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Tips and Tricks For Android TV Box Owners 2018

While they are mainly used as entertainment units they are capable of much more.

Here we list some of our favorite tips and tricks for 2018 to help keep your box running fast, and some features that can come in handy.

1 ... Use Aptoide TV to Install Apps Aptoide TV is an alternative to the Google Play Store and Amazon App store.

It gives a great alternative from being tied to the big brand names which often block or limit what can be installed. How To Install Aptoide TV on an Android TV Box This includes many top APKs such as Terrarium TV and Modbro along with games and much more.

Aptoide works on most any Android device including Fire TV Sticks which gives a great way to break free from Amazon and install what you want.

Read Here for How To Install Aptoide TV

2 ... Stop Overheating with USB Cooling Fan Many android TV boxes are prone to overheating mainly when playing games.

There are many ways to help keep a unit from overheating with a USB Cooling Fan a quick simple low cost fix. Android TV Box Tips and Tricks 2018 The fan simply plugs into the USB port on the unit and the box sits on top.

There are many USB Fans available such as the ELUTENG 1500RPM unit.

3 ... Close All Background Apps Having apps running in the background use up unnecessary memory causing slow downs which can be freed up for better use.

Android TV does a good job at memory management, but sometimes apps don't close right, or have an error and keep running in the background.

Some apps can still be running in the background even after powering down a unit.

It is easy enough to close out of background apps depending on the controller used.

Closing Background Apps with a Remote Control Some boxes don't work with this method if it doesn't work for you read the keyboard method next.

Using a standard remote control look for the symbol with three lines. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners

Once the button is pressed all the background apps will pop up in minimized boxes. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 2

Using the arrow keys go to the app you want to close and click the right arrow key. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 3 Clicking the Right arrow key will close the app, do this for each one you want to close.

Closing Background Apps With a Keyboard An alternative method is to use a keyboard. This method has worked on all the units I have tested.

It can be any keyboard from the small mini ones to large USB keyboards.

Press the ALT key and keep it pressed. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 4

While holding the ALT Key press the TAB key once and the background apps will come up. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 5

Keep holding the ALT key and press the back arrow button 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 7 Keep pressing the back arrow to close each app running in the background.

4 ... Edit MS Office Documents While Android TV boxes do a great job playing videos and playing games, they can do a lot more such as edit and work with Microsoft Office documents.

Its free to do and simply requires downloading an app from the Play Store.

There are several apps available with one of the best being Smart Office 2.

To get it go to the Play Store and search for Smart Office 2 and install it. 5 Tips For Android TV Box Owners Pic 8 Using Smart Office 2 you can view, edit, create, print, save as a PDF and share MS Office documents.

5 ... Use a Mini Keyboard Remote Control The standard remote controls that come with Android TV boxes can be limiting at times.

A much better way is to use a mini keyboard with a touch-pad or one of the many other types of controllers. Use a Mini Keyboard Remote Control The onscreen keyboard does work but it is much faster and easier to have a small keyboard to type with.

There are many low cost keyboards available in all shapes and sizes.

Read Here for Our Picks for Best Mini Keyboards and Remote Controls.

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11 Tips and Tricks to Get the Most Out of Your Xiaomi Mi TV

Alright, so you have fallen prey to the tempting Mi TV offers and by God's grace, managed to grab one in a flash sale. Living up to its smart title, the Mi TV continues to impress you as you begin staring at it every day with its seamless integrations, responsive interface, and of course, the display. But what if I tell you there's more? More features, more settings you can tweak to make your experience even better. Here, we discuss eleven such tips you should know about.

Enable Richer Sound with Dolby on Mi TV mitv-enabledolby

Wait, Dolby is not enabled by default?

Yeah, I know, right? That was my reaction as well. Anyway, you need to switch on Dolby on the Mi TV manually. For that, scroll down to the apps carousel, head into the settings, then sound and lastly, Dolby.

Clear Cable Watch and Search History on Mi TV

To feed data to its artificially intelligent recommendation engine, the Mi TV logs all your cable activities like what channels you've searched for or which ridiculous Indian soap opera you binge-watched. Thankfully, you can clear these if you want.

To get rid of your cable watch or search history, navigate to the settings page, then "set-top box", "TV guide", and you'll find the options located at the bottom.

