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Do you think install Kodi on a fast USB stick will help much? Kodi on my Mi Box seems sluggish after syncing with my Emby server.
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2017-10-13, 10:25
(This post was last modified: 2017-10-13, 10:30 by Geeeronimo.)
Hello
Like many, I'm getting crazy with the very limited number of commands to control the Mi Box. It is particularly painful for Kodi. Let me try to summarize.
The original Mi Box Bluetooth (BT) remote works well, but it only has a few commands: no Play/Pause/Stop (would you buy a CD/DVD/BD player without these commands ?...) ! No numeric pad either. The Mi Box has an undocumented built-in infrared (IR) receiver, and it can be controlled by any Harmony (thanks Logitech!). However the commands are basically the same as with the BT remote.
I have a cheap and old Harmony IR remote, and I have used the Harmony software and Kodi key mapping to redefine the '+', '-', 'pgup', 'pgdn' IR commands in such a way that:
- the Play/Pause button on Harmony is Kodi Play/Pause toggle action (2 buttons / 1 toggle command)
- the Stop button on Harmony is Kodi Stop action (1 button / 1 command)
- the Channel+/Channel- button on Harmony is Kodi Next/Previous action (2 buttons / 2 commands)
This is a minimal solution, but still unsatisfying as many buttons remain useless on the Harmony.
From what I read on various forums, there are three workarounds:
1) Harmony hub. This guy can control the Mi Box via BT as if it were a keyboard. Very flexible but expensive. And the hub itself can only be controlled by a high end Harmony remote, or by a smartphone.
2) PC IR USB receiver. That one can control the Mi Box via USB, as if it were a keyboard. Quite flexible and cheap, and can be controlled by a low end Harmony remote. However these dongles are often poor quality (bulky, laggy, weak sensitivity).
! warning ! The true `RC6' IR dongles, designed for Microsoft Multimedia Center, do not work on the Mi Box, because they don't simulate a keyboard. I have tested one and it confirms what I read elsewhere.
3) Flirc IR USB receiver. This could be the best solution, because the quality seems good, price moderate, and both the output (commands to the Mi Box) and input (commands from a remote) can be configured and customized.
What do you think ? Did I get something wrong, or did I miss some other workaround ?
Thanks a lot.
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It's been interesting reading this thread, which I found from a link on Whirlpool. If there's one thing it's convinced me of, it's that there'll never be an official Nougat release for this box.
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Hello
I don't understand the settings in the menu Digital sounds: PCM vs. HDMI vs. SPDIF in Android TV on the Mi Box, in parallel to Kodi audio settings. Let me explain what I tested:
- I have the Mi Box connected via HDMI to the TV device (this old TV does not seem to accept anything else than stereo for this input), and via optical SPDIF to a Marantz hi-fi amplifier (that also only accepts stereo)
- I use a Kodi sample video file that is officially encoded in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
I set Kodi channels to 5.1, and then:
1) I set audio passthrough ON, and disable all "[whatever] capable receiver" options. I get (as expected) normal sound on the TV and on the amplifier. The only concrete effect of the Digital sounds setting is that if set to SPDIF, there is no output to the HDMI TV. However whatever the setting there is output to the SPDIF amplifier.
2) I set audio passthrough ON, and enable "digital dolby plus capable receiver". I get (as expected, because my devices are stereo only) no sound on the TV nor the amplifier. The Digital sounds setting has no effect.
3) I set audio passthrough OFF. I get normal sound on the TV and on the amplifier. Hence in this case the audio output is stereo only. The only concrete effect of the Digital sounds setting is that if set to SPDIF, there is no output to the HDMI TV.
Questions:
* why with passthrough OFF Kodi doesn't output DD+, even if the channels are set to 5.1 ?
* what is the actual use of the Digital sounds setting ? It does not seem to select one of the physical outputs (because there is always sound on the SPDIF channel), and it does not seem to have an effect on audio decoding.
Thanks for any clarification!
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2017-10-19, 11:16
(This post was last modified: 2017-10-19, 11:19 by wrxtasy.)
In Kodi Audio settings reset all back to default (down the bottom)
Then only select the Audio passthrough options your Audio receiver supports.
DO NOT mess with the Number of Audio Channels - when using digital Audio passthrough that refers to the number of Audio Data transport channels NOT the number of physical speakers you have.
Kodi even mentions this in the options text at the bottom of the Audio settings screen.
If you want 5.1 passthrough Audio in Netflix, go into Android Settings > Sounds > Digital sounds > select HDMI
Not sure if you will get 5.1 passthrough audio over SPDIF with Netflix.
I believe the Mi Box does not support Multichannel 5.1 PCM Audio output which is what you have set at the moment.
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I know how to set Kodi for my basic stereo hardware, but I would like to understand the options in general.
With passthrough off in Kodi, I get PCM audio output, and that's why the sound looks normal, is this what you mean ? So that's the answer to my first question. I only have two physical channels so I cannot test if the output can be multichannel in this case.
Still I don't understand the Digital sounds Android menu. I don't have Netflix so I cannot test that. Are you saying that the Android 'HDMI' setting only applies to Netflix, which looks weird ?
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Or maybe the "Digital sounds" setting is the passthrough option at the Android level (that is, for all apps) ?
- PCM would be no passthrough, Android decodes the signal and sends PCM
- HDMI would be passthrough to HDMI output
- SPIDF would be passthrough to SPDIF output
So if Kodi is set to passthrough ON, then obviously it doesn't care of the Android setting.
Is it correct ?
