Unboxing + Setup

• What’s in the package?
• How to set up? It’s really easy to setup Mi Box S. After connecting the power adapter to the device, you just have to connect the HDMI cable between your Mi Box S and your TV’s HDMI port. Switch your TV’s video source to the HDMI port that you just plugged in and follow the instruction It will ask you to pair the remote to your Mi Box S & setup the wifi connection. Just follow the instruction on the screen and you are good to go (remember to put the battery on to the remote first) Wait for a little bit for the device to finish loading up…voilla, your Mi Box S is ready to use.

Sideloading Application

It has Google Play Store installed, so you can install pretty much everything from there. However, some programs that are not “listed” as Android TV-compatible will not be listed in Google Play Store. Therefore, we must sideload them to our Mi Box S.

There are basically two ways to sideload an application to Mi Box S:

1. Using Downloader
2. Using AptoideTV
3. Using Filelinked
4. Using a File Manager to upload the APK via your PC/Phone. I’m using File Commander, but you can use your favorite file manager for this, as long as it supports some sort of FTP connection to connect your PC/Phone to your Mi Box S.

…but before you do any of that, you need to do the following steps first:

1. Go to Settings
2. Choose Security & Restrictions
3. Select Unknown Sources
4. When prompted, click Yes

This will enable us to install applications that are not coming from the official Google Play Store.

Watch Live TV

Netflix is great, but sometimes you want to be able to watch Live TV from your Mi Box S + by doing this you will save on Cable TV cost.

There are few ways you can watch Live TV on your Mi Box S:

1. Using Kodi (via Limitless Video Plug-in). Here’s where you can detail instruction on how to download Limitless for Android TV.
2. Using PlutoTV
3. Using MobdroTV
4. Using Haystack News

Watch Movies + TV Show

This is the reason why most of us, Mi Box S users, bought Mi Box S…and that is to watch Movies and TV Shows.

Here are the ways you can do exactly that:

1. Using Netflix.
2. Using Kodi (Video Plug-in). I’m also using Limitless Video Plug-in for this.
3. Using Popcorn Time
4. Using Browser. Few places that I usually go to find Movie / TV Show streaming: EUROPIXHD – Movies & TV Series Online HD Dramacool | Asian Drama, Movies and Shows English Sub Full HD

Watch Anime

Some of us are anime fans, including me. For that reason, I have good news for you. It’s very easy to watch anime on your Mi Box TV.

Here are few ways you can do to watch anime on Mi Box S:

1. FireAnime. This is by far my favorite app to watch anime, because, in it, you will find few reliable sources: Gogo Anime and Anime Freak.
2. Crunchyrolls

Show All App

Some apps won’t show up in your app drawer. There are 2 other ways you can find the app that you just installed:

1. Using “Sideload Launcher”
2. Go to Settings -> Apps -> See all apps. If you still can’t find your installed app here, scroll down and click “Show system apps”

Install Browser

I don’t really like Mi Box S’ default browser, so I recommend you to try one of these browsers:

1. Firefox
2. Chrome
3. Puffin TV Browser. I personally use Puffin TV Browser. Layout-wise it’s not so good compared to Firefox and Chrome, but in some way, the navigation is better on Puffin TV Browser. AND…it also has a built-in VPN-like feature that somehow bypass site restriction from my country and Internet provider, so it’s a FREE VPN for me 😉

Install VPN

Why do you need a VPN?

There are many reasons why would you need VPN. It was advertised as “safety” precautions when surfing the Internet, since you don’t want people to track your browsing activity and tie them to your IP address. It’s all true, but for me, I mainly used VPN to unblock content that was restricted in my country (or Internet providers). This might be your case as well, or not. Whatever the case might be, there will come a time when you need a VPN.

Free vs. Paid?

Why would you need to pay for VPN? There are many VPNs that are free to use. That might be what comes to your mind in regards to VPN. In most cases, you are right. You can use those free VPN and you’ll do just fine. However, if you are talking about using VPN to access popular services, like Netflix, who actively blocks VPN from all over the world, your best bet is using paid VPN.

Paid VPN has something that free VPN doesn’t have. That is scale. Paid VPN has money to propagate many VPN servers all around the world and even rotate their IP addresses so that platform like Netflix will have a hard time “blocking” them.

For free VPN, I recommend you to use Proton VPN or HideMe VPN. Proton VPN is interesting because it doesn’t have any data bandwidth restriction, whereas HideMe VPN has 10GB data bandwith limitation per month.

for paid VPN, I recommend you to use ExpressVPN. The monthly subscription is not cheap. It’s $8.32 per month (with annual subscription), but in my experience, it’s by far the best paid VPN out there. The support team is very reliable and readily available to help you via chat, and its servers are all over the world. You will find expressVPN server in your country for sure. If not, just ask the support team where’s the nearest VPN server to your location.

Use USB as Storage

When you start using Mi Box S on daily basis, you will soon realize that the storage on your Mi Box S is not that big. It’s only 8GB to be precise. With the OS and other supporting files, you will only be able to use less than 5GB. There’s so much stuff you can store in your Mi Box S with only 5GB at your disposal.

Luckily, you can always plug a USB drive to your Mi Box S, and suddenly your Mi Box S has tons of storage.

This short video will explain to you exactly how to do this.

Controlling Your Mi Box S

Once you get your Mi Box S, you will need to control it. The basic way to control it is by using its remote, which works just fine. But sometimes, you need a more granular control and faster way to control your Android TV.

There are several other ways to control your Mi Box S:

1. Bluetooth Keyboard. Here’s a quick instruction on how to connect your Bluetooth keyboard.
2. Game Controller. It pretty much follows the same instruction as if you were to connect a bluetooth keyboard.
3. Android TV Remote. This is my favorite one, because I don’t have to buy a new bluetooth device to control my Mi Box S.

That’s it. You are now ready to use your Mi Box S with its full potential 😎

What do you think about your new Mi Box S? I think it’s worth my money!

Do you have any other tips or tricks to use Mi Box S more effectively? Please leave a comment below.