Forget about the CX-919 thing. Unfortunately, something bricked mine before I tried starting to upgrade it. I think I switched off the TV to which it was connected, and that damaged it. That disqualifies it for production use. Plus it only handles 720p resolution.
Instead, use the same vendor’s device Tronsmart Vega S89. It handles 1080p, it has WiFi, and it doesn’t need a bunch of firmware upgrades. It runs the RiseVision digital sign app called My Rise Player basically perfectly.
This device isn’t quite ready for prime time in the digital signage world, though. Ideally, you could set up the player device and just forget about it, but this one isn’t quite good enough to support that kind of use.
- It doesn’t turn on automatically when the power fails and then comes back. You have to tap the power button.
- When we switched from Eastern Daylight Time to Eastern Standard Time last fall, it switched to China Standard Time instead. That was a nuisance: all the calendar entries were at very strange times, and so was the clock. We had to dig out the remote control and figure out how to set Eastern Standard time manually, someplace in some Setup menu.
- When we switched back to Eastern Daylight Time in the spring of 2015, it worked correctly.
- Also, one of the S89 devices failed in service — it just stopped booting up. Lucky for us we had a spare.
- It doesn’t play live motion video.
RiseVision offers some other media players for sale through their Online Store.
I’ve evaluated the Google Chromecast. It’s not suitable with its current software load.
I am evaluating an ASUS-manufactured Chromebox. It may be suitable.
Some new PC-on-a-stick products were announced at CES 2015 and look promising.