Here are the signs that it’s time to upgrade your media player, explore top streaming options like the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Xiaomi TV Box S (3rd Gen), and NVIDIA Shield TV Pro, and learn how a simple upgrade can enhance your home entertainment experience. Picture: Xiaomi
Image: Xiaomi
It’s generally not a good idea to watch TV until you fall asleep… blue light and all that jazz. But that’s exactly the situation I find myself in, and every night I put on one of my favourite animated shows like Bojack Horseman or Rick and Morty to help me relax and drift off.
However, recently this has not worked very well for me as my Xiaomi media player keeps crashing while I watch my shows on Netflix.
While it should signal that I should be calling it a night, it’s anything but as it leaves me frustrated that my tech is failing me.
It got me thinking: how long should you wait before upgrading your media player or smart TV?
Of course, you have less of an option if it’s your Smart TV because that’s a much bigger outlay.
Therefore, I’m going to look at media players specifically. Now, this media player is pretty decent, but this model Xiaomi TV Box S (2nd Gen) came out in 2023 and I got it the same year.
That’s not even a full four years I’ve got out of it, and that’s just not acceptable.
There’s always the option of doing a factory reset, and that’s what I’ll probably try first.
If that fails to fix my media player crashing regularly, I’ll have to fork out for something new.
The reality is that most streaming media players tend to last around three to five years before performance issues start creeping in. Apps get heavier, operating systems get updated, and hardware that once felt snappy suddenly struggles to keep up.
In other words, if your media player is crashing, lagging, or randomly closing apps while you’re halfway through an episode, it’s probably a sign the hardware is starting to show its age.
And unfortunately, the cost of upgrading is often cheaper than the frustration of trying to squeeze another year out of an ageing device.
If you do decide it’s time to upgrade, there are several excellent streaming players available right now.
The budget-friendly option is the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It’s one of the most popular streaming sticks on the market thanks to its fast interface, support for 4K streaming and Dolby Vision, and the fact that it simply plugs straight into your TV’s HDMI port.
If you want something similar to what many Android TV users are already familiar with, sticking with the new (2025 release) Xiaomi TV Box S (3rd Gen) is also an option. It runs Google TV, supports all the major streaming apps, and is usually one of the more affordable dedicated streaming boxes available.
For those who want the absolute best performance, the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro remains the gold standard. It’s more expensive than most media players, but it offers powerful hardware, AI-powered upscaling, and some of the longest software support in the industry.
The good news is that media players are still one of the cheaper upgrades you can make in your home entertainment setup. Unlike replacing a full smart TV, swapping out a streaming box can instantly breathe new life into an older screen.
Which is exactly what I might need to do if I want Bojack Horseman to stop freezing halfway through an existential monologue.
And frankly, that’s the last thing anyone needs right before falling asleep.