You don't have to have something else to "process" the videos, etc. You can do more than fling to an Android TV box, but you also have that ability as well.
This gets Over-The-Air Digital Transmitted, has a most liked channel checklist, as well as a real-time/programmed time documenting option which usually amplifies the product’s power. Dvr recorder without subscription is also the best over-the-air DVR ever made, with modest upfront rates for some high long-run costs…..
The only reasons I can think about for the need for Ethernet is that either you're constantly moving a huge amount of data between the two points and you need to do it fast or you have no WiFi available. Even 802.1n or less is enough for 4K streaming. I can assume you don't plan on moving 10TB of data through the media box. And if you do maybe it's time to rethink your network setup.
Wifi never seems reliable for me, regardless of routers or placement in my house. Especially when doing game streaming. Ethernet has already solved this issue and ethernet ports are cheap. Not having one is definitely a deal breaker.
Seeing how everybody complains about "unreliable WiFi" more than 3-4m (!!!) away I guess I can only praise the wireless gods for my 8 year old 802.1n router that somehow still manages to stream at a steady ~40Mbps. The newer router ($100 TP-Link) manages a steady 70-80Mbps on 2.4GHz (enough even for 4K BR assuming I'd ever want to do it) and ~130-150Mbps on 5GHz albeit at just 4-5m. I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably...
But to each his own. Just as a suggestion, picking a good router and configuring it properly will go a long way and maybe save you the effort of laying "flat cables under baseboards" throughout the house. There's a limit to how many cables and switches you can or want to lay around and more and more devices are mobile or all-wireless simply because WiFi is good enough... for people who don't have a huge collection of 4K Blu-Rays that they need to send to a TV on another floor...
"I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably..." Wireless is heavily impacted by your environment, wired not. To imply that people are lying about their bad wifi experience when it can be easily explained is just petty.
I never implied they're lying. Just that the issues are not inherent to wireless like they suggest but rather to their setup and this means they might be able to fix it instead of avoiding any number of good products because they are WiFi only.
"I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably..." To me, that's a nice way of saying they are lying. Especially with those "..." at the end. But if you say so....
And of course those issues are inherent to wireless. It is a much more error prone and environment dependant technology compared to wired connections. And a lot of things can be out of your control: optimal reciever / transmitter placement may not be possible due to aesthetic complaints from the people living with you; having tons of interfering wifi signals is not in your control, having heavily shielding walls in your house or flat is not in your control. And the specific comment you replied to mentioned game streaming. I haven't read a single review of that technology that liked doing game streaming via wifi, except for high latency tolerant game types like strategy, turn based etc.
Well Death66Angel between the 2 of us who do you think would know better what *I* meant? Are you accusing me of lying right after telling me that I can't accuse others of lying? Are you the only one here allowed to challenge what others say or is it just because your vocabulary doesn't include the word "hypocrisy" yet? Let me help you, it's what you're doing right now.
The article is about a *media box*, not game streaming. I didn't recommend using 802.1a/b for transferring terabytes of data back and forth or to connect your NAS to the network. It's about streaming audio and video that *any* properly set up network (wired or WiFi) can handle. So no, I'm not calling anyone a liar, I am saying that in 99.99% of cases the "inherent issues" of WiFi are in fact bad network design, bad equipment or bad configuration. For example if your router is on another floor like one guy said it means you most likely don't live in a radio polluted zone and common sense and best practices would dictate you use an AP or extender. Just like you don't use 150m stretches of worn out Cat 5 cable and then complain about how wired networks suck.
BTW, wired is also heavily impacted by the environment since you have walls to drill through, doorways or windows and distances to cover. You have to lay the cable carefully, you have to drill holes, hide cable under floorboards (which might damage it at installation or over time). You have to power your network equipment like switches and routers that you place around the house so you don't lay bundles of cables all over the house. And not least of all of wired's inherent weaknesses is that it can only connect a tiny fraction of the devices on the market right now. And since in this day and age you really can't avoid having WiFi it might pay off to do it right.
So don't put your reading comprehension failures and hypocrisy on me. The problem is that everybody thinks that if they can plug in a router and connect to WiFi then they've already done a good job and anything not working is "an inherent issue". It's an inherent PEBKAC issue.
Get off the meth. I have a 115Mbit connection and my main PC and HTPC are in the living room 15M from my router. It also downloads over UseNet and looking at the history it averages maximum speed. So definitely no troubles there.
I always max the download speed, I can have four 4K stream from Netflix and some spare for whatever I need.
All you need is a good router and decent clients.
I use a USB 802.11ac adaptor from 3 PC'a positioned above the desk (behind metal case hurts signal quality/strength)
iMacs and MacBooks are fine as they come with high end dual and three stream wifi adaptors already.
