Smart TV and smart projection have gradually entered our life. These AV devices tend to pay more attention to network resources and software applications, instead of digging into the deep performance of video playback, and set-top boxes and players seem to gradually fade out of people's vision. However, the news that the first UHD 4K disc, Smurfs 2, was cracked in May this year made many audiophiles boiling. So far, more than 10 original 4K UHD discs have been cracked, which means that the spring of 4K Blu ray players has come.

YGRE is the leader of domestic hard disk players. This cracking event attracted everyone's attention with "0Day support", demonstrating strong software and hardware strength. This time, the YGRE A9 4K Blu ray player introduced to everyone is a professional Blu ray hard disk player, which supports 4K UHD original disc play, and an exclusive full-automatic poster wall, 4K@60Hz Point to point video output, support built-in super large hard disk, there are many highlights for you to introduce one by one.

Design

The packaging design of the Egrid A9 player is still standard, and there is not much new idea, but the design on it is still attractive. The eagle like design, with gold words on the black background, will still bring a strong sense of impact. I also thank the opportunity provided by the pilot to have access to high-end players.

The product contains a lot of things. In addition to the player host, it is also equipped with a remote control, HDMI 2.0 cable, AV terminal cable, power adapter, and of course, the manual and warranty manual are also necessary. The remote control also has two No. 7 batteries, so that we can use it directly.

The power adapter is special, and the specification is 12V-2A. Different from the general power line, it also has a magnetic ring with anti electromagnetic interference to ensure stable output voltage and current.

The HDMI 2.0 cable is very thick and hard. It can be seen that the material is exquisite. The cable is 1.5 meters long, which is enough for our daily use. I think the AV terminal cable is unnecessary, because the 4K HD video we watch is somewhat unreasonable to use the AV cable. Let's use it as an auxiliary.

The remote control is also very traditional, plastic texture, and infrared. Today's TV and other electrical remote controls are becoming more and more delicate and compact. This remote control seems to have stayed 10 years ago, but it still has a full range of functions. It also has a learning function, which can integrate the remote control operation of other electrical appliances.

The size of the Egrid A9 is 19.8X19.8X5CM, which is larger than the general set-top box or player. Because it has a built-in hard disk and cooling fan, the size must be larger. All metal casing, frosted texture, integrated frame, highlighted chamfers around the top cover, and the appearance of Egrid A9 is very high.

In front of the player is an LED display screen, which is used to display the time and playing information. Now many players have omitted the display screen. This display screen is still very beautiful, which can let us know the playing status in time. Of course, if you want to watch the movie without being disturbed, you can also choose to turn it off.

Its side drive extraction box, as a professional 4K player, needs to deal with the blue light 4K high-definition film source of more than 50G. Large capacity storage has become necessary. Here, the removable design is adopted, and the hard disk can be installed or removed by opening the hatch cover.

Egrid A9 supports 2T~8T GPT format internal hard disk. The internal hard disk is a 3.5-inch hard disk. GPT is a new standard, and the stored data is more secure. It has a built-in NSS patented metal hard disk extraction rack, which can ensure that 100000 times of plugging and unplugging will not damage the hard disk.

On the left side of the fuselage is the air outlet of the cooling fan. Generally, when a 3.5-inch hard disk is used for a long time, the heat is still large, and it must be cooled to ensure normal operation. The Egrid A9 uses an intelligent cooling fan design, which can not only be set to a certain temperature control speed, but also be forced off to create a silent environment.

The back end of the player gathers all the input and output interfaces, covering the whole side. It can be said that the interface is extremely rich. It also has a gain antenna, which supports 2.4G wireless networks. Unfortunately, it does not support 5G networks. Its wired network port is also a gigabit network port, which provides a guarantee for supporting high-definition video transmission.

The interfaces here include optical fiber audio output, composite video output, coaxial audio output, left and right channel audio output, HDMI 4K output, USB 3.0/USB 2.0 interface, gigabit network interface, power switch and 12V power input. The audio and video interfaces are very rich, enough for us to match with TV, projection, speakers and other equipment.

