I kinda still believe that's possible to programming on it because it have a 32 bits RISC processor on it, but i need the ISA of it, and i have a test at my university so i don't have a lot of time to look for it.
Back in a day there was a source code for the OS and API reference circling around the interned for one of the similar BBK DVD players. That was definitely more than 10 years ago, so I'm not sure if you can even find it.
After your advice i realize that, when i started looking at the circuit diagram of this thing. I kinda still believe that's possible to programming on it because it have a 32 bits RISC processor on it, but i need the ISA of it, and i have a test at my university so i don't have a lot of time to look for it. Thanks for the advice, and for helping me to identify the SoC. What do you recommend for modding, from a consumer electronics list that's not supposed to be programmed, but also not so specialized thats make it impossible to modding?
Android TV boxes. About 99% of them can be flashed with alternative OSes. Just as an example, I have a freebie H96 Max X3 which I got from a friend after WiFi chip died. It's based on Amlogic S905X3, has 4GB of RAM and 64G eMMC. Runs debian, has exposed UART pins, and as a cherry on top - there is a community mod that allows you to control GPIO connected to a 7-seg LED display on this model (clock indicator). I've been using it for over 2 years as a raspberry-Pi replacement in various projects, running either a headless Ubuntu Server, or Armbian. What's cool about that one, is that it's fast, has USB3.0 and gigabit ethernet. Having UART makes it perfect for playing around with microcontrollers and other devices while not sacrificing any USB ports.
Later my friend got baited on cheap TV Boxes from Aliexpress. Those came out to be total garbage, but SoC was semi-decent. He bought about 5 of them for around $8/ea, which is not a big loss if they were useless. But, they were also Amlogic-based, which gave me hope that it can run armbian. So, few days later my friend drops of all of them at my workshop, I tear them down and check all the faked spec. Instead of 128GB it barely had 3.5GB of effective eMMC space(that's total, not "useable"), only 1.5G of RAM instead of 4, and also it ran Android 7 instead of 11 as claimed in listing. I had to dig through my donor pile of dead phones, find the ones with the right BGA layout on eMMC chip, reball and replace it, flash a stock bootloader, then spend a day looking for a way to install Armbian. It was much harder than expected.... There was only one short video in Korean, and it only showed part of an overcomplicated flashing process (but it gave me hint towards making it run Linux persistently).
The end-result: 4 boxes upgraded to 16GB eMMC were snatched by my other friend for his 3D print farm(running Klipper on Armbian), and the last box was upgraded to 32GB eMMC from my dead Nexus 7 and was installed in my older 3D Printer which I just converted to Klipper. The only downside - no WiFi drivers on Armbian, but it's shitty anyways.
I even have some pics of this painful, but fruitful process:
There are also many other consumer appliances that can run linux(or already run it behind the curtains). Back in a day I had an external HDD with media playback and networking capabilities from WD. It ran linux, but all you had is a GUI for playback and SMB share on the network. Sometime down the road people figured out how to install busybox on it, and this changed everything. People were running FTP/Web servers, converted it to a remote torrent box with web-GUI, etc.etc.etc.
Some routers can run things they aren't supposed to, some tablets can become functional Linux servers... heck, I've even seen some fancy coffee machines in malls throwing Kernel Panic at me.