Windows laptops vary largely. My work Toshiba Sattelite "Pro" has a bargain basement no name single stream 802.11n 2.4GHz adaptor.
So, learn what you're buying and do some research before spewing out crap, wireless is more than capable of doing 4K and bluray.
P.S - Even 802.11n three stream is capable, at 5M 2011 iMac can transfer at 25Mb/sec reliably. At 15M it's about 15-20Mb/sec easily.
Router is a ASUS RT-AC3200 with smart wifi enabled to balance and move clients around bands depending on congestion, signal strength, other clients etc
No matter how much you want to rant is not going to change the fact that Wifi is more prone to interference and is not as reliable as ethernet for streaming video. If you are happy using Wifi then good for you but for those who want a solid streaming box with a real ethernet connection, they will most likely not be considering the Mi box.
So what you're saying is that none of you guys can use your phones or tablets to stream media in your home? Wow, Apple, Samsung et al. were so courageous removing the Ethernet port from their phones and tablets with all them people choosing "solid [devices] with a real ethernet connection" because WiFi is just "not as reliable as ethernet".
People are always willing to blame technology for their lack of ability. Most don't install and configure their own computer but somehow they all think that setting up WiFi *properly* is just a matter of putting the router on the table, powering it on and using the password on the box. It's a lot more that that and when you don't know this you're here whining about how it's unreliable.
If you heard someone complaining about how the water, electricity, heating systems that they installed are malfunctioning because of "inherent issues with water and electricity" (like that they can electrocute or drown you) you'd think the same thing people with properly set up WiFi think when reading your comments. ;)
Another rant that still won't change the fact that Wifi is still not as reliable for streaming high bit-rate video such as UHD as a wired connection would be. You are not streaming UHD video to your phone or tablet, sorry buddy. It's a scientific fact that wireless is more prone to interference than hard wired networks.
Switching wireless channels, positioning the router and or antennas, installing wireless access points etc. can alleviate some of the interference issues. It's still not going to change the fact that a hard wired connection is going to be more reliable. Why would I go through all that trouble anyway when I can just buy another device from a company smart enough to give customers more options.
Just because you are happy dealing with the higher latency and interference prone wifi signal doesn't mean that other people want to deal with it.
You should do more research about networking before ranting and trying to make yourself look like some tech genius. :)
5GHz has lower range unfortunately. Attenuation through walls is worse so they're good for high throughput with line of sight connections. Usually streaming to the TV falls in this category since plenty of people have the router and TV in the same (living)room.
I have not found 802.11n to be reliable for even 1080p streaming. Real world performance is far lower than theoretical limits of 802.11n. It may be OK for "HD" from Netflix but not high bitrate content streamed via Plex or other means. Ethernet solves the issue.
Wireless works great for things that move around a lot. Wired works great for things that don't move.
The TV is wired into the wall (power, cable, etc).
The media box is wired into the wall (power) and the TV (HDMI, audio, etc).
Neither of them move, so why not include an Ethernet port? I've run Ethernet to all my rooms (flat cables slip under baseboards for no-tools-required installation). Thus, if a device that plugs into the TV doesn't have an Ethernet port, it doesn't get purchased.
Wireless is a limited resource that's reserved for mobile devices (laptops, tablets, phones, Chromebook).
Ethernet is the most reliable way to stream video. The cost of adding an ethernet port to the Mi box would have been negligible. Only having one USB port on a device with no microSD card slot and no ethernet port was a mistake. I would have considered buying the device but the paltry internal storage, no ethernet port and only one USB 2.0 port make it a non option for me.
I concur as well. Wifi for me sucks donkey balls when the router is more than 10-15ft away in another room, or another floor entirely, and Ethernet is just vastly superior in terms of throughput speed alone. For streaming, the extra 5-10mpbs sometimes makes all the difference due to buffering.
You can use a USB ethernet adapter if you want. Even with the extra ~$10 that costs, this still seems like an all around better solution than the Chromecast Ultra unless you absolutely have to have it powered by USB.
I don't really get why Ethernet is missing, either. All of these companies are basically cloning the Apple TV, which has ALWAYS had Ethernet.
Really for me I'd rather used a hard connection when I can just to free up the spectrum for all the other WiFi devices in my home that HAVE to be wireless (cameras, locks, lights, garage door opener, other smart appliances.)
@Samus, I don't think the only way to do it is Apple's way, nor do I think that after more than a decade of media players as we know them today there's any room for such generalizations as "they're all cloning the Apple TV". Especially since today's media box is the natural evolution to media-player only from the old set top boxes, VCRs, "Internet Terminals" or consoles that existed for decades. The iPhone7 is basically cloning the iPhone6 which ALWAYS had a 3.5mm jack. So your argument isn't doing very well.
Is every laptop out there cloning the Epson HX-20 (first laptop ever) or even IBM/Compaq (HP) laptops? It's called evolution. Or if it's easier for you to understand it like this we can call it "courage" ;).
