Xiaomi Box Android TV Box

[Medicated Oil]

need to root?

No rooting is required.

 

[Medicated Oil]

Collected the new 6th gen mibox(white) from 1 of the qoo10 seller(not the one with mandatory $30 option price). Set it up and did abit of quick testing. Bootup is super fast. From turn-on into entering the mitv UI takes about 20 secs.

Out of the box, usable disk space was 5gb. Did one OTA update to the firmware and left with 4.9gb usable space.

Initial set up was a breeze if you understand chinese. Bluetooth able to pair with all 3 BT wireless earphones i own. Able to use my own airmouse with IR dongle connected to 1 of the usb ports. Dont really like the Mi bluetooth remote due to lack of mouse cursor.

MITV UI is really snappy. Transition from page to page/screen to screen is fast without any noticable lag. Detection of external storage device connected to the box is abit slow. Takes about 5-8 seconds before the device will show. Able to sideload apks without problem or restrictions. So far i have installed about 5-6 of my own apps and all of them work without issues. However, on my 720p TV, due to some reason the default MITV interface size is a little too big, which means that apps interface will get cut off and wont display correctly. Can be solved by going into the MITV settings and change the interface display size from 100% to 97% or 96%.

Exiting from apps and switching to other apps is instantaneous. Overall, its really a very fast and zippy box. Have not had the time to do more in depth testing like media playback or try installing kodi. Maybe i will update accordingly when i have the time to do so.

As to drawbacks, for now i would say the included remote isnt the best if you are used to your own airmouse. Also the box runs pretty hot despite the internal fan. Try not to touch the box during operations.

Thanks for your clarification of the remaining space in the box with the original OS.

Please kindly provide more reviews as you used the new toy.

The review for this box is quite limited.

It is a very good news that they did not prohibit the installation of 3rd party apps. This element is my chief concern.

 

[PA3131T]

Collected the new 6th gen mibox(white) from 1 of the qoo10 seller(not the one with mandatory $30 option price). Set it up and did abit of quick testing. Bootup is super fast. From turn-on into entering the mitv UI takes about 20 secs.

Out of the box, usable disk space was 5gb. Did one OTA update to the firmware and left with 4.9gb usable space.

Initial set up was a breeze if you understand chinese. Bluetooth able to pair with all 3 BT wireless earphones i own. Able to use my own airmouse with IR dongle connected to 1 of the usb ports. Dont really like the Mi bluetooth remote due to lack of mouse cursor.

MITV UI is really snappy. Transition from page to page/screen to screen is fast without any noticable lag. Detection of external storage device connected to the box is abit slow. Takes about 5-8 seconds before the device will show. Able to sideload apks without problem or restrictions. So far i have installed about 5-6 of my own apps and all of them work without issues. However, on my 720p TV, due to some reason the default MITV interface size is a little too big, which means that apps interface will get cut off and wont display correctly. Can be solved by going into the MITV settings and change the interface display size from 100% to 97% or 96%.

Exiting from apps and switching to other apps is instantaneous. Overall, its really a very fast and zippy box. Have not had the time to do more in depth testing like media playback or try installing kodi. Maybe i will update accordingly when i have the time to do so.

As to drawbacks, for now i would say the included remote isnt the best if you are used to your own airmouse. Also the box runs pretty hot despite the internal fan. Try not to touch the box during operations.

So does it mean there is only 2 partition for the 8gb n the out of the box 5gb is available for everything else in 1 partition like those in MXQ or Minix?

If its like the way the MXQ n Minix. Definitely it will not have memory issue.

 

[ferocity]

So does it mean there is only 2 partition for the 8gb n the out of the box 5gb is available for everything else in 1 partition like those in MXQ or Minix?

If its like the way the MXQ n Minix. Definitely it will not have memory issue.

1 full partition with OS and system apps taking 3gb out of the box.

 

[ferocity]

Ran the box continuously for around 3 hrs, mainly playing videos from ext. hdd and some streaming apps. This is in hope of replicating some of the common complaints users in the china xiaomi forums have about this new box. These complaints mainly are:

1: Box unable to detect certain external storage devices connected to it.
Result: I have no problems getting the box to detect and read the two 2.5inch ext. hdd (1x samsung, 1x hgst) and one sandisk 32gb thumbdrive i own. But as mentioned previously, the box is tab bit slow to recognize the devices when you first plug them into it.

2. During usage, the screen might turn black for a split second before going back to normal.
Result: Never encountered before. But i have been using my own hdmi cable so this might be an issue related to the xiaomi hdmi cable supplied with the set.

