My bad…
The latest firmware for Mi Box 3 contains a bug.
For those of you who are interested, here’s a tip on the command line to manage the passthrough on the mi box:
Enable developer options
adb connect <IP Mi box>: 5555
adb shell settings put global digital_sound 1
adb shell settings put global encoded_surround_output 2
encoded_surround_output 0 = auto (random behavior)
encoded_surround_output 1 = pcm
encoded_surround_output 2 = always
I recommend option 2 (always)