Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had the previous one MI Box 3, and bought this successor product hoping for some improvements. The quality of the MI Box S is inferior in every way. The remote got cheapened. The prior one was contoured to fit in the hand. This one is squarish clunky with a poorly designed 4-way button. The "back" and home "buttons" are in the wrong place, contrary to the previous one, or Android phones. Who uses the middle as the "back button"? Design of the home screen is done to promote what the google AI (Artificial Idiot) wants you to see instead of providing useful layout for selecting what you want to see. Worst of all this thing cannot do pass-through digital audio. So any surround sound is degraded to two channel. This includes all of Netflix which mostly Dolby Digital Plus. Forget about any DTS, DTS-HDMA, or Dolby TrueHD. This thing will render your home theater receiver useless. - remote disconnects sometimes after box goes to sleep. no way to wake up except pull the plug - netflix stutters randomly even with 1080p (i have 1 Gbs fiber internet) - playing from usb stutters randomly even with 1080p - can't play DTS-HD from usb with downmixing, stutters HORRIBLY even with 1080p (note: DTS-HD passthru doesn't work) - youtube crashes the entire box sometimes. no way out except pull the plug - hdmi negotiation go wacko randomly on sleep. no way out except pull the plug. - after sleep sometimes the hdmi negotiates to different settings. have to pull the hdmi to try renegotiating. Note: I have the previous version Xiaomi Box 3 and it didn't have any of these problems. After forced upgrade to Android 8, it developed the stuttering problems, but not (yet) the other problems. So it ain't my receiver and other equipment. It ain't the box settings. I know what I am doing, and I am not biased against Xiaomi. In fact my past four mobile phones have been Xiaomi. Update: Through many hours of online research I was able to get the box to do Dolby Digital+ passthru. Somebody posted on a Kodi forum that you can: first disconnect the HDMI; power up the MI box; then connect the HDMI to reciever after the MI box has powered up. Then somehow the HDMI will negotiate better. This can then enable lossy DD+ and lossy DTS passthru. However sometimes this negotiated setting is lost and you have to repeat the process. Still no hope of Dolby True HD or DTS-HDMA.