Ordered 2 Xiaomi Android TV 4K's and have a couple of questions...

by moist_damp_panties

Basically as an extra for the spare room so my in-laws can have their own space when the grand kids get too much and another for my technically incompetent mother who wants Netflix.

It seems like it is a get what you pay for type of thing, I run an older NUC as the front end of our Plex server in the lounge, but as we have a 4k tv (I won it in a competition - lucky me right!) so I am interested to see if it performs. My NUC is old and won't support 4k h.265 so I may swap them between the lounge and spare room if it turns out ok. The NUC is windows 10 so all applications we want, Spotify, etc are there. I am upgrading to gigabit fibre so expect to get around 600mb down on wifi (flash new routers and wifi AP's) so not worried about the lack of Ethernet.

Now my questions are: is it easy to update from Android 6.0? (I have not read up on XDA yet sorry) and is the Play Store localised? I read that it's a cut down version? I am getting the international version but I want to access the local streaming apps in my country (NZ), especially TVNZ so my FIL can watch the news at the volume he likes i.e ear screamingly loud. I understand that you can sideload if not immediately available but rather plug and play rather than faffing around.

Any thoughts? Cheers

EDIT: I am Idiot. I should have said Mi TV Boxes running official Andoid TV (model number not displayed but described as Global Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Android 6.0 Smart 4K Cortex-A53 WiFi Bluetooth 8GB H.265 Set-top Sling Youtube Netflix 4K DTS Dolby.

Thanks for all your advice, and remember be kind to one another!

tbgoose

I doubt TVNZ have android tv compatibile application unfortunately. It's on them to produce it, and as android tv is not proliferated in Aus or NZ Dev is slow or non existent.

ABC and SBS both have not released apps in Australia for whatever reason. You can sideload the normal android apps but they don't work well at all, certainly not for non technical folk. Many unnessary clicks and have to use mouse half the time, not to mention most load in portrait mode sideways...

It's a good device for the money, but it's held back this side of the planet by lack of good apps from content owners. Hope NZ is better than here, for your sake. Netflix is great, as is Stan and Plex/emby/Kodi/TerraiumTV.

eternal_peril

All your Google stuff will be NZ. Right now, 6 is the latest version for it.

There is a beta for 7 but I would wait for the official. You cannot downgrade .

The Play store is barren for the most part. If you are just using Spotify, Plex, Kodi you will be fine.

It runs emulators well too. It isn't a perfect box but it's sufficiently capable.

Even for the amazing 'fast' speeds of Kiwi fiber :)

citizenxnz

The TVNZ (nor TV3 and Lightbox) app are not on the Android TV store, so you would have to sideload them. None of them have been developed for remote control support so basically a no-go. The best bet is to either use Kodi with the TVNZ and TV3 plugins, or to Chromecast from a smartphone. I love my Android TV boxes, both the Shield and Mi box.

BiggussDikkuss

My NUC is old and won't support 4k h.265 so I may swap them between the lounge and spare room if it turns out ok

Just be aware the Mi Box has no Ethernet Port. Its video playback is all designed around 4K Netflix and Youtube with Max bitrates in the order of 20Mbps. Thats what you get for $69 and the Mi Box is perfectly fine for that.

You will run into issues trying to playback medium to high (30-100 Mbps) 4K H265 video, especially with HD Audio because as I said no Ethernet port = problems with data thruput. WiFi should no be relied on for trouble free High Bitrate streaming.

Even a USB to Ethernet adapter is not going to fix those sorts of problems no mater how fast your home Internet connection is.

One last thing the USA Spec / International Android TV model Mi Box we talk about in here is MDZ-16-AB

JimboLodisC

Got a model number? Cuz we discuss the official Android TV operating system in this subreddit. If this is just a TV running regular Android, then it's the wrong kind of "Android TV".