Tech Forum

For the Face to Face broadcast with Elder and Sister Oaks this evening, I setup the Mi Box S to receive the stream in our stake center. We had the stake satellite system as a backup, but since our stake center still has the older SD video distribution, I wanted the youth to experience it in HD. Here's what I ran into...

1. Since the Mi Box doesn't have a web browser, I was only able to receive the broadcast via an installed app (or "channel") from the Android Store. For this broadcast, I went with YouTube. (Other options I didn't try were the BYU TV or the Latter-day Saints channels.)
2. Since I had previously subscribed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints YT channel, it was pretty easy to scroll down and find the Face to Face broadcast.
3. Clicking on the broadcast about 35 mins before it started brought up the following YouTube message:

   Something went wrong
   
   This video is unavailable with Restricted
   Mode enabled. To view this video, you will
   need to disable Restricted Mode.

   Say what?? Looks the church had a setting wrong for their video. I went into the YouTube settings and disabled Restricted Mode and the video now started. (BTW, the stored version on YT now plays fine in Restricted Mode, as it should.)
4. Prior to the broadcast time, there was NO pre-roll playing - just a static picture with a small countdown timer up in the corner. I stopped the broadcast and clicked on a video near it that had the Tabernacle Choir singing. Good thing, because at first we didn't get any audio from the 3.5mm jack on the Mi Box, but we could hear it on the Epson projector's speakers. Couldn't find how to switch the audio from HDMI to the 3.5mm jack (IMO, it should switch automatically), so we plugged the crab box into the projector's 3.5mm jack and that worked. We also found our EJ-10 crab box was not letting enough audio through to get the volume we needed, so we swapped it with another style box that we [fortunately] had on hand and the audio worked much better.
5. Went back to the broadcast and waited a bit nervously for it to start. After the timer hit zero, there was about 15-20 seconds of dead time, I assume for buffering, then it started and played flawlessly for the duration.

All in all we learned a lot and started early enough to troubleshoot the issues we ran into. The HD result was much nicer than the SD we would have experienced, so IMO, the effort was worthwhile. Next time I'll try some of the other apps and see if they work any better/different than YouTube.

We watched via satellite. The pre-roll consisted of a number of people who sent selfies (I assume via twitter) showing them waiting for the broadcast.

I know the Mi Box has a volume control, the projector may have one as well. But the EJ-10 is a little weak on gain. The EJ-8 (black case) is much better. Better sound as well. The EJ-10 tends to lack treble.

As much as I like the Mi Box, if there's a choice, it's probably better to find a way to get the HDMI feed from the satellite receiver to the projector. You can even leave the WiFi on.

russellhltn wrote:I know the Mi Box has a volume control, the projector may have one as well. But the EJ-10 is a little weak on gain.

Another way to say it is it's heavy on loss. With every audio gain control maxed out, it was there, but a bit on the soft side. With the alternate box (I'll find out the make/model) it was solid with everything backed off to a comfortable level. What was nice is being able to adjust the volume using the Mi Box remote without having to go up on the stand.

russellhltn wrote:As much as I like the Mi Box, if there's a choice, it's probably better to find a way to get the HDMI feed from the satellite receiver to the projector. You can even leave the WiFi on.

Yeah, our PFR has put in a request for 2021 to get the audio & video upgrade package for our stake center. Not sure if it will fly, but we'll see. Having HD video distribution through the building would simplify our setup tremendously. BTW, we have ample BW, so the WiFi never needs to be shut down for broadcasts/webcasts.