This and the Chromecast Ultra both seem neat, but I'm apprehensive about buying any of these gadgets. In addition to some of the first-generation handshake issues between HDR devices and content, it really feels like we're in HDR beta testing territory. The approach by hardware makers and content providers really feels like each one of them is trying to corner the market rather than push for wide adoption.
Right now, aside from AMD and NVIDIA having HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.4 ports on their GPUs, AMD has demoed PC HDR gaming content at shows and NVIDIA claims that HDR game streaming through the Shield is coming. However, not one HDR PC game exists that I can buy on Steam or Windows Store.
I would expect that any game supporting HDR on consoles will get support on PCs with capable hardware (Pascal/Polaris), but so far it doesn't seem like PC is getting any HDR love. No games, no streaming video, no UHD Blu-ray. Still no HDR monitors either (excluding HDR TVs). Maybe 2017 will be the year?
Will the Netflix app play 4K shows? I remember that this has to be allowed by Netflix on each device. There are a lot of Chinese 4K Android players (same CPU usually) that run Netflix, but they are limited to FullHD by the app.
wifi typically does not provide a stable 25 Mbps signal for a long duration of time. ever try to watch cable on WMC over wifi? just does not work, whereas Moca (preferred) or powerline are completely stable
Most streaming content is buffered on the local device before playback. Interruptions are therefore smoothed out and not noticed by the viewer in much the same way a portable CD player protected from skipping by reading ahead of the audio and storing it in a small RAM cache. Interruptions in content playback would require very unreliable wireless connectivity which usually means the end user has problems with their internet connection, the local router, or the placement of the router relative to the streaming device.
Some devices are just horrible at connecting to WiFi. The Amazon Firestick being one. Bottom line is if you have enough room on the device for an ethernet port, put one in. My Firestick is sitting within inches of my Netgear dual band and at least several times a week will drop the connection and doesn;t even see the signal when I check network settings. Wifi reliability is a major complaint against this item and no device is immune. Even iPads and iPhones.
MPEG2 is something than any SoC can decode from like, forever. It's not worth mentioning. A crappy 333mhz Pentium III from like, 18 years ago, can decode it. Our ARM stuff is WAY faster than that. I can get behind the Ethernet part, but streaming stuff via wifi isn't hard at all.
Only if the manufacturer licenses it for use, Nvidia shield and nexus player could not use mpeg2 hardware decoding at launch, was added later. No way this device can handle 1080i without hardware decoding.
USB to ethernet is all well and good until you want to add more storage. On this device your only option for additional storage is also from the same USB port. Now you need a USB hub to run your ethernet and USB drive. A USB 2.0 port can theoretically handle both ethernet traffic and I/O from the hard drive, however in real world situations you could run into some issues. Wouldn't have cost much more just to add an ethernet port. If not then they could have used a USB 3.0 controller instead of USB 2.0. USB 3.0 with it's higher bandwidth would have been a much better option.
If you do some googling, you will find a USB hub with Ethernet and power on the same device, it gives you 2x USB type-A ports + 1 Ethernet Port + Power port and a microUSB cable to attach it to what ever thing you need... reviews stated it works normally on multiple devices including Android... being powered by Android ( not a Chromecast ) it's easier to find a compatible Ethernet adapter as Chromecast require specific chipset for this functionality to work...
While a USB hub may work it is still running off the single USB 2.0 port on the MI box. This means the max speed of all devices running off that bus will be 480Mbit/s, however your real world speeds will be slower. The USB 2.0 bus should be able to handle the max 100Mbit/s network speed but may increase read/write access times and overall performance of any USB drive connected to the hub. This could cause issues when trying to play games or streaming high bitrate video off the USB drive. So for me using a hub is too much of a compromise. Not that they care but by saving at most maybe a dollar per device by not including an ethernet port, Xiaomi lost me as a potential customer.
USB adds latency to both operations, not only because of the nature of the protocol but also because Ethernet and disk I/O would be competing for time and bandwidth.
Also, as the original Raspberry Pi taught us, having both Ethernet and disk I/O on the same USB bus is a recipe for disaster. The amount of kernel panics and freakouts that kind of load caused rendered any setup that had any prolonged use of network and disk I/O over USB completely useless, because the machine would stop responding after a few hours. Even today, it's a clunky solution, even with USB 3.
Does it come with the Ethernet dongle? The instruction manual someone else posted shows composite, S/PDIF, OTG and Ethernet cables, but it's unclear if they come in the box or not.
I ordered online and when I went to pick it up they had cancelled my order because they couldn't find it. Told the customer service rep they were brand new and showed her a picture of the orange box, then she was able to find it in the back. No ethernet dongle but 5ghz is working fine for me on difficult 1080p scenes (snow, confetti, heavy film grain).
