Mecool KM2 Plus Review: so far one of the very few with a Netflix certification and 16GB of internal storage

by latinriky78

On this occasion I was able to get my hands on the Mecool KM2 Plus, one of the very few TV boxes with a Netflix certification and 16GB of internal storage at an affordable price.

Don't forget that the OEM is Skyworth and not Videostrong directly, the former is part of project "Hailstorm", which is responsible for the Netflix certification.

SPECIFICATIONS:

- Android 11.

- Amlogic S905X4-B with AV1 hardware decoding.

- ARM Mali-G31 MP2.

- HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG.

- 2GB RAM.

- WiFi AC.

- Bluetooth 5.0.

- HDMI 2.1.

- One USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port.

- One microSD card slot.

- One optical audio port.

- One analog AV port.

- Ethernet 10/100 port.

- Three LED indicators at the front.

- GOTA updates.

PROS:

- It's fast and it has a sleek design.

- HDR policy switch that allows to turn OFF the HDR mode for 4K TVs without HDR support, it doesn't have any effect on 1080p or lower resolution ones.

- I can finally use the internal microphone of any UVC webcam different than Logitech to make videocalls with Duo and Jami thanks to the security patch installed on the device dated may 1st 2022, though I'm not sure if it's Android 11 the one that makes this possible but anyway, it works.

- This is the first Android TV device I own where the SoC in the B variant (S905X4-B) and the Dolby Audio license finally allow the Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital conversion in Netflix and other apps, on Netflix I was able to see the 5.1 logo when the device was connected to a TV with only Dolby Digital decoding, of course it will also passthrough Dolby Atmos inside Dolby Digital Plus when connected to a TV or AV receiver with support. If the device is connected to a TV with only PCM decoding the 5.1 logo on Netflix doesn't appear which is the correct behavior.

- Other enhancements brought by Android 11.

CONS:

- Dolby Vision is presumably not supported but an option appears in screen settings, however, the option appears grayed out and I'm not sure if it becomes available when the box is connected to a TV with support.

- Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio passthrough is not supported, but the box is able to passthrough the DTS Core from DTS-HD streams, however, many video apps can decode them as multichannel PCM without losing the lossless quality, meanwhile, Dolby TrueHD decoding to multichannel PCM is also possible depending on the app of course.

- Auto framerate is not supported as far as I can tell but it will be supported once Android 12 arrives... someday.

- The game mode is one of Android 11 features but it's not available on this device though I still don't know what it does.

- The new Android TV UI is still not available in my country, I know that many people hate its ads but I really want to have it (I don't want to use VPNs to activate it manually).

- Pressing and holding the power button doesn't bring the options to take screenshots and rebooting the device, it only allows to power it off, this seems to be an Android 11 limitation and it's a downside compared to previous versions.

ISSUES:

My unit has the following firmware fingerprint:

MECOOL/HP4414-MECOOL/YYC:11/RTT0:210829.002/C2.1.4_20220613:user/release-keys

And it has the following issues:

- As you may know, the G10 remote control can be programmed to control TVs, AV receivers and soundbars, so what I did was to set it up to control my TV, but I discovered the following situation: After I setup and switched it to control the volume of my TV, I noticed that the volume of the device doesn't change to a "fixed" state, which means, it can still be controlled by other means, such as the Chromecast Built-in volume rocker, so for example, if I accidentally or on purpose reduce the volume level of the device to zero (as in the below screenshot) using the volume keys of the remote (before I switch it to control the volume level of the TV) or using the Chromecast Built-in volume rocker, when I switch the remote to control the volume level of the TV, I will hear no sound coming out of the TV speakers because the volume level of the device was reduced previously. To fix that inconvenience, Google should implement an option in audio settings to switch the volume level of the device between "fixed" and "variable" (a similar option is available in the Nvidia Shield), that way we can be sure that nothing will modify the volume of the device by selecting the "fixed" option. I hope Google actually implements it:

https://preview.redd.it/81jgjsnc1sj91.png?width=220&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bc1de378ea003b470a4f5fe4bbc42683f3e851c

- Programming the remote control to power the TV ON and OFF has one issue: when I press the power button to turn ON the TV, the device turns ON as well when it's in standby mode thanks to the bluetooth connection, BUT, when I press the power button to turn OFF the TV, the device won't turn OFF and it will stay ON until it reaches the time set in power function settings to turn OFF automatically, unless that the function was set to "never", it looks like the bluetooth connection is failing to turn OFF the device in this case.

- The box won't stay in standby mode after a certain period of time, when I turn it ON it just boots as if it were powered OFF completely even when the power settings has the standby mode option selected.

- I was unable to switch from controlling the volume, the power button and the input button options that control the TV to control the device, what happens is that after I select the option to control the device and then press the "back" button on the remote control, it automatically switches back to the TV's IR options so the only way to fix it was to remove the TV setting to be able to control the device again. I hope that Mecool or Google fix this problem.