3. Wifi dropping/erratic peformance.
Result: I have not encountered any wifi disconnections or poor reception so far. My modem and router is only about 3m away from the box. However, due to limitations of my hardware, i am only connecting to 2.4ghz band and is unable to test connection to 5ghz band.


Some minor quirks that i have observed.
1. I am too used to the usb ports being located on the sides of tv boxes. For this xiaomi box, the 2 usb ports are at the back of box, which meant that hot swapping of usb devices is a hassle. Also, with my airmouse IR dongle plugged at the back, the reception is kinda iffy and sometimes the cursor would go haywire and run all over the place.

2. For the streaming app that is integrated into the Mitv UI, majority of the video clips cant be played due to geo-lock restrictions. Not an issue if you have your own supply of alternative streaming apks.

 

[PA3131T]

1 full partition with OS and system apps taking 3gb out of the box.

Nice... this will be the biggest improvement for all the existing XM Boxes...

 

[ferocity]

Please do not wholesale copy-paste and share my test results to other forums, fb groups, websites etc. What i shared here should only stay here.

Now to the main course, media playback. Foreword: While i try my best to test things out as much as possible, i am not some professional reviewer so my tests and results are by no means exhaustive or indicative.

Tests are done on MXplayer(latest version)hardware decode only. Did not use the default xiaomi media player as the functions are limited and primitive. However, when a clip cant be played on MXplayer, i would try it again on the xiaomi player to confirm the results.

Formats:
Able to play all the common formats like wmv, avi, mpeg, mkv, mp4, mov, flv. However, according to the spec sheets, there is no support for rm/rmvb. I do not have any rmvb files on hand so i was unable to test this out. Also able to play the TS and M2TS files i had.

Subtitles:
Able to play videos with external subtitle file. Also able to play videos with forced subtitles.

Codecs:
On 1080p, able to smoothly play all x264 and x265 files up to 60fps. Tried a couple of VC-1 clips. Playback of 1080p 23.976fps clip was smooth but there was some stuttering during playback of 1080i 29.970fps clip.


4K test:
For x264, playback was smooth for clips up to 30fps. When i tried playing a 59.94fps clip, it plays for 2 seconds before freezing. This pretty much corroborates the spec sheet which states that H.264 4K@30fps.

For x265, playback was smooth for clips up to 60fps. Tried a 10bit 60fps clip and playback was smooth too. This corroborates the spec sheet which states H.265 10bit 4K@60fps. However, there was an anomaly. One of the 8bit 30fps clips i tested showed video artifacting.

Tested a 4K MOV(29.970fps, 51Mbp) clip shot on an iphone. Playback was smooth. And for the fun of it, i downloaded a couple of 5K and 8K clips off youtube for testing. Not suprising to know that the clips cant be played at all.


High Bitrate files:
Playback was smooth for both x264 and x265 1080p clips up to 100mbps.
For 4k clips, there was stuttering during playback of the x264 120mbps clip. To test further, i played a 140mbps clip and it simply frooze.
For X265, playback was smooth all the way to 4k-10bit-250mbps. Tried playing a 300mbps clip and it frooze after 3 seconds. For the sake of it, tried a 500mbps clip and it wouldnt even play.

Audio test:
I am not an audio person and i have neither the media nor equipment to do any in-depth tests. So i wont be any help here.

Lastly, i still have not installed kodi. Will do so when i have the time and hope to be able to then test out some blueray files if possible.

 

[ekardo]

link to the gen6?

 

[Steyr69]

Will it work if connected to normal PC monitor via hdmi ? my samsung ips can run full hd 1080p.

 

[Medicated Oil]

Will it work if connected to normal PC monitor via hdmi ? my samsung ips can run full hd 1080p.

As long as your PC monitor have a HDMI port, the tv box should be able to work.

Wifi strength is still a point of consideration.

 

[htngwilliam]

Collected the new 6th gen mibox(white) from 1 of the qoo10 seller(not the one with mandatory $30 option price). Set it up and did abit of quick testing. Bootup is super fast. From turn-on into entering the mitv UI takes about 20 secs.

Out of the box, usable disk space was 5gb. Did one OTA update to the firmware and left with 4.9gb usable space.

Initial set up was a breeze if you understand chinese. Bluetooth able to pair with all 3 BT wireless earphones i own. Able to use my own airmouse with IR dongle connected to 1 of the usb ports. Dont really like the Mi bluetooth remote due to lack of mouse cursor.