I don't get the complaints here. If you want a cheap Android TV, get this. If you need more features, storage, RAM, performance, Ethernet etc.. Get a Shield. I personally bought a Shield last Black Friday on sale for $150 with both remote and controller. It's a fantastic device that my family uses every day. The cost is totally justified.
All I see complaints about is ethernet. So they can either spend $150 on sale like you to get ethernet. Or they go for an Amlogic S905 TV Set-top-box that does the same thing this unit does with ethernet for $30. If all they want is a 4k enabled streaming device.
I agree there is no good reason for Xiaomi to omit an ethernet port on this device. They already omitted a microSD slot and only included one USB 2.0 port.
Good question. The PROBOX2 Air seems to have the same CPU/GPU combination and some other much better specs (ethernet, more storage 16 GB eMMC and TF card reader, optical output, HDMI 2.0b). Possible downside is comes with IR remote even though it supports bluetooth.
Just watched a YouTube video which shows it running several different launchers but not leanback. I'm not sure, but another downside might be that it doesn't appear that to run Android TV.
Why is not the Xiami controller here? This can be this christmas gift revolution, a very cheap Android TV plus Android gaming console And games are not there yet, but they must adapt their phone and tabelt games to the Xiaomi game controller (Ipega and others) for Android TV gaming, that is "the next thing" and will even beat the Steam Machines, because cheap is good and have more sells
"The Xiaomi Mi Box STB boasts with a rather powerful SoC(...)".
A quad core A53 with a 5-core edition of a 4-year-old GPU core? That counts as rather powerful? Wow, the Android TV market must be pretty bad.
Acrually, I'm rather impressed by the interoperability of ARM's various parts, given that the video decode blocks must be far newer than both the GPU and CPU cores.
Is that a Kodi for Android limitation, or a Xiaomi Mi Box limitation (hardware or lack of license)? I always have to ask, you never know if it's a hardware, software, or licensing issue :P
Happy to report Kodi from the Google Play Store is working great. PKC had no issues accessing my local Plex media server and doing direct play of MKVs.
Does anyone know what the audio out suppose to be? I see it listed as hdmi/optical/3.5mm, so what cable do i need to send audio from this device to my amp? I looked at the pics, and it only has a 3.5mm jack for audio out. I want to get digital 5.1 dts or dd out to my amp. My amp is older and does not support hdmi pasthur, but it supports digital coaxil and toslink. I already tried hdmi to tv, then toslink to my amp, but my tv only pass 2ch audio this methoid, so i have to send the audio directly to amp which i currently do with PS3. Does this device use 3.5mm minitoslink or is it a 3.5mm mono to rca ??
Google cast doesn't work for me from google chrome (but it works from android apps). When I cast chrome tab colors are not aligned properly and when I try to cast the desktop it is failing completely. I also have regular google chromcast and casting from google chrome works flawlessly. I contacted Xiaomi via support email and they told me to return it :) Great support.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
74 Comments
Back to Article
mmrezaie - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
did they out-google, google? not bad with remote. why should one chose the chromecast over this?close - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Well if you want a small dongle type device that can be powered from the TV's USB you won't go for a media box.smikwily - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
You don't have to have something else to "process" the videos, etc. You can do more than fling to an Android TV box, but you also have that ability as well.sprockkets - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Chromecast ultra comes with ethernet via the power cable :)drjohnson - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
This gets Over-The-Air Digital Transmitted, has a most liked channel checklist, as well as a real-time/programmed time documenting option which usually amplifies the product’s power. Dvr recorder without subscription is also the best over-the-air DVR ever made, with modest upfront rates for some high long-run costs…..drjohnson - Thursday, April 13, 2017 - link
dvr without subscription for cable tvGhostOfAnand - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
No ethernet. No buy.djsvetljo - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
+1close - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
The only reasons I can think about for the need for Ethernet is that either you're constantly moving a huge amount of data between the two points and you need to do it fast or you have no WiFi available.Even 802.1n or less is enough for 4K streaming. I can assume you don't plan on moving 10TB of data through the media box. And if you do maybe it's time to rethink your network setup.
webdoctors - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Wifi never seems reliable for me, regardless of routers or placement in my house. Especially when doing game streaming. Ethernet has already solved this issue and ethernet ports are cheap. Not having one is definitely a deal breaker.close - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Seeing how everybody complains about "unreliable WiFi" more than 3-4m (!!!) away I guess I can only praise the wireless gods for my 8 year old 802.1n router that somehow still manages to stream at a steady ~40Mbps. The newer router ($100 TP-Link) manages a steady 70-80Mbps on 2.4GHz (enough even for 4K BR assuming I'd ever want to do it) and ~130-150Mbps on 5GHz albeit at just 4-5m.I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably...
