[malcolmbarr]

Saskm - thanks for the suggestion, I think wifi is already turned off but will check.

hdmkv - when I get chance to connect the thing to my receiver (it is in another room) I'll give the HD bitstreaming a try.

[Grizzer]

Thanks for your updates on the x2000 malcombarr, I was very close to pressing the order button for one of these (and I still might if they get their crap together). I love my mele remote I just wish I could find a box of theirs that I can trust.
Please keep the updates coming

[malcolmbarr]

So I had chance to connect this to my receiver and HD bitstream works from the native player, and also when the native player is launched from XBMC/Kodi.

To be honest I forgot to test what happens under SPMC or networked files which try and use the XBMC internal playback engine - will do so when I get time. Will do likewise with 4k playback.

The Mele website is back up but the forum is not, so still not sure if there is a new firmware update or solutions to some of the problems available. As it stands, this box is good for local playback only, uses the native player to do that even if playback is launched from XBMC, but handles 3D ISO well and can bitstream HD audio. No refresh rate switching, though.

[afss]

So I had chance to connect this to my receiver and HD bitstream works from the native player, and also when the native player is launched from XBMC/Kodi.

To be honest I forgot to test what happens under SPMC or networked files which try and use the XBMC internal playback engine - will do so when I get time. Will do likewise with 4k playback.

The Mele website is back up but the forum is not, so still not sure if there is a new firmware update or solutions to some of the problems available. As it stands, this box is good for local playback only, uses the native player to do that even if playback is launched from XBMC, but handles 3D ISO well and can bitstream HD audio. No refresh rate switching, though.

Thanks again for the help Malcom, very anxious to hear from you on the 4K/HEVC front.

[malcolmbarr]

So I downloaded the Transformers: Age of extinction trailer in 4K HEVC format from the website pointed to a few posts ago. Stuck it on a USB stick and in the X2000 player.

Playback using the native player on my 1080p TV appeared absolutely fine to me - no stuttering or audio glitches I was aware of. Almost enough to make me want to buy a 4K TV.... Since XBMC/Kodi triggers the native player, playback was fine when launched from there too.

I did also try using SPMC, which uses the internal playback engine, not the native player, and playback was a no go - would not start. To be honest, I don't know what the status of SPMC and HEVC is at this point in time and whether that is known limitation of SPMC at this point or a limitation of this particular box.

What I can say is that playback with the native player, which Mele are clearly wanting you to use, was fine.

The Mele forum is still down, and I have emailed them a couple of times to ask where I get support for this device, with no reply as yet.

afss - if there is another file you would really like me to test then let me know (just try and keep it to the smaller ones, I am not on a fibre broadband connection!).

At this point I honestly can't recommend the player as it stands given that it has no usable network playback ability and support for the box is not accessible. But my sense is that this is a box that could be only a firmware revision away from being a contender if 3D ISO, HD bitstream and 4K launched from XBMC are what you are looking for. We could probably say that about a lot of boxes though....

[afss]

So I downloaded the Transformers: Age of extinction trailer in 4K HEVC format from the website pointed to a few posts ago. Stuck it on a USB stick and in the X2000 player.

Playback using the native player on my 1080p TV appeared absolutely fine to me - no stuttering or audio glitches I was aware of. Almost enough to make me want to buy a 4K TV.... Since XBMC/Kodi triggers the native player, playback was fine when launched from there too.

I did also try using SPMC, which uses the internal playback engine, not the native player, and playback was a no go - would not start. To be honest, I don't know what the status of SPMC and HEVC is at this point in time and whether that is known limitation of SPMC at this point or a limitation of this particular box.

What I can say is that playback with the native player, which Mele are clearly wanting you to use, was fine.

The Mele forum is still down, and I have emailed them a couple of times to ask where I get support for this device, with no reply as yet.

afss - if there is another file you would really like me to test then let me know (just try and keep it to the smaller ones, I am not on a fibre broadband connection!).

