PSA for those of you on the fence about what device to buy. I tested the Mibox S for the last few weeks with several IPTV streams and was suffering from buffering - especially over NordVPN. My solution was the Nvidia shield and a built in ethernet port.
My DL speeds are typically over 100mbps including over WIFI 5 ghz without VPN- but with VPN maybe 60-80 mbps. Still these speeds should have been good enough to stream HD over IPTV - but they weren't.
I hope someone more technically inclined might explain why my setup is now optimal?
My theory is that WIFI speeds are inconsistent and may be subject to packet loss. Ethernet is still the better option. I also think that the processing power of the Nvidia shield makes a big difference when decoding the video over VPN. I was worried I might need to invest in a better router but these 2 changes did the trick!
To make the most of your experience, get yourself Tivimate and pay for premium. I also tried all the IPTV players and IMO this one is the best.
Ethernet is always better than Wifi. You can get a USB dongle for the Mi Box for less than $15 which most likely would have fixed your buffering issues. Instead you spent over $150 to fix your problem. $15 or $150. hmmm.