Comparison Vontar X4 32 Gb vs Vontar X96 Max Plus 64 Gb

Bluetooth is a technology used to connect various devices wirelessly directly. In media centers and TV receivers, it can be used to broadcast sound to wireless headphones and acoustics, to work with wireless mice and keyboards, to use a smartphone / tablet as a remote control, etc.; specific functionality should be specified separately. Also note that the supported version of Bluetooth can be specified here. The newest and most advanced is Bluetooth 5.0, but here is a more detailed description of the different versions:

• Bluetooth v4.0. The version in which the "Bluetooth Low Energy" (LE) format was first introduced — in addition to regular Bluetooth (version 2.1 functionality) and the high-speed HE standard for transferring large amounts of information (introduced in version 3.0). Bluetooth LE allows you to significantly reduce power consumption when transmitting small data packets, such as request-responses about connection activity in idle mode. For the media centers and TV receivers themselves, this is not particularly important, but for portable equipment (especially miniature ones, where battery capacity is very limited), such functionality will be useful.
• Bluetooth v 4.1. Development and improvement of Bluetooth 4.0. One of the key improvements was the optimization of collaboration with 4G LTE communication modules so that Bluetooth and LTE do not interfere with each other. In addition, this ve...rsion has the ability to simultaneously use a Bluetooth device in several roles — for example, to remotely control an external device while simultaneously streaming music to headphones.
• Bluetooth v4.2. Further, after 4.1, the development of the Bluetooth standard. It did not introduce fundamental updates, but received a number of improvements regarding reliability and noise immunity, as well as improved compatibility with the Internet of Things.
• Bluetooth v5.0. Version introduced in 2016. One of the most notable updates was the introduction of two new modes of operation for Bluetooth LE — with an increase in speed by reducing the range and with an increase in range by reducing the speed. In addition, a number of improvements have been introduced regarding simultaneous work with numerous connected devices, as well as work with the components of the Internet of Things.

A wireless technology that allows you to directly broadcast video and audio from one device to another directly over a Wi-Fi connection. At the same time, unlike AirPlay, transmission does not require a router and building a local network — it is enough that the receiver and transmitter are compatible with Miracast. One of the most popular ways to use this technology is to output a “picture” from a smartphone / tablet screen to a TV, and vice versa. A media centre or TV receiver with Miracast is useful if the TV itself does not support this function.

LAN — connector for wired connection to the Internet and/or local area network using an Ethernet cable. A wired connection is not as convenient as Wi-Fi (see "Multimedia"), but it is considered more reliable and provides faster data transfer speeds. And the speed indicators depend on the device and can be 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps.

The model of the CPU installed in the media player.

This information is mainly of reference value: the processor is selected in such a way as to provide certain practical characteristics (maximum resolution, support for certain standards, embedded applications, etc.). So when choosing, you should focus primarily on these specifications. However, if you wish, knowing the processor model, you can find detailed data on it and evaluate the capabilities of the media centre to work with resource-consuming applications. This can be useful, in particular, if you choose an Android model (see above) and plan to use additional software intensively — the set of applications for this OS is very extensive, and some of them are quite demanding on system resources.

Also note that CPU data is often specified for advertising purposes — to emphasize that the device has a fairly advanced chip from a well-known brand. Among the most common brands of such processors are Allwinner, Amlogic, Rockchip, Realtek.

The clock speed of the CPU installed in the media centre.

On the technical side, the higher this indicator, the faster the processor works and the higher, accordingly, the overall system performance. At the same time, the CPU performance depends, in addition to the frequency itself, on a number of factors — architecture, number of cores, special design features, etc.; and the actual speed of the entire system is affected by performance of components other than the processor. In addition, manufacturers usually select processors in such a way that their computing power is guaranteed to be enough for all the features claimed for a media centre. Therefore, in this case, the CPU frequency is more of a reference parameter (and partly an advertising indicator that demonstrates the advanced specifications of the device), rather than practically significant for buyer.

The volume ofits own storage installed in the media player.

In this case, storage means permanent memory available to the user — the storage that you can fill with movies, music, applications, etc. The larger the volume of such storage, the more convenient it is for the user; on the other hand, this parameter significantly affects the cost of the entire device. In addition, it should noted that external media are also quite suitable for films and other multimedia content — flash drives, portable HDDs, drives installed in a slot (see below), optical discs, etc. So specifically look for a model with a capacious storage makes sense in two main cases. The first is if you want to keep an extensive collection of content in the media player, so as not to bother once again with connecting flash drives, loading disks, etc. it is best to put it in the built-in memory, and often this is the only possible option).

As for specific volumes, the capacity up to 4 GB is considered very limited nowadays; such a storage is not enough even for a movie in HD 720p, its purpose is mainly to store a small set of applications. 8 GB and 16 GB are also relatively small, but this already allows you to work with a fairly extensive set of software and store individual movies in HD resolutions. And if you initially intend to store a large amount of content on the device, you should d...efinitely pay attention to models with a capacity of 32 GB or more.

Ability to play videos in Ultra HD 8K on the device.

This format is a further development of high-definition video after UltraHD 4K (see above). The term "8K" alludes to a size of about 8000 horizontal pixels; and the most common frame size for this format is 7680x4320 (that is, twice the 4K on each side and four times the number of pixels in the frame). This gives extremely high detail; in addition, the technical specification of 8K screens includes a number of additional requirements regarding high-quality colour reproduction, and media centers often meet these requirements. On the other hand, so far (as of early 2020) 8K screens are rare and very expensive; therefore, there is little content released for them, and support for such video in media players is provided rather for the future.

HDR standard supported by the media player.

For more details about HDR in general, see above, while the standard defines some features of the implementation of this feature. Today, the following HDR formats are relevant:

— HDR10. Historically the first of the consumer HDR formats, less advanced than the options described below, but extremely widespread. In particular, HDR10 is supported by almost all streaming services that provide HDR content at all, and it is also common for Blu-ray discs. Allows to work with a colour depth of 10 bits (hence the name). At the same time, devices of this format are also compatible with content in HDR10 +, although its quality will be limited by the capabilities of the original HDR10.

— HDR10+. An improved version of HDR10. With the same colour depth (10 bits), it uses the so-called dynamic metadata, which allows transmitting information about the colour depth not only for groups of several frames, but also for individual frames. This results in an additional improvement in colour reproduction.

— Dolby Vision. An advanced standard used particularly in professional cinematography. Allows to achieve a colour depth of 12 bits, uses the dynamic metadata described above, and also makes it possible to transmit two image options at once in one video stream — HDR and standard (SDR). At the same time, Dolby Vision is based on the same tec...hnology as HDR10, so in modern video technology this format is usually combined with HDR10 or HDR10 +.

The device has its own external screen. Such a screen has a small size and performs an auxiliary role; various additional information can be displayed on it: operating mode, selected media, file name and location, playback time, etc.