New Android TV box - Xiaomi Mi Box

[RanmaCanada 344]

So the player on Amazon is a chinese version and does not have AndroidTV, doesn't even have capability of showing english language.

 

Had one at Walmart, would not sell before the street date, hoping to find out what it is.

 

This might be Walmart exclusive at first.  We won't know until the street date.  I just wish these were available in Canada.

[MSattler 387]

I want one of these, badly. It's 100% officially supported device, and will have full updates. Xiaomi is seriously trying to break into the North American market. It's supposed to have a S905H processor in it, and has full DTS support. It will play pretty much anything that you throw at it. It just sucks that right now they are apparently only stateside at $69.99 and official street date is the 28th I believe.

Where did you get the street date? If you reimburse me for shipping it to you i can pick up two.

[MSattler 387]

Where did you get the street date? If you reimburse me for shipping it to you i can pick up two.

October 7th, according to reddit.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/54refm/rumor_mi_box_release_date_is_a_october_7th/

[ebr 14912]

No Ethernet AGAIN? WOW.. i would have thought most company's would have learned something from the Nexus players faults.

 

Companies are interested in selling to the mass market and people simply don't have their houses wired for Ethernet anymore (except us geeks).  Everything is wireless.

 

So, what they learned is they can save space on the device and keep the price point lower.

[Allan Cameron 40]

Companies are interested in selling to the mass market and people simply don't have their houses wired for Ethernet anymore (except us geeks).  Everything is wireless.

 

So, what they learned is they can save space on the device and keep the price point lower.

Well we still don't see most company's thinking that way yet.

Nothing indicates that right now because Ethernet/WiFi combo hardware is still very much more present then not.

Think about it, 95% of entertainment hardware such as TVs, Blu ray players, Media Box's, PCs, Game systems, cable boxes.. and so on DO have Ethernet with WiFi.

There are far less models that have WiFi only. So i am not sure what you are basing your comment on? Selling to the mass market is offering both, and both it usually is for that reason.

 

As my point was, a company now releasing WiFi only entertainment hardware is sill very much in the minority. My comment still holds true.

[ebr 14912]

When you are talking about devices getting smaller and cheaper all the time, the trend is definitely away from wired connections.

 

I don't have any real numbers but it wouldn't surprise me at all if 80% of people who buy streaming boxes are hooking them to their network via wireless.

 

But, I'm just trying to give you a plausible explanation for why they didn't include it and I'm pretty sure it has to do with keeping the size and price point down and their cost/benefit analysis said that was the way to go.

[CFC 25]

I guess it's not that surprising to me that it'd be wifi only really.

As another example, Roku announced new devices this week. Out of those, only the two more expensive ones (Premiere+ and Ultra) come with an Ethernet port.

We're still gonna get options for wired connections, but I agree with @@ebr, the typical average consumer level stuff will probably be shifting to wifi only more and more to keep costs down.

For my uses though, I rely on the stability of the wired connection so I always look for that when available.

I'll be interested to see how well the Mi Box works with a USB Ethernet adapter.

CFC

[MSattler 387]

I guess it's not that surprising to me that it'd be wifi only really.

As another example, Roku announced new devices this week. Out of those, only the two more expensive ones (Premiere+ and Ultra) come with an Ethernet port.

We're still gonna get options for wired connections, but I agree with @@ebr, the typical average consumer level stuff will probably be shifting to wifi only more and more to keep costs down.

For my uses though, I rely on the stability of the wired connection so I always look for that when available.

I'll be interested to see how well the Mi Box works with a USB Ethernet adapter.

CFC

 

So while the average consumer may not care, the average consumer cannot tell the difference between 5Mbps and 30Mbps quality.  There will always be the enthusiast portion of the market that someone should design/sell towards.

 

While the Mi Box has a USB Ethernet adapter, it's throughput will be limited, since you cannot send 1Gbps over USB 2.0.  Your limited theoretical throughout will be 480Mbps, actual use will fall somewhat below this.  Yes, it's more than you would probably ever need, however, the network connection will only be as good as the driver for the USB/NIC adapter you are using, and how it is implemented in Android.  It's just never going to be as good and as stable as a built in interface.

[SikSlayer 197]

Wait... it has no Ethernet?! 

 

Damn, I was going to get this instead of a Chromecast 4K. No sale now.

 

And yes, I know the CC4K wouldn't have Ethernet either, but it's not that type of device so it gets a pass IMO. This box proved to be much much more, and for the same price.

