Love my 2nd gen Chromecast, should I get a mibox?

by bsphere

I have a 1st gen WeTek Play box for about 1.5 years, running LibreELEC/Kodi (Android experience is just terrible with that box). also got an AVR and a 5.1 setup.

and 1 2nd gen Chromecast for about a year, which I absolutely love, I find myself watching everything with it (using Videostream) and only turning on the Kodi box for DTS passthrough (now I understand that I can set Videostream's audio profile to PCM and have software decoding of DTS, AVR gets multi channel PCM).

I thought of getting rid of the WeTek box and replacing it with the mibox (DTS and hd audio passthrough - my AVR supports it). I posted it on ebay and now that there are actual bids on it I'm re-thinking if I should get the mibox at all or just stay with the Chromecast..)

again, the main use is Kodi for DTS/HD-audio passthrough. I'm not a "heavy" Kodi user and don't really keep a large media library. Videostream's concept is good enough (watch something, then delete it). I have a Netflix subscription but there's not much added value over a Chromecast there..

I'm interested to get some advise... thanks!

matt4542

Definitely get it. It beats the chromecast in every way, and even has cast functionality. I recommend it over any budget streaming box. Just upgraded from the Mi box to the new shield though, and it's noticeable better.

[deleted]

I would wait for the Shield to get better competition hardwarewise or buy a used Shield for a fair price.

I only use my Mi box for Kodi and there's quite a lot of issues if you want a really good experience.

For one, it cannot be rooted which prevents Kodi to access power states among other things. Imagine the box turning off while streaming. Of course, it's possible to turn off sleep completely but then you'd have to forget about power-saving. No root also means you can't connect remotes such as PS3. Kind of limits the gaming part. Finally, you can't disable auto updating. Last update seems to have broken the HDMI-CEC. I'm glad my old dumb TV isn't equipped with that feature because then I'd be really pissed. In short, you're at the mercy of Xiaomi.

Cboyd104

Iv had my Chromecast gen 2 for ages and I love it. However I recently upgraded my dopey Chinese android box for a nvidia shield (gen 2). The difference is immeasurable. Legitimately unreal piece of gear, I love gamestream and kodi etc. If you have the capital I'd invest in a shield. Even gen 1 as they will be cheaper now.

neogrinch

I had been a chromecast lover for years as well. I have 2 2nd gen and several 1st gen.

The primary reason I like the mi box is i enjoy the more traditional remote control. It's great for shorter length video browing like youtube. But because of Chromecast, I don't really "need" it otherwise. Android TV is nice though, since you can do both.
Mi Box is nice. I like it, I have zero issues with mine. It's better and faster than the Nexus Player that I replaced with the Mi Box. I do use kodi (SPMC android fork) on it, and performance with Kodi is also much better on the Mi Box than it is on my Nexus Player and my old chinese android MXQ box.

Like others will mention its not a gaming box though. You can do some simple games, but if you want to also have a decent gaming box, get the Shield.

One thing I will mention regarding Android TV is that I feel that casting works a bit more reliably on the dedicated Chromecast. It works great on Android TV, don't get me wrong. But the occasional casting error, etc seems to occur more frequently on Android TV than it does on the dedicated Chromecast dongle.

I have a hard time telling you to get one though at the end of the day if you are mostly satisfied with the chromecast. I got mine 'just because' I wanted one, but if you are on a budget, and don't particularly need it then pass for now, they'll be faster and better in the future.

dafwfdavngsh

Yes.

jclendineng

Yea it's cool I have 2

rrainwater

Don't get a Mi Box if you want to use the Mi Box Cast functionality. It regularly goes to sleep (so it will not appear in the list of cast devices). It has poor video performance compared to the Chromecast v2. And it is extremely flaky casting unlike the Chromecast.