But to each his own. Just as a suggestion, picking a good router and configuring it properly will go a long way and maybe save you the effort of laying "flat cables under baseboards" throughout the house. There's a limit to how many cables and switches you can or want to lay around and more and more devices are mobile or all-wireless simply because WiFi is good enough... for people who don't have a huge collection of 4K Blu-Rays that they need to send to a TV on another floor...
Death666Angel - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
"I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably..."Wireless is heavily impacted by your environment, wired not. To imply that people are lying about their bad wifi experience when it can be easily explained is just petty.
close - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
I never implied they're lying. Just that the issues are not inherent to wireless like they suggest but rather to their setup and this means they might be able to fix it instead of avoiding any number of good products because they are WiFi only.Death666Angel - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
"I have to say I find it really strange that no reputable reviewer or sites like smallnetbuilder ever came to the same conclusion that's transpiring in this discussion: that WiFi simply can't stream reliably..."To me, that's a nice way of saying they are lying. Especially with those "..." at the end. But if you say so....
And of course those issues are inherent to wireless. It is a much more error prone and environment dependant technology compared to wired connections. And a lot of things can be out of your control: optimal reciever / transmitter placement may not be possible due to aesthetic complaints from the people living with you; having tons of interfering wifi signals is not in your control, having heavily shielding walls in your house or flat is not in your control.
And the specific comment you replied to mentioned game streaming. I haven't read a single review of that technology that liked doing game streaming via wifi, except for high latency tolerant game types like strategy, turn based etc.
close - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
Well Death66Angel between the 2 of us who do you think would know better what *I* meant? Are you accusing me of lying right after telling me that I can't accuse others of lying? Are you the only one here allowed to challenge what others say or is it just because your vocabulary doesn't include the word "hypocrisy" yet? Let me help you, it's what you're doing right now.The article is about a *media box*, not game streaming. I didn't recommend using 802.1a/b for transferring terabytes of data back and forth or to connect your NAS to the network. It's about streaming audio and video that *any* properly set up network (wired or WiFi) can handle. So no, I'm not calling anyone a liar, I am saying that in 99.99% of cases the "inherent issues" of WiFi are in fact bad network design, bad equipment or bad configuration. For example if your router is on another floor like one guy said it means you most likely don't live in a radio polluted zone and common sense and best practices would dictate you use an AP or extender. Just like you don't use 150m stretches of worn out Cat 5 cable and then complain about how wired networks suck.
BTW, wired is also heavily impacted by the environment since you have walls to drill through, doorways or windows and distances to cover. You have to lay the cable carefully, you have to drill holes, hide cable under floorboards (which might damage it at installation or over time). You have to power your network equipment like switches and routers that you place around the house so you don't lay bundles of cables all over the house. And not least of all of wired's inherent weaknesses is that it can only connect a tiny fraction of the devices on the market right now. And since in this day and age you really can't avoid having WiFi it might pay off to do it right.
So don't put your reading comprehension failures and hypocrisy on me. The problem is that everybody thinks that if they can plug in a router and connect to WiFi then they've already done a good job and anything not working is "an inherent issue". It's an inherent PEBKAC issue.
chipped - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Get off the meth. I have a 115Mbit connection and my main PC and HTPC are in the living room 15M from my router. It also downloads over UseNet and looking at the history it averages maximum speed. So definitely no troubles there.I always max the download speed, I can have four 4K stream from Netflix and some spare for whatever I need.
All you need is a good router and decent clients.
I use a USB 802.11ac adaptor from 3 PC'a positioned above the desk (behind metal case hurts signal quality/strength)
iMacs and MacBooks are fine as they come with high end dual and three stream wifi adaptors already.
Windows laptops vary largely. My work Toshiba Sattelite "Pro" has a bargain basement no name single stream 802.11n 2.4GHz adaptor.
So, learn what you're buying and do some research before spewing out crap, wireless is more than capable of doing 4K and bluray.
P.S - Even 802.11n three stream is capable, at 5M 2011 iMac can transfer at 25Mb/sec reliably. At 15M it's about 15-20Mb/sec easily.
Router is a ASUS RT-AC3200 with smart wifi enabled to balance and move clients around bands depending on congestion, signal strength, other clients etc
UberCrew - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
No matter how much you want to rant is not going to change the fact that Wifi is more prone to interference and is not as reliable as ethernet for streaming video. If you are happy using Wifi then good for you but for those who want a solid streaming box with a real ethernet connection, they will most likely not be considering the Mi box.close - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
So what you're saying is that none of you guys can use your phones or tablets to stream media in your home? Wow, Apple, Samsung et al. were so courageous removing the Ethernet port from their phones and tablets with all them people choosing "solid [devices] with a real ethernet connection" because WiFi is just "not as reliable as ethernet".People are always willing to blame technology for their lack of ability. Most don't install and configure their own computer but somehow they all think that setting up WiFi *properly* is just a matter of putting the router on the table, powering it on and using the password on the box. It's a lot more that that and when you don't know this you're here whining about how it's unreliable.
