- Powered by Android 4 ICS and team behind XBMC who brings you the Official XBMC development platform.
- Built in 10/100 Ethernet connection and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connections for all your audio, video streaming demands from internet, networked or DLNA devices.
- Get the latest Internet technology on your TV including a web browser supporting the latest HTML 5, Adobe Flash 10.x, Chrome V8 and Java support.
- Support weather, calendar and hundreds of desktop widgets such as weather, calendar, clock, search, internet radio, photo album and hundreds more!
- Supports a wide range of USB peripherals such as XIOS Sence wireless motion remote, wired/wireless keyboard, mouse, webcam, card reader, digital cameras, and more
Update 10/09: Major updates for XBMC both Linux and Android, synced with XBMC mainline, most add-ons now work without issues.
Update 8/13: XBMC Linux port released
Update 8/6: Latest GB based released with support for Bluetooth devices.
Update 8/6: More elaborate review for XBMC (most recent version has compatibility for usb pointing devices), check YT video v=6SnPveEkNPc
Update 8/5: The wifi antenna reception issue fixed, check YT video v=cQysHr8mcJg
Update 7/14: Pivos got XBMC running on the XIOS-DS, check YT video v=y4o-k1DxF5w
Pivos just released an Android based super slim box to complement its successful AIOS HD Media Center, Full HD 1080p, Gigabit Network, USB 3.0 data, Flash Reader, 3.5" SATA 2 ? Is Android really the holy-grail of media players ?! well ... read on and tell for yourself.
Unboxing:
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Check my pictures in the gallery section, a DVD used to get an idea about the size of every thing in comparison.
The retail box: though small and humble is huge compared to how small the actual XIOS is.
Package contents: No quick start leaflet included, quick start guide printed on the inner box. You get an HDMI cable (for the only output port on the box), XIOS itself, an IR remote (modest with only few buttons to navigate, change volume and turn on/off the box) and the 5V/2A adapter.
The XIOS: 3xUSB, LAN, mSD slot, power button, firmware recovery/upgrade hole, and the ONLY output is HDMI.
XIOS .. the ICS update ..
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The box comes with Android GB out of the box, I am not going to even bother with that GB is not meant for a big screen display, ICS is already out (posted on the official forums) and takes about 10 minutes to apply, the rest of the review is of Android ICS running on the box.
XIOS .. The good ..
----------------------------
Once ICS is installed there was no issue running MKVs up to 1080p/11GB (over wired network).
After that size, things gets pretty unstable. The majority of my rips past that size are ISOs which isn't supported any way.
YT HD is running without any issue, Flash HD is running fine in Dolphin browser (stick the preloaded 10.2).
Wireless keyboard/mouse combo works fine with the box, but there is no way to turn the box off without the original IR remote (even the motion remote doesn't have a power button) unless you reach for power button the box itself (alternatively you can install widgets from the market to reboot and turn off the box right from the home screen).
ICS comes with the latest Google Play store, app visibility is on bar with all other android devices I have owned.
Experience is as rich as you expect from any ICS based device, Plex works mighty fine additionally there is reports about limited support for webcams and USB microphones.
XIOS ..The bad ..
----------------------
Couple of inconveniences, video playback apps doesn't seem to respect scaling settings, you wouldn't notice this issue if you have a display with no over/under scanning, in which cases you can use a "screen size" setting to adjust the output to your screen size, that said, once video app loads it will automatically revert to the original scale.
Another minor is windowed playback (YT or flash in YT app or web browser), once the video starts, it automatically revert to full screen then "crops" (not minimizes) back to window size, if you would then click on the full screen button at any time you would get proper image.
There is currently no multichannel audio passthrough support (DTS/DD and their HD versions are stereo downmixed).
Some reported issues with the ICS NF app (pausing for buffering after 5 minutes of playback).
XIOS vs. AIOS
------------------
Android is what makes this box shine (and similar boxes), for example when you capture a picture/video with you Android phone while doing your grocery it gets automatically uploaded to your dropbox accounts which is then immediately accessible on your TV with your android media box.
Its not meant to be a power horse (thus lacking with higher bit rate files that the AIOS plays it without a problem), but its meant to offer a way better overall experience. Not to mention I was able to hit 13 mbps MKVs without a problem (which isn't even half bad).
So its a better device all around, but what can the AIOS do that the XIOS can't do ?..
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In a nut shell ?
Not enough power to process high bitrate MKVs (over the network XIOS panic at > 13 mbps while AIOS panic at > 25mbps)
No ISO playback support (Android thing).
No BDMV playback support (Android thing).
No DTS/DD/DTS-MA/DD-TrueHD passthrough/bitstreaming (Android kernel thing).
No output A/V outputs beside HDMI.
For those running the GB firmware and complaining about long strart ups, just move as many apps as you can from main storage to external storage.
Final words
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Its really refreshing to be able to get Android on your big screen, compared to other GoogleTV devices the XIOS is priced right, comes pre-rooted with full Google Playstore access. True the ride is as rough as any other Android tablet/phone but its for sure a step in the right direction.
XIOS .. Set up .. (for the techies)
---------------------------------------------
Playback done over wired network.
Accessed SMB shares are mapped using the included CIFS manager.
All playback attempts were done using the moboplayer app.
========================================================
Sample video details of the 1080p rips that worked ..
