I’m writing up a review for my Noontec A9 Smart TV Box since none seem to exist. The trouble is I’ve never owned a Smart TV Box other than a modded XBox running XBox Media Center or a PC running Windows XP connected to the TV, so I have no real comparison.
Out of the box the Noontec doesn’t have a lot. It has a tiny 11 button remote and a power supply.
The Noontec A9 is really easy to plug in and get up and running, especially with a HDMI connection (obviously you’ll need to buy the HDMI cable as extra). Simply plug in an Ethernet cable (optional, WiFi could also be used), your TV, the power supply, and you’re up and running.
At very first you need to confirm your Internet is connected. If you didn’t connect an Ethernet cable you should set up WiFi under Settings. Load up the Browser on the home screen to ensure your Internet is up.
A USB keyboard and mouse goes really well with the A9. I plugged in some generic PC versions and they work great. However on Android there are some minor differences to the keymap that you’ll need to know. The very first one is right click won’t bring up a menu, it has the same action as the “Back” button.
USB Keyboard Keymap
| Keyboard Key | Android |
| Home | Home |
| Esc | Back |
| F1 | Menu |
| F4 | Volume Down |
| F5 | Volume Up |
| Power | Power |
Another thing I needed to do before I did anything at all… Out of the box the default firmware wasn’t so crash hot, and at the time of writing v1.1.06 OC03 11-11-29 is the latest firmware available from the Noontec download page. Installing the firmware is fairly easy but you’ll need an SD memory card. I tried using a USB flash drive but it would not install correctly. As Noontec instruct, you simply download their ZIP file and extract the recovery.img file to the root folder of your SD card. Then when inserted into your A9 which is already powered on, it pops up with a dialog to install the new firmware.
With the pre-installed firmware I couldn’t install ES File Explorer, the Android Market said it wasn’t compatible with my device. After performing the firmware update I could. This app is really useful to install as it allows you to play videos from Samba/CIFS/Windows File shares. So for a downloader like me, I just setup ES File Explorer to read some shares on my PC and I download videos on my PC and when they’re available I can play it on the TV with the Noontec remote.
One slight disadvantage for video playback with the A9 is there is no information on rooting, or installing the SuperUser application and the /system/xbin/su binary it requires. This means you cannot use CifsManager which would be the desired operation for playing media from Samba shares – since it would allow any application to play the media, and not limit you to media players that support Samba shares. It’d also allow you to run ClockSync which seems wise considering that “Automatic Network Time” is a feature of GSM networks that the A9 cannot support since it has no support for GSM networks or any mobile phone networks at all.
YouTube and any website which uses Adobe Flash Video (FLV) also works very well on the A9. YouTube obviously works best with the app pre-installed with Android, while some FLV streaming sites for pirated content don’t work so great as the overload of Flash based advertising can overload the browser making it quite slow. ABC iView doesn’t work so great since the screen layout of the A9 increases the size of the page, and essentially blows it up so its too big to be useable. I’d love it if either ABC or Noontec did something to fix this.
For an overall rating on the device, with ES File Explorer it does do the tasks I purchased it for – play video from the downloads folder on my PC and from websites which use Adobe Flash. The interface is a little clunky on the A9 and could be improved, however it is useable & functional. Compared to Apple TV, the A9 is cheaper and doesn’t have limitations of iTunes software or DRM. Given the clunky UI and the comparison to Apple TV, the price is probably very reasonable.
Hi, I have recently purchased my A9. I have tried using the box connected with composite video to an analogue TV. It is connected using the LAN to a router / PC network. The internet connection works fine. I found that the upgrade certainly improved accessing Utube. I am really very pleased to have your input . i have had a few problems. I have an extension drive (seagate 2 TB) which has MKV video files. The video is OK but no audio – my audio is A52 (aka AC3) -it doesnt seem to support these.
More disturbing, I found that as supplied and also after upgrading according to the Noontec site , that when the vol control keys were pressed on either the remote or the keyboard the video control bar appeared as hash across the screen . this seems to be only when using composite video . It doesn’t do this with HDMI ??? .
Any help or advice regarding the audio is very welcome.
Otherwise I am fairly pleased with what it does.
AC3 is surround audio, so I’m guessing the problem you’re having is the A9 is outputting surround audio on another port (not the stereo RCA plugs you’re using). Theres probably a setting for that but I wouldn’t know where to begin.
However if you can use HDMI, you’d be best off doing that, as it’ll be the only way you can experience 1080p video when playing MKV files.
I only use the HDMI port myself, as my TV has heaps of these ports – and only one composite video port which is in demand (both my Wii and DVD want it for their higher def formats so I’ll probably get a BluRay player thats HDMI later).
ABC iview works fine – you just need to change the zoom settings on your browser.
Anyone tried succesfully to install/run Skype video??
Managed to install latest version, but no option to use camera/microphone??
Steve, the initial iView page works fine however if you select the Program menu and then one of the options in there, the screen isn’t big enough to display it properly. The zoom settings don’t seem to fix this.
chris, Skype is advertised on the retail box so I imagine it’d work. Are you using the Noontec camera?
Thanks for your very prompt reply admin.
Noontec camera??
Unfortuantely instruction manual is so spartan that I really don’t know how to get USB to recognise anything including a camera! I was hoping to use a lgitech HD webcam
My Iview was good – then it went funky.
I’ve found changing the iview options to give you a full screen toggle fixes things.
It displays too big, go to full screen and it’s OK.
When I navigate to USB it says USB “Unmounted” – could that be reason nothing can be read/viewed from USB memory? Where dous it access camera from for Skype video?How do I get access to USB memory stick? Neither of the two options work in USB settings as it always defaults back to master mode? Absolutely useless on screen instruction manual and no hard copy supplied!
anyone help… i am trying yo connect to wi fi, through smart box.
been to settings and set up including pass word.. but continually scanning them disconnecting. laptop is fine ? anything else i should be doing
There’s no support for file shares that I could find. The remote is so tiny that it’s extremely difficult to use. To turn the off you need to use both the unit AND the remote. Videos don’t scales to 16:9, unless there’s a magic hidden setting somewhere. The unit doesn’t come with a manual and there isn’t one online. The interface is clunky, as you stated, needing multiple presses to register. Stutters through 1080i, yet plays 1080p OK, when you can find the file you’re looking for. You absolutely need to install a file browser, the default video shows all files that could be videos. Including .bat. dat, etc… no file sorting here.
If you have a unit that you can simply plug in and play files, I’m guessing that you’ll be happier sticking to that. I’ve gone back to my old Hong Kong bought player after hours of frustration here.
Hi Arata. Can’t disagree most things you say.
The remote supplied isn’t adequate. You need a keyboard, mouse combo of some sort. I’m using the trackpad/keyboard offered as part of a bundle with the player.
Videos do scale – hit the button on the right hand side, second from the bottom with the movie playing. That brings up the menu options.
I’m using BSPlayer Lite – much better than the default player.
The strength of this unit is that it’s more than just a media player, but it’s certainly not polished.