDIT4: Even more infos! http://www.deltawd.com/ATV1000.pdf This is a media benchmark, and it says that everything (AC3 included?) is supported, except for DTS, which requires a license. They're talking about hardware decoding, so I'm sure that it should support them by hardware. Looks like they're disabled by the player or something, then?
EDIT5: There's a fix floating around for HW AC3/DTS decoding: http://www.chinadigitalcomm.com/ainol-mid-f105/custom-826-rom-patched-with-2gb-3gb-4gb-data-partition-overclock-compcache-t10957-40.html . Maybe with some work it could be applied to the JXD S7100. That's it, I'm still getting one
EDIT6: Found fix for JXD S7100 http://www.apad.tv/apadforum/showthread.php?2611-Not-sound-in-many-movies-with-audio-format-AC-3-ACM-CODEC&p=21578&viewfull=1#post21578 Looks like I'm a real Google hound! I wonder if it'll work on S7100B, since that's the one I'm getting.

 

[KidIce]

The included player only identifies itself as "VideoPlayer v1.73". I also have RockPlayer installed. RockPlayer offers software decoding, which is pretty much futile for these vids, but beyond that has no better performance over then included player (which is to be expected w/ hardware decoding).

Monsters - Video plays fine, sound is busted
Suzumiya - Plays fine, audio is fine... Made me feel dirty and in need of a shower
Potter - Video is fine, audio plays out of sync... This actually seems to be a problem w/ the video itself though.
Duke - Plays fine, audio is fine

The fix from apad.tv won't work on the s7100B as far as I can tell, there is no option on the recovery menu to apply the license. There may be some way to enable the license on a B unit, but the method offered there is not it.

Speaking of apad.tv, those guys have been busy. When you get your S7100 the first thing you should do is this. Wish that thread had existed when I first got this thing. And if you're you're adventurous then try this. I'm running just fine at 1000MHz, BTW

 

[raulpica]

The included player only identifies itself as "VideoPlayer v1.73". I also have RockPlayer installed. RockPlayer offers software decoding, which is pretty much futile for these vids, but beyond that has no better performance over then included player (which is to be expected w/ hardware decoding).

Monsters - Video plays fine, sound is busted
Suzumiya - Plays fine, audio is fine... Made me feel dirty and in need of a shower
Potter - Video is fine, audio plays out of sync... This actually seems to be a problem w/ the video itself though.
Duke - Plays fine, audio is fine

The fix from apad.tv won't work on the s7100B as far as I can tell, there is no option on the recovery menu to apply the license. There may be some way to enable the license on a B unit, but the method offered there is not it.

Speaking of apad.tv, those guys have been busy. When you get your S7100 the first thing you should do is this. Wish that thread had existed when I first got this thing. And if you're you're adventurous then try this. I'm running just fine at 1000MHz, BTW

Well, I guess it's useless searching for another player... Crap, this sucks

We seriously need a fix for the S7100B too. If there isn't any available, I might have to resort getting an A unit

 

[elgarta]

Yeah alot of blank areas with the B unit's performance since alot of people who tinker these devices have the original A unit and not the B.. Plus, people who wouldn't know better would just buy it and think it was the same since (as far as I know) the box/unit don't specify what model it is (A/B) unless you go through the system settings >.<

How is it working OC'd? Are you getting any problems like shorter battery life or random freezes/shut-downs? I want to possibly put mine at 1000mhz once it comes in, but I haven't ever OC'd a device because of the fear that I will kill it

 

[KidIce]

Well, I guess it's useless searching for another player... Crap, this sucks

We seriously need a fix for the S7100B too. If there isn't any available, I might have to resort getting an A unit

Yeah, I suspect most players will have the same problems. It wouldn't surprise me to see a fix on apad.tv for the B units though. At this point, the B unit seems to be getting more love then the A unit, I suspect because the B unit is rapidly becoming the more common device. As far as I can tell the A unit is no longer produced or available from a retailer, so from now on all new devices should be B's... Until they release a C unit. :-/

I'd work on this a little harder, but using this thing as any sort of media player is a really low priority for me. Sorry, I only bothered testing the samples for your benefit. It's not that I will never watch videos or listen to music on it, but I have a MUCH smaller MP3 player (and a smaller portable CD player) for music and mostly the only reason I drag around video is to show it to a co-worker or some such... Not for me to watch. I suspect if I looked long and had I'd find a way to install the license w/o the recovery menu, but I have too many other things taking up my time to give an honest effort.

