Xiaomi Mi Box / Mi Box S [Android TV OS]

sactjt said:
Some photos of the mibox after delivery from Miafrica.
Someone from the telkom lit box thread asked for some photos but will rather post here as it’s more mibox related.

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I had a mygica device, which I returned.
I had an apple tv 4k device, which I returned.
I have an apple tv 4.
I have an apple tv 3.
I have raspberry pi’s 2 and 3 which I played around with tv options wise.
Pcs with xbmc.
Older media players.
I have 2 lg “smart tv’s” with web os 2 and 3.
I just received the 2 mibox’s.
I have a telkom lit box, which is now somewhere with telkom being repaired after the hdmi port failed.

I hooked up the one mibox late last night but haven't really had time to properly test it and give feedback but the little bit of use SO FAR, the mibox feels snappier than the lit box, the voice control works really well (which I thought I would never use but now quite like it), the mibox is sleeker and smaller and I don’t know if my mind is playing tricks on me but the interface looks crisper/sharper as well as video playback but again it’s probably a “placebo effect”. In MY honest opinion nothing compares to the crispness and overall quality of the apple tv 4k so far but the box did not work for me as it did exactly what my smart tv’s already did. The os is way too “closed down”, especially in our market.
On the other hand, the lit box has ethernet, the hdmi cec power on/of/volume works good compared to non existent on the mibox (weirdly I figured out that if you press the “round circle home button” 3 times on the mibox remote the tv and avr would switch on but the power button just switches on the box itself), the lit remote feels better in my hand personally and I also personally like the “rubber” buttons on the lit box more than the plastic ones on the mibox. My wife disagrees so I guess Im wrong here. I miss the mute button on the lit remote as well as the ability to quickly close background apps (maybe I can’t figure out how to do this on mibox remote but with lit remote You just hold in the home button for 2 seconds and all the background apps pop up for quick closing).
Lack of netflix (without sideloading) on the lit box killed the experience for me personally. Netflix on the mibox works really well.
The rest is basically the same (for my use) except voice control within apps and again (probably my imagination) but it all just feels a bit snappier on the mibox.

All of this is obviously personal with my experience so far. I have guests staying over all the time (some savvy, some not at all), a wife who does not care about anything tech except that it works, a kiddie, a nanny and grandmas and grandpas visiting a lot.
This is/was personally my problem with some of the options listed in the beginning. Too much fiddeling and too difficult for everyone in my household. Thats where the mibox fills the gap for me personally. Simplicity. Everyone's prefered apps work.

Apologies for the long post and I know no one asked my opinion in the first place. I am thinking of putting something (long and own thread) together with comparisons, pros and cons etc just of my personal experience with these different devices and hopefully it helps somebody like me who just feels overwhelmed with all the options, don’t have too much time for research and something that just works for their needs.

Im getting fed up with companies like Telkom that advertise something, then only to find out it doesn’t actually work as advertised. You can’t test MOST of these devices beforehand so you have to give someone your hard earned money blindly then only to find that if it doesn’t work for you, they refuse a refund and/or exchange for something else, well at least not without a massive fight/argument.

Anyway apologies again for “clogging” up this thread.
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Thanks for the review, I'm sure it will help A lot of people.

I'm too lazy to write a review.
 
sactjt said:
Ordered 2 of these boxes from Miafrica on Monday afternoon at 15:45 after a whole sour ordeal with an apple tv 4k as well as a telkom lit box. I live in Hermanus and usually dont have much hope with deliveries as it always takes ages to arrive because its an outlined area.
On Wednesday morning at 10 the boxes got delivered to my door. Less than 48 hours where I usually wait minimum 6 days with other online orders.
Extremely impressed with Miafrica.
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Ordered TV Box from MIA Africa on Tuesday morning.
Today is day no 4, and order is still "processing".........?

Used them twice before, without issues.....

edit
and immediately after posting (seconds later) I get e-mail that they are busy with the order and will send soon (just a coincidence)
 
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Looks like they are now sold out ️

Edit: Back in stock
 
What's the output of the charger? Will a 2A cellphone charger work?
 
ordered again now, used the I-pay option this time, worked. How long before the order confirmation email is sent?
 
Guys/Girls, anything I need to add to the first page?
 