The back of the bottom of the machine is slightly convex, and it is horizontal with the two feet in the front, leaving a gap in the middle, plus the splayed heat dissipation holes, which are all in consideration of the heat dissipation of the host.

system

The Egrid A9 player is equipped with 4-core 64 bit A53 processor, 2G memory+8G flash memory, MaliT720 graphics processor, supports wide color gamut HDR/HDR10, 10Bit color depth, H.265/HEVC true 4K hardware decoding, smooth decoding up to 200MBPS code stream, and supports Atmos/DTS: X new generation audio track source code output.

EgUI, the operating system of Egri A9, is based on Android 5.1. The main interface design is simple and straightforward, with only five functional modules: video, music, pictures, all files, and settings. Because the main function of this machine is to play, there is no need for fancy things.

After the drop-down menu is opened, there are some other applications, which are used as extension functions. After all, it is an open system, and we can freely install some applications. The system has a built-in application market, that is, the Dangbei market. It also has a pre installed XBMC player, which is a powerful multimedia software. It can play almost all popular audio and video formats, even files compressed in ZIP and RAR, and optical disk image files stored on disk.

In the system settings, it also simplifies the settings of the Android ecosystem. In the general settings, you can set up wired and wireless network connections. Turning on the Bluetooth function can connect the Bluetooth speakers or peripherals. The fan function settings here are very useful. You can set how many degrees to turn on the fan, which is also an intelligent design.

In the display settings, the resolution is mainly set. A9 can support a resolution of up to 4K UHD 60Hz, which is generally used for our increasingly popular 4K high-definition TV. It can ensure the output of the highest quality pictures. A good horse with a good saddle, high-definition film source, 4K player, and 4K high-definition TV and audio can get perfect audio-visual enjoyment.

There are other functions that we need to pay attention to, such as the picture zoom function, color depth mode setting, HDR mode setting, video display mode, audio track and caption setting are also commonly used, especially the caption can adjust the font size, color, format and playback position, just how comfortable it is.

The system also pre installed some common applications, such as Dangbei market Miracast、XBMC、 Lebo projection screen, Wukong remote control, etc., are relatively popular. In the Dangbei market, we can directly download APP installation, such as iQiyi, Youku, etc., so that some popular videos will not be missed, and a huge amount of resources are waiting for us.

We can also further explore the system functions. We are familiar with the settings of the Android ecosystem when we enter it. This is similar to what we see on our mobile phones. We can toss and turn if we are interested.

Egrid A9 supports internal hard disk, 2T~8T GPT format internal hard disk, mobile hard disk, U disk NAS、 For the reading and playing of external hard disks, the built-in 2T 3.5-inch disk has been divided into four areas, and the system automatically identifies four hard disks, so that we can store some documents by category.

Searching for a network share can easily find devices in the same network. It also supports SMB and NFS. My shared disk of Download Treasure can be found without setting. I download many videos directly to Thunderbolt Download Treasure, because it supports Thunderbolt remote download, so it can be used directly.

The function of poster wall is a major feature of Egrid A9. I usually download some videos in a folder, and don't bother to classify them. It is very difficult to find them in the ordinary way. Especially now, a series is often 70-80 episodes. With the poster wall, it is much more convenient. It will automatically search the hard disk or network share, and intelligently judge the attribute classification, such as episode, original disk, 4K 3D, etc., automatically matches the cover from the network, and automatically classifies all included movies on the left, as well as the search function. This is a good news for audiovisual enthusiasts, but it took a long time to generate posters when it was first enabled, which is very convenient after generation.

At present, there are still some mistakes in the identification of posters. For example, the system shows that there are six episodes of sleepless people in the drama collection, and the others are listed in the unclassified. I put them in a directory in the disk, and the system does not automatically judge. According to its own rules, there are many films and TV programs in the unclassified, and only 4K and Blu ray original disks are the most accurate.

performance

Using Anthare to score the system, the result is 38736 points, which is in the middle level compared with popular TV sets. However, Egree's positioning is player, which is not comparable to intelligent TV sets. At the same time, I saw on the Internet that others scored 39739 points on Egree's A5, so the score will also be affected by many factors for reference only.

