MECOOL M8S Pro + TV Box Amlogic S905X Android 7.1 2/16GB Fast Lan, WiFi 802.11b/g/n

[kečiga]

How does HDMI CEC work under Android TV on this little box? I've just installed it, together with flashing it with Magendanz's TVStock Nexus ROM, but my shitty Philips TV's remote doesn't work at all. I have tried it while connecting on HDMI 1 and HDMI side, to no avail. Rebooting and turning on / off doesn't help. Raspberry Pi 2 on the other hand worked flawlessly with TV's remote. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[wrxtasy]

HDMI-CEC works pretty well with my Hisense TV. The MECOOL can even Turn the TV ON / OFF. The TV can also turn the MECOOL OFF, but not ON.

The problems with CEC control is not all TV's are created equal. Or all u-boot code, needed for CEC control on AMLogic devices created equal either.

HDMI-CEC is not an exact standard. TV manufacturers are notorious with adding their own little "tweaks" to HDMI-CEC and then rebranding it to con consumers into thinking that it will only work with their own specialised audio and video equiptment.

You can not compare the RPi with its years of CEC development work behind it to a cheap Chinese Android box.

[SMG]

I'm new to Amlogic boxes running Android, and successfully update the M8S Pro Plus with the TVStock Nexus Rom. Now I'm trying to set up Kodi 17.4 or SPMC to pass through TrueHD and DTS MA. I set the channel count as 7.1. I've tried Raw Passthrough and IEC Passthrough, but both produce only 2.0 channel audio. AC3 5.1 works fine, and Netflix puts out DD+, but lossless audio won't pass through. Am I missing something? Also, SPMC does not change to 24p for movies. Is this something that should work? I've tried researching both issues, but couldn't find definitive answers.

(I bought the Mecool to run LibreElec, and suspect it will solve these problems, but I couldn't find a paper clip tonight for the reset button, so got diverted to the Android side for a bit.)

Thanks in advance! Reading these forums, and especially wrxtasy's posts, inspired my plunge into these new waters.

[wrxtasy]

Reset all Kodi Audio settings and make sure you have "Expert" selected in the bottom left. HDMI may also need to be also selected in Android Audio system settings.

Then only select which passthrough options you want DO NOT change the 2.0 channels setting. 2.0 refers to the number of Audio data "transport" channels. Not the number of speakers you have attached to your AVR. You may need to quit Kodi and then reboot the box as well.

There is no out of the box - Kodi / SPMC Auto refresh switching working with Android on this box. You need to use LibreELEC Kodi Krypton.

[SMG]

Thanks, wrxtasy! I couldn't get HD audio pass through to work on the Android side, so I moved on to LibreElec. I easily got TrueHD and DTS MA to pass through using LibreElec, but couldn't get automatic refresh switching to work. Perhaps I'm missing something again. I'll try to go through the settings again, but any suggestions would be appreciated. My JVC projector and Anthem processor have no problem with refresh switching, though the projector takes a few seconds to sync to the new rate. It's been some time since I've used Kodi (actually, XMBC), so it's taking some time to get used to the interface and conventions of how things work. By the way, the projector and processor have no problem with 23.976 Hz, 24 Hz, or any other common video rates.

[dkh]

I purchased 2 of these and managed to update the ATV and dual boot libreelec on the first box with no problems at all.

I then attampted to do the same to the second box using the same usb that I used to update the first box. selected local update with data wipe but after rebooting it will now get no signal. Have a bricked my device? Holding down reset button whilst plugging in power does nothing. looks like blue and red light both remain on.

[lewy20041]

Are you connecting the box to 4k TV?
If yes, try connecting the box to other tv that is max 1080p, go to settings screen and disable best mode.
After that it should work fine on any tv.

[SMG]

Are you connecting the box to 4k TV?
If yes, try connecting the box to other tv that is max 1080p, go to settings screen and disable best mode.
After that it should work fine on any tv.

Is this a suggestion for me? I'm connecting to a 1080p projector. I'll try your suggestion, on the chance that it was directed to me.

[kečiga]

HDMI-CEC works pretty well with my Hisense TV. The MECOOL can even Turn the TV ON / OFF. The TV can also turn the MECOOL OFF, but not ON.

The problems with CEC control is not all TV's are created equal. Or all u-boot code, needed for CEC control on AMLogic devices created equal either.

HDMI-CEC is not an exact standard. TV manufacturers are notorious with adding their own little "tweaks" to HDMI-CEC and then rebranding it to con consumers into thinking that it will only work with their own specialised audio and video equiptment.

You can not compare the RPi with its years of CEC development work behind it to a cheap Chinese Android box.

Thanks, mate. Thanks to your recommendation, I bought this little box, and apart from this nuisance, I'm pretty satisfied with it. I will try connecting it to my Panasonic and see how that will go, and I'm yet to make it dual-boot with LibreELEC, because the spare SD card I have seems to be malfunctioning. I plan to buy a new one and then try LE.

How easy is it to switch between Android and LE with the remote control? As I've read, in LibreELEC there is an option in the power menu to reboot from internal memory, but is there a similar way to switch systems from android's UI?

[wrxtasy]

How easy is it to switch between Android and LE with the remote control? As I've read, in LibreELEC there is an option in the power menu to reboot from internal memory, but is there a similar way to switch systems from android's UI?

All you do is reboot Android.

After the very first LibreELEC install/bootup, where you have to use the Reset button.
Any subsequent reboots or power ups will boot straight into LibreELEC with no user intervention necessary.

This following is a really good LibreELEC Mod. to do to speed up LibreELEC Kodi quite noticeably for day to day use.

[HOWTO] Boot from SD card, use internal memory for data (click)

[SMG]

I was able to get HD lossless audio to work on the Android Kodi app. Thanks again wrxtasy! I can't get LibreELEC Kodi to scrape my movies, but that's okay, since the Plex add on shows me movie info and plays HD audio. Still no refresh rate switching in LibreELEC, so it's a work in progress. Pretty nice for a budget box.

[wrxtasy]

This will break Kodi Audio passthrough on all Kodi boxes:
Kodi Settings > Player > Video > Sync Playback to display

LibreELEC Kodi refresh switching:
Kodi Settings > Player > Video > Adjust Display Refesh Rate > Start / Stop

[Reflexion]

Is the "MECOOL M8S Pro +" just like the WeTek Play 2 capable of playing Netflix in fullHD or even UHD & 4k? I thought Shield TV and Miui Box would be the only one.

Yes, at least for now. It's not clear to me how a box with an unlocked bootloader got Widevine L1 certification, but they have it.

[tnimk]

Hello! First time poster and noob here.

Was looking to pick up this tv box, but was wondering if it's suitable as a torrent download box. I currently have the MIBOX3 and an external 3TB hard drive (NTFS) connected, but it doesn't let me save to a directory on the hard drive. Hoping this one doesn't have the same issue.

Also does this support 4K @ 60fps?

Sorry for the noob questions!

[SMG]

So I got LibreELEC/Kodi to automatically switch resolution, which makes movie watching better, and the Ethernet connection is active so I can connect to the NAS on my home network.

But LibreELEC/Kodi won't connect to the movie database or any resources such as add-ons. It says the request failed. or in the case of the Movie Database, it simply does nothing. I was able to download one add-on yesterday, but no connection today.

And at startup it says it failed to start Setup User config.dr I don't know whether the two are related.

On the Android side, Kodi has no problem connecting to the internet to download movie info and add-ons, and Netflix and YouTube work fine.

I'd much rather use LibreElect, but I'm not sure how to handle the problems.