I was looking to get a Box to run Kodi/Plex, and saw the Mi Box was recommended here.
Is it still an OK purchase?
If I get a USB->Ethernet adapter, can I give it a Gigabit ethernet port?
I was looking to get a Box to run Kodi/Plex, and saw the Mi Box was recommended here.
Is it still an OK purchase?
If I get a USB->Ethernet adapter, can I give it a Gigabit ethernet port?
ugreen makes a usb 3.0 ethernet dongle with 3 additional usb ports built in. It's $19 on amazon. works great with the mi box. I did a speed test with mine and was seeing 250 Mbps download speeds with it. I own two mi boxes so I bought two adapters. wifi is unreliable. I have an Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro access point which covers my whole house but for video streaming I was still seeing issues. random pauses and cutouts. with ethernet all that went away.
Mi box does have issues playing 4k 60fps material. I mean it can play it but it's pushing the hardware to the limit. I don't have any 4k tv's yet so 1080p it streams perfect.
USB 2.0 is limited to 480Mbps, fast Ethernet is 100Mbps. It's likely, but not guaranteed that a gigabit Ethernet adapter helps some. Also, I've read that the MiBox doesn't handle Bluetooth and WiFi coexistence well, so that's the main reason I'm using an Ethernet adapter. It could be all in my head, but since switching to the USB adapter, I've had no issues that I've contributed to network connectivity.
Edit: likely that gigabit will help some over fast Ethernet. I think the MiBox has 802.11 ac, so it could be faster than fast Ethernet.
Usb to Ethernet works with asix 88179 chipsets. Ugreen make them. It'll add $20 to the price of the box and the performance won't reflect the investment. I'd really recommend a AC1300 router. The most I got on mine was around 120-150mbit which wifi can provide on 5Ghz.
Mi box does work for Kodi and Plex and has a very nice remote. It's ok if you're planning 1080p tv, not some crazy 4k 7.1 surround home theatre. If you're doing that I'd go FTV or shield.
I was using the Mi Box but since Amazon doesn't offer an app with Leanback support (or capable of 4K & HDR for that matter) I bought an Xbox One S instead. Twitch, Youtube, Plex all available from Microsoft store. Only thing Xbox doesn't have is Kodi and Spotify but I use Mi Box for those
I use a cheap trend net adapter and it works. It's not gigabit tho.
Do not get a USB 2.0 hub with ethernet. The problem with them is they lose internet connectivity after awhile when you awaken the box from sleep. Get a 3.0 USB even though the Mi box port is only 2.0 to avoid the issue.
In a lot of cases you'll find the internet speed is the limiting factor rather than the speed of the wifi, depending on the age of your router and interference.
Wi-Fi will be fine for streaming anything, but it should be good for gig Ethernet
I use mine on wifi and stream 1080p over my LAN with no issue on both Kodi and Plex.
The issue with USB to Ethernet is that USB transfer rates do not match the gigabit Ethernet - USB is the bottleneck.
Edit - I should say that I use 3 of them all on wifi with no issue.