 

Also, about the whole plug in thing, my rule of thumb has always been, if the device isn't mobile, or if you aren't mobile with it, it has to be plugged in.

Edited September 30, 2016 by SikSlayer

[RanmaCanada 344]

Guys it has wireless AC and every test online in regards to network traffic has put this box leaps and bounds ahead of everything else in regards to network speeds.  Give it a chance man  Sigh haha.  I know I will be buying one, maybe several once they become available in Canada.  Well unless I can't wait and then I will just drive the 40 minutes to the border to pick up my order from amazon or walmart.

[FordGT90Concept 61]

The $30~35 USB Leelbox MXQ Pro (Amlogic S905, penta-core GPU, Android 5.1) is still the best bang for the buck I found for Emby for Android TV (Emby for Android has all kinds of streaming problems--might be Silicon Dust's fault still). It has 4 USB ports, 10/100 Ethernet, and respectable 802.11n wireless. The only area it sucks is the remote. It has no dedicated media buttons. Two Inteset 422-3 (~$25) will be arriving Tuesday/Wednesday of next week and they should theoretically do a good job.

 

I have two Leelbox Q1 Masters now. They're pretty much the same Leelbox MXQ Pro but they have Android 6.0, Amlogic S905X (does not require stereo downmixing for most shows), and their wireless antenna is crap. If you buy these, I seriously recommend wired only. The one TV that has to be wireless here, I had to swap with the Leelbox MXQ Pro because it couldn't direct stream 1080i MPEG2-TS "Let's Make a Deal" without pausing every 5-10 seconds or so. With a network cable plugged in, it works as well as the MXQ Pro, but smaller. FYI, the Master is only about 20 feet away from the router through a closet. I doubt it would work unless it was in the same room.

 

OH! And before I forget, these Masters have serious problems playing nice with the Play Store. Basically you can only access the Play Store once. Once you leave the Play Store, you have to go into Apps and uninstall updates for the Play Store and it will work again for ONE session. After you leave that time, it'll need updates uninstalled again. It's rather tedious.

 

Leelboxes that feature a Rockchip processor (Android 5.1, dual-core GPU, claims penta-core on the box but that's a lie) has proven to be inadequate to direct stream. Additionally, the most recent sample I played with had internal memory and an integrated SD card (like hardwired inside of it). Internal had less than 1GB of capacity and the SD card had about 7GB of capacity. Needless to say, it is a pain in the butt.

 

FYI, all Leelboxes have the same crappy remote. In my experience, if you buy a new Leelbox, you'll not be able to program a TV into the remote because the remote never enters a programming state and Leelbox doesn't know how to fix (laughable, I know).

 

I recommend the TVlauncher app to simplify...well...any Android TV home screen.

 

 

Advantage of Android 6.0: one can hold the power button and a menu will pop up to turn it off.

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of the Rokus out there can direct stream 720p/1080i (I doubt even the new ones releasing in a week or so). The lack the hardware to decode it which means you need a beefy server or a transcoding TV tuner (e.g. HDHomeRun EXTEND). That said, my sister (whom has two EXTENDs) prefers the usability of Roku over Leelbox.

 

 

I tried to do some research on this Xiaomi Mi Box and I haven't found any information on what CPU/GPU it has. If it has an Amlogic S905, it should work fine with Emby. That said, I'm not sure it is worth it over the Leelbox MXQ Pro. My only gripe with the MXQ Pro is the controller but even if you estimate high and buy both the MXQ Pro and INT-422-3 (pending test), you're looking at $60 versus $70 and that's with a really, really good multifunction remote.

 

 

 

Edit: HDHomeRun CONNECT have two MPEG2-TS tuners on 100 Mbit Ethernet. In other words, 720p/1080i MPEG2-TS can't exceed 50 Mbit each (because two tuners). 802.11n and 10/100 NIC, so long as there is a good connection, is more than adequate for the heaviest of content it is likely to encounter. 4K is usually on MPEG4 or HEVC which requires substantially less bandwidth. Amlogic S905 is adequate for this. I think MPEG2-TS 4K would be a disaster on any Android TV device (way too much compute power required).

 

That said, in high action scenes, you can tell the Amlogic S905 framerate falls to where it is not quite smooth. I'm hoping for a better processor but I haven't heard of any in the works that would be at Amlogic S905's price point.

 

 

Edit: One of the INT-422-3 should arrive on Monday.