If you heard someone complaining about how the water, electricity, heating systems that they installed are malfunctioning because of "inherent issues with water and electricity" (like that they can electrocute or drown you) you'd think the same thing people with properly set up WiFi think when reading your comments. ;)
UberCrew - Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - link
Another rant that still won't change the fact that Wifi is still not as reliable for streaming high bit-rate video such as UHD as a wired connection would be. You are not streaming UHD video to your phone or tablet, sorry buddy. It's a scientific fact that wireless is more prone to interference than hard wired networks.Switching wireless channels, positioning the router and or antennas, installing wireless access points etc. can alleviate some of the interference issues. It's still not going to change the fact that a hard wired connection is going to be more reliable. Why would I go through all that trouble anyway when I can just buy another device from a company smart enough to give customers more options.
Just because you are happy dealing with the higher latency and interference prone wifi signal doesn't mean that other people want to deal with it.
You should do more research about networking before ranting and trying to make yourself look like some tech genius. :)
eek2121 - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Use 5 GHz. Trust me, it solves everything.close - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
5GHz has lower range unfortunately. Attenuation through walls is worse so they're good for high throughput with line of sight connections. Usually streaming to the TV falls in this category since plenty of people have the router and TV in the same (living)room.Cinnabuns - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
I have not found 802.11n to be reliable for even 1080p streaming. Real world performance is far lower than theoretical limits of 802.11n. It may be OK for "HD" from Netflix but not high bitrate content streamed via Plex or other means. Ethernet solves the issue.emceephi - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
It's time to upgrade to AC. It's waaaay faster than n.phoenix_rizzen - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Wireless works great for things that move around a lot. Wired works great for things that don't move.The TV is wired into the wall (power, cable, etc).
The media box is wired into the wall (power) and the TV (HDMI, audio, etc).
Neither of them move, so why not include an Ethernet port? I've run Ethernet to all my rooms (flat cables slip under baseboards for no-tools-required installation). Thus, if a device that plugs into the TV doesn't have an Ethernet port, it doesn't get purchased.
Wireless is a limited resource that's reserved for mobile devices (laptops, tablets, phones, Chromebook).
UberCrew - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Ethernet is the most reliable way to stream video. The cost of adding an ethernet port to the Mi box would have been negligible. Only having one USB port on a device with no microSD card slot and no ethernet port was a mistake. I would have considered buying the device but the paltry internal storage, no ethernet port and only one USB 2.0 port make it a non option for me.dsraa - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
I concur as well. Wifi for me sucks donkey balls when the router is more than 10-15ft away in another room, or another floor entirely, and Ethernet is just vastly superior in terms of throughput speed alone. For streaming, the extra 5-10mpbs sometimes makes all the difference due to buffering.ezridah - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
You can use a USB ethernet adapter if you want. Even with the extra ~$10 that costs, this still seems like an all around better solution than the Chromecast Ultra unless you absolutely have to have it powered by USB.http://files.xiaomi-mi.com/files/mibox/mibox-instr...
Something like this would work:
http://www.honorbuy.com/119-original-xiaomi-usb-to...
Samus - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
I don't really get why Ethernet is missing, either. All of these companies are basically cloning the Apple TV, which has ALWAYS had Ethernet.Really for me I'd rather used a hard connection when I can just to free up the spectrum for all the other WiFi devices in my home that HAVE to be wireless (cameras, locks, lights, garage door opener, other smart appliances.)
close - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
@Samus, I don't think the only way to do it is Apple's way, nor do I think that after more than a decade of media players as we know them today there's any room for such generalizations as "they're all cloning the Apple TV". Especially since today's media box is the natural evolution to media-player only from the old set top boxes, VCRs, "Internet Terminals" or consoles that existed for decades.The iPhone7 is basically cloning the iPhone6 which ALWAYS had a 3.5mm jack. So your argument isn't doing very well.
Is every laptop out there cloning the Epson HX-20 (first laptop ever) or even IBM/Compaq (HP) laptops? It's called evolution. Or if it's easier for you to understand it like this we can call it "courage" ;).
nathanddrews - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
This and the Chromecast Ultra both seem neat, but I'm apprehensive about buying any of these gadgets. In addition to some of the first-generation handshake issues between HDR devices and content, it really feels like we're in HDR beta testing territory. The approach by hardware makers and content providers really feels like each one of them is trying to corner the market rather than push for wide adoption.Right now, aside from AMD and NVIDIA having HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.4 ports on their GPUs, AMD has demoed PC HDR gaming content at shows and NVIDIA claims that HDR game streaming through the Shield is coming. However, not one HDR PC game exists that I can buy on Steam or Windows Store.
