For watching full screen video, I just drop the resolution down to 1920x1080 to overcome the 30hz limitation the display currently has.
More competition in the ~50" 4K space is welcome news.
Anybody considering the Seiki should know that it uses an unusual pixel format, BGR. So to get subpixel rendering to work be sure to run the subpixel setup program if you use windows or configure fontconfig if you use linux.
Why is 30hz a limitation for video? Most video is 24 or 30fps, so 30hz should be fine, no? I can see 30hz being a limitation for gaming but you wouldn't be able to get good fps at 4K resolution anyway. So basically you should be able to run this at 4K all the time.
I haven't seen it in person - one of the downsides of being in rural New Zealand is no friends with cool toys :) - but I've seen much less severe problems on paper be quite nasty.
In game development, my day job, the industry has recently been cracking down on micro stutter, where even randomly skipped single frames at 60fps can destroy the appearance of smoothness.
Less than 60 hz is generally annoying when trying to use a screen as a monitor because of cursor lag, but almost all video is at 30 fps or less so 30 hz is fine for video.
On the SOC side, it's 4x cortex A9 @ 1.45Ghz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU-- h265 decode at 4K/30fps, 2GB RAM
supports miracast, airplay, dlna, widi, SMB, dual band ac wifi, USB3, micro SD, bluetooth 4 (BT LE remote with finder). 15.5mm thick and 6.2mm bezel. It has everything, except the HDMI version is conspicuous in its absence-- so I'm guessing it's not 2.0, which is required for 60fps at 4K. Also not completely clear if it could actually play back 4K 3D-- perhaps this would work with h264, but for h265 it states 30fps. Released on the 27th in China, no mention of elsewhere.
1. http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&p...
Is this because it is a "smart" TV, or should I expect all computer monitors to have this degree of complexity these days ?
I'd like my monitor to be as dumb as possible, thanks.
[1] - http://www.necdisplay.com/category/large-screen-displays
However, the Chinese version of the web page does mention about 4K display on MiTV2.
Instead of a dumb monitor, purpose built for being a display, this is a general purpose computer with:
"On the SOC side, it's 4x cortex A9 @ 1.45Ghz with Mali 450 MP4 GPU-- h265 decode at 4K/30fps, 2GB RAM"
... that's a lot of complexity and capability. Too much to blindly trust.
In fact, the only correct answer to the question "what does it do on wireshark" is: "nothing, since it's not capable of a network connection".
No. I'm implying it might because it's a 'smart' device. All sorts of American/British/Western European 'smart' devices are horrendously insecure too. Also, in the case of china, for example huawei, the government/manufacturer collusion goes far deeper than in the west; i.e. the surveillance portion is installed in the factory rather than later via exploits.
I own a Xiaomi MI2s phone which cost me about 200 euros to get shipped from a Chinese webshop and it's been working perfectly. They even update their phone OS (MIUI, based on Android) with weekly builds that are installed OTA.
Lei Jun (their CEO) really wants Xiaomi to become the Chinese Apple. Not sure if wearing black turtlenecks and hiring Hugo Barra will get them there, but I'm curious to see what they'll do next.
I've been looking at Android-based TV boxen and I've been disappointed - there are very few players beating the Apple TV in that space. All the devices are either miserable (buggy, poor wifi, underpowered) or cost more than Apple's deviec. If you can't beat Apple on price and you're a Chinese no-name company, you're in the wrong business.
So far the only company that seems to be taking that market seriously is Amazon, and Amazon's android fork is far-enough-away from stock Android that it doesn't really count.
I keep hoping somebody would get some momentum and take a solid toe-hold.
If he wants to build a company that makes high quality products based on innovative technology at low prices, then he could find great success.
Alas, in my experience, no companies besides Apple are actually interested in consistently producing innovative products.
This "Mi" site is full of derivative devices using off the shelf technology (android, for instance) in moderately nicely designed plastic cases.
I don't want to sound like I'm astroturfing, but I genuinely think they're interesting. Maybe I should clarify: I don't think they are at the same quality level as, say, Apple. The phone is still plastic galore and MIUI certainly isn't as elegant as iOS.
However, amidst all the Chinese companies that are churning out cheap electronics, Xiaomi doesn't seem to be content to "just" churn out clones.
Except, maybe, one of their new routers that has a design copied from an iPad stand.
Apple themselves admit that growth is coming from phones they can't compete with[0]. Their $600+ phones with 4 inch screens have been surpassed in both resolution and price.
[0]http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/06/why-apple-has-to-make-bigger-s...
Edit: Yeah, Ok, I just scrolled down, and realised the actual link for the TV in question is https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&...
For example, the CPUs are different, one's a snapdragon 1.7GHz, the other is a Cortex A9, 1.4GHz. (Different GPUs too.)
Not to mention one explicitly says it's 1920x1080, while the other is "4K".
30 Hz is of course workable, which is precisely why 4K is for programmers, after all. :) But all of us would take a 60 Hz option in a heartbeat if it were available.
That said, I prefer the 39" form factor offered by Seiki for 4K. Around 50 inches, a computer's display should be 8K+.
Au contraire, IE does not support your site. Actually, I can't even test if at least it renders the page in text mode because you blocked it, end of conversation.
I'm at work and our desktops were migrated from XP this year and we're stuck with IE 8, beucase it's "compliant" (with what, I wonder). I can't even load the cached page from Google...
This is very annoying, the site is just a blog, not a complex webapp that must ensure correct rendering and JS execution.
And possibly what someone might do to actually get one shipped out to Australia?
The whole process sounds like a shady business to me, but apparently they grow super fast with this kind of strategy. So yeah, I guess what do I know.
Last year I wanted a xiaomi box (a bit like apple tv but optimized for China)
They only release x amount of units on a certain day at a certain time on a monthly basis. These will be sold out in seconds. I'm pretty sure most of these items are bought by scalper bots then resold on taobao.com etc. I never successfully managed to order and eventually bought on the secondary market for a small markup
This is great for xiaomi. They create hype and each of their sales are a sellout. The next month they come out with a slightly improved version of their product based on user feedback
As their founder said Electronics are like seafood you don't want it hang around a warehouse too long
to sum up
your chances of getting on of these from xiaomi.com are really really low
Samsung and LG to create a 47” 1920x1080 Full HDAlthough I wouldn't trust that completely...
[1] gives an ideal distance of 1 to 2 meters.
Gamers often do sit that close, so it would be interesting to see how well it does as a monitor replacement, like the 39" Seiki's that some are using. 49" UHD is the same as 4 24.5" 1920x1080 panels so would not need any sort of scaling in legacy operating systems.
1: http://referencehometheater.com/2013/commentary/4k-calculato...
4K to me sounds useless, but hey, maybe it will drive down prices and if I'm stuck with one I can half the res. or scale I guess.
Am I looking at the wrong link?
I recent got a Chromecast and now manage my TV via my tablet or laptop. I get a better experience with my tablet and would love to see TV's shipping with Chromecast built-in. I retired my Boxxee and I no longer think about buying a Roku or AppleTV.
This article is linking to a 2K tv:
From main page: "Mi TV is virtually frameless. We use one of the best panels from Samsung and LG to create a 47” 1920x1080 Full HD television with a super slim profile and an 8.4mm frame"
From specs page: "Size47" Resolution1920×1080(1080P)"
Maybe $640 is a great deal for an android TV with all these features? I don't really know, but it's a very different thing from a $640 4k TV, like the Seiki.