Owners of smart TVs and set-top boxes based on Android TV or Google TV often face limited functionality of the firmware. The standard operating system offers a basic set of applications, but for full surfing on the Internet, a web browser is simply necessary. Unlike smartphones, where the choice is huge, on a large TV screen the situation is more difficult due to the features of remote control.
The problem is that most mobile versions of websites are not adapted to manage with D-pad buttons (up, down, left, right). If you try to run regular Chrome, you may find yourself unable to click on links or type in text, which is why Android TV requires customized browser versions that are honed to navigation with a cursor.
In this article, we will discuss which browser is best for your Xiaomi Mi Box S, Mi TV Stick or Android TV smart TV. We will look not only at popular solutions, but also at the technical nuances of their work, as well as how to install third-party software.
Specifics of web surfing on Android TV
The main difficulty in choosing software for a TV is the control interface. On smartphones, we use a touch screen, on computers, we use a mouse, and in Xiaomi TVs, the main tool is the remote. Standard browsers like Chrome or Firefox simply cannot move a cursor around the screen using the remote buttons, which makes them useless without connecting a mouse.
In addition, the hardware of TVs, even flagship models, is often weaker than that of modern smartphones. Heavy web pages with an abundance of scripts can cause interface freezes or long loads of content, so optimization is a key factor in choosing an application.
Also worth considering is the screen resolution: TVs are 1920×1080 (Full HD) or 3840×2160 (4K) resolution. Many mobile browsers are not properly scaled, making text unreadable and buttons go beyond the visible area.
⚠️ Attention: Installing browsers from unknown sources may carry security risks. APK-files only from trusted resources, such as the official developer site or authoritative repositories like APKMirror.
There are several ways to solve the problem of navigation: using mouse emulation, voice input or special viewing modes. TV-browser.
TOP-5 browsers for Xiaomi TV and prefixes
The Android TV app market isn’t as big as mobile, but there are plenty to choose from. Below is a list of the most stable and functional solutions that work well on Xiaomi devices.
1. TV Bro
This is probably the best choice for most users. It's completely free, it's open source, and most importantly, it's designed specifically for remote control. It has built-in hardware acceleration support, which allows for smooth scrolling of pages. It's minimal, and the mouse cursor is emulated automatically when you move through links.
2. Puffin TV Browser
A unique solution that uses cloud servers to render pages, which means that heavy sites are processed on powerful developer computers, and your Xiaomi TV comes ready-made image, which allows you to run Flash content and heavy graphics even on weak consoles, but it is worth remembering that the free version has time limits.
3. JioPages
A powerful browser with built-in ad blocker and PC sync support. It has a special TV Interface mode that adapts the menu to the large screen. An important feature is support for 4K HDR video playback directly from the browser, which is rare for such applications.
4. Downloader by AFTVnews
Although technically a tool for downloading files, it has a built-in simple browser, often used as a temporary download solution. APK-It's very lightweight and responds quickly to remote commands, but it's not suitable for constant surfing due to the lack of tabs and difficult navigation.
5. Firefox for Android TV
The official version from Mozilla, adapted for TVs, supports synchronization of history and bookmarks with the desktop version, but users often note that the interface may be less responsive than TV Bro.
The choice of the app depends on your tasks. If you want easy access to news, TV Bro will do. If you want to watch videos from sites that do not have an app on Google Play, look at Puffin.
Comparative Characteristics Table
To make it easier to choose, let’s compare the basic parameters of popular browsers, which will help you understand which one will best suit your performance and functionality requirements.
| browser | Control from the remote | Ad-blocker | Support for Flash | APK weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV Bro | Native. | There is. | No. | ~15MB |
| Puffin TV | Native. | There is. | Yeah (cloud) | ~25MB |
| JioPages | Native. | There is. | No. | ~30MB |
| Chrome | It takes a mouse. | Through expansion | No. | ~150MB |
As you can see from the table, specialized browsers weigh significantly less and have built-in remote support.Installing heavy Chrome only makes sense if you plug into Xiaomi TV USB-mouse.
Also worth noting is codec support: Some browsers may not play H.265 or VP9 video unless they use Android TV system decoders, in which case the video can be played without sound or with a green image.
Why is Chrome not recommended for TV?
Instructions for installing third-party APK-file
Since Google doesn’t always allow browsers to be placed in the official Play Market store on TVs (or they may not be available in your area), you often have to resort to manual installation. APK-This process is called sideloading.
You'll need a file download app to start with. Xiaomi devices often already have a bootloader or File Manager pre-installed. If they don't, download bootloader from the Play Market on your TV.
Follow the algorithm further:
- 📥 Open bootloader and in the field URL Enter the address of the verified site from APK (for example, apkmirror.com).
- 📥 Find the desired browser version marked as compatible with Android TV.
- 📥 Click Download, wait for the download and confirm the installation in the window that appears.
- 📥 If the system blocks the installation, go to the security settings and allow installation from unknown sources for bootloader.
☑️ Checklist before installation
Once installed successfully, the browser icon will appear in the general application list, which can be displayed on the home screen for quick access, and to do this, press the OK button on the app menu icon and select Move or Favorite.
⚠️ Attention: When installed APK-Always check the permissions you request. The browser does not need access to your contacts, SMS Or a microphone (if you don't plan to make video calls.
Management setting and working with text
The biggest pain of using a browser on a TV is typing, and the virtual keyboard that appears on the screen takes up half the display and is controlled extremely slowly, and there are several ways to solve this problem.
The first way is to use your smartphone as a remote, and you can install the Google Home app (for Android and iOS) or the official Android TV Remote Control app, which lets you use your phone screen as a touchpad and keyboard, which makes it much faster to type in passwords and search queries.
The second way is to connect a physical keyboard. You can plug in. USB-keyboard OTG-cable (if the console has a cable) USB-port) or use a Bluetooth keyboard. Xiaomi TV It recognizes external input devices perfectly, and it becomes as convenient to print as it is on a computer.
The third way is to use browsers with a function QR-Some of the modern code. TV-browsers (such as Puffin or TV Bro in certain modes allows you to scan QR-code on the TV screen by phone to open a special interface for entering text from a mobile device directly into the browser.
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Use the Cast feature in your Chrome browser on your smartphone, and you can open a tab on your phone and send it to your TV by controlling navigation from your mobile device.
Also, in the settings of the browser itself, you can often change the font size. For a TV, it is recommended to set the page scale at least 150% or 200% so that the text is read from a distance of 2-3 meters.
Compatibility problems and their solution
Even when installing specialized software, users can encounter errors, and often sites define the device as a mobile phone and show a mobile version that may not display correctly on the horizontal screen.
In such cases, changing the User Agent helps. Most browsers (such as TV Bro or Firefox) have a browser ID or UA String option, and switching it from Mobile to Desktop or Tablet will make the site think it is open on the computer, and it will redesign the layout.
Another common problem is a lack of RAM: If your Xiaomi console has only 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM, opening heavy sites can lead to the crash of the application.
- 🗑️ Close unused tabs immediately after viewing.
- 🗑️ Clear the browser cache through Android settings TV (Settings → Annexes → [browser] → Clear the cache).
- 🗑️ Disable JavaScript execution for sites where it is not needed (e.g., simple news portals).
If your browser is slow, try turning off hardware acceleration (or vice versa if it is turned off). Different chipsets (Amlogic, MediaTek) that are used in Xiaomi TV, this option works differently.
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Changing User Agent to Desktop is the most effective way to fix the layout of websites on your TV.