MECOOL M8S PLUS L Amlogic S912 Android 7.1 TV Box

[trebor]

MECOOL M8S PLUS L Amlogic S912 Android 7.1 TV Box -
2GB RAM + 16GB ROM 2.4G WiFi BT4.2 Support 4K H.265



Main Features
● Android 7.1 operation system
● Amlogic S912 CPU, octa core, Cortex A53, 1.5GHz
● Mali-T820MP3 GPU, 75MHz
● 2GB DDR3 RAM + 16GB ROM
● 2.4GHz WiFi and 100Mbps Ethernet
● Support H.265 decoding
● Support HDR 4K image

Gearbest

[Intrinsic]

Why?

Where is the 4GB ram, 32GB USB3 supporting android Tv box?

[Magendanz]

Does this have Widevine L1? Google Cast support?

[mo123]

Normal Android, no AndroidTV, so probably not supported.

[trebor]

YEP can confirm, so far.

[Magendanz]

That's very strange, since it seems to be a knock-off of the Xiaomi Mi Box. This should really be their Google Certified Android TV device.

[trebor]

Thanks to gearbest today we get to have a closer look at the
MECOOL M8S PLUS L Amlogic S912 Android 7.1 TV Box


Specification:

Brand: MECOOL Model: M8S PLUS L Type: TV Box GPU: Mali-T820MP3 System: Android 7.1 CPU: Amlogic S912 Core: 1.5GHz,Cortex A53,Octa Core RAM: 2G RAM Type: DDR3 ROM: 16G

Decoder Format: H.263,H.264,H.265,HD MPEG4 Video format: ASF,AVI,DAT,FLV,ISO,MKV,MOV,MPEG,MPG,RM,RMVB,TS,VO B,WMV Audio format: AAC,APE,DDP,FLAC,HD,MP3,OGG,TrueHD,WAV,WMA Photo Format: BMP,GIF,JPEG,PNG,TIFF Support 5.1 Surround Sound Output: No

5G WiFi: No Power Supply: Charge Adapter Interface: AV,DC Power Port,HDMI,HDTV Out,USB2.0 Antenna: Yes Language: Multi-language HDMI Version: 2.0 Other Functions: Airplay,DLNA,Miracast External Subtitle Supported: No HDMI Function: HDCP

System Bit: 64Bit System Activation: Yes

Power Type: External Power Adapter Mode

Remote Controller Battery: 2 x AAA Battery ( not included )

Product weight: 0.1100 kg Package weight: 0.4000 kg Product size (L x W x H): 10.20 x 10.20 x 2.10 cm / 4.02 x 4.02 x 0.83 inches Package size (L x W x H): 17.90 x 11.00 x 6.50 cm / 7.05 x 4.33 x 2.56 inches

Package Contents: 1 x TV Box, 1 x Power Adapter, 1 x IR Remote Control, 1 x HDMI Cable, 1 x English User Manual, 1 x Gift Box

Let's continue with a bit of a look and see of what we have

The Box



What's in the Box


A Underwhelming array of ports, enough if you have a Hub etc


The Ski Slope, thin and small foot print Casing


Sleek, thin and smooth.
No Voice remote.
Wonder what it has to offer ?
more to come soon.

Gearbest

[trebor]

Lets Rip into it the MECOOL M8S PLUS L Amlogic S912 Android 7.1 TV Box by pulling it apart and seeing what we have.

Remove the base we can see under side of PCB:
Power Led, IR Pickup and Wifi Antenna and Ram not to much happening.


Remove 2 screws and carefully peel WiFi Antenna only get one chance at this bit
We have Ports:
Reset button behind AV Port, more Ram, CPU, eMMC, WiFi Chip and other bits to make it all happen

Good use of Weight Block as Heat Sink leaving a slight impression in, unsure of its thermal properties
Would have been cool to have a raised Small heat sink instead of Pad, maybe all machined out of a slab of Copper/Brass/Alloy then a small dob of heatpast
Glue a thick shim (alloy) to CPU then heat paste between top ot shim and metal plate or a shim with paste either side.
Or what seems to be the Go Drill lots of holes and stick a fan


Closer Look at all the Top Side and bits: next to the eMMC looks like we have another Pad to take eMMC maybe 3GB or something ?