At this point I honestly can't recommend the player as it stands given that it has no usable network playback ability and support for the box is not accessible. But my sense is that this is a box that could be only a firmware revision away from being a contender if 3D ISO, HD bitstream and 4K launched from XBMC are what you are looking for. We could probably say that about a lot of boxes though....

Thank you very much for this testing ! This is actually very good news for me, as I plan to use USB drive for most of my viewing (no network access).

[afss]

Hello Malcom, I forgot to ask - how does it work with the local player in terms of frequency changing ? Does it switch automatically based on the file playback ? Is it the same behavior for 1080p and 4K files ?

Do you have a setup option to change the frequency output for the player as a whole ? Could you please tell me what options you see under 4K (assuming 24, 25 and 30) ?

Thanks again !!

[Rod_Lyne]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum but thought I would share my experiences of the new Mele X2000 4k box
I received the box about 10 days ago and to put it bluntly I have found it to be shocking !.
Firstly out of the box impressions, it didn't look to bad, a little bit plasticy but a nice copper tone trim. the hard drive cover was rather disappointing though. Firstly I disconnected my sky box HDMI and connected this to the HDMI in and connected the supplied HDMI to my AVA receivers. I powered on the box and the booting process completed presenting the Mele home screen and audio from my Sky box. The audio did stop however when I launched one of the preinstalled Apps. I plugged in a 2Tb HDD and launched XBMC, added video source and let it do its thing. This is when the problems started The box ran out of memory. It took me to Application manager settings and kept flashing I need to uninstall some apps. I could not exit this screen by conventional means, i.e remote control (F10) and eventually had to power off the device. I rebooted the device only to be presented with a banner across the XBMC icon "not installed" . On seeing this I went to my apps and was presented with the message Unfortunately U3 Launcher has stopped working. I tried this several time and got the same message. I tried using the XBMC not installed icon and it took me to a screen to reinstall the app, OK I thought lets reinstall then, on the first attempt I clicked download and it patiently sat there for over 2 hours doing nothing, I tried this probably 30 or 40 times over a 24 hour period, at one point I thought I was on to a winner I hit download and the wait icon said 0.0% and quickly shot to, wait for it ........ 0.42%, yes that's right less than 1% and stuck there for 2 hours.
At this point I tried to visit The Mele forum en.Mele.cn and received error 500 and the site is still down as I type this review.
At this point XBMC is not installed ( the primary reason I bought the box) and none of the links TV store or direct install from the XBMC icon will work and the app launcher U3 no longer works just gives the message that unfortunately U3 Launcher has stopped working.
I went to settings to see if there was a firmware update the options given where update, trial, and install from local, updates and trial informed me that there were non available and I do not have a Rom image stored locally and there certainly isn't one available online.
I thought a factory reset would no likely do the trick "WARNING" if you do this when you box is rebooted you will have the majority of your apps gone. The only apps that remained were YouTube, 4K player, movie player and the TV market (which wouldn't download anything and the selection of apps was very limited with no option to explore and app your own apps)
XBMC still showing not installed and now Internet TV also showing the same, and to add insult to injury the bloody U3 Launcher is still not working !
Where to go Next ? Mele support, forget it , sorry forum is down we will try and fix it !
I visited XBMCs website and downloaded their version XBMC 13.2 Gotham (arm v7a) - Android. I installed from memory stick, acknowledged the error that Unfortunately U3 launcher has stopped working and launched XBMC a from the home screen icon (not installed message has now gone)
I tried to play a few films of various formats and noted that XBMC now uses its own internal player ( the 3rd party 4K player no longer launches) which is stutters on 1080 mkv's even with HW acceleration enabled and audio is stereo only even with pass through enabled on the box and within XBMC. Still better than nothing I thought, I added video source to XBMCS and let it scrape my media drive, all movies titled and in separate folders and all ready tagged with nfo's pesters etc via Media Companion and stored locally in each films individual folder. I told XBMCS to use local data only for scraping purposes and not to include actors.
B**ger Me, it ran out of memory again reset the box and uninstalling XBMC.
I rebooted and changed the settings in application manager to install to external rather than the default / internal option. Again the same problem. I would like have thought that maybe my film library was to large but XBMC works fine on my sumvision android X2 1gb/4gb, and even my Mele M9 (admittedly after a lot of messing around with the M9).
After repeated requests from Mele (Cn) to no avail, I have contacted Tina at Mele Europe and am yet to receive a reply. I think the support for this device is non existent and would seriously advise people against purchasing this box before Mele sort their act and support out . What is the point of having 3Tb HDD support if installed apps run seriously low on memory even to the point of auto uninstalling apps.
And why is XBMC installing to RAM not ROM
Obviously if I am just being stupid and doing something wrong pleas let me know , or if anyone has a working solution I'd be more than happy to try it
Regards
rod
14\01\15 after 12 emails to pretty much anyone at Mele I could get an email address for STILL NO REPLY OR HELP!
English forum is also still down so no web support

