My experience with mi box

by kstap

I ordered two boxes. First one is a complete dud, LEDs turn on but it does not output video on the HDMI port.

Second one has the Netflix problem described here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comments/576lsw/anyone_having_problems_with_netflix_on_the_mi_box/

YouTube at 60fps always stutters.

It also has a bonus problem of certain screen resolutions are unreliable. Sometimes 4k 60hz will produce a lot of visual and audible cracking. Other resolutions (1080p 50hz) appear okay, but after reboot will have heavy distortion, lots of lines and nothing else. At this point I have to YouTube a mi box review video on my phone to determine the correct button pattern to change the resolution to something else.

I did notice that my serial numbers are sequential, maybe it was a bad run.

All in all, I'm going to return both boxes and hope for a nexus type player in the future. If I had none of these problems I'm sure I'd be delighted with the system. I wish I didn't waste uncountable hours troubleshooting, applying updates, factory reset, tech support from Xiaomi/Netflix. Back to chromecast for me.

nebraskapc

Bought a MiBox for my basement TV (only really use SlingTV on it to watch college games on the weekend). Purchased from Walmart couple days after it came out. Zero issues with it. I was so pleased I bought a second MiBox for my upstairs living room TV and replaced my i3-4170T HTPC I had in there. Runs SlingTV and Kodi no problem (Kodi playing from my Synology NAS in another room).

That worked so well that I replaced my Atom Stick in the garage with a MiBox and the Atom Stick on my back deck with a MiBox.

No issues with three of them running Kodi at the sametime pulling from my Synology DS916+.

Now waiting to see how the new Directv Now steaming service is and if it allows multiple streams at the same time (need ESPN streaming on multiple TVs).

Roseysdaddy

I really enjoy having to get up and unplugg the mi box every night because there is no off button, and even after putting it to sleep it will still use CEC to turn my tv on every 5 minutes. Thanks Mi Box.

bufke

My only issue is USB drive support. After trying many times I got it to show up as internal storage but most of the apps don't want to move to it. So I still don't have enough free space.

  • Migrate apps - Crashes
  • Migrate one app a time - maybe 25% of them work. The rest don't give me an option to do it.
  • I can't find any way to browse the other storage device. If I try to open it in a file explorer it seems to dismount and I have to reboot the system to be usable again.
NashGuy73

I've had problems with my Mi Box too. I think quality control on these things is lacking. I would urge anyone reading this to only buy one from a local Wal-Mart, perform a full factory data reset on the box as soon as possible after initially setting it up (as this appears to resolve many problems), then install your desired apps and try using it. If you encounter any persistent problems/oddities at that point, don't waste time troubleshooting, just assume you got a bad one and exchange it for another at Wal-Mart.

canabal

I am running into the same netflix issue, but unfortunately I cannot return it due to being out of the country... I am really hoping a firmware update will fix it, but until then I am just using the sideloaded netflix for phones, even though it means no casting, and the interface sucks.

Besides that I love it though.

interdad

The only issue I've had is with Hulu. When it goes to commercial, the commercials never start...I have to back out of the app stream and then go back in...which plays ads, then backtracks a few seconds earlier than I was at, plays about ten seconds of show, then goes to commercial again. I factory reset last night to see if that helps, but haven't tried Hulu again since to check. Here's to hoping it was a dud Hulu install on initial setup (or a system cache issue that resetting solved).