Emporium

This is acceptable as long as you don't do any super long recordings or downloads of 4k VOD. Android boxes have a tendency of formatting in FAT32 (the U5 is NOT excluded), which has a 4GB file size limit. So any downloads or recording that are larger than 4GB would be truncated. Best option is to do as I have mentioned on Nov 17, in the thread you had hijacked and we were still kind enough to keep replying to you. But obviously, if you continued to format on the U5, you did not retain any of those recommendations, which was to format in exFAT if you want the best compatibility. And even in that hijacked thread, you would never answer the questions we'd ask. And the questions still remains unanswered. Unanswered question from last thread: What player are you using for LiveTV ? If you swap to the other player, do your streams also work fine ? Unanswered question from nbs's post above mac,xcapi or m3u Have you tried browsing you HDD/SSD with something like VLC and seeing if you can play back your recordings ?

VOD descriptions are gone ? Hmm.. Doesn't sound right. Never seen that. Maybe it is worth deleting the server entry completely and then recreating it to force a complete resync. The timing with the TS thing I think was just a coincidence. What version of BuzzTV are you using (if you hit the Menu key from the LiveTV screen, it is on the bottom. 5.0.xxx)

If you turn time shift off, does the EPG work again ? Did you try to CLEAR EPG, to see if it repopulates ? What type of login (MAC, XC or M3U) ? What version of BuzzTV are you using (if you hit the Menu key from the LiveTV screen, it is on the bottom. 5.0.xxx

Kind of hard to do anything if the box does not power on They did say they tried to do the pin reset procedure, and still no joy, it stays red. One thing I would do, is disconnect the HDMI cable when doing these tests (just in case some CEC is taking control). @jol173 you mentioned "I tried doing the hard reset by pushing and keeping the reset button pressed for 15 seconds and plugging the power back on" I'm assuming you pressed the button (through the AV hole), then plugged it in and THEN waited 15 second (while holding the button). You don't press, wait 15 seconds and then plug it in. Just checking.

Are you using the right power supply ? The 4900 and U5 use a 12V power supply, and all other Buzz boxes use a 5V power supply. Using a 5V on the 4900 will not harm it, but will not turn it on either. It is a common error from those who have more than one buzz box. If you are using the right one, it may be defective. Would you happen to have another 12V power supply around that would fit ?

Buzz boxes can install APK easily (unless the APK you want specifically required root). Put them on a USB key, launch the app Installer and select the apk of your choice. Or like in my case, I have an "apk install" directory on my NAS, I use Solid Explorer, and go directly to the NAS share and click the apks one after the other to install them (after giving solid explorer permission to install apps). Makes reinstalling any box, a simple task. And not much that I know of that requires root today for use on a media box.

Guess you must be, considering the first reply from DU clearly stated to turn group channel numbering ON. This would get you what you are looking for, but you have just decided to keep replying, but not once answer to say if you DO or DO NOT have it turned on ? If you have it ON and still can't get it to work, we can move to the next check. And clearly from the screenshots above, it is NOT a widespread problem, since it works fine for most of us. Grumpy or illiterate.. It has to be one or the other.

The firmware issue which was unfortunately stuck with no updates was addressed pretty quickly (it can happen to anyone, and they did own up to it). 3 options were provided: If you have a small SD card (even a small 8GB was plenty - probably even smaller would suffice), you can download the required files, make yourself a microSD card and a procedure was provided on how to boot from the SD card and take the update to get past this. Other option was that Buzz would send you a microSD card to do the update if you really did not have and SD card, and not willing to buy $5(max) card... And in some rare cases where people could not follow instructions and bricked their boxes, Buzz did provide replacements. I had come into possession of a large number of 8GB microSD cards, and even though I do not work for Buzz, I personally even offered many users to create a card and ship it to them. For many of my colleagues, I had them bring their boxes into the office and I did the update for them. It was a simple process. Every company has had glitches and strange events. Hell I have boxes from all sorts, from generic Android boxes, Mii Boxes, Nvidia and even BeeLink. They have ALL had their issues. BeeLink even abandoned support for one of their boxes less than 6 months after release, when they could not fix some video issues when they first ventured into the S912 CPU. What distinguishes them is how they recover from it and provide the support. Buzz has not abandoned anyone. For every 100 happy customers, you will always have at least 1 grumpy idiot who doesn't even try to help themselves and all they do is complain. And they tend to be very vocal. So I take many of these complaints with a grain of salt. Those who are willing to debug and answer questions to determine the source of the problem, often get the help they are looking for and then some.

Also gave the X5 a pretty damn nice review also (4.7 on 5). And this was not just first impressions, it was after using it as his regular box for about a week.

The few bad reviews are from a handful of users who came here asking for help, but refused to answer the questions asked of them. They assume they know everything and refuse to answer simple questions. If the unit turns out to be defective (and every company has a few), Buzz is pretty damn good at replacing them. Also, one of the biggest issue with the U5, is people with previous buzzTV boxes, have a tendency of trying the lazy option when swapping boxes, and tend to use the power supply of their previous box. The power supply fits (unfortunately), and will often even power up the box. But the other boxes (except for the 4900) all use a 5V power supply. The 4900 and U5 use a 12V power supply and hence will be very unstable with a 5V power supply. Also, some people want the boxes so badly, and even though they are not for sale in their country, they will go through freight forwarders or other logistics companies to get their box to their country. If something goes wrong however, don't expect Buzz to pick up the warranty shipping to a country they technically do not ship to (even though they have in some cases). And because of this, they are pretty bitter. And I don't have issues with 4900 and the numbering. However during one of the last updates, for some reason the default sort order did change on both my 4900 boxes. But put it back to my preference and it was fine. Not saying buzz is perfect. Every company has a few issues with any product. But they are typically quite good at fixing issues quickly and taking care of their customers. But some people feel so entitled and do nothing but curse, don't cooperate for trying to identify the issue, and are so negative. No matter what you do some people are just miserable by nature.