- The Android 11 permission bug to access the storage is still broken here, unless we manually set the permission to access it all time, though some apps still lack that option.

- I've been unable to use game console emulators because of the aforementioned issue to access the storage.

- Multichannel PCM is getting downmixed to stereo but it's a problem of the firmware in the device and not an issue of Android 11.

CONCLUSION:

I really like the device despite its cons and issues, I just hope Mecool or Google try to address them.

If you feel that this review is enough for you to buy the device, then use the code "MECOOLBOX" to get a 10% discount at checkout in the Mecool Online website.

clarkss12

Excellent review........

Thank you

fareek

The idea here is that Google should remove the ability to control the Android system volume and set it to a "fixed" state permanently in future Android versions or to implement an option in audio settings to switch the volume level of the device between "fixed" and "variable"

I'd be for the latter of that disjunct, but most definitely not the former. I like having the ability to control the android system volume, at least as an option. It would be fine to have a setting to turn it off, but I wouldn't ever want not to have easy access to it. That's the whole reason that I couldn't use firetv devices or the tivo stream 4k, because there is no access to android system volume.

I could go into the reasons why this function is valuable, but just as a general rule, having functions totally disabled (as opposed to having settings) is almost always bad.

KD-6

Very well review, I also had an independent review of this box.

I found some disadvantages of it:

  1. It does not support HDR in C2.1.4_20220613, the reason may be a problem with the firmware.

  2. If you disable Netflix in the app, you can see a new option "Adaptive HDR" in the HDR settings.

  3. If you find "Dolby Vision" displayed briefly when the power is turned on, that doesn't actually mean it supports Dolby Vision, and its firmware doesn't even contain a Dolby Vision decoder (You can use AerialViews to view the supported decoders reported by the system), this is just a conflict with HDR, if the HDR function is completely turned off, then "Dolby Vision" will not be displayed briefly when the power is turned on.

  4. The box is only Dolby Atmos certified, not Dolby Vision certified, that's why Dolby Vision will never be supported, because they didn't pay for certification, but if someone rooted it, maybe you could hack it, because many of the same hardware devices are certified.

  5. It cannot use 4K UI like the shield, although this is the limitation before Android 12, however on the shield you can enter the command "vm size 3840x2160" through ADB to force the UI to use 4k resolution, but you can't do that on this box, it's locked at 1080p forever.

  6. I haven't done rigorous testing at the pixel level, but I think it decodes 4K video and still outputs it at 1080p, but stretches it to 4K resolution before final output to HDMI. In other words it may be outputting a fake 4K resolution. To verify this, you can use SmartTube, which will report the actual output resolution and UI resolution when watching 4K video, which are both 1080p. And when you play a native 4K Blu-ray, you can clearly see that it's not that clear, (I use VLC, Nova and Kodi as players).

  7. Regarding the resolution, there is also a problem, it sometimes forgets to stretch 1080p to 4K when booting, and you will see that the UI is only a quarter of the screen, you can reproduce this with these: Turn off the TV and box, turn on the box, but don’t turn on the TV yet, turn on the TV after the box is fully turned on, it will have a high chance to output 4K resolution, but the UI is only in the upper left corner area of a quarter of the screen, that is, the 1080p part. That's why I highly doubt it doesn't support the real 4K.

  8. When my remote control uses infrared to control the TV, the TV cannot receive the infrared signal from the remote control at a distance of 2 meters, and I think the infrared of the remote control is very weak. The CEC function is barely usable, it can't wake up the TV, but the TV can wake up the box, no volume setting via CEC.

  9. I don't know if they will release a firmware update to fix HDR in the future, because HDR is one of the functions that their products claim to support, if this problem is not fixed in the future, you can sue them. But I heard that mecool company has no software development capability, their old products never get updated in previous life cycle, because they don't produce hardware and software, hardware and software are from their OEM/ODM, They will only opt for new hardware and software when updating their products.

  10. 5 GHz (wifi 5) is bridged under the USB 2.0 bus, which means that although the 2-stream antenna can provide a maximum transfer speed of 866 Mbps (about 70 MB/s), it is locked at 27 MB/s because of the limitation of USB 2.0. Not a big problem, because 4K HDR 10bit 60 fps video will not exceed 15 MB/s, it can be played smoothly under WiFi, but if you want to play it at 2x speed it is impossible, however it doesn't support HDMI 2.1's 120 fps (no box supports it in 2022, including the brand new Apple TV that claims to support HDMI 2.1), so 2x playback doesn't make sense.

I heard from a friend who owns the box. HDMI does not output audio when you connect 3.5 mm headphones to the audio jack on the back, I'm not sure if this is true as I haven't tested it.

