Today, many televisions are equipped with "smart" interfaces - Smart TV, but not all of them are sufficiently functional and convenient, and if the TV was purchased not in the last couple of years, but earlier - it is not a fact that it has Smart TV (and not just some shell "for show"). In this case, there are two options - either change the TV or purchase an additional device - a media player. And if earlier they were quite expensive, now, with the spread of the Android OS, a huge number of affordable and at the same time functional players have appeared. One of them is the Vinga 042.
Package Contents
The player comes in a small box with minimal printing (only the model name is printed on top, and a table with technical specifications is on the bottom). Inside, you can also find a 1 m HDMI cable, a power adapter, a USB cable, a remote control, and two user manuals - for the player and the remote.
Appearance
Vinga 042 is a small (12x12x3 cm) box made of black plastic, with a matte top and glossy side edges; on the right side, there is a card reader (SD / MMC), two USB 2.0 ports, and one 3.0 port, at the back - another USB 2.0 port, a power connector, an Ethernet port, an HDMI output, and two mini-jacks - with a digital audio output S / PDIF and a compatible analog video/audio (through which the player can be connected to old TVs not equipped with HDMI - for example, CRT models with a composite video input).
The player is lightweight, rubberized feet reduce slipping, but on some surfaces, connected tight cables can still move it from its place.
Remote Control
The player comes with a gyroscopic remote control, or "air mouse" (the remote responds to movement in space and allows you to control the mouse cursor with a simple hand movement). It is not very large, thanks to the rounded shapes of the body, it fits comfortably in the hand, and all the buttons on the front side are positioned so that they can be easily reached with the thumb. The remote is two-sided, and while the front has only the necessary minimum of buttons (volume control, menu navigation block, and mouse mode switching), the back has a full-featured QWERTY keyboard, which significantly facilitates text input. The remote operates on a built-in battery, charging is done via a micro-USB port. A USB radio receiver operating at 2.4 GHz is used to connect to the player. As a radio mouse, it is very convenient, with sensitivity and control accuracy being quite decent.
Hardware Platform
Vinga 042 is the senior model in the lineup, using the Rockchip RK3328 chipset - a 64-bit chip with four Cortex-A53 cores running at frequencies up to 1.5 GHz, and a Penta-Core Mali-450 video subsystem (up to 750 MHz).
This is a new and quite productive chip (introduced at CES 2017, the first models started appearing in the second half of last year), in terms of performance and functionality, it slightly outpaces other popular solutions for media centers - Amlogic S905X.
The player has 4 GB of RAM, and there is also an internal storage with a capacity of 32 GB (about 26 GB is available to the user). For network connectivity, both wired connection (100-megabit Ethernet supported) and Wi-Fi (2.4 / 5G, 802.11 a / b / g / n) can be used. Bluetooth 4.0 is also supported.
In Operation
There is no power button on the player's body; it turns on immediately when the power cable is connected. The activity indicator lights up blue during operation and red in standby mode. The brightness of the indication is moderate, it does not irritate in the dark.
Vinga 042 operates under the control of Android 7.1.2 OS with its own launcher, for which Ukrainian localization is available. The main screen resembles the "tile" start menu of Windows 10 - it provides links to folders with online video, its own audio and video players for local content, system settings, and the launch of the popular media center Kodi; in the lower strip, the user can independently add shortcuts to their own applications installed from Google Play Market. Out of the box, a number of Ukrainian services are available, such as OLL.TV, Megogo, LanetTV, and a number of other video-on-demand services and IPTV clients. The interface works quickly, navigation through the menu and launching programs occur without delays.
The system media center has a simple and pleasant interface, yet it boasts surprisingly decent functionality. It can play media content not only from USB-connected drives but also from the local network (supports NFS, SMB, UPnP, DLNA protocols). The player effortlessly plays 4K video at 60 fps, supports HDR (HDR10 and HLG standards), and can decode 10-bit video and the h265 codec. 3D video is also supported - MVC 3D, "top/bottom" and "right/left" stereopairs, and even Blu-ray 3D images. Regular "bluray" also plays without issues (only without the disc menu, as a regular video file) - both from ISO images and as folders with disc structure.
The player's interface during playback is minimalistic, but it does allow for switching audio tracks and subtitles, as well as some video settings. The player is very "nimble," with video starting and stopping almost instantly, and only Blu-ray images take about 1-2 seconds to open (exiting them to the menu is also done without delays). The player's performance is more than enough for any, even the most "heavy" video - in our case, a test file with a bitrate of 160 Mbps played smoothly, without stuttering or lagging. If the user doesn't like the minimalistic interface and wants a nice shell with convenient access to a personal video and music catalog, the Kodi media center installed in the system is at their service.
Vinga 042 supports Miracast - to establish a connection with an Android smartphone, you need to use the WiFi Display utility, after which you can send video/music from your phone to the TV.
Real data transfer speeds were measured using iperf3. With an Ethernet connection, we achieved stable 95 Mbps, while with a wireless connection, the result greatly depended on the player's location relative to the router - apparently, the built-in Wi-Fi antenna is very sensitive to this parameter. Thus, with direct visibility at a distance of 3 meters, the speed was 40-42 Mbps, when connecting through one concrete wall it dropped to 34-35 Mbps, and when placing a computer case between the router and the player, it dropped to 15-18 Mbps. As we can see, the wireless connection does not show the most outstanding results, so for viewing particularly heavy files, such as Blu-ray images, or when the player is located far from the router, it is better to use Ethernet for a reliable connection.
The ITC.ua editorial team expresses gratitude to ITbox for providing the Vinga 042 media player for review.
Technical Specifications
| Type | stationary media player |
| Processor | ARM Cortex-A53 |
| RAM | 4 GB DDR3 |
| Storage | Flash, 32 GB |
| HDD Slot | - |
| Card Reader | Micro-SD |
| TV Tuner | - |
| Microphone | - |
| Camera | - |
| Operating System | Android 7.1 |
| High Definition Video Support | 3840x2160 (4K) |
| IPTV | + |
| OTT | + |
| 3D Support | + |
| Built-in Torrent | - |
| Internet Services Support | Skype, Youtube, Picasa, RSS, HD VideoBox, LazyMedia, Megogo, LanetTV, OLL.TV |
| Web Browser | + |
| Blu-Ray Disc Image Playback | + (ISO BD3D) |
| Remote Control | QWERTY remote |
| Smartphone Control | iOS, Android |
| Keyboard and Mouse Support | + |
| Others | - |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11 a/b/g/n(2.4/5Ghz) |
| Ethernet | 10/100 Mbps |
| Miracast | + |
| WiDi | - |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.0 |
| DLNA | + |
| AirPlay | + |
| USB | 3x USB 2.0, OTG |
| e-SATA | - |
| HDMI | + (2.0) |
| Composite | + |
| Component | - |
| SCART | - |
| S-Video | - |
| Analog Stereo | + |
| Analog Multichannel | - |
| Digital Optical | + |
| Digital Coaxial | - |
| Headphone Output | - |
| Dimensions, mm | no data |
| Weight, kg | no data |
| Package Contents | media player, power adapter, remote control, HDMI cable, manual |
| Additional | - |