The new app supports brand accounts, and doesnt have the previous issues playing back cracked videos. I was forced to upgrade when sling took a walk after it needed an update, and no longer connected.

I didn't think I would say it, but even on the Mi Box, I'm kind of fine with the new wrapper app for now. Enabling brand accounts was a big thing for me.

I am however, slightly annoyed by the inability to choose my own display resolution and frame rate.

One weird thing it will do is if your current display resolution is 1080p, it will play the 1440p version of a video and downscale it if it determines your current network speed is fast enough. You can verify this by enabling 'stats for nerds'

I imagine if you had a monthly data cap and you were in danger of exceeding the limit then this would be pretty annoying.

I don't think I'm misreading the 'stats for nerds' display either.

It will say something like:

viewport: 1080p

current / optimal

1440p @ 60 fps / 1440p @ 60ps

On the bright side, I'm happy the Mi Box can play 1440p @60fps and downscale it to 1080p all while seemingly not dropping any frames. There were previous versions of the Mi Box firmware that would drop frames in the youtube app at just 720p @ 60fps

livesteams have always been a bit hit and miss for me on the older youtube app. Not tried livesteaming on the new "app", but at least it supports brand accounts now.

Anytime I wanted to use a live stream on the old app I would just cast it from my phone. I was never able to get live streams to work natively on the older TV app.