Steve.
Sound's like you may have had a nasty one.
I have an AC Ryan HDMini 1 in the bedroom, it was fine with the official firmware and I flashed it with the hacked mede8er frimware and been even better.
Much better reliability, a lot faster and the video wall is great.
I now have a proper Mede8er 400X2 (500X2 without the internal drive support). Got that mostly sorted now and is absolutly fine, much better than any other player I have played around with and I have been through a fair few now for myself and friends and family (they were the test subjects)
It's got a good solid build, plays
everything I have thrown at it, and the customisation is brilliant with thumbgen.
Mede8er's are one of the best budget player's on the market at the moment and have a heck of a lot more support than the AC Ryan.
The chipset's are more or less the same, I really find the mede8er firmware a lot better and far better support from the developer and community are available.
Just my opinion and expierance of course
tris