Last month, Vidon.me provided me with their AV200 media player for review, and at the end of the review, I was a little surprised (and annoyed), when I discovered that the product was not for sale anymore. Since then, they’ve brought a new product to market called “VidOn Box” with similar hardware specs, but a completely redesigned aluminum enclosure, and much more attractive pricing.
VidOn Box specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner A31s ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core CPU with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB DDR3
- Storage – 8GB Flash
- Video Output – HDMI 1.4
- Audio Output – HDMI and optical S/PDIF
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver, reset button
- Power – 5V/2A
- Dimensions – 150 x 107 x 31 mm
The box now runs Android 4.4, instead of Android 4.2.2 in AV200, with a custom version of XBMC. They’ve also changed the user’s interface compared to last time.
VidOn Box is sold with an IR remote control, a power adapter, and a user’s manual. The hardware is said to cost $49, but they also include 12-month of discounted VidOn membership ($1.99 per month, regular price is $3.99 per month), bringing the total to $72.88. The membership apparently enables Blu-ray menu navigation, VidOn XBMC updates, as well as services such as photo backup, mobile transfer, access of VidOn media libraries via your Android and iOS smartphone or tablet, and more… However, the membership is not mandatory, and if you don’t want to extend it after one year, your box will still be usable, but you may not get firmware/XBMC updates (TBC), and access to VidOn services.
With AllWinner A31s processor, you won’t get the fastest Android experience available, but based on my preview review of AV200, it’s perfectly usable, the company provides OTA updates, video playback support in XBMC is very good, and Wi-Fi was excellent in AV200. The main concern I had was with regards to stability, as the AV200 rebooted twice during my testing, once in ES File Explorer, and another time in System Settings, but no problem in XBMC. Hopefully, they’ve even made further improvements over their previous firmware.
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