I would expect that any game supporting HDR on consoles will get support on PCs with capable hardware (Pascal/Polaris), but so far it doesn't seem like PC is getting any HDR love. No games, no streaming video, no UHD Blu-ray. Still no HDR monitors either (excluding HDR TVs). Maybe 2017 will be the year?
nirolf - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Will the Netflix app play 4K shows? I remember that this has to be allowed by Netflix on each device. There are a lot of Chinese 4K Android players (same CPU usually) that run Netflix, but they are limited to FullHD by the app.jmelan - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
no MPEG2...no ethernet port, why can't anyone get this stuff right, how are you going to have a reliable 4k stream over wifi???nathanddrews - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Because a compressed 4K stream only needs around 25Mbps. Even G should manage that OK.https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
jmelan - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
wifi typically does not provide a stable 25 Mbps signal for a long duration of time. ever try to watch cable on WMC over wifi? just does not work, whereas Moca (preferred) or powerline are completely stableBrokenCrayons - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Most streaming content is buffered on the local device before playback. Interruptions are therefore smoothed out and not noticed by the viewer in much the same way a portable CD player protected from skipping by reading ahead of the audio and storing it in a small RAM cache. Interruptions in content playback would require very unreliable wireless connectivity which usually means the end user has problems with their internet connection, the local router, or the placement of the router relative to the streaming device.Johnny Lumber - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Some devices are just horrible at connecting to WiFi. The Amazon Firestick being one. Bottom line is if you have enough room on the device for an ethernet port, put one in. My Firestick is sitting within inches of my Netgear dual band and at least several times a week will drop the connection and doesn;t even see the signal when I check network settings. Wifi reliability is a major complaint against this item and no device is immune. Even iPads and iPhones.sprockkets - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
MPEG2 is something than any SoC can decode from like, forever. It's not worth mentioning. A crappy 333mhz Pentium III from like, 18 years ago, can decode it. Our ARM stuff is WAY faster than that.I can get behind the Ethernet part, but streaming stuff via wifi isn't hard at all.
jmelan - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Only if the manufacturer licenses it for use, Nvidia shield and nexus player could not use mpeg2 hardware decoding at launch, was added later. No way this device can handle 1080i without hardware decoding.shabby - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
A 333mhz pentium 3 could not decode anything... because it did not exist.trentbg - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Duno where do you see it available, but its still not available anywhere.SquarePeg - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
USB to ethernet adapters are only $10 bucks. A $69 dollar price point means some corners are going to be cut.UberCrew - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
USB to ethernet is all well and good until you want to add more storage. On this device your only option for additional storage is also from the same USB port. Now you need a USB hub to run your ethernet and USB drive. A USB 2.0 port can theoretically handle both ethernet traffic and I/O from the hard drive, however in real world situations you could run into some issues. Wouldn't have cost much more just to add an ethernet port. If not then they could have used a USB 3.0 controller instead of USB 2.0. USB 3.0 with it's higher bandwidth would have been a much better option.Xajel - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
If you do some googling, you will find a USB hub with Ethernet and power on the same device, it gives you 2x USB type-A ports + 1 Ethernet Port + Power port and a microUSB cable to attach it to what ever thing you need... reviews stated it works normally on multiple devices including Android... being powered by Android ( not a Chromecast ) it's easier to find a compatible Ethernet adapter as Chromecast require specific chipset for this functionality to work...UberCrew - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
While a USB hub may work it is still running off the single USB 2.0 port on the MI box. This means the max speed of all devices running off that bus will be 480Mbit/s, however your real world speeds will be slower. The USB 2.0 bus should be able to handle the max 100Mbit/s network speed but may increase read/write access times and overall performance of any USB drive connected to the hub. This could cause issues when trying to play games or streaming high bitrate video off the USB drive. So for me using a hub is too much of a compromise. Not that they care but by saving at most maybe a dollar per device by not including an ethernet port, Xiaomi lost me as a potential customer.__Miguel_ - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
USB adds latency to both operations, not only because of the nature of the protocol but also because Ethernet and disk I/O would be competing for time and bandwidth.Also, as the original Raspberry Pi taught us, having both Ethernet and disk I/O on the same USB bus is a recipe for disaster. The amount of kernel panics and freakouts that kind of load caused rendered any setup that had any prolonged use of network and disk I/O over USB completely useless, because the machine would stop responding after a few hours. Even today, it's a clunky solution, even with USB 3.
