Author Topic: Mede8er 600 (Read 4589 times)

barrister · « **on:** May 07, 2015 at 07:52 PM »

I got a Mede8er MED600x3D with optional PCIe WiFi kit ---

I'm coming from a WDTV SMP Gen. 3 (2011), so I'll be mentioning some comparisons with it.

First, the bad points:

- Aesthetically, it's an ugly box. The WDTV looks much better.

- The USB sockets are on the left side, none are on the rear. I prefer a rear socket, so that the USB plug is not visible from the front.

- WiFi video playback from a remote disk is not good. It stutters on larger files, around 10Gb and up. YIFY-size files (around 800Mb to 1.2Gb) play without stutters. 5Gb files seem ok so far (I haven't watched a whole movie yet via WiFi), but I have a feeling that stutters will appear as soon as bit rate spikes too high during play.

If wireless streaming from a remote disk is important to you, this player is not for you. Support says additional buffer is not possible.

- Chapter names are not supported. I normally don't need chapter names, but I do need them for concert files. Without them, it's very inconvenient trying to find the song I want to play on a concert video file. Support says chapter names are not possible, as a limitation of the chipset.

Good points:

- It's fast; much faster than my WDTV.

- Remote is good. It's responsive; it has a bright back light.

- User interface does not look so good, parang China generic ang porma

(Mede8er is a South African company).

But they have free downloadable themes on their forums, and it's easy to change the original skin/theme. http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/board,135.0.html

I chose the one that looks like a WDTV theme (unofficial skin contributed by a forum member) ---

- WiFi performace is good on apps, but WiFi streaming from a remote disk only works properly on small, low bit rate video files.

- GUI functionality is more extensive than the WDTV. Many options are availabe on the fly. There's a very useful progress bar with a pointer that can be moved to any position on the bar, for PC-like scene selection.

- Picture is good. I didn't have a chance to make a side by side comparison with my WDTV, but I can't recall any picture quality difference. Color, tint and brightness out of the box were the same as my WDTV, as confirmed by a quick check using the AVSHD calibration files. Contrast and sharpness are also good. No fake sharpening, no fake noise reduction. Film grain on film-based videos remain intact.

- Sound is also the same as the WDTV. Looks like the sound is streamed as is, without tweaking, which is a good thing.

- Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA passthrough work fine.

egzbuen · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2015 at 08:17 PM »

Nice review, thanks for sharing.

Hope you don't mind me asking this, but, assuming you were on the look out for your first and only media player, and considering your vast experience with WD meadia players, which one would be the better bang for the buck and, eventually, you will get, the MED600x3d at 6,300 (plus 1,200 for the wifi kit) or the WD TV at 3,900?

Best,

egzbuen

barrister · « **Reply #2 on:** May 07, 2015 at 08:28 PM »

Definitely WDTV.

I don't have much experience with media players. I just like cheap, and WD is as cheap as they come, while at the same time maintaining good quality.

3D is not too important for me. I just want to have it available when the occasional 3D urge arises...

WD firmware is very good. Don't expect perfection, since all media players have bugs. But I think WD firmware is more stable than many others, including the very popular Popcorn Hour.

What is important to me is reliable video playback. Once I hit play, the movie must play perfectly from beginning to end, without even one skipped frame.

cyberdraven · « **Reply #3 on:** May 08, 2015 at 10:10 AM »

Quote from: egzbuen on May 07, 2015 at 08:17 PM

Nice review, thanks for sharing.

Hope you don't mind me asking this, but, assuming you were on the look out for your first and only media player, and considering your vast experience with WD meadia players, which one would be the better bang for the buck and, eventually, you will get, the MED600x3d at 6,300 (plus 1,200 for the wifi kit) or the WD TV at 3,900?