Can you post the current Firmware and BuzzTV version you have on those boxes ? When you say factory reset, is that via the settings menu, or via the "pin" method ?

I also use cable on all my boxes and used to always disable my WiFi. But at the time, I recalled that on older laptops, it was the same intel chip that used to control both the WiFi and BT. So I figured, maybe the 2 were linked on these boxes also and it did seem to make a difference on that box which was having issues. Now, was it just coincidence ? maybe But obviously something gets latched, and for me, it did help a few times.

At this point in time, there is no option for that. It would definitely be a nice feature to add in the future. I know it has been available on other boxes for a while now, and once you mount an SMB share, you can even use it as a destination for recording and even timeshift. The only smb service at the moment, are when you enable the "Network Shares" option (in the Settings->BuzzTV Utilities section), which turns on the samba service and shares the internal storage on your network. Would also like to see the option to share the external storage also (USB or sata drive on the U5).

I used to have this issue quite a while ago on one of my 2 xrs4900 boxes, and they were both at same firmware level. I had tried everything and could not figure it out. Even tried toggling the WiFi and BT (which had helped previously - maybe try that) and could not figure it out. And it was working fine for months before that. Then suddenly one day it just started to work (not due to an update). I gave no clue what fixed it, but have not seen it since. I was waiting for the right time to do a factory reset (as next resort) but didn't have to do it finally.

Look for the Buzz xrs4500 or xrs4900. Remote is the same and those are in the harmony database. They have "BUZZTV XRS 4900", "BUZTV XRS4500" and "BUZZTV XRS 4000" Either one should work. Hey, even the X5 is listed - and it will work also.

And why would buzz care to support a 3rd party remote ? I am the first to say I am not a huge fan of the BT300/400 remote. It works, but not my favourite. Personally, my favourite remote for buzz boxes is the BT200 (which was the default has been discontinued), but the BT250 is a close second, and it does work with the X5 (default remote with The Classic).

When you say it "breaks" can you elaborate. I have not noticed any issues with EPG on my xrs4500 using XC at least (I have not tried any m3u). Have you tried Clearing the EPG after you update ? Have you tried Clearing the Buztv5 cache ? If there is any corruption, at least this will force it to redownload EPG. And under XC, is you EPG source set to set to XML EPG or Server EPG in the settings ?

Depending on the age of the "children" and how clever they are, you could put a remote power plug (like the TP-Link kasa plugs), and you can turn it off when you leave the house. I use a bunch of TP-Link HS-103 to turn off a small space heater in my daughter's room and other devices (like xmas lights) when we are not home and we forget to turn it off. I know older children may catch on and bypass the remote plug adapter, but it is something, better thank nothing Guess for you, it would ideal to have an "application" password, which would prevent any launching the BuzzTV 5 LiveTV or VOD app. Unfortunately it is not an option at the moment.

My E5 has been solid. No freezing issues at all with my service. I am wired however (not wireless). Are you wireless ? If so, just as a test, is it a possibility to connect it via wire ? Maybe it is an issue with wireless ? From the Update screen, can you post your Firmware version and IPTV software version ?

Simple way to Childproof it completely. Take away the remote. There is unfortunately no decent "app" remote. They've be able to unplug and plug it back to get power to the box, but they will just stare at the home screen

The problem is that most VOD are MP4 and do not have embedded subtitles by default. Sometimes (mostly on the 4k releases) they are mkv containers which include many subtitle tracks. Odds are that the VOD you chose do NOT actually include subtitles. There are some external players which allow you to try to download subtitles from sources like opensubtitles, etc... Just tried the Mummy (on my service) and it doesn't have subtitles either. Using Titan Player and selecting the subtitle option allows me to search on opensubtitles, and I chose one and it matched perfectly. But it was subtitles for everything in this case, not just the foreign parts). I also tried playing Barbie (4K version) using the "backup" player, and it had nearly 20 different subtitle languages to choose from Same for Equalizer 3 (4k version).

Are you sure the subtitles for the movie you are watching are not embedded into the movie (ie: not really a subtitle track) Some services will take movies blindly off various sources (especially for newer movies) and will just put them on their service without trying to get something "clean", if it is even available. So many released movies do often contained subtitles that are embedded in the video stream. Can't turn those off. Not saying that is the case here, but something to consider. Have you tried using a different player for VOD ? Primary, backup, or even external and use whatever player you want... ? Just to see if all players have the same issue.

On my xrs4500 I just checked and I have V20220919 (which I believe is the latest public release - but I could be wrong). Send your MAC address to allaboutbuzz and he can probably push the latest to your box.

Pretty sure nothing you did made a difference. It was probably a glitch on the server end. Either way, glad it is back up for you. Cheers.

FYI, on this forum we don't mention specific service names... It is not permitted. No information, sounds like an issue on the server end, but try clearing EPG to force it to redownload and see if it continues. And if it persists, you can try with smarters and see if it has same issue or not. BTW Is the date and time on your box correct ? Just making sure, since that could influence what you see or don't see in Program Guide