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

I have an Mvix which plays a selection of music videos in my bar and overall I'm happy with it, but the most recent incarnation From Mvix is pricey and I wanted to purchase a similar item for my neighbor for Christmas. Ultimately I settled on the Masscool 1368AS as it was inexpensive and seemed to do what I needed.

What transpired then was two days of fiddling, trying various HDs, flash burning the BIOS using dodgy files from far flung websites until ultimately I had a working media player. Lots of techie stuff to come so you can skip it if you wish - firstly, Masscool uses a Cypress chip as its main BIOS chip. A simple surge in power can wipe this volatile EPROM and result in the Masscool not being recognized by your computer. You will then get a "cypress at2lp rc42" error when connecting your media player to your computer for uploading files and no amount of driver installs will fix it despite XP tantalizing you with attempts at doing so. Neither Cypress, Masscool (nor FannerTech) will help you and you'll have to return the unit and hope you receive one that's not got the error. Of course I didn't know any of this when I first hooked the device to the PC and assumed it was the cheap OEM HD I used (which I pre-prepped already). After trying several other drives I realized the unit was faulty and my quest to fix it began as I didn't have time before Christmas to wait for a replacement. I'll save you the trouble of going through what I did - a google search for "cypress at2lp rc42" will yield the results needed including the flash file exe that I used. Now the flash ROM is designed for an external hard enclosure, but that's really all the Masscool is with a basic media player tacked on. If you get a green 'success' after flashing then your Masscool should be up and running, but obviously flashing the device should be done with care and at your own risk. I include this info for poor folks like me who felt waiting for a replacement, and risking the same problem, is not an option. It also highlights how limited the support is on the device - when you call tech support then simply offered an RMA fwiw.

But I did get the unit online and working as it should, whoo! So I upped some music vids which I thought my neighbor would like. Now functionality on the unit is surprisingly good, with menus and file paging seemingly much faster than my more expensive Mvix. The opening splash screen and interface looks neat and the text more than readable. It played every video without problem.

So we're cool right? Not quite. As another reviewer noted - this unit does not SHUFFLE files. Wow! In their ad blurb they boast of a 400GB drive holding 200,000 MP3s... now imagine have that many songs but having to listen to them in order. Every time. To reiterate; there is no randomize option on this 'media player'. I just called Fannertech and the horse's mouth confirmed it. This is a major, major oversight and frankly unforgivable.

So with the initial issues getting this unit to work (including having to flash it with a dodgy hacked flash file) along with the lack of random option, well it's hard for me to recommend the 1368AS. Sure it does play movies, music and it does it well and it's also inexpensive comparably to similar HD units.

You have to decide if you can forgo the shuffle option and are prepared to fiddle to get it going. Shame really - so close to being perfect.

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

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++++

I cannot say enough things about how poor the video quality is on this player. I have tried everything from a simple Divx clip to 720p mpeg4 file and nothing works. The playback is pixelated at all times. I have used it on 4 TVs and its the same at every location. They remote is jerky. Returned it within 10 days.

Contacted Tech Support 3 times and i am yet to receive any response to them. Technically, this company does not exist - very poor customer support. I will not waste a single penny with them anymore.