Best,

egzbuen

Im using a mede8er 800x3d. Its my first venture into media player and quite happy with it. I did some research for media players below 10K and mede8er fits my requirement. I don't have a dedicated HT and im more into music than movies. The mede8er has the ability to be controlled via iphone app to browse music stored in the hard drive without opening the TV. I think this is the only player who does this at the price range. For the sound quality, I have no complains on its analog output. Maganda din for casual listening.

I got the med800x3d. The USB ports are at the back and it supports internal HDD up to 4TB.

Nelson de Leon · « **Reply #4 on:** May 08, 2015 at 10:50 AM »

Quote from: barrister on May 07, 2015 at 07:52 PM

- Aesthetically, it's an ugly box. The WDTV looks much better.

- The USB sockets are on the left side, none are on the rear. I prefer a rear socket, so that the USB plug is not visible from the front.

I own the first gen. It looks like a small betamax player. Hehe!

USB sockets also sa side. Hassle kung masikip ang paglalagyan ko. Tumatama sa center speaker ko.

barrister · « **Reply #5 on:** May 08, 2015 at 08:22 PM »

Quote from: Nelson de Leon on May 08, 2015 at 10:50 AM

I own the first gen. It looks like a small betamax player. Hehe!

Maganda pa pala yung 600x ko. Hindi na ako magrereklamo...

==================================

3D playback is very good.

On half-SBS files, 3D picture quality is better than the 3D on my Samsung BD-F7500 3D BD player. My Samsung BD has slightly more ghosting when playing SBS.

3D play is very simple. As long as your 3D files are properly named, the player recognizes the file's 3D format and displays it correctly.

For side-by-side and top-and-bottom 3D mkvs, file name endings should be either ".SBS.mkv" or ".TB.mkv".

3D capability is nice to have. Without it, the GUI and menus on both my media player and AV receiver are unreadable, since they are displayed as half images overlaid on top of each other.

barrister · « **Reply #6 on:** May 10, 2015 at 10:44 AM »

I'm testing my video files on my MED600, and I encounter one video that has a 1-second audio drop-out. I repeat the part with the audio problem, and the dropout is reproducible.

The audio dropout does not appear on my WDTV, or on my Windows PC players VLC and MPC.

I check the Media Info and the data looks OK. I remuxed with mkvmerge, and there's no change, audio dropout is still the same.

I demux with tsmuxer and remux with mkvmerge. But this time, on mkvmerge, I manually set video "Format specific options" to the h.264 video's frame rate.

Audio dropout is fixed.

I'm still trying to figure out why my other files were not manually set for video fps, yet have no audio problems.

===========================================

Media Info:

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 7.00 GiB
Duration : 2h 22mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 7 017 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2015-05-09 15:42:31
Writing application : mkvmerge v7.8.0 ('River Man') 64bit built on Mar 27 2015 16:31:37
Writing library : libebml v1.3.1 + libmatroska v1.4.2
DURATION : 02:22:42.453000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES : 256617
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 5893032472
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP : mkvmerge v7.8.0 ('River Man') 64bit built on Mar 27 2015 16:31:37
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC : 2015-05-09 15:42:31
_STATISTICS_TAGS : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 22mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 368 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 40.0 Mbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.194
Stream size : 5.35 GiB (76%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 1
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 22mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.50 GiB (22%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Menu
00:01:23.000 : en:1. Winter Games
00:04:55.000 : en:2. Heart to Heart
00:09:53.000 : en:3. Forever
00:15:06.000 : en:4. Dream Weaver
00:19:47.000 : en:5. Through the Fire
00:24:41.000 : en:6. I Can Love You Like That
00:27:49.000 : en:7. I Swear
00:31:29.000 : en:8. When I Fall in Love
00:36:34.000 : en:9. This Will Be
00:40:44.000 : en:10. Pie Jesu
00:43:49.000 : en:11. O mio babbino caro
00:47:26.000 : en:12. Because We Believe
00:51:53.000 : en:13. Secret
00:56:09.000 : en:14. When a Man Loves a Woman
00:58:38.000 : en:15. It's a Man's Man's Man's World
01:02:14.000 : en:16. I'm Every Woman
01:05:47.000 : en:17. In the Stone
01:08:06.000 : en:18. September
01:11:44.000 : en:19. After the Love Has Gone
01:16:25.000 : en:20. Caruso
01:22:01.000 : en:21. Say You Remember It (From "Betty Boop: The Musical")
01:27:39.000 : en:22. Miss Independent
01:32:59.000 : en:23. Earth Song
01:37:52.000 : en:24. Smile
01:41:51.000 : en:25. We've Got Tonight
01:46:25.000 : en:26. Home
01:52:19.000 : en:27. To Love You More
01:57:32.000 : en:28. All By Myself
02:02:34.000 : en:29. The Prayer
02:08:18.000 : en:30. Unbreak My Heart
02:10:32.000 : en:31. Crazy
02:13:03.000 : en:32. On the Radio
02:16:50.000 : en:33. Last Dance

