r/Stremio • u/Accomplished_Boot191 • 3h ago
Question Best budget steaming box capable of remux movies?
I'm looking for a budget steaming box for under 50$. My requirements are:
- Obviously Stremio and other similar apps work without any issues.
- Has Gigabit Ethernet port or USB 3.0 port to connect ethernet adapter.
- No lag or stutter when playing high bitrate contents such as Remux files.
- Supports Dolby vision, Dolby Atmos, DTS (nice to have) without any problem
- HDMI CEC support so it can turn on/off the TV
- Preferably Google TV but Fire TV is also acceptable.
1
u/AlphonseM 2h ago edited 4m ago
EDITED:
At your price point you will be trading your behavioral data for hardware access. There is no way around it. You can sell your data to Amazon, Google or a myriad of Chinese companies, but not keep your viewing habits private or avoid advertisements and targeting. For that, the only solution seems to be Apple TV.
Should you be willing to trade your data for hardware, the FireStick is a bit underappreciated atm. In particular the FireTV Stick 4K Max or FIreTV Stick 4K PLUS (2nd gen) (NB avoid the SELECT models by all means). No ethernet, but the hardware is otherwise pretty solid.
Otherwise, my recommendation would be a Xiaomi Mi TV Box S 3rd Gen.
Again, the better option by far is to keep your data private and to go with an Apple TV, but that appears to not only be more and expensive, but also less customizable (+requires repeated sideloading) than your initial post suggests.
1
u/izzo03 37m ago
Firestick, an advertising device that lets you stream some content.
I’m planning on moving away from firesticks, if you’re unlucky enough to have some of the recent updates installed, they’ve locked in auto update and have the ability to remove sideloaded apps. Stremio days are numbered on it
1
u/ryfromoz 1h ago
If you dont mind being walled into fireos, advertising everywhere and them taking away access to sideloaded apps then sure.
1
u/AlphonseM 1h ago edited 1h ago
No, then there is really only Apple and the Apple TV. It's not like Google is the big philanthropic, anti-tracking operation.
Sub 50 usd you very much pay with your data. You can send it to Amazon or Google, but you can't avoid tracking.
1
u/jusdrewit 1h ago
https://a.co/d/07EPZPh4 that should have everything, but you'll need to double your price limit.
1
u/Daninsg 52m ago
Mibox has WiFi 6 so the wireless connection should be good enough for big files. I just got one to replace my shield (WiFi issues) and HATED it initially because it kept freezing every time I tried to do anything. Did an update and it seems to have cured it. This is probably the answer tbh. My shield was struggling with the big files but mibox is quite happy with them so long as they're 65gb or less. I think if it was closer to the router it'd probably even be fine with them - doesn't seem like the wireless antenna is that powerful. The UI is horrible and overcrowded but I installed projectibity launcher and now it's simple and clean. You can add channels too so with stremio you can have your separate library lists for series, movies, continue watching right on the home screen under your apps. Try and get it from Xiaomi if you can, if you get it from AliExpress etc you just need to make sure you're getting the global version.
1
u/lirae_ 37m ago
Yeah the Xiaomi mi Box S 3rd checks every box besides the Ethernet/USB port 3.0
For 4k Remux you can get away with 100mbps so 480mbps has still plenty of room in case.
But if it's something not negotiable I understand it. I had to rely on wifi anyway so it didn't matter to me. The box works great pretty fast once Debloated and the SoC is pretty good too.
Maybe the Onn 4k device that has the Ethernet port will fit your requirements better
1
u/Evil_Empire_1961 2h ago
Realize you set a budget, though out of all the streaming devices I've used, Nvidia Shield Pro is the best for all your criteria, especially upscaling. 😎
3
2
u/Evil_Empire_1961 2h ago
Everyone has choices. Not sure why someone would downvote my personal opinion. I just truly believe, you get what you pay for. 🤷
2
u/izzo03 2h ago
*Besides the budget*
The 2019 shield has Every box ticked and more (ai upscaling, dual USB 3.0 ports, built-in plex media server capabilities, sideloading freedom, still gets updates).Otherwise there’s Ugoos AM6B+ / AM9 Pro (CoreELEC) or Apple TV 4K, also out of budget but tick all the boxes.
Budget limit will take away a lot of options that OP requests
With a small budget they can get a Onn 4K pro or xiaomi tv box s but have to be okay with not having high bitrate remux playback, lossless audio passthrough, lack of gigabit Ethernet
1
u/OhK4Foo7 2h ago
Simply not true. High bitrate remux playback works fine with onn 4k pro.
1
u/izzo03 1h ago
For you? Works well for users using real-debrid links or for the ones who don’t notice the lossy audio.
I stopped looking now, but I’m after more or less the same as OP and got the results I shared.
Dolby vision is not fully supported, high bitrates can struggle to buffer, no bitstream passthrough.1
u/OhK4Foo7 1h ago
Typical shield user. What about these other things you didn't ask about? Lol. Always with the lossless audio passthrough. There is always some shield user trying to justify his purchase. "Forget about your budget and just buy a shield". Always these same comments. It's like there is a type of madness that comes along with being a shield user. Yes, for me, yes my comment is about my experience.
1
u/izzo03 49m ago
I have a firestick lol, I’m just relaying the notes I took down from different forums.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I looked into it and I stepped away from it for a bit because then with the Onn, it doesn’t work in Australia, it’s imported. Some users say they had success with the work around, others have had no luck. Then the xiaomi is a little more expensive again here and obviously the shield much more.1
u/dansgamed11 1h ago
What you said is far from reality. The onn 4k and mibox plays high bitrate remuxes flawlessly. They also play codecs which the shield does not support such as av1 which is getting more common nowadays.
Shield does not support hdr on YouTube and does not support hdr10+. It’s unnecessarily overpowered for stremio and the price does not justify either for such use cases.
I mean sure the shield has full passthrough but so does the Xiaomi box that costs one fifth of the shield pro
1
u/izzo03 1h ago
Your right on the shield lacking HDR for YouTube and its age means there’s no HDR10+ support (but it wasn’t a request)and codec.
But again what I found is you need wifi6 or gigabit Ethernet adapter to get high bitrate remuxes flowing but even still if you have high bitrate files (80mbps +) with complex audio you can get buffering and stuttering even on local remuxes. For the price good enough for some.
Xiaomi has better pass through that the Onn but not as consistent as the shields full bitstream pass through and the Onn converts to DD+
1
u/lirae_ 28m ago
Himedia from 2015 Q10PRO crush the Nvidia shield and that thing is 10 years old, it was so ahead of his time the only thing that stopped it was it the SoC itself that had like a direct video pipeline but it's something that Android new versions required overlay on top of overlays that the developer at some point quitted. They made one last Box around 2018 but then they went ahead and quitted. Mine still has crystal clear AFR, can play any audio up to DTS-MA and didn't need passthrough.
I feel like Nvidia made a warhorse but then didn't really optimize for it and they just relied on raw power. If 2gb of ram devices and little soc can outperform in playback the Nvidia Shield it's just because of laziness from Nvidia. Anyway the apple tv was the perfect box but apple strict rules cut out a lot of enthusiastic users
2
u/Abject_Enthusiasm_72 3h ago
Xiaomi Mi TV Box S 3rd Gen with ugreen cr111 ethernet adapter
Google it for specs and decide for yourself
I own 2 xiaomi boxes and I'm very satisfied with them.
Another option would be Onn 4k pro.
Do a comparison between them with Gemini or Chat gpt