Closer Look Bottom side and bits:

[trebor]

Firing up the MECOOL M8S PLUS L Amlogic S912 Android 7.1 TV Box
Appears nice and zippy UI and all

Mecool is using its Own A7 Launcher it's doing OK, clean and neat
Mecool M8S pro L has L1 and also has Root
Unfortunately so far Netflix 480p and with the Meecol launcher there is no upper
Lower Status can be activated in thru Android settings.

Setup of WiFi and Google account All good
Updated Apps and installation of tester Apps again no problems
Wifi sorta surprised me a bit, as it running on a box with a bit of get up go dloads and all excellent here.

Temps cool idle low mid 40c at present, Antutu Mid to High 60c
Remote working ok from most angles so far

Need to mod the KL file to get Enter to work ok on Keyboard and as we have root easy peasy.

On with show so to speak
Ui, Installed apps basic Info etc









By Clicking on Model Name above many times the Normal A7 Settings appear if required.






DRM: L1


Root Explorer:


Ram and Storage truth


Antutu:



CPU-Z:




SD Card Test:


Geekbench 4 CPU:
More >> http://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10095980



Geekbench 4 Compute:



Its a Amlogic S912 has been around for a while and working pretty good I feel.

[Beaver42]

Hi everyone.

I just received this box, I was a bit disappointed that it does not include Android TV stock as it was written on it... I mistaken M8S plus L with M8S pro L

Do you think I can hope an Android TV unofficial ROM update as for the old good M8S pro plus?

Sorry if I post in the wrong topic.

[Robert S]

Is there a firmware upgrade available? Or maybe someone can recommend a custom Rom that I can try to flash on this box. I seem to have a problem with connecting to WiFi. When I power on or lose WiFi connection it needs to be toggled several times to connect.

[gbaix2]

I found this new article today, but I did not test anything. I do not have enough knowledge to make this change : https://androidpctv.com/firmware-mec...l-lb-10182018/

[Robert S]

This is the image file that retailer sent to me. https://mega.nz/#F!yFMmFAoR!DP3PKLICF25MJL8-4DZ0aQ I have tried to port an atv Rom to this firmware with no success. The box boots and I can connect to wifi but can't get past "checking for updates" Can anyone guide me to do a proper port?

Poisonatv v4.5 works but only on 1gb of ram.

[dazed24]

Just wanted to check if anybody else here is using this and finding WIFI to be extremely slow. I run an Emby server and have Nvidia Shields or MINIX U1 as clients with no issue. With the drop in prices of android boxes, figured I should test some of them to see if they can work as Emby clients (via Kodi Emby addon)

Ordered both M8S Plus L and M8S Pro L, and the M8S Plus L arrived first. Was surprised how small it was, but figured with the S912 chip, shouldn't be an issue for what I need it for.

I was shocked how slow this was, compared to the Minix U1 that was running a much older S905. But that's ok, if it were useable to play videos. Unfortunately, after doing a clean Kodi 18.4 install and setting up the Emby addon, videos aren't playable. I get a full Wifi signal, and server is in the local network, but I get the Kodi error that source is too slow for playback. I haven't bothered trying Youtube (don't have a Netflix account to test), but maybe will try that. In any case, is this a known issue with this device, or is there a firmware upgrade to improve wifi speeds? The box doesn't have an RJ45 port so I'm forced to use WIFI

I hope the M8S Pro L's that are arriving are better. It's a shame because I like the price point, the specs look good on paper. The only use is really for Kodi/Emby, so just trying to find the most cost-effective and reliable clients for this use case now