Mi Box S is a great way to convert a regular TV to an Android TV, you get to play games, install Android apps, watch Netflix and YouTube, etc. I test a lot of gadgets at TechWiser and a major part of it involves recording the screen. To my surprise, there is no native option to record screen in Mi Box S, unlike the NVIDIA Share in the Nvidea Sheild TV. Moreover, sideloading Android apps like REC or AZ screen didn’t work either, although, they worked on Amazon Fire TV Stick.
While you can always buy a capture card to record any gadget with an HDMI out port including Mi Box. However, that is a viable solution and requires you to purchase an additional hardware component. Fortunately, after a bit of testing and trial, I discovered an easy and creative way to record screen on Mi Box S. Let’s begin.
Record Screen on Mi Box S
The trick here is to use TeamViewer. Yes, the same app that you use to teach your grandma who doesn’t know their way around technology. Turns out, TeamViewer can help them navigate the TV as well.
First, Install TeamViewer on your Mi Box S and your Windows computer. As Mi Box S runs on Android, you can just open the Play Store and install TeamViewer Quick Support on the TV. Install TeamViewer for Windows from the official website. The recording feature only works on the Windows version but you can still remotely access the Mi Box S with your Mac.
Open TeamViewer on both the devices and wait for it to generate the ID on the TV. When you see the ID, enter the ID on your Windows and click Connect.
Make sure the internet is working when you try to establish a connection.
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It would take a few seconds to authenticate the connection and when it does, you’ll see the TV screen on the TeamViewer Window on the computer. To begin recording, tap the export window icon on the top right corner as shown in the image below.
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On the top, you’ll see a toolbar with a few different options. Click ‘Files & Extras’ to reveal the menu options.
Here, you can start recording your session, take a snapshot or share files to the TV via TeamViewer. Pretty Neat right. Just click the ‘Start session recording’ button to start recording. Next, click the button again and save the file on your computer.
We’re not quite done yet. If you would look at the recordings saved on the computer, they’re in TeamViewer’s proprietary format which won’t play on standard video players. Therefore, we’ll render the files to a more popular format such as MP4. To do so, double click the file and it would open in the TeamViewer window. Click the ‘Convert’ button on the top of the preview window as shown in the picture below.
It would prompt you with a dialog box where you can select the file location, resolution, and the codec. After filling in the details, click ‘Convert’ to begin the rendering process.
Read: Best File Managers for Android TV
Depending on your recording size, it may take a while to convert the whole recording to a video file, so go grab a cup of joe. After it’s done, you’ll have the MP4.
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Closing Words: Record Screen on Mi Box S
That is how you can record the screen on the Mi Box S without any hiccups. However, it won’t work with apps that implement DRM such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc. You can still use it to record your gameplay, take snapshots or just browse the TV from your computer. What do you think of this method? Do you have another way that we can use to record screen on Android TV? Let me know in the comments below.
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