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PDF_27 said:
ordered again now, used the I-pay option this time, worked. How long before the order confirmation email is sent?
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AadilG said:
Never get an email as yet , but logged in and it shows order processing

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I ordered 2 of these boxes via MiAfrica on Monday late afternoon and it was delivered on Wednesday morning at 10 even before the email confirmation was sent out to me. So basically I received the confirmation email only after the boxes got delivered.
 
sactjt said:
I ordered 2 of these boxes via MiAfrica on Monday late afternoon and it was delivered on Wednesday morning at 10 even before the email confirmation was sent out to me. So basically I received the confirmation email only after the boxes got delivered.
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Do the courier companies contact you to state delivery date etc?
 
PDF_27 said:
Do the courier companies contact you to state delivery date etc?
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In my case, no. They just pitched.
I work from home so I was lucky to catch them as Delivery was quick and unexpected.
On my invoice it shows “SERVICE LEVEL : 3 COURIER - NEXT DAY”. It was delivered by the RTT GROUP.
Invoice shows sender is “THE CORE COMPUTER BUSINESS” and not MiAfrica.
 
sactjt said:
In my case, no. They just pitched.
I work from home so I was lucky to catch them as Delivery was quick and unexpected.
On my invoice it shows “SERVICE LEVEL : 3 COURIER - NEXT DAY”. It was delivered by the RTT GROUP.
Invoice shows sender is “THE CORE COMPUTER BUSINESS” and not MiAfrica.
Click to expand...

Thank you
 
so after my first post about the initial feel for the box on the first night, just a quick heads up of the little I spent with the box so far almost 48 hours later.

- no cec capibilities on Android tv 6 so get ready to use more than one remote if you insist on using the original remote for voice commands. I can turn the volume up on my avr and then use the mibox remote to control the volume that way but only on certain apps which only support stereo. As soon as a digital audio format gets detected (like in netflix) the box hands over volume capabilities to the avr. Trust me I found this out the hard way late last night when my avr was turned up high and the avr remote was on the table. Sound came through full blast and there was no way of controlling it from the mibox remote. I turned into Jackie Chan for a minute there trying to jump for the avr remote. This was 1:30 in the morning.
I can weirdly get the box to switch on my avr and tv by pressing the “home” button 3 times, not the power button which will only switch on the box itself. Powering down only puts the box in sleep mode and tv and avr will stay on. Bit frustrating for me at moment.
I can obviously control the box with my lg smart tv remote but then I loose voice control.

- this brings me to the next point about powering down the device... there is no way. No power definitions in Android tv 6. So you have 2 options. 1: short press power button to put the unit to sleep. 2: long press the power button to restart. No shutdown option except for pulling the plug.

- there is a beta version of android tv 7 floating around that apparently fixes the above but I suggest read up a lot first as it comes with a whole bag of new problems. As I can pick the rumour is that xiaomi decided to skip the 7 update and go straight to 8 but dont take my word for it. There is a video on youtube showing the mibox 3 with android 8 running at the MWC 2018 event.

- the mibox “recommendations” row irritated the crap out of me because it splits your apps into different rows for what reason I do not know but there is a way to turn it off by going to “settings” then “apps” then “system apps” then “xiaomileanbackcutomizer” and then finally “disable”. Then reboot.

- forcing the tv resolution to 4K60 with HDR on makes the interface a bit choppy but I had the same problem with the apple tv 4K.

- then theres the auto refresh rate issue which can be researched.

These are the things I have come across so far but I have not really had time to really test more intensive stuff, just the obvious streaming apps quickly.

Edit:
Make sure to first do the system update under “settings”, “about”, “system update. This fixes a youtube issue. Its about 425mb if I remember correctly.
 
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I still can't find any concrete answers as to what kind of bitrate x265 files the box can play, I've seen videos on YouTube and seen posts on reddit but no one ever mentions the bitrate, one post mentions how with the Kodi 18 alpha he is now able to play 4K files with a high bitrate but never mentioned numbers.

Edit: I found a post from 9 months ago where the person said they played a 4K 60.5Mbps file using Kodi no problem.

Edit 2: Anyone feeling adventurous want to test out this file for me:

jellyfish-140-mbps-4k-uhd-hevc-10bit.mkv

It's above the the Blu Ray spec of max 128Mbps and it includes HD audio, so if you can play that you can play pretty much anything.
 
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