MITV UI is really snappy. Transition from page to page/screen to screen is fast without any noticable lag. Detection of external storage device connected to the box is abit slow. Takes about 5-8 seconds before the device will show. Able to sideload apks without problem or restrictions. So far i have installed about 5-6 of my own apps and all of them work without issues. However, on my 720p TV, due to some reason the default MITV interface size is a little too big, which means that apps interface will get cut off and wont display correctly. Can be solved by going into the MITV settings and change the interface display size from 100% to 97% or 96%.

Exiting from apps and switching to other apps is instantaneous. Overall, its really a very fast and zippy box. Have not had the time to do more in depth testing like media playback or try installing kodi. Maybe i will update accordingly when i have the time to do so.

As to drawbacks, for now i would say the included remote isnt the best if you are used to your own airmouse. Also the box runs pretty hot despite the internal fan. Try not to touch the box during operations.

Can share the qoo10 link of the mibox? Wanted to purchase one

 

[gregory_choo]

As long as your PC monitor have a HDMI port, the tv box should be able to work.

Wifi strength is still a point of consideration.

Some PC monitors have HDMI port but no speaker. Can only watch in silent mode

 

[htngwilliam]

Some PC monitors have HDMI port but no speaker. Can only watch in silent mode

Haha! Indeed.

 

[htngwilliam]

1. Are we able to install apps like what we do for previous generations?

2. Also can the movie in GITV play?

3. I didn't manage to get Netflix to work on my Xiaomi box. Very painful

 

[ferocity]

Gonna do a quick update on the xiaomi 6th gen box. Installed SPMC based on v16 Jarvis and far as i can see, it works well although i did not bother to go through every single function. Prior to this, i did a backup of kodi configurations on my old box which was running xbmc v14 helix. Restored everything on the new box and to my surprise, all the settings/repositories/addon managed to be intact and functioning. So yes, kodi works on this box. Apart from this, i have come across a few apps which dont work properly on this box e.g. latest version of Cartoon HD app will run but drop down menus will not show at all. Otherwise, i have not encountered any serious hardware issues so far *touchwood*.

 

[shenzhou]

1. Are we able to install apps like what we do for previous generations?

2. Also can the movie in GITV play?

3. I didn't manage to get Netflix to work on my Xiaomi box. Very painful

I tried to install Netflix but it failed because it requires Google Play Services.

 

[shenzhou]

Can share the qoo10 link of the mibox? Wanted to purchase one

I bought from this seller. I requested a UK power adaptor but he didn't respond, other than that no issues. Took a week to deliver.



<http://list.qoo10.sg/item/2016-ORIGINAL-XIAOMI-MI-ANDROID/453563929>

 

[gregory_choo]

I bought from this seller. I requested a UK power adaptor but he didn't respond, other than that no issues. Took a week to deliver.



<http://list.qoo10.sg/item/2016-ORIGINAL-XIAOMI-MI-ANDROID/453563929>

This one cheaper , $99

http://list.qoo10.sg/item/XIAOMI-NEW-LAUNCHED-XIAOMI-MIBOX-3S-2GB/453796475

 

[rECKleSSfElla]

I bought from this seller. I requested a UK power adaptor but he didn't respond, other than that no issues. Took a week to deliver.



<http://list.qoo10.sg/item/2016-ORIGINAL-XIAOMI-MI-ANDROID/453563929>

Why would you even think the seller would entertain your request for a uk power adaptor? At best, these china sellers may throw in a 2 to 3 pin converter(which costs something like $1.50 from shops) but they will never exchange the power adaptor for you at their own costs. Besides, from what i read, the 6th gen xiaomi box uses an adapter that is different from the previous xiaomi boxes. Different output rating and different charging pin diameter.

 

[shenzhou]

Why would you even think the seller would entertain your request for a uk power adaptor? At best, these china sellers may throw in a 2 to 3 pin converter(which costs something like $1.50 from shops) but they will never exchange the power adaptor for you at their own costs. Besides, from what i read, the 6th gen xiaomi box uses an adapter that is different from the previous xiaomi boxes. Different output rating and different charging pin diameter.

I bought a Minix Neo U1 recently this year from China. The seller sent an EU power adaptor instead of a UK one. He rectified this by sending me the correct UK adaptor by FedEx at no cost and even included a pair of ear phones.

The Mibox 3 enhanced uses a 12 volt power adaptor but I don't see any relevance at all in this fact as to whether the seller should send me the correct adaptor or not.