Hi Guys, I received this reply from Mele today (15/01/2015)
Gennie Peng Today at 2:11 AM
To
me
Dear Rod,

Firstly I introduce myself for you, I am Gennie Peng, sales manager who incharge of MeLE business in overseas market.
I have to say very very sorry about did not reply you email on time.
I was on business trip to CES 2015 in Las vegas, and I also visit some customer in Califonia, just back to Shenzhen yesterday.

We lauched X2000 4K in end of 2014, Actually we take over 5-6 months to optimize the firmware nearly to Mass production. But due to the chipset platform and limited support from original factory-Mstar, seems we did not have very good feedback for this box.

Anyway, we are trying to fix more bugs as we can, we will launch new firmware soonest.
Thanks for choosing MeLE products and your time for testing.

For MeLE forum and meleshop.com, our server was hacked by some guy several days ago, we are trying to fix it ASAP.

If I will inform you at the 1st time if we have new firmware.
Any questions please feel free to contact me!

Thanks.
Gennie Peng

[Rod_Lyne]

I have found that the Mele V10 also suffered from u3 launcher problems . It looks as if a firmware relase was issued to resolve the problem
================================================== ====
V10 V1.0.6

Date: 2014.10.17

Software modifications points:
1. Optimize WiFi slow instability;
2. Optimize U3 desktop error correction problem;
3. Optimize Local 720P video playback issues are not full-screen display;
4. Optimize online play ultra-clear film, the default is not full-screen problem;
5. Use the new video player, audio tracks and other settings to optimize subtitles too complex problems;
6. optimization does not automatically load subtitles, subtitles are not fast-forward after synchronization;
7. Add the new music, pictures, player and file manager;
8. Add the phone remote control, select Mele TV assistant sweep the download in the system;

U disk upgrade package Brush local OTA upgrade package

Note: After the OTA upgrade is complete, restore the factory settings, or change the language to complete the installation of a new player, it is recommended to change the language mode, restore factory settings will erase all the APP install themselves.
(Change language: Go to System Settings - Other Settings - Advanced Settings - Language and Keyboard Settings - Language settings - Set Traditional Chinese or English, is set to complete the retreat back to the main screen, and so the main interface initialization is complete, and then enter the language setting, revert to Chinese Simplified can, inconvenience please understand, thank you for your choice, we will continue to optimize the sound, Zhu Junsheng live happy!)

================================================== ====
Factory V10 firmware version V1.0.2

U disk upgrade package

2014.07.29

I think I may give it a try as both boxes are pretty much the same spec, I'm really surprised that Mele would ship the item with a previously known flawed firmware though
Any thoughts suggestions would be appreciated though
Rod

[malcolmbarr]

Rod - I am a bit concerned that you may brick your box if you flash the V10 firmware (I know it is close to being a brick anyway, but you know what I mean..)

