Just Set Up My Mi Box And Harmony Hub

by RockItGuyDC

I just picked up a Mi Box from my local Walmart. Woohoo, a new toy to distract me from writing a paper. Anyway, just wanted to mention my experience hooking it up to my Harmony Hub.

I had to add the device manually. I entered "Xiaomi" in the manufacturer field (obviously), and "Mi Box" in the model number field. The Harmony automatically recognized it as a Xiaomi Media Player and added it. I must say, using the Harmony remote to control it is fast . I mean no noticeable lag compared to the Mi Box controller, and honestly it may be a millisecond faster. Full disclosure, the Mi Box and Harmony Hub are placed right next to each other.

I had been afraid it wouldn't work so well, and I would have to find a solution using HDMI CEC, but that wasn't necessary. The only thing I'm missing out on by not using the Mi Box remote is voice search, but I don't use that much anyway, plus I can always use my phone for that.

All in all the setup went flawlessly, and I am loving my Mi Box. Sorry, I can't test 4K content, because I don't have a monitor for it, but 1080p everything looks great so far. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

RockItGuyDC

A couple things I'll note that I've seen. The Android TV HBO Now app starts streaming in HD no problem, but a few seconds in and the quality goes down dramatically. Casting the HBO Now app using the Mi Box doesn't have the same issue, the quality stays high.

But my biggest problem so far is Netflix. It starts streaming find, then about 8 seconds into any program I get a "We're having trouble playing this title at the moment". I can't even cast through the Mi Box because it just opens up the native app when I try, and I get the same error. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

Edit: Nothing seems to work to get Netflix working. Clearing app data, uninstall/reinstall, reboot device, sign out/sign in.

Edit 2: Netflix is working just fine now. I'm chalking it up to magic.

maineguy1988

Do you use Plex?

seenhear

I just confirmed that it's working Via IR. I have a Harmony 650. Using the old Harmony software, I was able to add the Mi Box (came up under media center PC) and it had all the keys from the mi box remote already there. The 650 controls the mi box perfectly. I have no hub, the only way the 650 works is via IR, so the mi box can officially accept IR signals. Given there is no IR remote available for it, the only way I can see to set up a remote is with Harmony software. Xiaomi must have sent the codes to Logitech ahead of launch.

nebraskapc

I was looking at picking one of these up this afternoon. I would be connected an external hard drive to the Mi and playing local content from that drive through Kodi. Have you done that at all and are able to comment on playback quality or UI lag in Kodi?

getcashmoney

This is great news, thanks for testing! I will be using a Harmony hub with mine as well.

Fera6037

Is the Fios Mobile app available for it on the store? I really would like to be able to sign in and stream the live channels using that app.

brayden2011

Is the Mi Box able to decode DTS TrueHD or Atmos? I can see it plays MKV files with the "DTS Surround" but I can't get it to playback advanced DTS audio formats.

gthrift

Hopefully Logitech will expand the commands available. I do appreciate that it is IR but I was controlling a Nexus player at one point and could use pause, play and stop through Bluetooth. Those are not available options on the Mi Box.

nolookjones

so its using IR or BT with the harmony hub?

HeyBass

Is anybody having issues with Netflix not going to the home screen when you double press the back button? It seems to be the only app that doesn't do it.

Also, does anybody know of a way to custom map other buttons on a Harmony Hub remote? It keeps saying I need to point the original remote at the hub for IR, but the Mi Box's remote is bluetooth.