Emporium

Don't discount modem, or even VPN. The crappy modems some ISP provide do have memory leaks, which can cause all sorts of strange behaviours. Also, many ISP are known to start throttling out of the blue or outright blocking certain destinations. My ISP every couple of months decides to block some servers. It's as if they are testing blocking techniques, and then 2 or 3 days later they re back to the way they were. VPN is to try to see if that is the case. Did you check on any other device (other box or even your phone) to see if the problem is not on the server end ?

Did you try using your spare router on his modem ?

Not saying it is the Dlink stuff, but just don't discount it. They are not what they used to be. And the fact that they release 1 maybe 2 firmware upgrades in the lifetime of a product (compared to ASUS who releases one every 3 months), doesn't say much for their product support. And it is easy to overlook something which should technically work and other stuff seems to work. If you have a spare old router, it might be worth bringing with you, just in case all other tests fail.

The Dlink router is always a suspect for me. Had a buddy buy a brand new Dlink router from costco, and within 3 weeks, his IPTV service had all sorts of glitches, even though everything else seemed to work fine.. I lent him my old spare ASUS router for him to test and all worked like a charm. Needless to say, it went back to costco real fast, and he picked up an ASUS one from another local shop.

First of all, posting actual portals or naming specific services is a no,no... Can you have them try with some other software just as a test, like "smarters" ? Just to see if it is a home networking issue ? If the account is confirmed active, and all modem/router rebooted, it can still be an ISP block (which VPN could help). Have they tried on thier home network to use thier phone and install smarters (available both on Android and from Apple store), and try to connect ? If they get error on thier phone also, they can stop assuming it is a box issue, and concentrate on their network. One issue I had a while back (and a friend had recently) was a bad Dlink switch. Yes, friends should not let friends buy dlink junk (they are not what they used to be 20+yrs ago). the switch had failed and it was affecting NOT only the stuff connected to it, but pretty much everything. Disconnected the Dlink switch and all worked like a charm.

Just curious, when you say stuck at the buzz emblem, how long did you give it ? Just asking, because I recently manually updated a different box and I thought it was bricked because it went through boot logo, boot animation and then stuck at buzz logo, for what seemed to be close to 3 or 4 minutes. 3 or 4 minutes can feel like a super long time when you are stuck staring at a screen doing nothing. But low and behold, after the 3 or 4 minutes, it started the initialization.

Is the SB connected via HDMI to the TV or box ? Try disabling any HDMI CEC options in the box. Settings->HDMI or something like that, I am not in front of my box now. The SB remote should not be able to control the Buzz box, unless HDMI CEC is configured and connected in a certain sequence. But that does mean that you will NOT be able to control the SB volume from the Buzz Box. What you can do, is disable "force max volume" on the Buzz box. Then set the sound bar to something like the 70% max volume position, and then use the volume on the buzz box (which should be variable) to control the volume. That is what I have done with my Mom's bose soundbar (don't recall model). So she never touches the soundbar volume. It is fixed at 70% of it's max volume setting, and then box just outputs a variable audio volume which comes through the soundbar. It's pretty much the same we used to do in the good old days when things were simple. Set the receiver to a fixed volume, and then control the TV variable volume level

Really bad luck I guess. I know it is just out of warranty, but you got nothing to lose by contacting cs @ Buzz.com and see what your options are. I've never had a buzz box fail on me yet.

So that would explain it Vizio is notorious for that. When my mom had hers, it would interfere with the Buzz Box, and even her Electric fireplace. I had to put a cover over the fireplace IR receiver and use the on unit buttons since it was annoying to accidently turn it on. Guess there is not much you can do for this. Just "workarounds" depending on how you use it. Enjoy your experimentation.

Is you xpl2000 connected to another TV ? Try swapping the TVs they are connected to. Just want to see if it is the TV or something else at fault. Sound strange, but I used to have an LG TV in my bedroom and it was a pain in the butt for audio. It had adjustments on the TV to control the HDMI audio delay, but it was annoying, because there was no setting which would help for all channels. Funny, I switched it out for a 27" computer monitor, with a basic soundbar connected to the HMDI Audio out that is integrated on the monitor, and it has been solid. And when DU tells you to switch video player, it is part of the X5 options, under Menu->settings->configuration and you have video player selection for LiveTV and another for VOD/TV Series. For my service I use Primary for LiveTV and Secondary or external for VOD/TV Series. For external I have MX Player, VLC and HB Player installed and it is nice to have the option for some oddly encoded mp4/mkv files.