Reading your description above makes me think your Android install has basically got corrupted and you are going to have continuous problems until you are able to reflash the firmware and reinstall their XBMC build. This has happened to me with other android based TV boxes. The fact that you cannot go anywhere to download the firmware/XBMC build, or get an email response from support, speaks to the fact that support for this product is almost non-existent at this point. I have been in contact with the Mele rep I bought this from via ebay and have been told to give him three days to reply on a list of problems. They know the support forum is down, and I have no idea why they haven't been able to bring it back up.

Based on my testing playback of 1080p will always stutter if you are using the internal playback engine of XBMC/Kodi, even if the material is stored locally. SPMC reduces the stutter, but it is still there. Only playback of locally stored material via the native player (which their build sets up to be triggered by XBMC) is problem free on the firmware on my box.

Hopefully someone from Mele will read our posts and be sufficiently embarrassed to do something about the shocking state of support for this product.

[malcolmbarr]

afss - the box only offers two refresh rates in the display settings at 4k (25 and 50hz), and at 1080p it offers 50 and 60hz - no option to set to 24hz.

The native player offers no options to change the refresh rate from that set for the system as a whole. And using XBMC/Kodi or SPMC, changing the playback settings does not budge the refresh rate from that set for the system as a whole.

So basically no refresh rate switching at this point, as far as I can see, and a pretty limited range of refresh rates to start with.

The only refresh rate switch it does is when you play 3D ISO/MVC material, when it switches to 24hz.

[Rod_Lyne]

Thanks for the reply, will keep you posted
Regards
Rod

[malcolmbarr]

If anyone from Mele comes across this thread please note the following: your forum is still down, and has been since Saturday at least, but your website as a whole is up. You badly need to create a "SUPPORT" tab on your website and provide a location from which users can download the current firmware and apps for this device, along with instructions on how to go about installation. You also need to provide clear contact points for tech support emails.

Over time I think I have had a lot of experience with technical support for devices of this kind or similar, and I honestly cannot remember an experience as poor as this in terms of both the immaturity of the product on launch and the complete absence of any attempt to interface with users about how to work with the product.

[TrustNoOne]

@malcolmbarr apart from problems with MeLE tech support which Android BOX TV would Your recommend to buy to run Kodi??

[malcolmbarr]

@malcolmbarr apart from problems with MeLE tech support which Android BOX TV would Your recommend to buy to run Kodi??

It depends on exactly what you want Kodi to do. If 3D ISO is not important to you, there are two options I would actively recommend:

1. MiniX 8-H plus (or non-plus to save a bit of money). You are paying a bit of a premium compared to other boxes, but they are providing a build of XBMC they explicitly recommend and there is an active forum to get support from. I think there are deals on the "non plus" version and the difference is basically only support for H265 hardware decoding under 4K. I got an M1 airmouse with the the MiniX box and the combination works very nicely. This Android box has digital passthrough and refresh rate switching working in their recommended Gotham build, and you can also load up SPMC if you are really keen to move on to Kodi.

2. Wetek Play. I have one of these on order and haven't received it yet. But this player has the key advantage that, beside Android, you can also boot to Openelec off an SD card - and Wetek are supplying an Openelec build for this purpose. And there are reports from users here that it runs heavy skins like Aeon Nox smoothly. You can also add a DVB tuner option to this box.

Obviously the Wetek play option is partly about side-stepping Android by using Openelec. But I am heavily influenced by seeing how well Openelec runs on both Chromebox and my own home built HTPCs. I really think that if you genuinely value a hassle free experience, you should avoid the Android boxes. Openelec on a Chromebox just works (in my experience).

If you really want 3D ISO working from XBMC (I do!!), then the situation really is still in flux. The Vidon box is cheap and they are getting there in ironing out the bugs, but other players have more potential in the hardware if they can deliver on the software through time. If you really have to have 3D from XBMC in a small device, I would probably say Vidon right now and recognise you might be buying something else in 6 months time.