Home > Consumer Reviews > MASSCOOL 3.5" PATA and SATA hard drive media player MP-1368AS-Retail

Buyer beware !!! This is the worst piece of equipment I have ever owned. I will never buy another Masscool product and I suggest no one else do so. Also the main company is FannerTech. I will not buy anything made by them. In simple terms you can put files on the drive and the player will not see them. I ask the company they said reformat the drive and try again. Many repeated attempts. No support help. There is a firmware upgrade on the site and no information how to install it. I will NEVER buy from them again!!!

Disgusted

Pros:
1) Supports many common formats.
2) Numerous output/connection options.
3) Can double as a basic external HDD (using SATA or PATA drive).

Cons:
1) Won't play my VOB files or mp4 videos, though it claims to support them.
2) USB input does not access files on any of my 7 different flash drives, even after formatting them with every filesystem it claims to support! Masscool/Fanner customer support is horrible. I've emailed them 6 times, with a very unhelpful response on my 4th attempt -- Still trying to get some help to determine why the USB port isn't functioning properly.
3) NO file management, and a cumbersome interface, especially as you add more music/videos to it.
4) I also had to reformat the HDD I installed, as some other folks have complained.
5) Air flow from the cooling fan is a bit loud - Can be heard from over 12 feet away (my viewing position).
6) Default setting is for PAL (not NTSC), which took some time to realize, since it wouldn't display legibly on my screen in PAL mode. Changing this setting is tricky, as you must make a number of blind keystrokes on the remote.

Other Thoughts: If you have a spare HDD laying around (like I did), this is a cost-effective way to get your media onto a big screen with relative ease... once it's set up and working properly, of course. Now that some of the other players/streamers (such as D-Link's MediaLounge models) are dropping in price, I'd consider giving them a close look before buying this one, especially since those are also networkable and some offer Hi-def capability w/HDMI.

I paired this with a 500gb hard drive mainly to watch video and listen to music. It does both beautifully, video is clear and music sounds better than expected. The menu and set up was easy and straightforward with easy navigation. The other reviewer was correct about file organization but I got around this by using folders on the hard drive containing playlists and using the "play all" function. I would definately recommend this player, very versatile and with the price of hard disk drives going down, a really great buy.

I bought the unit and used it for less than a month before it couldn't power up for no reason. I checked all the power connections inside and outside, but still... no luck. The video playback quality is so-so, not great, it takes 2-3 minutes to start and the menu to appear (when it works). I would have given this product "0" star if I could. Don't waste your money on this media player.

I like the media player. My unit has no trouble reading USB flash drives or my hp external hard drive. As far as the reported formatting problem goes, you must do the following on a brand new drive. INITIALIZE the drive, PARTITION the drive then you can format the drive. The HDD manufacturer utilities disk can do this or you can go into the administrator section of windows to find the tools you need there.
Good price , high recommend , A++++