From another thread in this forum (if you search for "VIZIO".. So if you hit the Mute key on your Vizio remote, you will see a #9 show up on your Buzz box

And are you using a bluetooth soundbar or something ? Or direct HDMI to TV and Audio on TV as encoded on HDMI ? I've had issues with some cheaper/older bluetooth devices, but work perfectly well on better devices. If it is only a few channels, Have you tried a different service ? Could be your service having issue with those channels ?

I'll try to up it later this weekend or Monday. Taking advantage of the nice weather to finish some of my outdoor stuff I need to do before winter.

Do you have plenty of free storage onboard or have you nearly maxed out the onboard storage ?

The procedure is not really that complicated if you take the time to read it, step by step. Formats and volume identifiers will vary from one disk to another and even if you get a new disk, you still risk not having it recognized. Not every device will like a Windows centric formatting. Just like Windows would not recognize any EXT3 or EXT4 filesystems, or other partitions Linux or Android could throw at it. You can't expect Android to recognize the hundreds of variation Windows has.

COPY/PASTE of my previous answer in other thread I just tried my WD 2TB "My Passport" and had no issues. Also tried a 2TB WD "My Passport ULTRA", also no issues. I also tried with a Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB external and that would always give me "ejected". I connected it to my Windows PC, and I opened a command prompt and then started DISKPART. From DISKPART> prompt, I did a "LIST DISK" to identify my USB drive. Then I did a "select disk 3", since that was the disk number of my USB disk. The did a "LIST DISK" again to ensure that DISK 3 was selected. Then I did a "clean" to wipe everything from the disk (including MBR). Ejected disk, then went into Disk Manager (diskmgmt.msc). Re-connected my USB disk. Then it show up as "not initialized" (which is good). Right click the not-initialized box on the left, and select "initialize disk" and choose as "MBR" (not GPT). Then right click the allocated space, and select to "create a new Simple Volume". And when you get to the filesystem type, don't format as NTFS, select exFAT. Eject drive, plug back into X5 SS and it works perfectly again.

I just tried my WD 2TB "My Passport" and had no issues. Also tried a 2TB WD "My Passport ULTRA", also no issues. I also tried with a Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB external and that would always give me "ejected". I connected it to my Windows PC, and I opened a command prompt and then started DISKPART. From DISKPART> prompt, I did a "LIST DISK" to identify my USB drive. Then I did a "select disk 3", since that was the disk number of my USB disk. The did a "LIST DISK" again to ensure that DISK 3 was selected. Then I did a "clean" to wipe everything from the disk (including MBR). Ejected disk, then went into Disk Manager (diskmgmt.msc). Re-connected my USB disk. Then it show up as "not initialized" (which is good). Right click the not-initialized box on the left, and select "initialize disk" and choose as "MBR" (not GPT). Then right click the allocated space, and select to "create a new Simple Volume". And when you get to the filesystem type, don't format as NTFS, select exFAT. Eject drive, plug back into X5 SS and it works perfectly again. PS: Please post in the correct section for any further support. This section is for "AR200 - remotes"..

First of all, is the sound bar using IR on the remote or is is some sort of RF (including Bluetooth) ? The learning button on the BT-250 are for IR only. If it is using IR, then you should be able to "learn" the buttons from the sound bar remote, just like you did for learning the power button from the TV remote. But there is also small possibility that the sound bar uses a frequency range which is NOT within the range supported by the IR on the BT-250 remote. Section 2 of the BT-250 manual described the learning function. https://buzztv.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BT-250_Manual_V1.1.pdf When you are trying to learn the buttons from the soundbar, does the BT-250 red light flash 4 times (to indicate that it has learned a button) ?

