Mi Box not ready for prime time?

[KryptoNyte]

Okay, so that's basically the mini toslink converter. I didn't even know mini toslink existed.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Okay, so that's basically the mini toslink converter. I didn't even know mini toslink existed.

Yeah, it's been around a while. Used it on the portable Minidisc recorder I had 15 years ago.

[Taddeusz]

So this evening I finally got to test the optical output and it also doesn't output 5.1 surround from Netflix. However, I did notice that audio pass through with HDMI was working in Plex after the most recent update. The SageTV Client is also working with pass through but it is not playable and stutters like crazy.

I have learned that the likely reason I don't get 5.1 from Netflix or other streaming apps is because they are mostly standardized on Dolby Digital Plus, which is not directly transportable over SPDIF. It has to be "converted" to standard DD, which likely requires a license that Mi Box doesn't have. So for this to work across all apps you either need a receiver with HDMI that can decode DD+ or one of these HDMI switches to work with an older non-HDMI receiver:

J-Tech Digital ® 5 Port HDMI/MHL Switch & Audio Extractor SPDIF/3.5mm Jack Stereo Outputs with Ultra HD 4K ARC EDID Setting(5x1 Ultra HD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01296E5OO..._.v-NybB68VGWG

[wayner]

Anyone know what the availability of the MiBox is like these days? I live in Canada but I am going to be in the US next week. I was going to order one at walmart.com but they are OOS. Anyone know know frequently do they come back in stock?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Anyone know what the availability of the MiBox is like these days? I live in Canada but I am going to be in the US next week. I was going to order one at walmart.com but they are OOS. Anyone know know frequently do they come back in stock?

Probably the best option is to order it for pickup at the store you'll be near, and there it will give you the availability at that store (today, or a date, today typically meaning they have it in stock there). They will pull it off the shelf (or out of the back room, most often) and keep it at the pickup area for up to 7 days.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by wayner

Anyone know what the availability of the MiBox is like these days? I live in Canada but I am going to be in the US next week. I was going to order one at walmart.com but they are OOS. Anyone know know frequently do they come back in stock?

They showed available when I checked the stores I was going to be close to in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando at the beginning of February. It wasn't were I expected it to be with a/v equipment and the clerk didn't recognize the name or understand the features but easily found it when I showed the picture on my phone



Martin

[btrcp2000]

6 months in, I almost like the Mi Box. I think plex is okay now, but havent tried OTA recordings now that sage client seems stable, no need. I got a FLIRC but didn't try very hard to set it up once i realized that the d-pad is really all you need, thanks to Krytptonyte's summary of the shortcuts above.

This one is assigned to the treadmill, so the big problem right now is making sure it works when she wants to use it. I fired it up this morning after a few weeks of no use, it took a bit to boot, but worked fine for sage. Sure enough, she came down 30 minutes later and got a black screen starting sage, waf thru the floor.

anyone else see this? seems to require power cycle.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

6 months in, I almost like the Mi Box. I think plex is okay now, but havent tried OTA recordings now that sage client seems stable, no need. I got a FLIRC but didn't try very hard to set it up once i realized that the d-pad is really all you need, thanks to Krytptonyte's summary of the shortcuts above.

This one is assigned to the treadmill, so the big problem right now is making sure it works when she wants to use it. I fired it up this morning after a few weeks of no use, it took a bit to boot, but worked fine for sage. Sure enough, she came down 30 minutes later and got a black screen starting sage, waf thru the floor.

anyone else see this? seems to require power cycle.

I've seen this happen from time to time, and it's been rare in my cases. My recommendation is go into the settings, and enabled "Exit on Pause" (I think it's something like that that). That option will fully shut down SageTV when you leave it, by going to the home screen. Without that option, you can leave sagetv UI and the Android app will continue to run in the background (this would useful if you quickly jumped out of sagetv to visit another app and then returned).

the black screen could have been going into the sagetv app and it still is trying to use a stale connection.

[btrcp2000]

that makes logical sense. for the record, it was "terminate on pause". adjusted, we will see if the normal anti-technology black cloud that follows her around resurfaces...

[wayner]

Can you run OpenVPN client on a MiBox for SageTV, Plex, etc? When I google for this you just get a bunch of stuff about using VPNs to get around IP geolocators.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by wayner

Can you run OpenVPN client on a MiBox for SageTV, Plex, etc? When I google for this you just get a bunch of stuff about using VPNs to get around IP geolocators.

Probably if you use something like Sideload Launcher. I'm not sure how easy navigation would be. Some non-TV-version apps I've tried on my Shield are basically unusable while others work fine.

[Fuzzy]

I'm not sure what the benefit of using a VPN for sage would be, honestly. If you're only exposing the miniclient port, I'm not sure what the risk is.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'm not sure what the benefit of using a VPN for sage would be, honestly. If you're only exposing the miniclient port, I'm not sure what the risk is.

Using a VPN will let you use other software as well, like Plex, without having to figure out all of the ports that you have to forward.

Our family will be away for a few weeks this summer in Nova Scotia. We will want to have access to our content back home, especially since I don't think my kids even understand the concept of TV channels. So I was going to bring along a MiBox and maybe an HD-200. Hopefully Sage will work properly but if I have streaming issues due to low bandwidth then I might have to try something else like Plex. In an ideal world I will get OpenVPN client working on my old Asus router that I bring with me and it will connect to the OpenVPN server installed on my home router. Then I don't have to worry about VPN on devices but I have never done that before so I don't know if that will work.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by wayner

Using a VPN will let you use other software as well, like Plex, without having to figure out all of the ports that you have to forward.

Our family will be away for a few weeks this summer in Nova Scotia. We will want to have access to our content back home, especially since I don't think my kids even understand the concept of TV channels. So I was going to bring along a MiBox and maybe an HD-200. Hopefully Sage will work properly but if I have streaming issues due to low bandwidth then I might have to try something else like Plex. In an ideal world I will get OpenVPN client working on my old Asus router that I bring with me and it will connect to the OpenVPN server installed on my home router. Then I don't have to worry about VPN on devices but I have never done that before so I don't know if that will work.

If you're going router to router you might as well use an IPSec VPN. I would expect most routers to support that.

[wayner]

I haven't used IPSec VPNs before. My home router is now a Unifi USG. It was kind of a pain to set up OpenVPN server on that router as you have to do it through the CLI as the GUI doesn't support that functionality yet. My "remote" router would be my former home router which is an Asus RT-N66U which is running Merlin Firmware.

[btrcp2000]

Reviving this to say the these Mi boxes are absolute garbage. I picked up another along the way under the mistaken notion that things would settle down. Neither has ever run Netflix or Vudu successfully. A couple weeks ago one mysteriously became a brick which is apparently is a known issue, support was unhelpful. The one in the bedroom was at least running sage, but I got the bright idea to connect Bluetooth headphones to it for when she’s sleeping. Now it won’t produce any sound at all, even after unpairing the headphones. Thankfully it’s Black Friday so I now own three shields with a fourth on the way. No more Xiaomi for me.