MagicStick $99 (Cherry Trail Z8300, Win10+Android, h/w hevc, 4k HDMI2)

[skoenig]

The Magicstick is a computer on a stick that you can plug into the back of a TV or projector. It has 3 days left to go having already receives 900% of it's original goal.

It dual boots Android and Windows 10 on Intel's Cherry Trail Platform. It can happily play media from your network or stream media from services such as Amazon Video, NetFlix, Hulu, BBC etc. Kodi and Plex all work fine on the platform. Videos aren't great but show it working... I'd rather they spent money making it better anyway.

There's three versions the One, One+ and Wave with a few variants in between that you can get by paying for incremental upgrades if you wish.

They're all a stick form factor and can be powered over USB meaning no brick, dual boot (Android/Windows 10), HDMI 2, IOT Remote, MicroSD, decent WIFI and a few USB 3 sockets. Both claim 4K playback (of HW accelerated codecs presumably)...

I don't know if the z8700 handles 10bit HEVC in H/W or hybrid mode. You can specific Android or Windows 10 or both.



One
z8300 (possibly z8350)
Up to 4k @ 30fps
2gb RAM (can go to 4gb)
32gb MMC (can go to 64gb)
802.11 a/b/g/n to up 300mbps
1 x USB3
2x USB 2
$99

One+
Like One but with
z8500 (possibly z8550)
4GB Ram
$165

Wave
z8700 (possibly z8750)
Up to 4k @ 60FPS
8gb Ram
64 GB MMC
802.11 ac/n up to 1gbps
USB 3.1 Type C
2x USB 3
$249

So far three stretch goals have been hit so everyone gets the following thrown in for free:

- Short HDMI Extender (to make it easier to orient behind the tv/projector
- USB 3.1 Charger
- Hibernation battery (so you can unplug and it will have enough power to enter hibernation depending on OS)

They're setup to dual boot but have Windows 10 Home Trial on it...a genuine key will cost you $30 from eBay probably so if you keep W10 you'll have to factor that in. It's possible they may also ship with the newer and slightly faster z8x50 variants of Cherry Trail it all depends on timing apparently.

Back the Magic Stick project here http://igg.me/at/magicstick/x/1979944

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'm not sure how well Windows 10 will run on 2 GB RAM. 4 is even questionable.

 

[skoenig]

I'm running a Tronsmart ARA X5 box which essentially the same and it runs fine on 2GB. Windows 10 seems to be much smarter about memory and caching. Having said that 4-8GB would let you do more with less disk churn but to me it's a media machine so all it has to do is play media.

Definitely not a gamer rig, could do casual games just fine though.

When booted up it has about 700MB free and plays everything I throw at it in hardware except 10bit HEVC... that it plays in software but there's no skipped frames. I put MPC-HC, Plex and Kodi on it and the usual web based streaming services play flawlessly in HD.

I've been really pleased with that box and it's basically replaced my aging WD TV Lives which will never handle HEVC.

The Magicstick seems like an evolution of the Ara X5 and extra gubbins bring it in at way better value than the X5, plus unlike the X5 you can go up to the higher spec CPU and stuff in more ram and MMC storage if you want.

~Steph