Yeah alot of blank areas with the B unit's performance since alot of people who tinker these devices have the original A unit and not the B.. Plus, people who wouldn't know better would just buy it and think it was the same since (as far as I know) the box/unit don't specify what model it is (A/B) unless you go through the system settings >.<

How is it working OC'd? Are you getting any problems like shorter battery life or random freezes/shut-downs? I want to possibly put mine at 1000mhz once it comes in, but I haven't ever OC'd a device because of the fear that I will kill it

As I said, that seems to be transitioning. I suspect the B unit will eventually take over just by sheer numbers. As more of the B units sell, the ratio of B to A is likely to start favoring the B and in a hurry.

Overclocking. It's completely stable at 1K from my experience. No random freezes or such. The back of my s7100 gets a bit warm at standard clock speeds. It's warmer overclocked while plugged in and under load, but not "scary" warm/hot.

Battery life is impacted, but I think this should be obvious, and I haven't bothered to measure by how much. I'd have to stress test it to come up w/ anything useful. Most mobile devices drop their power usage when under a lighter load by reducing the clock and such. Regardless, I took this out w/ me and played the PSX version of Soul Reaver for close to 3 hours and didn't run of of juice.

The performance boost isn't so high that "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!!!". OTOH, the increased heat and shortened battery life aren't so significant either that you should be afraid of it. It's stable, there is no reason to fear it; it's up to you to decide if the shortened battery life and slightly warmer temperatures are acceptable to you.

 

[elgarta]

As I said, that seems to be transitioning. I suspect the B unit will eventually take over just by sheer numbers. As more of the B units sell, the ratio of B to A is likely to start favoring the B and in a hurry.

Overclocking. It's completely stable at 1K from my experience. No random freezes or such. The back of my s7100 gets a bit warm at standard clock speeds. It's warmer overclocked while plugged in and under load, but not "scary" warm/hot.

Battery life is impacted, but I think this should be obvious, and I haven't bothered to measure by how much. I'd have to stress test it to come up w/ anything useful. Most mobile devices drop their power usage when under a lighter load by reducing the clock and such. Regardless, I took this out w/ me and played the PSX version of Soul Reaver for close to 3 hours and didn't run of of juice.

The performance boost isn't so high that "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!!!". OTOH, the increased heat and shortened battery life aren't so significant either that you should be afraid of it. It's stable, there is no reason to fear it; it's up to you to decide if the shortened battery life and slightly warmer temperatures are acceptable to you.

Yeah, I can see it going that way. I do see some of the tweakers on apad.tv who are posting things for the B unit and asking for tests to be done to see how it works, so currently it is just slower since they don't have it.. but I am sure once these people get their hands on one (And once/if it gets an update for ICS 4.0) the focus will entirely shift. I only just noticed today the DX seems to be sold out of the old model where it was available not long ago.

Glad to hear that. I am used to my android phone getting warm at times, but I've never had anything scary happen. yeah I'd expect the battery to take a hit, but if you still get 3 hours battery without a complete drain that is pretty good. Most tests I looked up gave the standard clocking a life of about 4 hours, so it's nice that the negative impacts aren't serious.

I might play around with it when it comes in, I mean, for the price even if something does go wrong it isn't like I just destroyed a $700 tablet.

 

[raulpica]

Yeah, I suspect most players will have the same problems. It wouldn't surprise me to see a fix on apad.tv for the B units though. At this point, the B unit seems to be getting more love then the A unit, I suspect because the B unit is rapidly becoming the more common device. As far as I can tell the A unit is no longer produced or available from a retailer, so from now on all new devices should be B's... Until they release a C unit. :-/

And seeing that a AML8726-M6 coming out with dual-core, I can foree see a S7100C happening soon

EDIT: Hey [member=KidIce], isn't there a "Set eFuse" option in the Recovery menu?

 

[elgarta]

Mine finally arrived but it had almost no charge on it, so I only had enough time to quickly check the UI out. Once I get it charged i am planning to install the root package mentioned earlier in this thread and then see how it all goes!