 

 

Leelbox Q1 Master vs Xiaomi Mi Box

CPU: Same

GPU: Same (not sure on clockspeed)

RAM: 1GB vs 2GB

802.11: ? vs ac

BT: none vs 4.0

USB: 2 vs 1

Ethernet: 10/100 vs none

Mic: none vs remote

Price: $30~35 vs $70

Edited October 1, 2016 by FordGT90Concept

[MSattler 387]

Along the fact that it has AndroidTV instead of Android makes it a superior player. The interface is miles ahead and the remote is much much better than other cheap chinese players.

 

Have you ever used the google channels app to watch tv? Sooooo much better than the view app.

[FordGT90Concept 61]

One of the Inteset (INT-422-3) remotes showed up today. It works great with code 04440 then learning some of the buttons off the original remote.

[RanmaCanada 344]

The $30~35 USB Leelbox MXQ Pro (Amlogic S905, penta-core GPU, Android 5.1) is still the best bang for the buck I found for Emby for Android TV (Emby for Android has all kinds of streaming problems--might be Silicon Dust's fault still). It has 4 USB ports, 10/100 Ethernet, and respectable 802.11n wireless. The only area it sucks is the remote. It has no dedicated media buttons. Two Inteset 422-3 (~$25) will be arriving Tuesday/Wednesday of next week and they should theoretically do a good job.

 

I have two Leelbox Q1 Masters now. They're pretty much the same Leelbox MXQ Pro but they have Android 6.0, Amlogic S905X (does not require stereo downmixing for most shows), and their wireless antenna is crap. If you buy these, I seriously recommend wired only. The one TV that has to be wireless here, I had to swap with the Leelbox MXQ Pro because it couldn't direct stream 1080i MPEG2-TS "Let's Make a Deal" without pausing every 5-10 seconds or so. With a network cable plugged in, it works as well as the MXQ Pro, but smaller. FYI, the Master is only about 20 feet away from the router through a closet. I doubt it would work unless it was in the same room.

 

OH! And before I forget, these Masters have serious problems playing nice with the Play Store. Basically you can only access the Play Store once. Once you leave the Play Store, you have to go into Apps and uninstall updates for the Play Store and it will work again for ONE session. After you leave that time, it'll need updates uninstalled again. It's rather tedious.

 

Leelboxes that feature a Rockchip processor (Android 5.1, dual-core GPU, claims penta-core on the box but that's a lie) has proven to be inadequate to direct stream. Additionally, the most recent sample I played with had internal memory and an integrated SD card (like hardwired inside of it). Internal had less than 1GB of capacity and the SD card had about 7GB of capacity. Needless to say, it is a pain in the butt.

 

FYI, all Leelboxes have the same crappy remote. In my experience, if you buy a new Leelbox, you'll not be able to program a TV into the remote because the remote never enters a programming state and Leelbox doesn't know how to fix (laughable, I know).

 

I recommend the TVlauncher app to simplify...well...any Android TV home screen.

 

 

Advantage of Android 6.0: one can hold the power button and a menu will pop up to turn it off.

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of the Rokus out there can direct stream 720p/1080i (I doubt even the new ones releasing in a week or so). The lack the hardware to decode it which means you need a beefy server or a transcoding TV tuner (e.g. HDHomeRun EXTEND). That said, my sister (whom has two EXTENDs) prefers the usability of Roku over Leelbox.

 

 

I tried to do some research on this Xiaomi Mi Box and I haven't found any information on what CPU/GPU it has. If it has an Amlogic S905, it should work fine with Emby. That said, I'm not sure it is worth it over the Leelbox MXQ Pro. My only gripe with the MXQ Pro is the controller but even if you estimate high and buy both the MXQ Pro and INT-422-3 (pending test), you're looking at $60 versus $70 and that's with a really, really good multifunction remote.

 

 

 

Edit: HDHomeRun CONNECT have two MPEG2-TS tuners on 100 Mbit Ethernet. In other words, 720p/1080i MPEG2-TS can't exceed 50 Mbit each (because two tuners). 802.11n and 10/100 NIC, so long as there is a good connection, is more than adequate for the heaviest of content it is likely to encounter. 4K is usually on MPEG4 or HEVC which requires substantially less bandwidth. Amlogic S905 is adequate for this. I think MPEG2-TS 4K would be a disaster on any Android TV device (way too much compute power required).

 

That said, in high action scenes, you can tell the Amlogic S905 framerate falls to where it is not quite smooth. I'm hoping for a better processor but I haven't heard of any in the works that would be at Amlogic S905's price point.

 

 

Edit: One of the INT-422-3 should arrive on Monday.

