Xiaomi Box S 3rd Gen: Budget Player w/Dual-boot CE + DV FEL & Google TV

Help & Support Hardware
421

I just tested using the Dolby Vision FEL test from https://kodi.wiki/view/Samples and sadly it does not pass, I don’t see the woman in 80s and the Power Rangers credits is faded gray.

Does this mean it’s not FEL at all, is it a hardware issue or a software one?

Was also able to do a comparison and Avatar FaA HDR10+ in Apple TV looks much better than DV P7 in the Mi Box, the DV has dull colors.

Is it possible to disable FEL but keep MEL and P5/P8?

Edit: was able to fix FEL by using the patched dovi.ko in the OP! Wasn’t sure why it broke DV the first time

1 Like
422

Got the ethernet hub and remuxes now load instantly :slight_smile:

Also got waking up the device working properly via CEC. Just changed in the CEC adapter to Shutdown instead of Suspend CoreELEC when TV is turned off. Also did the same thing in the power saving timer. It does increase the load/boot time, and I’ll also have to confirm if it’s more reliable

The TV can see CoreELEC even after shut down. I was sure this wasn’t the case on WiFi.

423

I was enjoying this for quite some time. Unfortunately today when I booted it went straight to android and Google TV. I tried rebooting via the app both options first boot and normal boot. For the first boot option it takes me to android recovery instead of coreelec and normal boot takes me reboot to android and Google TV. I also tried adb reboot update but no luck with that either. I use a WD passport usb SSD 512 GB with no Ethernet or adapters I just directly plug it into the device. I also tried factory resetting the device and no luck for all 3 boot methods. I also tried downloading a fresh copy of the latest nightly and flashing that and still no luck. I even tried using a usb keyboard in android recovery to factory reset and still no luck. I don’t know what to do next. Please help me.

424

Do the same as you did first time.

425

The first time I had done adb reboot update and I tried it and I don’t know why it’s not working anymore and it’s taking me to recovery instead of coreelec. I also did the factory resets so I don’t know why it won’t give me the same behavior as the first time when I successfully did install.

426

Your CE boot device is broken I would say (WD passport usb SSD 512 GB). You will have to make CE installation again.
Or try with some spare USB disk first.

427

But I did go to rufus and download latest nightly and flash it again, i will try your other suggestion of using a spare usb but the thing is if possible i want to stick with the ssd so i can copy large remuxes and play them locally, my spare usb will only have 32 gb and i will have to rely on wifi or get ethernet adapter.

428

Hello, is it necessary to copy the dovi.ko file to the device root or not? Dolby Vision works for me without the file, but some people keep insisting that copying dovi.ko is required for proper functionality. So, what is the actual situation?

429

Read the forum for your answers?

430

Had some audio playback issues when playing eac3 audio tracks. Intermittently, there’s no audio being played in the soundbar even though the audio track is already selected. So far it only happened on eac3, both atmos and dd+ stereo. Never had this issue with truehd/lossless formats, probably because there is a renegotiation happening when that triggers. But im guessing this is an issue with lossy formats

Moved the box connection from the soundbar to the TV. Good thing it can pass through truehd and dts.

Another positive side effect is now coreelec detects the display as capable of 120hz in UI, and 24/25hz in video playback. Dispinfo didnt show this before, and my 1080p24hz videos get shown at 1080p60hz, and UI is only up to 60hz. Now it plays in the correct rate.

Will still have to experiment and tinker if I need to enable Keep audio device alive and other settings not related to passthrough

Right now here are my settings:

Audio output device: HDMI Multi Ch PCM

Number of channels: 7.1

Output config: best match

Low latency mode: on

Keep audio device alive: 1min

Send low volume noise: off

Passthrough: Yes, HDMI, all enabled.

Transcode dolby digital: off (but this setting should show only when number of channels is 2.0)

I also added a keymap to make the Power button behave as toggling the CEC devices via CECToggleState. The Mi Remote seems to be detected as a “keyboard” so I added both the remote and keyboard nodes in the XML.

Updates:

Changed audio output device to HDMI. AAC 2.0 audio wasn’t working with PCM. Also changed number of channels to 2.0. Passthrough audio formats should still be have the correct channels

Went back to 60hz ui. Had issues when seeking during playback where the display renegotiates

Changed back to 7.1 channels to avoid downmixing. Updated the above settings

431

If adb reboot update doesn’t work, try the alternative method in post #1.

I’m also finding having a really good USB stick helps greatly w/CE install and use with this box. Using this one and it’s blazing fast.

432

I managed to get boot to work correctly with APK first boot option with this standard 64 GB sandisk usb. But I don’t understand why the 500 GB USB SSD randomly stopped working and why the 1 TB HDD inside a USB enclosure also won’t work. My ideal use case is booting from media large enough to store entire 4K remuxes locally.

433

Is the general consensus to use the nightly builds and update them daily? It seems that I lose my database every so often by doing this- I have to keep rebuilding it. I’m using it with the Jellyfin addon, that appears to be an issue.

Also, any stable skins? Most of them seem to cause constant lock-ups, slowdowns and crashes for me.

434

Got one of these today to replace a dead AM6b+, all working fine with last nights nightly and the most up to date dovi.ko. I only use PM4K to keep the wife happy with something she recognises and all good.

Great work all involved, that was pretty plain sailing

435

Not the general consensus

It is OK to test nightlife,however once you have a working CoreELEC, all is good Dolby Vision etc.

Make a Backup/ some create a backup after every nightly.

When all is good still after create backup, disable automatic Updates in Settings. Can leave notifications on if you like.

When issues occur/check back in on Forum.

Then can turn back on update!!

436

I usually set updates to ‘Manual’ from default ‘Auto’, and update to latest nightly .tar like every 2 weeks or so. Don’t know if this is good or bad practice, but I don’t want every nightly installed while I’m trying to watch a movie.

437

I am beginning to suspect that maybe one of the nightlies installation broke my usage of that perfectly working USB SSD, I shall check and see.

438

Use SSH and check around dmesg, lsusb, …

Guessing will not tell anything.

439

A post was split to a new topic: Xiaomi 3rd gen install to eMMC

440

Hi everyone,

kinda new to this and expecting my Xiaomi box today, so I thought I’d check out this thread as preparation.

I’m thinking of installing the CoreElec through the steps as provided by Deen1 in post #200 in this thread.

However I’m unsure about 2 things and not tech-savy enough to figure them out by myself:

  1. Is this way of installation still the way to do it?
  2. Is there a guide on the settings (I should change) to get the most out of CoreElec on the Xiaomi box as a media player?

Thanks in advance! :slight_smile: