Mi Box is a useless product that needs to be recalled. Any alternatives?

by almbfsek

I've just bought a mi box 3 without much research and I'm regretting it. Audio and video goes out of sync every couple days and I need to cut power and wait for a while before it works again. It happens both on netflix and youtube.

I've searched on internet and turns out it's a very common problem and there is no solution yet. I've tried everything recommended and still a/v is out of sync.

Any decent android tv box with netflix support?

Thanks

EDIT: Unfortunately I can't buy a Shield here in Turkey.

EDIT 2: M8S Pro L it is. Thanks all.

alexx_kidd

Nah, it's great

kshena

wait for Google IO

BiggussDikkuss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeIqU_gbWQ

Ultimately none of the Android TV devices have Netflix frame rate matching capabilities to auto switch your TV to the correct refresh rate to match the frames per second of the source video content.

End result = nice smooth video playback in Apps like Netflix and Amazon Video and others.

The Apple TV 4/4K has such tvOS frame rate matching capabilities.

Something the Android TV Netflix Apps can only dream about:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208288

Ausernameneeded

Best bet is for you to fix the issue causing it. How is your internet there, and wifi strength?

Are you on VPN?

Do you have sound playing through an external device?

Do you have sideloaded apps?

Those and more can cause you your issues, regardless of device.

JimboLodisC

Seeing as the only two devices that are readily available or the Mi Box and the Shield, you're kind of out of options.

Syphe

I have a feeling the problem (at least with netflix) is not just restricted to the mi box, I've got 2 mi boxes, one of them in the bedroom, another was in the lounge, but has since been unplugged due to this issue.

I replaced the Mi Box in the lounge with a combination of a Mecool m8s pro l which i'm dual booting android tv and libreelec, and an old amazon fire tv 1 which had previously been sitting in a drawer after getting the mi box.

I get the same netflix sync issues on the Mecool when running Android TV, so wonder if it's a bug in Android TV causing the problems, no such issues on the Fire TV 1.

I mainly run libreelec on the Mecool, and use the FireTV when I need to use netflix, but will be getting rid of it when we upgrade our dumb tv to something with netflix integration. For the last six months while having this problem, we've had to download anything we wanted to watch on netflix because it was just unwatchable on the Mi Box.

I'm pretty happy with this solution, the Mecool running LibreElec is much nicer to use, as the auto refresh rate switching is really nice to have, and it also lets you output multi channel PCM audio rather than having to have the box transcode everything into Dolby Digital, so multi channel AAC works great on it.

Weirdly this only recently started to happen (sometime in the last year), and did not coincide with an AndroidTV release, so must have been a netflix release causing the problem.

satanuke

I also have a MiBox3 and I also noticed this issue while casting YouTube from my phone. Never had any sort of problems with the Netflix native app or any other app, only while casting and fixed after a reboot.

Are you watching 4K content? I have a FullHD TV and it works very well for 1080p content but I have heard that this box is quite weak when it comes to 4k.

rawd_unda

Bite the bullet and get a Shield. Its expensive yes but it works. I think I've had to reboot it maybe twice in the last few months I've had it.

jasswolf

So you've cleared your cache, tried a factory reset, and the OS is up to date?

tb21666

The 'usefulness' of the product is usually a reflection of the end user IME.

My SO has been running hers on an old ass beta for roughly a year without issue..?

DaveDeluria

Mine working well. I use fiber internet connection.

whyalwaysme2012

I had a few issues but working perfectly after a second factory reset. Return and try another.

SerBardiche

I am also using the mibox, havent had a problem such as yours. Although I have to add, I almost always reboot after use.

I have it hooked up to a separate audio system, and somehow a couple of minimized apps' sounds still come through when mibox goes into daydream mode. Instead of killing the app from system>apps, I reboot the device. (Hold down the power button on the remote for quick reboot)

Ekos640

  1. SHIELD TV

  2. SHIELD TV

  3. SHIELD TV

aonysllo

Nvidia Shield TV is the best hardware out there. the only reason not to get it is if you don't want to spend $200

indianacpl

Shield, buy once and be done.

koshergoy

Thanks for your astute advice. Guess I'll have to arrange for Walmart to process a return on the 336 units I have deployed.

I'll tell them almbfsek declared they should be recalled. That should work out perfectly....

totodee

You should have got a Mi Box 2. The 3 is a downgrade. The 2 is still widely available.