Gave up on the Mi Box, went for a second Shield TV

by arrowrand

I got a 4K TV by accident. I ordered the 1080p version of Vizio and got the 4K version by mistake. Best Buy took care of the price difference, but I returned the Vizio and bought an LG 4K instead.

I wanted to like the Mi Box. I really did. I didn't want to move my Shield TV, as it is hooked up to my 1080p TV in my game room, and all I needed the Mi Box to do was deliver 4K Netflix and YouTube.

It's the little things. Like, It doesn't always wake with my Harmony Remote. In fact, it almost never did. No change to the power settings made it work reliably.

It also doesn't work with a USB Ethernet adapter. At least not well. I have a rock solid WiFi network so the Mi Box always gets at least 100Mbps, usually closer to 150 on every fast.com speed test. Plug in a USB Ethernet adapter and no speed test hits above 10Mbps.

There is also the lack of a play/pause button or even command for the Harmony. The center button is fine in most cases, but some apps require the command.

There's also the Vudu issue. I have Gigabit internet, and on every other device in my house Vudu (and every other streaming app) just screams. Vudu looks amazing. Everywhere but the Mi Box. The video stutters in every single video that we stream. It's so noticeable that my 4 year old sees it. Nonstop stuttering. Non. Stop.

And then YouTube. The Mi Box cannot deliver 4K video in the YouTube app. It pulls up short every single time. Most 4K videos play in 1080p, but some play in whatever resolution falls between 4K and 1080p. And every single 1080p 60fps video skips, stutters and buffers until you stop watching in frustration.

The new Shield TV in the same spot as the Mi Box, using the same Ethernet cable that was at one time hooked up to the Mi Box is killing it. Not a single stutter or skip in Vudu. 4K YouTube and Netflix titles are playing in 4K. No skips. No stutters.

The Mi Box is now hooked up to our home office TV. If it can't do the job in there, I'll put it in a drawer somewhere.

tl;dr too many drawbacks to the Mi Box. Replaced it with a second Shield TV for 4K. Got the Best Buy surprise remote in the box package. I had no idea they were doing that.

zaddiel

Every streaming device that doesn't have lan port ❌🚫

Bodycount9

I would do the shield but I can't justify the $200 pricetag to my wife for a media box. We wouldn't be playing games on it, just watching TV. So half of what it's there for would be wasted.

We have three TV's and the cost for a box at every TV would be insane.

So far I haven't seen the same issues as you with my Mi Box. I do have fast wifi. Netgear R6300 router.

whiprush

I too pinned my hopes on the Mi being "Shield Lite" because I didn't want to spring for the extra cash for a 2nd unit.

It's death by a thousand papercuts, I thought they'd at least do an update for it. A week in it became obvious that an update wasn't coming and they weren't exactly communicating intent. So I returned it and I'm just waiting on a Black Friday deal for the Shield or looking to pick up a used one.

I had some high hopes that Xiaomi wouldn't do a bad job since it was their grand entrance in the US and so on, but I wasn't going to risk keeping the box. The box clearly needs an update and they didn't do the right thing.

My Shield was also buggy on launch, but they updated very quickly, and were pretty open with communicating on their plans for the Shield ... "We're investigating adding more codecs." and so on goes a long way to trusting in the lifecycle of a device vs. lack of communication.

The sad fact is only Google and Nvidia know how to do Android right, everyone else tends to suck at it. AndroidTV needs a cheap entry level STB, snagging OEMs is a huge for new TVs, but for everyone else boggles the mind that no one can figure out how to compete with Rokus, which despite being slow and shitty tend to be the most reliable bits of tech I own.

themick

I still love my plucky little Nexus player for my second Android TV box.... Perfect for the spare room, cheap, sure only 1080 but great for a secondary box, too bad they don't make them anymore. Would love to see an upgraded 4k model. Shield TV is still top box and is running perfectly on my main TV. Tl;dr we need the Nexus player back for a good cheap end Android TV!!

emptyfisch

I've had similar issues with the Harmony remote, it's hit or miss. It seems to register every other button press.

evalalave

yt 4k videos 60 frames play perfectly. did you reset it after the initial small update/ then update apps from the store? i actually like mine a lot. also on xiaomi us twitter account they have discussed that updates and nougat are indeed coming, hopefully sooner than later.

GermanDude

I seriously dislike the Amazon Fire TV, but for a 2nd TV, why not? Or a Roku? (Not available outside the US, so I can't judge, but I heard good things.)

ryadre1

I went for the shield as well. And by the time I got the remote and then shipped it to my country and paid the fees and currency exchange I think it cost me near $450. You soon forget what you paid and I'm glad I did as it's amazing and I pretty much just use it for spmc

WhySheHateMe

I own 2 Mi Boxes. While it does have issues, I do think It can be redeemed. The TVs these boxes are currently hooked to would not be served better by having a Shield TV. The only problem I've had with a USB ethernet adapter is that sometimes, if the box is on standby, the USB port does not "wake" and so the Ethernet adapter doesn't come back on, so I have to reboot.

I really hope Xiaomi gets serious about this product and starts patching, I definitely need them to be Shield Lites. I see myself having a mixture of Mi Boxes and Shield TVs in my home one I get my AV setup going.

FireViz

My MiBox won't even stay connected to WiFi. It connects for 2 seconds then disconnects for 5 seconds and just keeps doing this over and over..... completely unusable. Idk why it started doing this 2 days ago.

evrydayzawrkday

On Saturday I actually picked up a Mibox, since I am done with the BS Verizon support runs around with. My biggest issue is when streaming some mp4 files on my 1080 tv the audio / video didn't sync at all. I got the shield, problem solved.

lonaysta

Lol, a lot of the drawbacks you described never happened to my MiBox, my Harmony, my YouTube app...