Emporium

I have rarely had to use backup player for LiveTV streams at least. It is my default for VOD/TV Series however. The only time I "try" switching to backup player on livetv is when I have a channel that starts acting up, glitching or no audio. And the switch over is just to confirm, but I often report it, and it is fixed quickly and then works fine with primary player again without an issue. The backup player is touchy. Sometimes I found it doesn't even scale properly. If you go into menu and change from primary to backup and then go quickly into EPG or something where the stream is in a window, when you try to get out of it, it doesn't go back to full screen. And sometimes the windowed version is not scaled, it is actually just a crop of the top right of the screen So it is touchy. So far with dozens of servers I have tried over the years, I have never really needed to switch between Primary and backup much. Guess I'm just lucky. Now for some M3U playlists I have, which are a collection of streams from various sources, that unfortunately, there have been cases where I do need to switch, but I often try and find another stream which plays well with Primary player. There is unfortunately no "Perfect player". Maybe an additional option like exoplayer would be a nice alternative. VLC used to be my goto player on PC and Android a few years ago. But the last 2 years, I have seen it become more and more unstable in my experience. Not a buzz issue, but since the backup player is libvlc, it is probably inherits all of the VLC issues when using the backup player.

All electronic items can go defective. Doesn't take much. One bad bit in a memory chip can kill any device. And it can happen for a variety of reasons. Even a simple static discharge, if you are unlucky, can do it. My E2 (and many other buzztv boxes I have) has taken dozens of updates over the years, and so far I have not had any issues with any of them.

There is no good reason today to buy a new E2 (from a 3rd party seller) unless it is super discounted. The unit is an old model (announce in 2020, and introduced beginning of 2021). It was great for it's time and got some long term support (started with BuzzTV 4, got many updates, then was updated to even support BuzzTV 5). I still use mine on the TV in my Kitchen for nearly 5 years now. I don't know where you are located. The newer Entry level 5 series (B5 and E5 essentials) are about the same price nowadays, direct from buzz. And when you get them during holiday events, they have 15% off sales (or a buy one get one 50% off - perfect if you are buying 2 boxes), free shipping within Canada for orders over CAD$99, and those outside of Ontario even save on provincial taxes.

Have you tried on another device, or downloaded another app (like Smarters) to confirm that the server actually works and not having issues ?

And you are using what media player to watch it ? You say downloaded, from an IPTV service using BuzzTV app ? If it is from an IPTV service, is it the same service ? When you say download the series, you have all the episodes now under "PVR Downlowds" and trying to play them from there ? Just trying to understand where the episodes are downloaded from, and what app/media player is being used. And if you try to play the same episodes using the VOD app on the BuzzTV box (ie: streaming it instead of pre-downloading it), any difference ?

For VOD, you can use external player. And some external players, allow you to open subtitles from sites like opensubtitles. So if you need subs for movies, try using an external player that allows you to open external subtitles, and use that to select and download one from some public subtitles site.

the the Menu->Settings->configuration on the top you can select what player you want to use for LiveTV (Primary is typically best for that), and for VOD/TV Series (personal experience, backup or external is best for that). For external, I typically use something like MX Player, or HB Player. If external player can't play your files, then the problem is probably with your service. They may have changed something. Also, if they are VOD which you had bookmarked, try to re-search for them. Sometimes, when a server rearranges their files, the bookmarks break and point to wrong locations. Re-searching for them and trying to play them, will often yield the correct links. That is because the SERVER has either moved their files to a new server or just redone the storage organization.

Going to need more info. Is this using the BuzzTV LiveTV app, VOD, recorded/downloaded media ? Some other 3rd party app. We don't even know what Buzz box you are using.

Just making sure you checked that there was no MicroSD installed in the box ? I know it was old, but it was worth a shot. Even if it had managed to "downgrade" you could have then updated back to buzztv5 (even if you had to ask them to push the latest update to the box [assuming they even still have it]). Box is quite old, so I would not expect miracles. I have a few different boxes from different vendors and many are now dead. Got nothing to lose to email customer support and see if there is any options. But obviously with the holidays upon us, don't expect any super quick reply.

And you are sure you removed all external storage ? No USB, and no MicroSD card installed ? Sound like some serious corruption if it always jumps to the recovery screen. I'd say to try to contact cs @ buzztv.com first and see if they have any recommendations. If all else fails, you have nothing to lose to try using the update that is presently in the downloads section maybe. Maybe it repairs the file that has gotten corrupt. https://stbtalk.com/files/file/6-e2-series-update/

Hence why it is always a good idea to use the backup feature that is within the BuzzTV app (menu->settings->configuration) and select backup/restore. Save it to a USB stick (file it generates is tiny, so perfect reuse of those tony old USB sticks). I have some tiny 128MB sticks lying around from ages ago from some promo item thingy, and that is what I use to back all my units up. If you accidently delete data or need to do a factory reset due to a bad update or something, you always have your server info on the USB stick, including all you favorites saved for a quick restore. Back up and running in a few short minutes.

Not enough room ? Has he checked under settings and storage to see if it it really nearly out of storage ? Do they use the internal storage for recording or downloading media ? If so, maybe delete a recording or 2 ?

No, the BT400 only pairs to some limited brands of TVs only. And there is no IR learning keys either. The BT/IR200 series of remotes, does not pair with other devices, but they have 4 keys which can "learn" IR codes from other IR remotes. The IR/BT100 remotes have 2 keys which can "learn" IR codes from other IR remotes. What I typically do in cases like this is set my receiver (and I have an old Yamaha myself), to about the 60% position (which would represent the max volume I would ever use), and then disable the "force max volume" option, so that way the volume buttons on the BT400 remote actually control a variable volume level from the box itself. So when the box says 10%, 50%, etc.. of volume, that represents a proportion of the max level you have already dialed in on your receiver. I know it may not sound convenient, but at least this way, you only need to set a volume once on your receiver, and then the rest of the time, you can control the volume from your Buzz box remote. PS: If you have already tried to pair/program the BT400 remote, you may need to just do a factory reset on the remote. If you wish to factory reset your remote to erase all settings press and hold the D-Pad Down button and the 0 (Zero) button for 4 seconds until it blinks 3 times to indicate the remote is factory reset BT300/400 remote manual: https://buzztv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/BT400-300_manual_MOBILE_v6_Compress.pdf

Also, if you have a VPN service available, try installing and using a decent VPN service. Sure it will bring the 900 speed down, but sometimes many ISPs have a tendency of throttling media streams to speeds just enough for HD or FHD.. Anything higher will struggle. Using HEVC/H.265 encoded streams for higher resolution streams, helps quite a bit if that is an option with your provider.

Guess it was muscle memory. Where the back button is on the BT/IR 100/200 remotes, is now the GUIDE/EPG button on the BT250/350 remotes. Guess it would explain why you see the EPG screen. Cheers