Since I have never played around in the recovery menu I don't actually know how to get into it. I just hold the menu button when I press the power button in, right? The thread on apad.tv says (Power + Menu) so I assume so, but I can't test it since I get the big battery bar pop up telling me it is charging now.

First impressions though, this thing is a pretty solid device. The casing seems very well made for a tablet in the sub $200 price range. I did play Star Fox 64 for 1 minute to test it, and despite the hiccups it seems very playable. The buttons feel nice too, and I had no complaints witht the analog nub either. I guess knowing wha to expect avoided me from sitting here complaining about the lack of shoulder buttons and how the speakers aren't the same as a high end machine or whatever. I am looking forward to coming back from work and messing around with it tonight

 

[KidIce]

And seeing that a AML8726-M6 coming out with dual-core, I can foree see a S7100C happening soon

EDIT: Hey [member=KidIce], isn't there a "Set eFuse" option in the Recovery menu?

I hate you so much for pointing that out. Of course if one does come out that is dual core and at a similar price I'll be all over it and my current unit will be looking for a new home.

No eFuse option in the recovery menu. It consists of reboot system now, apply update from sdcard, wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache partition, wipe media partition, reboot into factory test.

Mine finally arrived but it had almost no charge on it, so I only had enough time to quickly check the UI out. Once I get it charged i am planning to install the root package mentioned earlier in this thread and then see how it all goes!

Since I have never played around in the recovery menu I don't actually know how to get into it. I just hold the menu button when I press the power button in, right? The thread on apad.tv says (Power + Menu) so I assume so, but I can't test it since I get the big battery bar pop up telling me it is charging now.

First impressions though, this thing is a pretty solid device. The casing seems very well made for a tablet in the sub $200 price range. I did play Star Fox 64 for 1 minute to test it, and despite the hiccups it seems very playable. The buttons feel nice too, and I had no complaints witht the analog nub either. I guess knowing wha to expect avoided me from sitting here complaining about the lack of shoulder buttons and how the speakers aren't the same as a high end machine or whatever. I am looking forward to coming back from work and messing around with it tonight

Yeah, drop the update.zip onto the root of your SD (I don't think you actually need to rename it, like the post I linked says, but may as well). Make sure the unit is fully powered down and not just asleep. Then hold the menu button and the power button until it says, "upgrading please wait". It should then cycle through the blue Android, Cortex, etc screens you see on a normal power up, then a picture of an Android standing next to a pack of generic "fun size" raisins w/ a arrow coming out of it, then the recovery menu. Use the D-pad to highlight "apply update from sdcard" and use the start button to select it. Select the update file and let it do it's thing. That should get your rooted and the market installed in one shot... As opposed to what I went through: using UnlockRoot, locating and downloading the various required APK's, etc.

The OC kernels apply in the same manor.

Despite the claims of no data loss in the posts linked, they did screw up a couple installed apps and my widgets, which is why I suggest doing the root and OC'ing before you really start working on customizing the thing. Nothing big or hard to fix, but why do it more than you have to.

Applying the system update from the JXD site will completely wipe anything you've done, though, so if you are going to do that, do it before you do anything else.

 

[elgarta]

Well once I get home (assuming it has actually charged) i will do this. I mainly want to remove some of the cluter hat is on there and those chinese apps that I can't figure out. Luckily I haven't done any customization on it as of yet.

I can understand the complaints people have with the launcher, but if you could run it and actually customise it all like the organised drawers the games are in, and maybe add a link the the android app page, it would be nice.

Is the system update on the site an update worth doing? I didn't get the chance to look at the specs in detail so I don't know what it updates at all

Update: So I got back and decided to play with the device some more. I installed the market/root package mentioned earlier and I installed a new loader, but what I am wondering now is whether the Chinese garbage can actually be removed or not. I am wanting to update the emulators and replace the GBA one with the version that runs golden sun, but it just says it can't uninstall.

Also it seems as though no apps from the Google market want to install, they all say they are not compatible with my device/version (MIP s7100 is what it shows up as), which is weird considering my phone that runs froyo can have the same apps installed. I am just hoping it's because I am just too tired to know what I am doing after a long day at work >.