I would agree with that, but some times the 10 second mark can be yielded before the splash screen and after it as well, I find that looking at the splash on the screen has a better chance of detecting the specific phase of the boot process 
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Yes, I see what you are saying. I usually watch for indication in the tool, but sometimes view the VIM’s display.
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Don’t need to pull the power - leave it in,press and hold reset and power button then release reset and wait for a few seconds and your in upgrade mode. Easier than trying to plug power in whilst holding buttons!
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Yes, this is one way
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Yes you got it, this is the correct way. 
Generally, booting from EMMC or SD is a matter of preference:
- If you have your OS of choice on the EMMC, then boot from EMMC
- If you have Krescue on your SD, and want to boot Krescue, then boot from SD
Some people like to use SD-only distributions, and not touch the EMMC. This could be a throwback to how people use the RPi; because the Pi is a bare-bones device, an EMMC is not included.
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Not me. I use SD card OSes because of my fear of commitment. 
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@tsangyoujun and don’t forget that eMMC is a precious thing to have, a luxury to say on embedded devices, reserved for “special” purposes only, wouldn’t want to wear it down fast when you are distro hopping a lot! 
is that what you mean as well @RDFTKV ? 
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It’s okay, there will be a reason to buy another vim 
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Well, I was a prolific distro hopper, but I’m much better now.
Though having a variety of OSes still interest me, so yes, the hopper is still in me. 
Or attempt to replace the eMMC. Though I’m not ready to try it yet. Fortunately, even my original VIM1 shows no sign of letting up, I don’t how many dozens of times I have flashed it.
But yes, getting a new one is more of a thrill. I love getting parcels in the post. 
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Yes, besides, now there is a new revision of vim3
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As for FAQ, also I’d love to put the basic software knowledge into one place
eg.
what is mainline and 4.9 and what are the differences
what is uboot and what are the differences for booting 4.9, mainline etc
what is android vs androidtv? (this one would be great to get google hits point to khadas faq, as I couldn’t find clear explantation )
also going back to booting I find it unclear in docs (but yeah lets say im newbie who expects it to be written in a simpler way perhaps) 
- booting from sd/emmc what to do to switch
- android booting into recovery etc
@xmesaj2 let me clarify some of these things for you
p.s don’t get scared by this huge wall of text, just take your time to read through it
4.9 kernel or (currently) known as the BSP kernel, this is the board support package, or the version of linux the linux kernel which is provided by the board/chip manufacturer (Amlogic or Rockchip) and contains the most necessary or basic software packages needed for the SoC to Run, you will find that almost every accessory “just plain works” when using a linux Image with this kernel
Mainline linux or Upstream kernel, is the latest and greatest of what current software provides, it is a sort of Unstable or Beta kernel as not everything will Run in this kernel, but those that do Run will be quite optimised.
the mainline kernel takes development from made at the moment from various gropus communities around the world and is managed by maintainers and also Linus Torvalds (founder and creator of linux kernel) himself, every patch that is is accepted and sent upstream must go through him.
whenever a Linux kernel is released for us here, it also is released with its respective version of uboot,
das u-boot (the uboot) (or) Universal bootloader is a free and open source bootloader for many embedded device (or unanimously known as SBCs- single board computers)
many devices run uboot as their bootloader of choice as its free and open source and fits right in with the GNU ecosystem.
more can be read about uboot from wiki pages and their own website.
Android is the one of the most widely used mobile operating systems, as one would know, millions of devices run android as their primary operating system, its most commonly found on mobile phones.
Android TV is a port of Android which is optimized and made for TVs, this version of android is for Android TVs and Tv boxes or anything that is used for video playback, streaming purposes, and general media consumption.
hope that solves you questions
This is something that requires a bit more practice in my opinion, even after doing this process for many times now I still miss the mark and boot into recovery sometimes 
basically if you hold on the power button for longer than intended when doing the keys upgrade mode, you’ll end up in android recovery (depicted by the green android “droid”),
but you can follow my step above which refers to seeing the screen, and what logo appears on the screen, check the booting process, just remember to undershoot the button press removal (releasing just it before khadas logo comes on) and you will surely get into Upgrade mode
I’ve explained it quite carefully I hope, any other questions you can ping me 
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I would not risk it 
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I hope I’m not too tedious with those questions as I could probably google it, thanks a lot mate, guess the main point why I ask for it is simply because I find docs unclear at some points or lackluster, I usually get back to forums eventually, so this in regard to new users to find things easier maybe just an entry threshold and how well things are explained, then we can dethrone rpi when its easy to adapt for noobs
for android tv question I was more thinking about the differences with pure aosp for tvbox (as you may already know I plan to use vim3 as open alternative to cheap tvboxes)
this information isn’t as easiely described, eg. tv uses tv version of apps, when aosp does not, thus they have different UIs, requirements etc. also controls are bit different, eg settings menus, but this is probably good for separate article and said Khadas provides only AOSP and TV are 3rd party eg superceleron or the one @Vladimir.v.v suggested me, I don’t really expect it to see here but would be a nice blog post to get more page hits for someone wondering
for uboot/mainline question this is mostly clear for me now, although let’s say, what happens when I use manjaro with 5.8 on SD and ubuntu with 4.9 kernel on EMMC, or the storage booting the OS actually will use the own uboot and that’s it.
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Android TV - is a special version of the Android OS kernel that is designed for TVs and smart set-top boxes. Provides all devices with the same features: support for video playback, audio playback, standard launcher and voice search. On Google Play, users can only find apps and games that are fully optimized for TV.
Android (AOSP - Android Open Source Project) is an operating system that supports devices from various manufacturers. It can be installed on smartphones, tablets, TVs, TV-boxes, smart watches, fitness bracelets, game consoles, laptops.
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Hello, I am not a huge fan of ATV, but, to each his own. Developer @superceleron offers an ATV for the VIM3(and others), so you can give it a go and draw your own conclusions. Many people love the ATV.
Can you tell me why? .
well i like both lol, it all depends on the mood of the day
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ATV is convenient to use under the remote control