Xiaomi Mi Box Original or Xiaomi Mi Box S?

by Jaboo6

So, I recently completed my home theater setup and I found out that while my receiver (Onkyo TX-NR686) does indeed support Dolby Atmos and I have set up the height speakers for it, my TV does not have atmos passthrough. I did some research and found out that an Android TV Box would be my next best solution. As much as I wish I could get the Nvidia Shield, it's not within my budget but the Xiaomi Mi Box is though I'm not sure whether I should get the 2016 Mi Box 3 or the 2018 Mi Box S. I mainly intend to use it to play TrueHD/Atmos movies from my external hard drive but I may stream on it every once in a while.

simiwood

Mibox s will get updates longer

BiggussDikkuss

I mainly intend to use it to play TrueHD/Atmos movies from my external hard drive but I may stream on it every once in a while.

Only the 2016 Mi Box (MDZ-16-AB) running Oreo 8.0 can passthrough HD audio - the "S" cannot.

You might like to consider getting the 4GB Mecool KM3 or KM9 Pro and doing some minor DIY on it.

Because then you can run the excellent CoreELEC OS on it from a plug in Samsung EVO or Sandisk microSDHC.

It will even Dual boot Android TV / CoreELEC.

CoreELEC will then playback anything you throw at it - a LOT - better vs cheap Android TV devices:

https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/installation-on-mecool-km9-pro/8055

Farhanito

Original. The S can't passthrough THD/Atmos.

clarkss12

I purchased the MiBox S when it was on sale for $30 last week, just could not resist, don't know why. I picked it up from Wally mart a couple of days ago, but was not sure I would even open the box. Did the same thing with the Nexus Player when they were dumping them for $25, bought one even though I already had one stuck in a drawer somewhere.

My original MiBox is in one of the bedrooms, not being used. But thought I would get the "S" cause it was on sale.

Today I opened it up and connected it to my Yamaha AVR, just to see how it performed. Right off the bat, it used 720p as the preferred resolution, no 4k option available, even using Kodi. I did get it to play Netflix in 1080p, but just barley. It came with Oreo, but was horrible, ready for the trash bin.

Went online to this website and found the Android Pie beta for this "S" box. Followed the simple instructions and installed the beta Pie version from November. Boy, what a difference that made, a whole different box. Netflix now plays in 4k with DD+, and Kodi finds lots of different resolutions. Still no HD audio, though.

This "S" model running Oreo, was a no go for me, but the update to Pie, made it very usable.

Since it uses an Amlogic Soc, it will NOT play any videos encoded with VC-1, have to use either Plex or Emby to transcode that video codec.

Amlogic needs their but kicked for not supporting that codec.

thmsdrs

Mibox 3 any day. Much better remote, imo also much more stable. Only downside is the absence of UTP.