 

 

Leelbox Q1 Master vs Xiaomi Mi Box

CPU: Same

GPU: Same (not sure on clockspeed)

RAM: 1GB vs 2GB

802.11: ? vs ac

BT: none vs 4.0

USB: 2 vs 1

Ethernet: 10/100 vs none

Mic: none vs remote

Price: $30~35 vs $70

 The processor is actually an S905X-H in the Xiaomi box.  The difference is that the -H has all Dolby licenses paid for so all Dolby audio will pass through with no issues.

[FordGT90Concept 61]

I don't know man. Here's a recording that didn't have to down mix to stereo on S905X:

Video: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps [V: mpeg2 main, yuv420p, 1920x1080]

Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 384kbps [A: English [eng] (ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, 384 kb/s)]

Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 96kbps [A: Spanish [spa] (ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 96 kb/s) [visual impaired]]

 

Here's a recording that did:

Video: MPEG2 Video 704x480 (16:9) 29.97fps [V: mpeg2 main, yuv420p, 704x480]

Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 448kbps [A: English [eng] (ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, 448 kb/s)]

Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 128kbps [A: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s]

 

The only difference is a little bit higher bitrate. I'm not entirely sure S905X-H is going to be able to handle that any differently than S905X.

Edited October 2, 2016 by FordGT90Concept

[ebr 14912]

The difference may be that the other one has an on-board decoder for Dolby.  That's what would require a license I believe.

[epayson85 72]

Officially available on mi.com.  I am pretty excited to give it a try.  

[christoph86 12]

Anyone know if the Mi Box has Mpeg 2 support?

[FordGT90Concept 61]

I've used Amlogic S905X which can acceptably do MPEG2-TS 1080i. Acceptably as in the framerate dips that is visible to the discerning eye during high movement/high action frames. It recovers right away and I generally haven't had a problem with audio/visual sync. It's also never blatantly paused to buffer (but that's not something MPEG2-TS really supports). So yeah, it should be acceptable--not ideal (like a $600 computer) but acceptable.

[ebr 14912]

Anyone know if they are at Walmart yet?

[Jdiesel 1114]

Rumor has it that they won't be officially for sale at Walmart until October 10th. Some locations may be selling it early though.

[Flox 1]

According to Reddit, the "best" rumor is in stock October 7th, or "on the shelf" on the 10th:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/54refm/rumor_mi_box_release_date_is_a_october_7th/

 

https://twitter.com/XiaomiUSA/status/783477816935391232

 

It appears some were already shipped from Xiaomi's website, though.

[Flox 1]

I've used Amlogic S905X which can acceptably do MPEG2-TS 1080i. Acceptably as in the framerate dips that is visible to the discerning eye during high movement/high action frames. It recovers right away and I generally haven't had a problem with audio/visual sync. It's also never blatantly paused to buffer (but that's not something MPEG2-TS really supports). So yeah, it should be acceptable--not ideal (like a $600 computer) but acceptable.

Thanks for the details you provided, they seem helpful to me... Indeed, I'm interested in figuring out how this box could perform to play HD LiveTV from an HDHR prime, and if I'm correct, the HDHR prime stream TS and MPEG-2... As my server is relatively weak in computing power, I was interested in something that could direct-play without transcoding, besides a true HTPC.

I'm still curious in different reviews and reports from actual owners of this specific box, but your feedback brings interesting information for me!

 

Thanks!

[FordGT90Concept 61]

I have one S905 and two S905X and they direct stream (down mixing audio to stereo) off of two HDHomeRun CONNECTs (incapable of transcoding) via Emby for Android TV.

 

Hopefully S905X-H doesn't need to down mix but I can't confirm nor deny that. I hope someone here will be able to soon.

 

My server is rather potent (Xeon 1230 V3) but I'd rather its hardware resources not be used on transcoding. That is what makes the Amlogic S905 family attractive: it can reasonably direct stream.

Edited October 6, 2016 by FordGT90Concept

[Flox 1]

I have one S905 and two S905X and they direct stream (down mixing audio to stereo) off of two HDHomeRun CONNECTs (incapable of transcoding) via Emby for Android TV.

 

Hopefully S905X-H doesn't need to down mix but I can't confirm nor deny that. I hope someone here will be able to soon.

 

My server is rather potent (Xeon 1230 V3) but I'd rather its hardware resources not be used on transcoding. That is what makes the Amlogic S905 family attractive: it can reasonably direct stream.

I'm glad to read that!

I too hope will see some feedback from owners soon.