Emporium

You say "was" having.. Does this mean you figured out the problem ? Does that portal work with STBEmu (assuming it is a MAC bases sub) ? Just curious. You pic is blanked out, but it looks like there is some sort of URL redirections. Maybe it is something in the redirections that it does not like. IF you try with STBEmu and can confirm it works, then you'll probably have to wait till Monday when the dev is back online. But if you can provide any test results with STBEmu to ensure it works with that, then it would make it easier to try to reproduce.

It's just to test and see if the problem is the portal/service or Buzz. Sometimes servers make changes to the portal that have adverse effects on some devices. Not saying STBEmu is you permanent solution. It is just to test and pinpoint the source if the issue. Yes BuzzTV5 should work correctly.

Have you tried another app like STBEmu, like nbs recommended above. STBEmu is perfect for MAC subs, and it does support catchup.

The easiest way by far on any android device is to create a DHCP reservation on your router and you can provide it any custom DNS servers you want. Some routers (like ASUS) even give you the option to have different groups of machines and each group can get different DNS, Ex: 1 set can get whatever the ISP provides, another can use your PiHole personal server, and other group can use OpenDNS servers. I used to do that many years ago with my Asus router, and All my kids devices (PCs, tablets, etc..) would use OpenDNS with custom category restrictions. All my Media boxes would use my own PiHole to avoid ads in some "shady" apps I used to use back then. And everything else I had set for a combo of google and cloudflare DNS servers. Worked well. Another option is a small app which I have used on a few phones a while ago called "DNSChanger" by "frostnerd". It is a little app, also available in the google play store (and it is open source - Licensed underGPLv3), which you can create a set of alternate servers and when you turn on the app, it uses the alternate servers. The app has the option to auto start on boot, or as soon you connect to WIFI. I have not tried t on a Buzz box, but I'm sure it would work in some form. I don't have a 4000, but at least on my xrs4900, if you are connected via Ethernet, and you go into settings, under network, you can scroll down and you have the option to change your IP settings. So you can change from DHCP to static IP, and define your own gateway, and DNS if you prefer. But that is only available on wired ethernet connection.

I am assuming you have at least tried to unplug the power on the box wait 5 or 10 seconds and then plug it back in ? If something in the hardware is stuck in a strange state, a reboot alone is sometimes not sufficient.

But he says that " pluto tv and cyberlink and other apps work fine". So if there is no internet, the other apps should not work either.

Next time, please start your own thread. First of all, you resurrected a 3 month old thread. Secondly, it is NOT the same buzz box (original post is for an xrs4900, and you are talking about a U5). And surely not the same BuzzTV version. What version of BuzzTV are you using ? What type of sub do you have ? MAC or XC based ? Check to see when you are in Live TV, under Settings->Configuration, all the way at the bottom, do you have an option to change the stream type (TS, HLS/M3U, RTMP) ? If so, try changing the stream type and see if it makes a difference. I believe some providers will dynamically change streams, so that will end up stopping the recordings since the original stream is no longer available. PS: If this doesn't make a difference, then please post the details in your own thread under the correct category (for the U5), to continue the discussion. Thank you.

That is 100% true. I just double checked again and as long as the U5 is plugged in, as soon as you plug the USB-C to a PC, you will see it as an external drive.

Lol.. If you checked the Link to allaboutbuzz's reply which I included in my reply, you would understand. Some people want to be able to add more than one EPG source. So one primary (as we have now), and then some other ones as secondary, etc.. to fill in the gaps that the primary one does not fulfill. It's not a bad idea, but the logic behind how to implement it can become a little messy, so it would certainly require quite a bit of testing. Some even asked for an option to add secondary EPG sources to XC subs. I would personally love to see support in M3U playlists for the url-tvg tag. That way, you can just provide a playlist, and the EPG url would be embedded in the M3U file. Example: #EXTM3U url-tvg="https://github.com/.../EPG/epg.xml" or even better yet, in .gz format which many EPG xml providers offer to significantly decrease the transfer since it is just text and super compressible. #EXTM3U url-tvg="https://github.com/.../EPG/epg.xml.gz"

Only single EPG source is supported at the moment. There are plans to eventually implement it, but no timeline for now.

Like I asked other users.. Are you using the Power supply that came with the unit ? The xrs4900 and the U5 use a 12V power supply. Most of the other Buzz boxes, use a 5V power supply. I know many people when they get a new box, to make things quick, they tend to reuse the existing HDMI, ethernet and even power cables from a previous box. Even though this will power up the box, it will not have enough power for the HDD. Just checking.

Talk to your service. VOD works perfectly fine with both of my services. Problem is not the box.

As DU mentioned, if you have an option, you NEED to ensure it is formatted as Portable Storage and NOT Internal Storage.

Can you try to disable the TS (Timeshift) function for a while to see if that may be causing the issue, since it is a continuous write..

This is probably your IPTV service. LiveTV and VOD are often on different machines, and obviously different services. Just because LiveTV works, does not mean that the server containing all the VOD is working. Very often, many services will post in other forums that VOD/TV Series will be going down for maintenance or rebuild for a certain period. However that does not affect the LiveTV, so they are independent. Check with your IPTV service provider.