The test score of Anthare video is 966, which should be said to be good. It can be ranked top in the list of popular smart TV. Only two video sources tested are not fully supported, and only some are stuck. The Egrid A9 is a real 4K hardware decoding of H.265/HEVC, and its decoding ability is quite outstanding.

Many players and TVs now support 4K video, but the actual playing levels are different, which involves their decoding ability. I collected more than 20 4K high-definition video clips with different formats, code rates, and frame rates, which can fully test the decoding ability. Use the built-in player of Egrid A9, and use the default method to test.

The familiar "Roast Duck" has three videos with different code rates. It plays clearly and smoothly, but it displays wrong video information, three clips and three kinds of information, which also leads to errors on the poster wall.

The code rate of this Hokkaido Flower Sea is 101mbps, which is a test for the hardware capability and decoding capability of many devices, and the playback of Egri A9 is normal.

The code rate of Big Male Rabbit is not high, but the frame rate has reached 60fps, which is also high in 4K movie sources. There is no problem with the playback of Egry A9, and fast forward drag and drop is also very smooth.

The world's first 4K HDR test video "Into the Cave of Wonders", Egrid A9 has exclusive wide color gamut HDR/HDR10 technology, 10Bit color depth, and can display 1.07 billion colors. This test film can also reflect its characteristics.

HDR technology can make the details of the screen display clear whether in highlights or shadows, which can bring us better visual effects. Of course, HDR supported televisions are also needed to achieve the effect.

This is a 3D video in up and down format, which can be overlapped through the 3D playback mode to reflect the shocking 3D effect. Of course, you must wear 3D eyes, which are blurry to the naked eye.

The previous video codes are AVC, that is, H.264. These videos are H.265 codes. Especially Dubai, Czech Scenery, and Swiss Town are all in TS format. Many players do not support it, and Egri A9 can play normally.

The code rate of Girls' Age is 100mbps, and the frame rate is 120fps. Many HD professional players will prompt that the hardware is limited to play, and Egrid A9 can play smoothly.

This pilot film is also a test of the playback ability. Many televisions, projectors and players have been tested. Most of them can only play sound. The black screen shows that a small part of them can play video and audio. The audio and video of the Egrid A9 play normally, and the fast forward and drag are also very smooth. There is no jam phenomenon.

Blue light

At the beginning, the original 4K UHD disc Smurfs 2 was cracked. So far, there have been more than 10 cracked movie sources. I downloaded three first taste movies here, namely, Space Traveler, Super 8 and Smurfs 2, all of which are over 50G in size. It took several days to download them to test the 4K Blu ray playback ability of Egrid A9.

The information collected on the broadcast page of Space Traveler is accurate, and there is no Blu ray navigation function. At present, A9 does not support navigation broadcast, but only A10 pro supports it. I hope that follow-up support can be provided.

On the story introduction page, you can see the detailed introduction, as well as the image of the leading actor. There is no other information.

All Blu ray discs have chapters. Although they cannot be navigated and played, it is also an option to play from chapters. It is not clear about the information of each chapter, and it is not used in general.

The player can also play at a selected time, that is, from a certain playing point. Unlike fast forward, it is more accurate in positioning, which can reach seconds. This helps to know the important clips at a certain moment and need to watch them repeatedly.

The playback mode has its own Imprex image engine, which greatly improves the image quality. It is specially developed by Egrid for this machine, which can maximize the optimization of image processing. When playing video, you can select the image engine to open Imprex. Its image modes include standard, bright, sports, movies, and custom.

The Imprex image engine can make more advanced adjustments to the display effect of the image. We can see that the color of the image is very vivid, and the contrast and definition are very high. The HDR function enables the image to show a wider color gamut.

