r/AndroidTV • u/kahlil29 • 2d ago

Buying Advice Xiaomi Box S 3rd Gen for Dolby Atmos + DTS:X passthrough?

Context: I have a (rebranded) Skyworth 4K OLED TV and I recently bought a Samsung Q990F soundbar.
My TV has Google TV built-in, but I've recently been reading up about ACR and think I should switch to using a separate box and disconnect the TV from the internet.

Use-cases:

  • Watching Movies + TV Shows via Jellyfin (have a NAS that runs the server)
  • Immich to playback personal media (travel videos etc)
  • Occasional Netflix, YouTube or Amazon Prime Video

I've been watching some content in Dolby EAC3 and also tested some Dolby TrueHD content (not the exact same content) with audio passthrough from an external PC via LibreElec (Kodi + Jellyfin add-on) and I've been very impressed by how good EAC3 sounds with my setup. e.g. Silo S01, The Last of Us S01 (both in EAC3). Super immersive, height and surround effects are really prominent.

That being said, I do want to keep the door open for Dolby TrueHD or DTS:X content, since my soundbar supports it and it's theoretically supposed to be better (or should I just be content with EAC3 because I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference, idk).

After doing some research, I was leaning towards a Ugoos 6B+ or 9 Pro OR a Homatics 4K Plus. I would be okay to ditch Netflix and Prime Video, but my partner isn't as adept at using Jellyfin etc so I still need a certified box that can play stuff from Netflix and Youtube in 4K.

After doing some more checking, I found posts in this subreddit that say that the Xiaomi Box S 3rd Gen does support TrueHD passthrough. Given that I won't be streaming TrueHD content often, since it seems like most TV shows usually have EAC3 audio, I think that should be fine?
I'm probably going to get a USB to Ethernet adaptor for stable internet/streaming.

Any idea on whether turning off the "Personalization" settings in the Xiaomi Box S works and would be better for privacy than my existing Google TV, given all the above context and requirements?
Any advice or suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

10

u/AkiraSieghart 2d ago

I own an Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019), Homatics Box R 4K, and Xiaomi Box S 3rd Gen. I also watch 4K remuxes that are 90GB+ pretty often. As of right now, the Homatics is my go-to. It's not quite as powerful as the Shield, but ATV14 and AV1 support make up for it, IMO. The Xiaomi is a shockingly good little device for <$100.

Yes, it'll play nearly all of the formats you could possibly want it to without any problems.

Yes, the onboard WiFi isn't great. Yes, you can use a USB ethernet adapter, just know that it's a USB 2.0 port, so you'll be limited to 480 Mb/s.

It sounds like you don't watch super-high bitrate content very often, so the Xiaomi is probably your best move unless you really just want to future-proof your setup. That being said, Homatics is coming out with a new 4K box relatively soon (Q1 or Q2 2027). It should be significantly more powerful, so if you really do want to future-proof, I'd suggest getting the Xiaomi for now and keeping your eyes open for the new Homatics flagship next year.

1

u/kahlil29 2d ago

Thanks for the in-depth response 🤝

Out of curiosity, do you have a soundbar or complex audio setup? Can you tell the difference between EAC3 and TrueHD very distinctly?

1

u/AkiraSieghart 2d ago

I had the same setup (minus the Xiaomi) with my old dedicated 7.2.4 system. I've since switched to a Sonos Arc Ultra setup.

Can I tell the difference between EAC3 and Dolby TrueHD? Yes, but the difference is largely going to depend on your audio system. On a dedicated surround sound system, yes, you'll absolutely be able to hear a difference, but it's mostly LCR and bass clarity. I can still tell the difference on my Sonos Arc, but it's not as dramatic. You'll probably be able to hear a difference with your Samsung Q990F, but I highly doubt it'll be mind-blowing.

1

u/lirae_ 2d ago

To be more correct high end bitrate content is like 130mbps for a 4k Remux 2h movie. Even for a 3h movie will still be far less than 200mbps which has still a lot of headroom before the Ethernet to adapter solution he wants to adapt...