Install Android Apps on Mi TV Mi TV, at its core, breathes Android which is why you can side-load compatible applications. It's not as straightforward as a regular Android TV, though. There's no Play Store, therefore you'll have to go through the strenuous process of installing them from an external drive.

Once you've copied an APK on a USB pendrive or something, connect it to the Mi TV and wait for a pop-up. Hit "Open" and click on the file to begin the installation process. If successful, it will be added to the apps section. You can also launch the TV manager, click the "Install via USB" or browse the external drive manually in case you skipped or missed the pop-up.

Clear Memory and Storage on Mi TV mitv4-memory-boost

One of the small letdowns of all the three Mi TV variants available in India is the lack of ample onboard storage. It's especially disappointing when you consider that the software consumes roughly 3GB and you can not mount an external drive as an inbuilt memory on PatchWall, unlike Android TV

PatchWall does, however, come with a nifty manager that lets you quickly exterminate unnecessary data and cache building up in the background. You can read more about it here.

Cast Your Smartphone Screen to Mi TV The only seamless way you can cast your screen to the Mi TV without any external accessory is if you have a Miracast compatible phone like the OnePlus 5T. If you do own one, head into the apps section, then wireless screen sharing and connect both the Mi TV and your phone to the same network. On your phone, open up settings, search for "cast", and in the three dots menu at the top, enable "wireless display". All set. Mi TV will show up in the list and you can simply click it to begin casting.

Set an Image as Screensaver on Mi TV. mitv-image-screensaver

The Mi TV also lets you configure any picture as the screensaver. Once you've transferred the files, go to the Gallery from the apps section, click the image, press the menu button on the remote, and select set as a screensaver.

Mi User Experience Program mitv-user-experience-program

The telly is collecting my data ?!

Well, kind of. But there's no need to freak out. It's entirely anonymous, as per Xiaomi. You can also turn it off too if you're THAT paranoid. The option-- called Mi User Experience Program-- is situated in the security settings. Once you head there just do what you're supposed to do!

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Xiaomi Mi Box: Switch to 1080p for dramatically better performance Being on the leading edge of a new technology is sometimes difficult. ANDREW MARTONIK 19 Dec 2016 11 Xiaomi Mi Box: Switch to 1080p for dramatically better performance In the case of video today, supporting 4K resolution-- particularly when streaming-- isn't always a "sure thing" kind of situation. There are restrictions in hardware, power, internet speed and so on. So while the Xiaomi Mi Box technically supports 4K video, that isn't the same thing as it offering great 4K video.

If you've used the new Mi Box, you'll know that it defaults to 4K resolution when it plugs into a 4K TV. You'll also know that the performance takes a pretty significant hit, sometimes leading to a laggy interface or unnecessarily soft images when Casting content from another app.

Xiaomi Mi Box Considering its small size and lackluster hardware, it shouldn't be surprising that the Mi Box struggles to play 4K video at the same speed as the NVIDIA Shield Android TV or even the purpose-built Chromecast Ultra streamer. Though it's unfortunate to buy an Android TV box that says "4K" on the package and realize it doesn't do the best job of it, the core of the issue is simply the resolution-- meaning there's an easy fix.

Just set the box to 1080p You won't want to hear this, but the "solution" to the Mi Box's performance struggles is simply setting it to just 1080p resolution. You can do so by going into the Settings of the Mi Box, selecting Display resolution and then setting the resolution to 1080p-60hz. Of course this means that you cut down the resolution to Full HD from 4K, but you'll immediately notice a performance jump when navigating the interface and playing video.

For many people who bought the Mi Box as an inexpensive way to get 4K video, this is a huge bummer. But for a majority of people out there, you wouldn't have been actually watching any 4K content to start with-- meaning you had the box set to 4K, and were dealing with the slower performance but weren't going to take advantage of the resolution anyway. That's in no way an apology for Xiaomi coming up short in terms of the processing power in the Mi Box, but it's the reality we live in.

But if you must have 4K ... If you actually have the internet connection (25+ mbps), TV set and apps (Netflix, etc.) to watch 4K content, then my recommendation is to not let the Mi Box automatically set resolution. Instead, set the box to 4k2k-30hz for the best combination of 4K resolution and daily performance.

It'll still be noticeably slower than when it's set to 1080p, but you'll have a better chance at watching smooth video in 4K when streaming from apps that support the higher resolution.