Masscool MP-1370S ‘Media Mate’ Media Player

A Closer Look Inside the MP-1370S

When we crack the case for the Masscool MP-1370S media player, the first thing we see is the 3.5 hard disk drive bay.

The bay has a SATA controller cable and power cable that directly attaches to the motherboard below. The 1370S has a fan to keep your drive cool like the Patriot Box Office. Like the Patriot, the specs on the fan is loud and since we werent planning on using an internal drive, we disconnected the fan for a silent operation.

Below the hard drive bay, you can see the MP-1370Ss motherboard. The Realtek RTD1262PA System on a Chip (SoC) is the heart of the Masscool player. This chipset can decode HD MPEG 1/2/4 along with being able to encode MPEG 2/4. It also has support for HDMI output and Ethernet communication. Introduced in 2008, the RTD 1262 SoC was designed for general consumer electronics like DVRs, DVD recorders, etc. that require High Definition media playback and networking. To us the thing that sets this chipset apart from anything else we have seen, is its ability to support media recording and Timeshifting.

Just over from the Realtek chip is the Nanya nt5ds32m16BS-5T high speed CMOS chip. We believe it carries 512Mb of DDR SDRAM to help power the Masscool MP1370S. There is also a JMicron JM20330 which is an SoC for serial and parallel ATA translation. It includes the Serial ATA PHY, Link, Transport, and Parallel ATA (application layer) controller.

You can also see a Prolific PL-2506 Hi-Speed USB-to-IDE controller that negotiates or handshakes with whatever device that is attached.

Lastly, we see the Macronix MX25L6405DMI-12G 64Meg Flash memory chip and Genesys Logic GL850A-MS1FA01G11 USB 2.0 Low-Power HUB Controller.

The Masscool MP1370S is packed full of a great deal of goodies, but our concern is there are some better chipset combinations out there now that other manufacturers have implemented. The MP-1370S was released to market in late 2009, but yet uses a chipset from mid-2008. Lets hope that decision doesnt translate to poor player performance.