Xiaomi Mi Box Now Available in U.S.: Android TV 6.0 with 4Kp60 Output for $69
by Anton Shilov on October 7, 2016 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Consoles
- Media Player
- Xiaomi
- Android TV
- Amlogic
Xiaomi has officially started to sell its Google Android TV 6.0-based set-top-boxes in the U.S. The Xiaomi Mi Box STB boasts with a rather powerful SoC, an HDMI 2.0a (4K, 60 fps, HDR) video output, a Bluetooth remote with voice search feature as well as a $69 price tag. The combination of modern, capable hardware and a relatively affordable price will improve chances of Xiaomi’s STB to become popular among those who use Google's Android TV platform.
The Xiaomi Mi is powered by Amlogic’s S905X-H SoC (four ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0 GHz, five ARM Mali-450MP clusters) and is equipped with 2 GB of DDR3 memory, 8 GB of NAND flash, a wireless module supporting Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0, a USB port as well as an HDMI 2.0a output with HDCP 2.2 and CEC. Xiaomi bundles a Bluetooth remote with a mic and voice search feature with its STB for extra convenience. In addition, the company sells its Mi Game Controller for those, who would like to play Android games on TV.
Since the STB runs Android TV 6.0, it supports various popular streaming services (including those from Google, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, VUDU and so on) and TV channels via apps (such as CNN, Disney and ESPN) out-of-the-box. Furthermore the box is also capable of acting as a Google Cast receiver, which allows it to work with applications that support casting but not stand-alone Android TV. This is especially notable since Google also announced their similarly priced Chomrcast Ultra this week, whose primary feature is 4K support as well. This gives the Mi Box a leg up on paper, since it should be able to do most of what the Chromecast can do while adding its Android TV capabilities on top of that.
The hardware and software of Xiaomi’s Mi Box supports the latest codecs and standards, including VP9 Profile 2, H.265, and HDR10 (but not Dolby Vision). So owners of appropriate subscriptions and TVs can access more or less every audio/video format under the sun, including 4Kp60 video with HDR metadata or 1080p60 video with DTS 2.0 or Dolby Digital Plus audio (the STB also has an S/PDIF optical out and a 3.5-mm out for audio).
The Xiaomi Mi Box Specifications | |
Mi Box | |
OS | Google Android 6.0 (Google Cast compatible) |
SoC | Amlogic’s S905X-H SoC Four ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0 GHz 3+2 ARM Mali-450MP clusters |
RAM | 2 GB DDR3 |
Storage | 8 GB of NAND USB 2.0 |
Wi-Fi | Dual-Band 802.11ac |
Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.0 |
Video Output Connector | HDMI 2.0a |
Video Output Resolution | 1080p 4Kp60 |
Video Up-Conversion | Unknown |
HDR | HDR10 |
Audio Output | HDMI Optical 3.5 mm jack |
Audio Features | DTS 2.0+ Digital Out, Dolby Digital Plus Up to 7.1 pass through |
Remote | Bluetooth remote with voice search |
Video Decoding Capabilities | VP9 Profile-2 up to 4K x 2K at 60fps H.265 HEVC MP-10 at L5.1, up to 4K x 2K at 60fps H.264 AVC HPat L5.1, up to 4K x 2K at 30fps H.264 MVC, up to 1080P at 60fps Supports HDR10/HLG HDR processing (software upgrade required) |
Power Consumption | up to 11 W |
Price | $69 |
At present, there are not a lot of 4Kp60-capable Android TV media players. In fact, until now only NVIDIA’s SHIELD Android TV console supported 4K at 60 fps along with HDR, so the launch of the Xiaomi Mi Box gives owners of UHDTVs a second Android TV option. The Mi Box is nowhere near as powerful for non-video tasks, but at $69, it's considerably more affordable than the $199 console from NVIDIA.
The Xiaomi Mi Box is available right now from Mi.com and will also be sold by Walmart in the coming days or weeks.
Sources: Xiaomi, CNX Software.
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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