I commissioned a friend in China to buy my box, so I did get a really good price, about $60 including shipping. I think if the HDR issues can be fixed, it will be a very good Netflix certified box.

Also, be careful disabling system apps, the last time I disabled some apps the box stuck in a boot loop and couldn't get to the desktop, since the box doesn't have any known shortcuts to get into recovery, that would be a pain. But there is indeed a "back door" in there that is reserved by the box OEM (Skyworth) to run any commands at power on, which saved my box once.

SpagettiGaming

How about stadia? Can you try it?

francescoli

Was thinking of buying this box . Do mecool online only ship from China?

The reason I ask is I don't want to pay custom charges.In my country (Ireland) there is charges for goods bought from outside EU.

lessbunnypot

support dolby vision and hdr10+ ?

Gigabit lan or 10/100 mbit lan.

ismainau

i want to buy one , but i have two questions :
does the bluetooth support dual audio ? i want to use two headsets at the same time (you know to watch at night with a second person)
what's the max size you can plug through the usb3.0 port ? i want to store a lot of offline movies and shows, so im thinking of getting a usb3 sata enclosure and use an ssd but don't know if i should get more than 256 gb ?!

theAarma

Is it possible to connect bluetooth headphones to one of these and hear audio

Deadpool-fan-466

Nice review...thanks.

I wish it was really "affordable" though. Anything over US $60 is a red flag for me

traveler19395

How does the performance stack up to the Tegra X1(and X1+) in nVidia Shield?

It kind of blows my mind that my 2017 Shield is still practically top of the line 5 years later.

huhmz

How is the menu responsiveness? I would love to see a video of you starting Spotify from the home screen and moving around different buttons. I have a Realme 4K stick and even if it works for everything I really want something that is quicker for launching different apps. I have seen the KM6 Deluxe and the 4gb of ram and 64gb storage is very interesting but it also lacks Netflix certification (how does that work, is all Netflix playback gone or can you use 1080p at least?)

Since my Realme 4K stick has 2gb ram I'm a bit jaded when I see the Mecool KM2 Plus still has only 2gb but it might be more than enough with the better SoC and will be quicker for launching apps?

fareek

GOTA updates for the km2 plus might not be active with google yet.

Some reviewer mentioned that his km2 plus has the build fingerprint:

MECOOL/HP4414-MECOOL/YYC:11/RTT0:210829.002/C2.1.3_20220527:user/release-keys

That same reviewer mentioned another review which shows the build fingerprint:

MECOOL/HP4414-MECOOL/YYC:11/RTT0:210829.002/C2.1.4_20220613:user/release-keys

Yet, when the reviewer with version C2.1.3_20220527 tried to initiate a system update, he was not offered a GOTA update to C2.1.4_20220613, or any update at all.

zyrien

Does AFR work? Auto Frame Rate switching

OoBaStAnQ

The menu actions you want (e.g. screenshot) could be added by installing TVQuickactions button mapper.

alkiv22

i have this tv box. Huge problem with it, it reboots randomly (when playing youtube video). It happens approx once-twice per day. Using latest firmware 20220618

AdTimely2391

I want to know if HDR works properly? I have the same firmware version as you, but with always HDR policy enabled, it still doesn't work properly. My TCL TV supports Dobly vision,HDR,Dobly atoms,only Dobly atoms works properly. I consulted mecool support and they told me to try a different TV, but unfortunately I don't have another HDR TV. Would like to know your result. Thank you very much.

Numerous_Dust_8030

Guys I ordered one from mecool's website just 3 days ago and I have noticed that the weight in the shipment info of YunExpress is 0.01(kg). Can anyone tell me if that's normal?

PS: I've replied to the order email they sent and 3 days after still got no answer.

Substantial_Mall3551

AliExpress says the MECOOL KM2 PLUS are about $70. Looks like that is a fair price compared to the Walmart ONN Google tv device at $20. I guess.

theincognito_utr

Hello u/latinriky78 ! Thanks for the detailed review. I was going through the comments and I saw that you have used external HDD/SSD with this device. I have 2 questions.

  1. Have you tried playing HEVC files (especially 4k) using the external HDD/SSD via MX Player/VLC/MPV, etc? If yes, do they work well (as in, no frame drops and stuff)?
  2. The external HDD/SSD, whats the file system in that device? Is it NTFS? I am asking this because I have USB Gen 3.2 Pendrives and SSD on NTFS and it won't work on my Chromecast with GoogleTV. It only supports FAT32. So, was wondering if external disks on NTFS are supported on MeCool KM2 Plus.

Cheers!

Any-Yogurtcloset5744

After turning on the KM2 Plus it shows an image on quarter screen (top left corner). Only after restarting the device or turning it off and on again the image appear on full screeb.

Has anyone encounter that problem?

batica_koshare

No lan port?🤦‍♂️

xman747x

interesting, but is this better than an android tv?