My remote is a little bad, but it's not about the quality of construction or materials. It's just that my son dropped it on the floor 100500 times, threw it and dropped it up. If the remote can withstand this and the consequences are only a couple of big scratches, it means that it was assembled by people with good hands.
Top 10 Android TV sticks for TV
A selection of TV sticks for watching streaming movie content. With support for installing third party apps for online TV, iptv, torrent movies. Play video in 4K, Full HD and HD quality. Made in a mini stick format for easy placement behind the TV.
Sufficiently thought-out TV stick with improved characteristics, compared to the previous version. Mi TV Stick now plays 4K video, supports the new AV1 codec and has a RAM capacity (2GB).
- You can install applications from external sources (Cinema Trend, NUM, Torrserv, etc.).
- You can plug into the USB port of the TV for power.
- Includes Bluetooth remote control with voice search, with IR port to control the TV.
- Google Widevine L1. Plays videos from Netflix, Youtube, Megogo, iVi, Prime Video, Okko, Kinopoisk HD and other streaming platforms.
- Autoframe is triggered with the tvQuickActions app.
Mecool KD2.
Stick with huge memory (4/32GB), modern S905X4 chip and support for AV1 codec. Designed to play 4K content streaming cinemas (except Netflix), torrent movies and IPTV.
- USB port with support for LAN adapter and external hard drives.
- Powered by your TV's USB port or power adapter.
- Wireless remote with voice control.
- Certificates to work with many streaming services such as Kinopoisk HD, iVi, Megogo, etc.
- Installation of media apps such as KinoTrend, NUM, Torrserve, etc.
The TV stick format may seem inconvenient because it is a mini box without the necessary set of ports (no USB, LAN, SPDIF). You might be interested in a selection of the best Smart TV set-top boxes with advanced functionality. Top 15 for 2022.
How to connect your phone to the TV via USB
Connecting your Android smartphone to your TV via USB is one of the easiest ways to transfer any multimedia content to it. This is because you're more likely to be able to use the cable that comes with your mobile device.
When you connect your Android smartphone to your TV via USB, the former acts as an external storage device. Therefore, once you have connected the cable, you will most likely need to select the appropriate connection mode on the mobile device screen – use as a removable drive. After that, you will also need to use the TV port to specify USB instead of a source or use a file manager, if one is provided. The TV will show you exactly the files it supports and allow you, if there are no codec problems, to play them on the big screen.
- cannot be used on an iPhone;
- there may be problems with codecs – the TV will not be able to play all files from your mobile device;
- it is not clear what awaits this way of connection after the introduction of Scoped Storage.
How to connect your phone to the TV via Wi-Fi Direct
Wi-Fi Direct is a wireless connectivity standard that allows you to connect your smartphone to your TV without the use of an intermediate link in the form of a router. It gives you the ability to transfer files to the big screen while sitting in front of it on the couch, without any additional equipment.
In order to use Wi-Fi Direct, you must first activate the corresponding feature on your technology-enabled TV – it's usually hidden in the wireless connection settings. After that, you need to go to the "Settings" of your smartphone, find the item of the same name, which can be hidden in the advanced Wi-Fi settings, and select the device to connect, guided by the name of the TV. You'll then be able to transfer files and even use screen replay. The latter is especially handy if you need to do more than just show recent photos on the big screen.
Officially, the Wi-Fi Direct feature also works on the iPhone. However, to use it, you will need additional software, which most often works very unstable. For example, I personally tried the iMediaShare app recommended by Sony on the official website, and it often refused to work at all, so for iPhone it is still better to find another way to connect to the TV. Moreover, it is also important to note that not all televisions support the Wi-Fi Direct function – you can check this by adjusting their wireless connection settings.
Optimizing performance
For the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick to work quickly and clearly, you need to do a couple of things in the settings. Go to "Settings" – "Home screen" – "Channels". Turn off the sliders on the "Enable Video Preview" and "Enable Audio Preview" settings.
Stay in Settings and go to the "For Developers" section. To make it appear, go to "Device Settings" under "About Device" and go down to "Build". Click on it eight times and open the hidden item "For developers". Go there and go down to "Window animation", "Interface animation" and "Animation duration". Set everything to 0.5. Still below is "Background Processes Limit". Here we choose "No more than one process".
Result .
Xiaomi Mi TV Stick is definitely worth its money. I paid $40 for the gadget and have no regrets. The price tag is about the same in most chain stores plus or minus 10 dollars. You can find it cheaper on AliExpress, but you have to monitor discounts and promotions.
With Xiaomi Mi TV Stick it is good to watch popular official, and not so much, online services, have hundreds of channels, use IPTV, the Internet and simple mobile games.
The compact size of Xiaomi Mi TV Stick allows you to quickly switch it from TV to monitor and back, take it with you to the country house, on a business trip or travel. It is enough to set up once, connect and use a ready set of applications.
The main competitor of Xiaomi Mi TV Stick is similar in form factor, but more powerful and versatile VONTAR H96s. It's also called H96S TVStick. And quite a bit more expensive, but really better is Xiaomi Mi TV Box S.
Supported resolution: 1080p (1920×1080, 60fps)
Built-in memory: 8GB (free about 5GB for applications and other files)
Operating system: Android 9.0 Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz/5GHz, Bluetooth: 4.2
Video decoder: VP9-10, H.265, H.264, VC-1, MPEG½/4, Real8/9/10
Video formats: RM, MOV, VOB, AVI, MKV, TS, MP4