NeBlackCat - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
Doesn't it have both standard (host) and OTG (host or device) ports? So you could use one for Ethernet and the other for storage. No need for a hub.UberCrew - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
All traffic is still going to run through the Mi box's single port USB 2.0 bus. Which means the maximum bandwidth is still 480Mbit/s.Shylok - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Anyone notice you can't actually buy it...briand095 - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
I went to my local Wal-Mart and picked one up, seems like you have to go in there to get it, the workers don't seem to know nothing about it__Miguel_ - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Does it come with the Ethernet dongle? The instruction manual someone else posted shows composite, S/PDIF, OTG and Ethernet cables, but it's unclear if they come in the box or not.Demi9OD - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
I ordered online and when I went to pick it up they had cancelled my order because they couldn't find it. Told the customer service rep they were brand new and showed her a picture of the orange box, then she was able to find it in the back. No ethernet dongle but 5ghz is working fine for me on difficult 1080p scenes (snow, confetti, heavy film grain).syxbit - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
I don't get the complaints here.If you want a cheap Android TV, get this. If you need more features, storage, RAM, performance, Ethernet etc.. Get a Shield. I personally bought a Shield last Black Friday on sale for $150 with both remote and controller. It's a fantastic device that my family uses every day. The cost is totally justified.
Death666Angel - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
All I see complaints about is ethernet. So they can either spend $150 on sale like you to get ethernet. Or they go for an Amlogic S905 TV Set-top-box that does the same thing this unit does with ethernet for $30. If all they want is a 4k enabled streaming device.jmelan - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Exactly, no reason that this device cannot include Ethernet for $69UberCrew - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
I agree there is no good reason for Xiaomi to omit an ethernet port on this device. They already omitted a microSD slot and only included one USB 2.0 port.wilson2888 - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
want to know which one is better? PROBOX2 Air or Xiaomi Mi?dzeek - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Good question. The PROBOX2 Air seems to have the same CPU/GPU combination and some other much better specs (ethernet, more storage 16 GB eMMC and TF card reader, optical output, HDMI 2.0b). Possible downside is comes with IR remote even though it supports bluetooth.dzeek - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Forgot to mention...other possible downsides are the cost and external WiFi antenna although these seem minor if you want the other better specs.nirolf - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Do not forget about 4k Netflix, it's available on a limited number of devices: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444dzeek - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Just watched a YouTube video which shows it running several different launchers but not leanback. I'm not sure, but another downside might be that it doesn't appear that to run Android TV.mitcoes - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Why is not the Xiami controller here?This can be this christmas gift revolution, a very cheap Android TV plus Android gaming console
And games are not there yet, but they must adapt their phone and tabelt games to the Xiaomi game controller (Ipega and others) for Android TV gaming, that is "the next thing" and will even beat the Steam Machines, because cheap is good and have more sells
Valantar - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
"The Xiaomi Mi Box STB boasts with a rather powerful SoC(...)".A quad core A53 with a 5-core edition of a 4-year-old GPU core? That counts as rather powerful? Wow, the Android TV market must be pretty bad.
Acrually, I'm rather impressed by the interoperability of ARM's various parts, given that the video decode blocks must be far newer than both the GPU and CPU cores.
Demi9OD - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Will this run Kodi?NeBlackCat - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
Kodi for Android? I'd be surprised if not.briand095 - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
yes it will run kodi, just no DTSHD MA or TrueHD passthrough__Miguel_ - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Is that a Kodi for Android limitation, or a Xiaomi Mi Box limitation (hardware or lack of license)? I always have to ask, you never know if it's a hardware, software, or licensing issue :PDemi9OD - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Happy to report Kodi from the Google Play Store is working great. PKC had no issues accessing my local Plex media server and doing direct play of MKVs.s0lkim - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
Does anyone know if this works well with Kodi?djayjp - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
"Rather powerful"...? A53 is about half as fast as A15....8steve8 - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
does it do USB audio output???nothing under $100 supporting google cast can send audio to a usb device.
Ananke - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
It can do Ethernet through USB to Ethernet adapterIt runs Kodi
AzNKiD - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Does anyone know what the audio out suppose to be? I see it listed as hdmi/optical/3.5mm, so what cable do i need to send audio from this device to my amp? I looked at the pics, and it only has a 3.5mm jack for audio out. I want to get digital 5.1 dts or dd out to my amp. My amp is older and does not support hdmi pasthur, but it supports digital coaxil and toslink. I already tried hdmi to tv, then toslink to my amp, but my tv only pass 2ch audio this methoid, so i have to send the audio directly to amp which i currently do with PS3. Does this device use 3.5mm minitoslink or is it a 3.5mm mono to rca ??yachu - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
Google cast doesn't work for me from google chrome (but it works from android apps). When I cast chrome tab colors are not aligned properly and when I try to cast the desktop it is failing completely. I also have regular google chromcast and casting from google chrome works flawlessly. I contacted Xiaomi via support email and they told me to return it :) Great support.ggkodi - Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - link
i can't play any 10 bit hevc ... just regular hevc,so maybe somebody need to remove the 10 bit support from the Video Decoding Capabilities