The Egrid A9 supports the selection of audio tracks. The list of various audio track languages is very intuitive and can be directly selected. However, most high-definition blockbusters do not have a Mandarin version, so they can only listen to the original sound.

Without Mandarin dubbing, subtitles are very important. The blue disc also has subtitles in many languages. I believe that many people watch European and American movies and dramas with subtitles, which makes them dependent.

This Smurf 2 has its own subtitles in English, French, Spanish and other languages, but no Chinese subtitles. Fortunately, there is an online subtitle option, and we can download subtitles online.

A variety of matching subtitles are available online. Select Simplified Chinese, and the familiar Chinese characters will appear immediately below, which is very convenient.

The playback picture of Smurf 2 is very exquisite. The difference between the Blu ray version and the one we usually see is very big. The definition is very high. It can be said that if we are used to the Blu ray version, our eyes will be very picky in the future. We don't want to see the ordinary source anymore.

The music playback function supports audio files in various formats. What I provide here is a lossless APE format. The player still decodes and plays smoothly. It also supports lyrics files in LRC format. I have pure music here, so I haven't downloaded lyrics.

Although picture file playback is not commonly used for high-end players, it is also needed. A9's picture playback supports 4K HD pictures. In addition to the normal up and down display, it can also be played in slide mode. Press the OK key to change to slide show playback, and switch freely.

XBMC

XBMC is a very popular audio and video player software, which is also optimized and adjusted by Egrid and depth adaptation. It can play videos, music and photos.

XBMC also has system settings and many functions. It has audio tracks, subtitles and other settings on the video, which is similar to the system of Egree itself, but more intuitive on the interface.

XBMC also has a plug-in function. Its plug-in is also similar to the APP application we installed. There are many plug-ins available for download on the Internet, such as many video playing platforms. After installation, massive resources can be obtained.

This is the music playing interface. XBMC can play music in various formats, and lossless APE format is not a problem. It can also automatically split APE files. My file rack has split and original versions, so I can see that each song is repeated in the list.

The photo viewing is also similar to that provided by the Egree system. It can be shown separately, or slide show can be selected. When selecting a file list, a preview image will be displayed.

There is no problem with video playback. XBMC has 4K H265 hardware decoding, and 4K high-definition video can be played smoothly and smoothly. Its playback interface is different from XBMC's native player. The lower row is the functional operation area, which is more controllable. There is an appropriate cover on the left, and you can also download the screen.

According to the manual, the XBMC has a full function Blu ray navigation function, but when I opened the Blu ray disc during the test, it was buffered all the time and was basically in a crash state. I don't know what the reason is, and may only identify the genuine Blu ray disc.

scene

In order to get the best projection effect, I chose AQUOS Sharp Broad View S60U TV, which supports the brilliant color technology, wide color gamut import technology, HDR technology, and provides 4K high picture quality output. Its split speakers also have excellent stereo sound quality, which can be perfectly matched with Egrid A9.

The above is a group of screen photos played without any processing. The film source is the three 4K UHD blue ray discs I used before. The performance of the Egry A9 is excellent, and of course it is also due to Sharp's broad-minded vision. By combining the two, we can see that the HDR effect is very obvious, with high clarity, light and shade effects, the sense of hierarchy of color scale transition, and the degree of color restoration, The characteristics of the blue ray disk can be brought into full play.

summary

When people have doubts about the player, the Egrid A9 professional 4K Blu ray hard disk player gives the answer. In the appearance design, it uses an all metal body, built-in metal hard disk extraction rack, intelligent cooling fan design, rich input and output interfaces, 4-core 64 bit A53 processor in the performance configuration, H.265/HEVC true 4K hardware decoding, exclusive wide color range HDR/HDR10, 4K@60Hz The point-to-point video output, the optimization system based on Android 5.1, the exclusive full-automatic poster wall, and the one button intelligent switching of audio tracks and subtitles on the system provide us with a professional 4K Blu ray HD experience. For audiophiles, it is worth getting such a professional player.

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