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800 Review
46 Karma

Review on πŸ“Ί Xiaomi Mi Box S Android TV - Google Assistant Remote - Streaming Media Player with Chromecast Built-in - 4K HDR - Wi-Fi - 8 GB - Black by Cameron Aleman

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Stay away from that poop

I had a previous MI Box 3 and bought this successor hoping for some improvements. The quality of the MI Box S is inferior in every way. The board is cheaper. The previous one was made to be comfortable to hold in hand. This one is square and chunky with a poorly designed 4-way button. The back and home buttons are in the wrong place unlike the previous or Android phones. Who uses the middle as a "back button"? The home screen design was created to promote what Google AI (artificial idiot) wants you to see, rather than providing a convenient layout to choose what you want to see. Worst. cannot transmit digital audio. Thus, any surround sound degrades to two-channel. This includes all Netflix, mostly Dolby Digital Plus. Forget all DTS, DTS-HDMA or Dolby TrueHD formats. This thing renders your home theater receiver useless. The remote sometimes turns off after the box goes to sleep. no way to wake up other than unplugging - Netflix randomly stutters even at 1080p (I have 1GB fiber internet) - USB playback randomly stutters even at 1080p - can't play DTS-HD from downmixed USB, even stutters HORRIBLELY along 1080p (note : DTS-HD transmission does not work) - sometimes youtube crashes completely. there is no other way out but to unplug it - the hdmi negotiation randomly goes nuts in sleep mode. there is no way out but to unplug - sometimes hdmi coordinates different settings after sleep. You'll have to unplug the HDMI to try reworking it. Note: I have an earlier version of Xiaomi Box 3 and it didn't have any of these issues. Stuttering issues after forced update to Android 8, but other issues (so far). So this is not my receiver and other devices. These are not box settings. I know what I'm doing and I'm not prejudiced against Xiaomi. In fact, my last four phones have been Xiaomi. Update: Through many hours of online research I was able to get a Dolby Digital+ transmission box. Someone posted on the Kodi forum that you can: Disable HDMI first; Turn on the MI block; Then connect the HDMI to the receiver after turning on the MI box. Then somehow HDMI will negotiate better. This can then enable lossy DD+ and lossy DTS pass-through. However, sometimes this consistent setting is lost and you have to repeat the process. There is still no hope for Dolby True HD or DTS-HDMA.

Pros
  • Free for educational purposes
Cons
  • Interchangeable