Full Circle Magazine FR

Old desktop systems are great for repurposing as a KODI entertainment system server. Stick a few multi-terabyte drives in an old dual or quad core computer, with a $30 fanless video card with HDMI out, along with Ubuntu and KODI installed, and you have a nice 1080p capable entertainment system. This kind of solution might work great for a basement, but if you’re looking for a more elegant solution for your living room or a second room, a much smaller device like the MyGica ATV582 is a better solution. When you open the packaging, the first remarkable thing you’ll notice is how small the ATV582 is, it’s less than an inch high, and is shorter than the length of an average cell phone. The front bears a couple of lights, a network status light, and a power status light, as well as an infrared sensor. On the right hand side of the ATV582 is a single microSD slot and two USB ports. The back of the device has a gigabit LAN port, an A/V port, an HDMI port, DC power port, and the Wi-Fi antenna. Also included with the ATV582 are an HDMI cable, a very short A/V cable (which is really more of an adapter than a cable), an AC adapter, and a remote control. The unit also comes with a small quick-start guide and a warning not to return the device to the store, but to call MyGica if you have issues. The ATV582 is based on the ARM Cortex A9 AMlogic S802-B quad-core processor with the Mali-450 octa-core GPU. There is 1GB of RAM onboard, and 8GB of flash memory. The ATV582 we purchased came with Android 4.4 Kitkat.

Les vieux ordinateurs de bureau sont parfaits pour une réutilisation en tant que serveur de système de divertissement KODI. Flanquez quelque disques multi-To dans un vieil ordinateur à deux ou quatre cœurs, ainsi qu'une carte graphique sans ventilateur avec une sortie HDMI, au prix de 30 $, installez-y Ubuntu et KODI et vous aurez un bon système de divertissement permettant d'afficher 1080p. Ce genre de solution serait génial pour le sous-sol, mais, si vous cherchez une solution plus élégante pour le séjour ou une deuxième pièce, un meilleur choix serait un dispositif qui soit beaucoup plus petit, comme le MyGica ATV582.

Une fois l’emballage ouvert, la première chose surprenante que vous remarquerez est la très petite taille du ATV582 : moins de 2,5 cm de haut et plus court qu'un téléphone portable moyen. Le devant présente deux lumières, une pour l'état du réseau et une pour celui de l'alimentation, ainsi qu'un capteur infrarouge. Sur le côté droit du ATV582 se trouvent un emplacement de carte microSD et deux ports USB. Le dos du dispositif un port Gigabit LAN, un port A/V, un port HDMI, un port d'alimentation DC et l'antenne WiFi. Livrés avec l'ATV582 sont un câble HDMI, un très court câble A/V (plus un adaptateur qu'un câble), un adaptateur AD et une télécommande. Il y a aussi un petit guide de démarrage rapide et un avertissement signalant qu'il ne faudra pas retourner le dispositif au magasin, mais, à la place, appeler MyGica si vous rencontrez des problèmes.

L'ATV582 est basé sur le processeur à quatre cœurs ARM Cortex A9 AMlogic S802-B avec le GPU Mali-450 à huit cœurs. Il y a 1 Go de RAM et 8 Go de mémoire flash. L'ATV582 que nous avons acheté fut livré avec Android 4.4 Kitkat.

Setup was as simple as turning the box on, pulling the plastic tape out of the remote so the battery made contact, and stepping through 4 screens: welcome, language, screen and network. We chose to connect our unit to a LAN connection because we have a lot of large media files stored on another server. While we didn’t have any 4K media files to test the unit’s 4K claims, it was more than capable of playing the 1080p MKV files (some as large as 44GB) stored on our Linux-based KODI network server (shared via SAMBA). The unit ships with an older version of KODI 14.2, but it works just fine for playing media. The remote control is fairly simple at first glance. It has the following buttons: power on/off, volume up/down, home, select/enter, navigation left/right/up/down, mouse on/off, back, stop, play/pause, fast forward, rewind, and menu. But if you flip the remote over, there is a small qwerty keyboard on the other side. The remote control comes with a USB receiver that must be plugged into the ATV582 for the remote to work. MyGica has included a QR code in the setup guide for Android phone users who’d prefer to use their phone as a remote control for the device.

One of the improvements the ATV582 has over its baby brother, the larger-sized dual-core ATV520E, is the MyGica user interface. Instead of trying to simplify a desktop with many icons, it has that cleaner look of a touch interface, KODI is in fact one of the first applications on the home screen. The ATV520E also came with a simpler keyboard-less remote. The keyboard on the flip side of the ATV582 remote takes a little bit of getting used to. If you find yourself unable to type using the keyboard characters, press the function key to switch between the character sets. The mouse on the remote is all but useless for certain Android games, you’ll need a real mouse to play some games. The left side of the ATV582 is used to vent heat. Because the unit is so small there are not a lot of ports, only 2 USB, 1 of which is taken up by the remote’s IR receiver. Having a single usable USB port is this unit’s biggest shortcoming. For those of you who like to wall-mount everything, the ATV582 also lacks any kind of holes on the bottom for mounting, which means you’ll have to resort to using something like 3M velcro tape to mount the unit. Both of these issues are really a direct result of the unit being so small. MyGica could have provided some way to mount the ATV582, but it would have likely been a touch thicker. The size of the ATV582 is also its best feature, it’s so inconspicuous that it’s barely noticeable if you put a couple of picture frames or other decorations next to it. Hidden in the ATV582 are the powerful quad-core processor and octa-core graphics processing unit. They’re much more powerful than the ATV520E cousin, and play large size high-definition files just fine. The remote with keyboard was more than expected, and other than gaming usage, works very well for all other tasks. While KitKat is old by Android standards, it’s been rock stable the past few weeks – requiring a reboot only once. At just over $100 CDN, it ended up being a fantastic deal for the price.