Mi Box compared to the other Chinese brand TV boxes on Amazon

by mattyp93

Hey guys I just purchased the Mi Box on eBay from a good seller and I was wondering if I had made the right choice when compared to those other boxes on Amazon for around the same price. Like the Leelbox, GooBang Doo, Globmall. I personally have a PS4 and play games on there so I wanted a very basic Android TV for just watching shows and movies. I was looking into the Nvidia Shield however for Canadians it's up around $300-$400 which is too much for what I am looking for.

I guess my question is for the people that have the Mi Box. How has your experience with it been so far? It is featured on the official Android TV website so I am hoping it will receive updates for at least the next little while.

Also for the gamers who have PS4 OR Xbox, did you go with a mi box or a different box?

redmeansdistortion

I have a Mi Box that I strictly use for Live TV, Plex, Amazon, and Netflix. It's noticeably more laggy than the Shield, but for $70 I can't complain. I also have three Shields that I use for all of that plus streaming my PC games and playing emulated console games. I've never played any games on the Mi Box, but I'd think it can handle all of the consoles from the 16-bit era and older without issue. Android boxes (not Android TV boxes) don't have the leanback interface and have the typical interface you'd see on a phone or tablet as far as I know.

Fantastins

It's not great but above most other Android boxes. I have several Chromecast issues that make it unusable outside YouTube Plex and most web sites, many have Netflix issues I never used it, USB port powers down with sleep which can screw USB network static IP settings, HDMI-CEC is wonky and you press circle not power for wake but power not circle for sleep. I couldn't get Pandora to work at all. There are issues with Dolby digital volume control and other audio issues with Plex, There's no running app menu like the Nexus player (and most Android devices) have.

Those are the complaints, everyone voices complaints more than what's functioning. The voice search has not left me down and works perfect in spmc, SPMC has beautiful integration into the lean back interface, Bluetooth mice work fine, the remote is absolutely beautiful, hdmi-cec control mostly works, live channels is super neat, what works does so fairly well.

I've noticed internet connection speed limits the boxes speed. Ideally a asix 88179 gigabit adapter or fast AC router for best performance. There was a notable performance change from wifi N to Ethernet to wifi AC.

koshergoy

Make sure your box is designated with model # MDZ-16-AB.

There are 3 distinct advantages of the Xiaomi and other official AndroidTV devices vs. generic tv boxes that run android:

support for high level DRM licenses like playready and widevine which.....

allows for Netflix to stream beyond the crippled 480 resolution and reach 1080 res and 4K (UHD) with proper subscription, bandwidth and supported hardware. Xiaomi will implement full blown HDR functionality which enhances image quality, but it requires a future system update.

Native Chromecast built in

Absolutely none of the generic boxes have these features, which makes AndroidTV future proofed

rrainwater

It depends on which Mi Box you bought. Most aren't truly Android TV.