Damn... All I have to say to Buzz team is WOW & huge thanks with this old box. Emailed CS, and after a little back and forth and nearly had just given up (not a biggie since it is an old box), they came through. They managed to find the last firmware they sent out to the MATE 1 (which essentially rebranded it to a Buzz) and they sent me it, I managed to install it with a USB key through recovery and the box now works like a charm. The firmware brings the box up to Firmware V20200326 with S/W version 2.0 (354). I just remembered, they also sent me the APK for (357) which was the last version the released for the MATE1 I believe. I did not try it after the firmware update (since tried it before the firmware update and it would not work due to other API/dependency issues). Tested it with MAC/ XC and M3U and works fine now. I have asked for permission and was given the OK, and I will upload the file (probably later this weekend) to the Downloads section of this forum in case anyone else wants to dust off the old box and give it a new life. Thanks again BUZZ team

If you are still having "Media not supported" issues on BuzzTV 5 on older boxes, they it is time to change providers. I have seen providers that are ALL over the place in terms of encoding. Encoding of channels in 3 or 4 different formats and no consistency. I had a few channels on the main service I watch that needed me to switch to "secondary" player to be able to watch them. Mentioned it to my provider, and in no time, the encoding was changed and no longer need to do that, and all channels work perfectly. But if you do not report it with some details to buzz, it will never get addressed. There are literally thousands of providers out there, and some use very strange codecs and strange settings within codecs. Also, keep in mind, that as with all things, everything is a compromise. Can't add every codec under the sun either. It's different to watch a movie and you want all codecs, and it is different for liveTV channel surfing. For LiveTV you need the player to be responsive. If it take 2 or 3 seconds on every channel change to tune into and start playing a channel, it would be VERY annoying. For watching VOD, even if it take 5 seconds to get started, who really cares.

If all else fails, you can do a total hard reset of the box. You will need to re-setup/re-configure everything however if you have not taken a backup in BuzzTV 5. Here are the instructions: https://stbtalk.com/topic/300-factory-reset-hard-reset-xr4500-xrs4500/

Technically, I'd prefer one of the other remotes that have IR learn keys for that kind of stuff (IR100, IR200, BT100, BT200, BT250 and now the BT350). You can learn the Power keys from the various TVs and just assign them to the different keys. One TV directly on the TV Power key, one to the "Source" button, and even others if you have and want to the "tv vol + and -" buttons (since they are separate from the box volume). On the Smart remotes (BT300, BT400, BT500) not that simple. First instinct would be to try manually programming the remote to the second TV (assuming it is one of the main brands supported), and then use HDMI CEC to control the main TV. But the issues is that programming the remote to the second TV would also assign the Volume buttons. So short of being to same brands with same code for power button (like Ryu) mentioned, I don't think so.

I just got my buddies Boomerang Mate 1 to try to update it (has been powered off for ages), but obviously nothing on server (not surprised consider how old it is). Current state is: V20190207 with V2.0(239) presently installed. Did a hard factory reset ,I tried installing the buzz 352 software (as posted above) which I already had and used to update his (and mine) old xpl3000 [and had no issues with the xpl3000 units], but it gives me an error "BuzzTV 2, App not installed. The package conflicts with an existing package by the same name". Tried installing from Appinstaller and File Browser that are preinstalled. Not sure what package it doesn't like, because the main package on the mate1 seems to be com.boomerang.* while the buzz ones (including 352, are com.buzztv.*. So maybe it is some common dependencies. All I really wanted to do is install a later version of BuzzTV 2, so he has the "streaming line" option, to be able to use it with w$%^#d and XC connection. The xpl3000 after updating to 352 and enabling streaming line and credentials works fine. A little slow (by todays standards), but it works quite well. Even tried checking recovery screen if there was some way to install the apk by forcing it, but I did not find anything. However when I used to have an old boomerang myself, I could have sworn I had taken an update which pretty much rebranded it to a buzz box, and even replaced the boomerang logo on the top left with a buzz logo. If that update was still available somehow for use with a microsd card to update the box, that would be great. I really don't want to install something like "smar..." app to use it with XC API.

Try to understand. As DU mentioned, Buzztv5 is an APP on your Buzz Classic. The issue you are describing has NOTHING to do with BuzzTV 5. BuzzTV 5 is what allows you to watch LiveTV, VOD, TV Series, and record, etc.. Any further discussion regarding this issue should be moved over to the Classic thread.

Like DU said, NO. Why would you even think they would ? They have only even just VERY recently released new boxes with Android 13. And Buzz does not typically upgrade the OS on their boxes.