Get the Shield. Who knows what you may want to use it for in the future. Better track record for support from Nvidia and probably will have a much longer product life span.

I own two mi boxes. Get a shield.

If it's just 1080p video streams, get a Mi Box.

The shield supports refresh rate switching. So for 24p movies, it will change your TV output to 24Hz.

Th MiBox does not do this, but it has some settings that do a pretty good job interpolating (I think it's called adaptive refresh rate?).

4K is another story also, the Shield handles that a lot better.

If you're not playing games, the Mi Box is 1/3 the cost of the shield and pretty much does the same thing you will use it for. Once the Mi Box nougat update happens, a lot of the issues people are seeing will hopefully be fixed.

If you have money to spend, get the shield. It is indeed the best box out there but you're paying the price for the best. And since you won't be playing any games, you will waste half of what it can do.

I have the Mi Box and I have zero complaints. It has been a great streaming box especially for the money.

Honestly with the price differences, go buy a mi box and try it for a couple weeks. Return it and get a shield if you are not enjoying it due to its performance.

I'm biased, but the Shield is the way to go. It's a little more expensive, but as far as support goes, as well as futureproofing I'd say its a good purchase.

However, if you plan on just watching movies and videos up to 1080 and don't really care about any of the other apps or the occasional game, I'd just stick with the MiBox since it is relatively cheaper.

Try the mibox every complaint talks about 4k hdr and other high end gimmicks honestly putting multiple $1000s into a av set up and expecting a $69 device to power it all tells you who your dealing with

Go for the Mi Box. If there is no gaming involved then the Shield is a waste of money. I'm in the same boat as you. I do console AAA games and just needed a box to stream that was powerful enough not to lag. Mi Box fits my needs perfectly.

You can get Mi Box (or another streaming only box), Mass Effect:A, and another game for same price as shield.

Save $130 and get the mibox why waste money on something ur not gonna use for its intended purpose. I have a PS4 to play games so I have the mibox for the streaming

I have both. Shield in the living room on the big TV with the surround sound receiver and a Mi Box for the bedroom TV going through TV speakers. They both serve their purposes well.

I haven't had any trouble watching anything from my home server through Kodi on the MiBox. Nothing terribly esoteric, though.

The Shield is faster, more robust, better supported, and more future proof. It's also 2.5 times the cost.

For what you've described, I'd pick up a MiBox, try it out. If it doesn't do what you want, return it and get a Shield. Otherwise if the money's not an issue just get the Shield and be done with it.

If you can afford it, the shield is the way to go.

Very disappointed with Xiaomi. I mean very.

Forget about surround. It basically doesn't work.

Plex app and video playback, while working - is very, very poor. Choppy, visible freamedrops. Little bit better via KODI app, but still visible. Even my old Samsung TV with plex app plays everything smoothly.

Very poor app support (at leas in Europe). Basically: Netflix, Youtube, Plex, Kodi. Thas't is. No HBO GO, no Amazon Video (in Europe).

Basically everything I have (ps4, Samsung TV) works better than this (provided I don't have 4K TV). I barely use this box, mostly to check if there are some updates. After all that raving reviews I'm very disappointed.

If you can afford the Shield get the Shield, if not Mi box.

I would think a Mi Box is more designed for bedrooms and Shield TV is for Living room.

As others have said, if you can afford the shield it's the way to go.

I have both. MiBox is a good machine for what it does. No issues with Netflix, Kodi or other apps. I've set mine up with a us google account and have access to all of the US apps so I'm up to date.

Only issue I've had is that it doesn't play well sometimes with my receiver. Sometimes the app selection screen doesn't show but it's a quick fix by switching between inputs on the receiver.

I could never say don't get a Shield. If you have the money. Even if you don't game there is value in future proofing. I'm really happy with my Mibox and am sure I will someday get a Shield.

My pupose is only for watching Movies and Videos, not gaming for which I have a PS$ and Xbox One. Will there be any improvement, watching my Library of various movies, of the Shield or would it be just overkill?

Thanks

You're missing some critical information here: Where do your movies live in your library? Do you have an external USB hard drive, are you sharing across the network, what?

What are you playing the videos with? Kodi, Plex, what?

Assuming you're planning to use an external USB hard drive I recommend the ShieldTV. Assuming you are sharing across the network I still recommend getting the ShieldTV. Let me explain why: Artwork!

I personally own the Asus Nexus Player and picked up the MiBox for my Dad and his wife, in my experience there's simply not enough space once you add any library of significance because the artwork eats away on you until you have barely any storage. The ShieldTV comes with 16GBs internal compared to the MiBox's measly 8GBs of which over two gigabytes get eaten up by system files so practically you only have five something to do anything with.

You say you're not planning on playing games but you may surprise yourself and of course I'm certain you intend to be able to add streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, etc these will all eat away at your available space. And don't forget you need to maintain some free space for updates...

Get the ShieldTV. I intend to eventually so I can expand my capabilities across the board apps wise and artwork etc for Kodi.

So I decided to go shield. Now trying to decide between Pro and non-Pro. If I add a 3TB External HD to the non-Pro and format does that give it 3TB for storage. What I mean does it become a 3TB box?

Do not get the mi box