----------------------------------------------------
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 26mn
Bit rate : 9 205 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 17mn
Bit rate : 13.3 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate : 14.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 798 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=4, N=48
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 57mn
Bit rate : 9 169 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 54mn
Bit rate : 8 020 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
========================================================
MKVs that didn't work smoothly (some would require repeated buffering, others would cut and skip randomly)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 34mn
Bit rate : 8 849 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Muxing mode : Header stripping
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 11mn
Bit rate : 15.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
========================================================
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 27mn
Bit rate : 20.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
========================================================To be honest with you, I was waiting for the Apple TV Gen 3 to be jailbroken, so I could install XBMC on it. With the recent announcement of XBMC for Android, Apple's device can now be put where it belongs: A hard to use, locked down machine suitable only for playing iTunes stuff. Sorry Apple, but I've had enough fooling around with a Gen 1 unit to last me a lifetime, and your reluctance to make a device that's hacker friendly is understandable, but annoying as all get-out.
On to the Xios. It comes in a nice box with the player, remote, wallwart, and HDMI cable. Amazing it took this long for someone to include ALL the proper cables with a device, but there it is. Hookup is easy. HDMI and power to the box, HDMI to the TV, and you're off. It took me 15 minutes from UPS dropping the box on my door to playing a shoutcast stream on the TV.
While I have not had a whole lot of time to play with it, here are some observations:
A USB keyboard and mouse make things easier.
If you plan on using wired ethernet, turn it on in the settings first.
Set your TV resolution in the settings while you're there. If you don't know, leave it alone.
You'll need the mouse to accept the marketplace terms. I could not get it to work any other way.
And, link it to your current Android account (if you have one.) This allows your applications to sync.
I'm planning on playing more with it over the weekend, and installing XBMC on it as well. I'll report back when I know more.
Edit:
You have root right out of the box.
I deleted Facebook (ugh) and froze Crackle, as they wanted to run in the background all the time.
The ICS upgrade is available in the Pivos forums, but I have not applied it yet.
The remote is primarily for the media player functions; you really need a keyboard and mouse to use the desktop.
Update 1-19-2013
After playing with this box for a while, I decided to try the XBMC Linux build. It's easy to install, just drop the .img file on a small uSD card, insert it into the slot, and hold down the reset button (on the bottom) while applying power.
It's pretty much all you need. Now, I know this thing is kind of lo-powered these days, so mega-bitrate stuff may not play well. But, everything I currently have is SD, and it works great.
For anyone having trouble connecting a Synology Diskstation to one of these, either enable the uPnP media station features on the NAS (XBMC sees these no problem!) or the more tech minded can edit the userdata files in $home / .xbmc / userdata according to the methods laid out in the XBMC wiki.If you only used the XIOS as it comes in the box, running Android 2.3 and a handful of pre-installed video players from the Google Play store, you could be forgiven for thinking it was awful. However all you need is an SDMicro card and an easily downloaded update file from PIVOS's website to turn this ugly duckling into a swan that lays golden eggs. Or is that a goose? Swans lay eggs too, though, so I'm going to let that mixed metaphor stand. Anyway, the update process takes no more than 5 minutes, and most of that time is just waiting for it to finish. The only effort is downloading a file and copying it to an SDMicro card.
Once you get the XIOS updated to run either Linux or Android 4.0, and then launch the XBMC program that is included with both, what you end up with is a stream box that can play just about any downloaded video file you can throw at it. It handles multiple audio tracks and subtitles with ease. It can work as an AirPlay target for your iPad or iPhone. It can index and catalog your collection of music, movies and tv programs. It can load files from USB devices or over the network from Windows, OSX and Linux computers. You can control the interface using a free app available in both the Apple and Google app stores. These are just the highlights, the device is capable of a lot more, both natively and through easily enabled plugins.
The WiFi performance is acceptable, and the wired performance is excellent for the 100mbit interface that it comes with. The device is so small and light that it can easily be tucked behind a wall-mounted flat screen or placed anywhere in your home entertainment center.
If you are looking for a set top stream box, and can download a file to an sdcard, you'll be very well served by purchasing this device and updating it. If you just want to open the box and have something that works straight away with no fuss, you might be better served by looking at another unit.My primary use is for XBMC. Before purchasing the XIOS DS I was using a laptop w/ XBMC. I was looking for something cheaper + smaller; did a lot of 'online' research of many different products, and chose the XIOS DS.
After I played with the Android GUI for about 5-10 mins (the unit came with v4.0.? installed) I dropped it in favor of Linux.
There are still bugs on the software side which is expected (it's still in BETA), however do not let that discourage you from purchasing; visit the Pivos forums a couple times and you'll see these issues are being worked on daily (there are also 'unofficial nightly builds' of the main codebase). For me it is 'exciting' visiting the forums and seeing a new build and the list of issues it fixes. For upgrading the software (and if you have a large library) I recommend purchasing a MicroSD card. Upgrading only takes about 5 mins. SSH and SCP can be used for direct management of the box and file transfers, however depending on your usage may not be necessary.
The provided remote is as described by previous reviewers (loud, sometimes unresponsive). I tested out my old Windows MCE remote and that worked better out of the box, however I still use the provided remote.
My library consists of MKVs and ISOs from DVDs and Blu-rays in my collection (sitting on a NAS box). This unit can play 1080p blu-ray rips just fine. All the video codecs I tried worked fine with the current exception of the VC-1 codec, but this is a known issue and a quick search on the forums shows the developers are aware and working on a fix. DTS HD sound is not supported (it does not say anywhere that it was 'supposed' to be supported so this is not an issue for me). DTS and less work fine.
Props to Pivos and XBMC on the XIOS DS + Linux port, this little box is great and I will be buying a few more.
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