barrister · « **Reply #7 on:** May 10, 2015 at 01:54 PM »

My workaround for chapter titles on concert videos --- Chapter titles written on "about.jpg" file (via fanart.jpg file) using Photoshop.

From movie wall, click on movie icon to view backdrop with chapter titles. Remember the chapter you want, press play, press GOTO, select chapter number. Press stop to go back to the backdrop with chapter titles.

egzbuen · « **Reply #8 on:** May 23, 2015 at 11:30 AM »

Guys, any idea if a 4-bay Probox, non raid version, would work on the Mede8r 600 or 800?

barrister · « **Reply #9 on:** May 24, 2015 at 09:00 PM »

This looks like a bug:

When setting up the network, don't bother using a static IP address. Instead of giving me stability, the fixed IP gave me an unstable network. Sometimes no remote disc access; sometimes no internet.

With the simpler "DHCP IP Auto" setup, network and internet became stable again.

uvax · « **Reply #10 on:** May 25, 2015 at 08:13 AM »

^Maybe you can try reserving your desired ip to the NMT's mac on your router's ip table. This way the NMT always gets the same ip address even if it is setup to "DHCP IP Auto".

barrister · « **Reply #11 on:** May 25, 2015 at 09:00 AM »

Thanks for the tip.

I don't know much about networking, so I'll have to figure out how to do it. But I have a feeling that it will not be too hard to figure out.

uvax · « **Reply #12 on:** May 25, 2015 at 09:54 AM »

You'll find it under the DHCP settings of your router. Manufacturers have no fixed way to label. Some call it "address reservation". Some place it under the heading of "DHCP Lease". You'll have to dig thru your routers setup.

barrister · « **Reply #13 on:** May 25, 2015 at 11:27 AM »

Thanks for the help. You saved me about an hour's work.

My router is Linksys E1200. It's a cheap, old one. DHCP reservation is much easier, since it can be done by just clicking on the Linksys boxes and buttons, no need to type anything.

nogo · « **Reply #14 on:** May 26, 2015 at 09:27 PM »

Share ko lang to. Though the title is med600 but I found it more appropriate posting here.
This is my friend's med1000x3d, he asked me to buy for him. Before I handed it him, I tested it and decided to post here for everyone's reference.
Pictures explained itself.

nato · « **Reply #15 on:** Sep 01, 2015 at 08:58 PM »

paano ba mag play ng 3d dito? thanks

barrister · « **Reply #16 on:** Sep 01, 2015 at 10:29 PM »

For SBS 3D, file name should be .SBS. For TB, file name should be .TB.

Press play.

nato · « **Reply #17 on:** Sep 01, 2015 at 10:38 PM »

salamat sir @barrister, ano po ba ung SBS at TB file? thanks

barrister · « **Reply #18 on:** Sep 02, 2015 at 12:11 AM »

SBS - Side by Side.

TB - Top & Bottom.

nato · « **Reply #19 on:** Sep 02, 2015 at 05:32 PM »

salamat sir ^