The 4500 Upgraded itself to BuzzTV 5 due to the reset. There are 4 launchers "skins" available, you can choose one of the 4. There is the modern, 2 mdeia ones, and the classic (which is like the old 3000 series).

I have the app set to stop streaming after 2hrs of inactivity (you can adjust to your liking). That way even I fall asleep. it will exit to the main screen and stop streaming.

Do you have the powerkey definition set to shutdown, or something else ? If it is "shutdown", then it should go red. When you press the power button, does the box turn off instantaneously, or do you see a little spindle and saying "shutting down", before it goes black ?

I have never seen any clarification on the memory type for the Essentials line. Everywhere it is just mentioned as DDR without any details on DDR3 or DDR4. The S905X3 cpu supports both as far as I know so hard to tell. Maybe the lack of precision is also on purpose. The S2 is an entry level box, and with the current supply chain situation (since the beginning of the pandemic) for all sorts of PCB components, it makes it difficult sometimes to secure supply of one specific chip type (there are some chips that now have 1yr+ of lead time - which is crazy). Leaving it open, can offer them the flexibility to use substitutes when required and able. Entry level boxes would probably be bottlenecked elsewhere, and the DDR3 vs DDR4 would make a very negligible difference for most. If you look at the comparison page from Buzz, you will see that all the entry level boxes are not explicitly mentioned what type of RAM is used. Most of the other boxes are clearly listed as LPDDR4. https://buzztv.com/site/compare/ Is your brother planning to use the box for anything more that the onboard BuzzTV IPTV apps (LiveTV, VOD, TV Series) ? If not, then it won't make any difference. Also, he may want to look into the new E5 model instead. I know it is only 2GB of RAM, but it has the newer S905X4 CPU (vs the S905X3) which is the same CPU as on the flagship X5 and U5 devices, and it also runs on Android 11, instead of Android 9. For use as an IPTV box, using the BuzzTV 5 app, I have to say, I was impressed overall. And this coming from someone who also has even the flagship units (xrs4900, X5 and U5 devices). I was genuinely impressed on how smooth and quick the box is for LiveTV. Everything just loads super quick and runs smooth. Now, if he is planning to run stuff like Kodi with all sorts of plugins, or something else that has heavier requirements, then that is a different story. 2GB may be borderline for that. Anyhow, just my $0.02 worth.

And I'm disappointed that someone who claims to know what the problem is, can't even answer a few simple questions... The simple test with another playlist is to rule out the possibility that there is something in your playlist that it doesn't like. There are so many servers out there, that sometimes some use tags that may cause issues with some apps. If that is what is happening, it will get addressed quickly I am sure, but we need to start with something common before coming to that conclusion. The FIRST OTA update can take quite a few minutes to complete. It checks, then it prepares for a while, then it downloads, and only then it installs. If you interrupted the first OTA update, then a factory reset is probably your best bet at this point since I assume there is not much configured on it yet anyhow.

I typically use something like Solid Explorer which gives you a split screen. On one side I open up a windows (SMB) share (in my case, it's a share folder on my NAS = "Angel"). On the opposite side I go to the subdirectory under /Android/Data/.....where the movies are downloaded, and then I copy&paste from one side to the other. Works perfectly. I have my SMB share bookmarked, so I don't need to constantly browse for it. Same thing for the Android/Data.... directory. And by default when I open solid explorer, it opens up both sides, to the exact same location they were when I closed it. Making a simple task for something you may do regularly. Sorry for the bad pic, but just took a pic of my screen

If you click the Settings icon on the top, there should be an option for Server settings. There, depending on your iptv subscription type, you can add a MAC server, XC server or M3U playlist type. MAC server is obviously tied to the Server ID you see on the top right of the server setup screen "00:1A:79......". so if you had your service on another box, you will need to contact your reseller and ask them to change it to this new MAC, and you need to create an entry with the Portal URL as they have given you. XC, you will typically be given a portal URL and a username/password to go with it. So you add a new XC server and fill in the info, SAVE and CONNECT. M3U, is exactly that. It is an M3U link, which often has your username/password encoded in the URL they provide you. Typically with this type of entry, they will give you a second URL which is for EPG, which you can enter.

LiveTV and VOD buttons will launch the BuzzTV LiveTV or VOD app, and would be connected to the last server you were connected to. So if you only have one IPTV service provider, you just need to enter your liveTV server info like Dishuser mentioned.

Why do people insist on hijacking other threads. You have an issue ? open you own thread. OP never even posted what specific device they have,

One clarification, the drive provided is NOT an SSD drive. It is just 1 TB blue laptop 2.5" drive. I actually installed a 1TB Micron SSD drive and have no heat issues on my unit. When I did my initial testing of the device I left it on for at least 3 days straight and doing at least 3 or 4 recording a day, and had no disconnects. Even on my older xrs4900, I installed a 240GB SSD instead to avoid any heat build up. Do you have a spare small SSD drive to see if the problem is due to the heat accumulation from the mechanical drive ?