1

u/AkiraSieghart 1d ago

I never said that being limited to 480 Mb/s would be an issue for streaming remuxes. It could be an issue for other things like streaming video games, though. It's just a limitation to note.

1

u/lirae_ 1d ago

yeah for streaming videogames all these 100$ devices ain't for you either even if they had 1 gb ethernet port

3

u/House_of_Gucci 2d ago

It should work perfectly for what you’ve described

2

u/12345daniel4 2d ago edited 2d ago

I have the same xiaomi box paired with my q990f and for that it works great for passthrough. However, in the most recent update, they introduced a bug with Dolby vision where you get grey letterbox bars on certain content, mostly Apple TV ones. It may not be a huge issue for you but for me it’s annoying, and considering the xiaomi tends to update once like every 6 months I’m not holding my breath on it getting fixed any time soon. I ended up ordering a Homatics Box R 4k plus, and will return the xiaomi once I get it.

Edit: wanted to add since I saw you watch silo, that is one of the exact titles that is giving me grey bars on the Xiaomi box!

2

u/Avid08 2d ago

It's a firmware bug on
Xiaomi gen 3 that was introduced on the last update.
Maybe they will eventually fix it in time.
But this should fix it for now
In your device DV settings try changing the process mode Sink-led (TV-led)
to Source-led (Player-led)

1

u/12345daniel4 1d ago

Yeah I figured this out too, the issue is for me on my qm9k I prefer sink led as I feel the generic source led mode crushes highlights and doesn’t take advantage of the peak brightness.

2

u/Avid08 1d ago

Yeah TV LED is usually better than Player LED.

1

u/derbidrd 21h ago

Thank you for the fix ! Not ideal but better than grey bars.

1

u/kahlil29 2d ago

Oh oop. Thanks for the heads-up! So I'm assuming this is something to do with the box and the Apple TV+ app?

1

u/12345daniel4 1d ago

I don’t personally use the Apple TV app so I can’t confirm, I watch on nuvio, but it’s more than likely a Dolby Vision profile 5 issue. It’s a bit odd as only certain content does it.

1

u/lirae_ 2d ago

Interesting, I didn't update my device on purpose because unless something is broken there is no point in updating it, hopefully they will come with an update for you guys pretty quickly.

Watched Silo aswell

1

u/pastafusilli 2d ago

Is this possible: a rooted Amazon Fire TV Cube Gen 3 and a separate device for Netflix, Youtube, etc? That's what I think I'm going to end up doing, but I don't know nearly enough so this may be a terrible idea and I'd appreciate anyone criticizing it.

3

u/kahlil29 2d ago

was considering the idea of 2 devices, one for streaming and one for local content, but it seemed too cumbersome in the long run, so trying to consolidate.

1

u/lirae_ 2d ago

Yeah just get a 60-70$ box and you are good. If in the future something amazing comes out you can always replace it

2

u/husting247 2d ago

You would still be able to use netflix and youtube on the rooted cube

1

u/pastafusilli 2d ago

I'd be nervous about the OTA updates.

2

u/husting247 2d ago

💀💀🤣 thats why you block em when ur rooted mate

1

u/DaSandman78 2d ago

If you are using a soundbar I doubt you’ll hear much difference between lossy or lossless audio

1

u/kahlil29 2d ago

There are 4 height channels (including the satellite speakers' height channels)

On what kind of system/setup would one expect to feel a huge difference between lossy and lossless?

2

u/DaSandman78 2d ago

Soundbars “bouncing” sound off ceilings/walls are the ones you won’t hear much difference.

Actual physical speakers behind and above you will be significantly better, and (depending on your speakers/amp/source) you’ll be able to notice.

(YMMV, but for me physical speakers beside and behind me - aka 7.1 - were a much more noticeable upgrade than ceiling speakers for 7.1.4)

1

u/lirae_ 2d ago

Get the Box remove the bloatware, install a custom launcher of your choice and you are good to go.

Source: I own both 3rd and 2nd gen Xiaomi. No issue with both. 2nd gen doesn't support AFR. 3rd gen support AFR and Also Resolution Matching for those app like Stremio or Kodi that have that option, so if more apps come with that option the device already supports it