Emporium

Hmm.. Just got the update on my 4900. But I don't see any change. I uninstalled an App from the "all apps" screen and it updates perfectly (as it did before on the 4900). But then I go into "App Installer" from the all apps screen, installed an app from my USB key, and then when I exit App Installer and fall into the "all apps" screen, the app is not there. Exit back to home, and then back to All apps and it is fine.

I also tested on the 4900 with latest beta, and it is "similar", but not exactly the same. ie: when you Install an app, it doesn't refresh (like the others). But when you delete an app, it DOES properly refresh.

As I was playing with the HD5, I noticed one little glitch Let's say you are in the "All Apps" screen, then select something like AppInstaller or FileBrowser and install an APK (or a few). When you exit APPInstaller or FileBrowser, the "All Apps" screen does not refresh to include any of the new programs that were installed. If you go back out to the HOME screen and go back into the "All Apps" screen, it is now refreshed and includes the newly installed apps. The same issue occurs when you are on the All Apps screen, select an installed app, and LONG press to get the context menu ("Add Shortcut & Uninstall"). Then select uninstall. It will uninstall the program, but when it returns back to the "All Apps" screen, the ICON is still there. You can click it and it does nothing (obviously, since it was uninstalled). Go back to Home screen and then back to "All Apps" and ICON is no longer there. So some sort of refresh is missing when in the "All Apps" screen when you add or remove programs. . Just in case: HD5, running V20220628 BTW: Just tested on X5 and it is the exact same behavior.

Just took 742 on my 4900 and tested it, and works as expected now. Thanks for the quick fix. Guess it will eventually make it to the X5.

You said you did you did the usual stuff, clear cache, etc... However did you clear STORAGE for the youtube app ? There is not much that Youtube stores, but maybe something strange is latched. Clearing "storage" should essentially return the app to factory default state. If that fails, then it is something else on the box that is causing it. Not using VPN or something else like dynamic VPN changer or something ?

Have you tried another USB drive ? Some USB drives (mostly generic brands - but many name brands also), are sometimes decent speed for reading, but SUPER slow for write speeds. IF the drive is too slow then it is possible to get a buffer overflow as it tries to write to the stick (ie: data coming in faster than the drive can write), which can be an issue. Also, how is your USB stick formatted ? I strongly recommend using the buzz box to format it as portable storage. Different types of file systems have different limitations. FAT32 has a limit of a max file size of 4GB. exFAT which is often used for larger USB keys, is not always "fully" supported on Android. Then you have NTFS, which as far as I know is not natively supported on Android. The internal memory is often formatted in a linux type EXT3/EXT4 type filesystem, which is natively supported and also does not have any filesize limitation. So, try different external storage (maybe even try an external USB HDD), and format it as portable storage using the buzz box itself. @Trafford Have you tried any other USB media ? Try another USB stick or even an external USB HDD. Many generic USB keys are just pure junk, or sometimes some are just flaky/defective.

Have you tried formatting it using the Buzz box ? Keep in mind that Windows (by default) will not format USB storage more than 32GB in size with FAT32. Can be bypassed from the command line using ( format /FS:FAT32 X: - where X: is the letter of your USB drive). But, if I recall FAT32 also has a 4GB single file size limitation. I am not 100% sure if Android supports exFAT(or at least starting from what version of Android was it supported). I am not in front of my PC/Box right now to test, but you can test it on your box and see. If you format exFAT and your box recognizes the disk, then great. If not, try format directly on buzz box. Otherwise you can force FAT32, but pretty sure that would restrict single files to max of 4GB which could be a problem for larger recordings. Guess it is time for try a few things

Out of curiosity, I went to Settings->Device Preferences->Storage. From there I see "Internal shared storage" with Total space of 115GB. Then if I select it to see the details, I see the details, except for the last one for "Available". Available is showing as 0B. Went back up and selected my removable storage, and it does the same. I can see the details, but it shows 0B for Available. Is this an OS bug, or some permission issue of some sort that got messed up somewhere ? Does anyone else have the same issue ? Not a huge deal, but it is always nice to be able to see that you are not running out of space on any storage device. For reference, running V20220624 Thnx

Just a small clarification, the 32GB of storage you talk about is not RAM, The xrs4000 has 4GB of DDR4 RAM, and 32GB of eMMC internal storage. Keep in mind there is a chunk of that memory storage which is used to store the Android OS, BuzzTV app, and any other apps/data you may have. So probably about 2 or 3GB are used by internal apps. Also even though it says 32GB, well, often it has 3 or 4 GB less due to the way the storage is measured. Often under settings (android settings), where you often have stuff like "About, Data/time, Language, sound, etc..", you will have an option for storage (or storage and reset). It is under settings, and/or device preferences. If you select Storage, it will show you the internal storage (and show you the total). If you select the internal storage, it will show you how the memory is used (apps, cache, etc..) and the last entry is usually how much "free" space is left. I don't have an xrs4000, so can't give you exact menu, but I checked my E2, my 4900 and X5 to give you a generic description of where to find it. Now, for amount of storage used for 1080P recording. Well, it is unfortunately NOT that simple. It depends on many things. Depends on stream format(AVC/H264, MPEG2/TS, stream bitrate, etc... you can have 1080p with super high bitrate, or you can even have 1080P with low bitrate. "IF" we assume something conservative like a 6Mbps stream, then that would translate to 0.75MB/s=45MB/min=2700MB/hour. So that would be about 2.7GB/hour. So a 3hr recording would have taken up about 8GB. I just did a test with one 1080p stream that I have (COMEDY channel UK 1080p), and a 5m30s recording yielded a 530MB file. That is on average 100MB/minute. So if your stream was similar, then you would have had 180minutes x 100MB/minute so close to 18000MB (or close to 18GB). This was obviously an MPEG2 stream. An h264 stream would have been less than half that (but not sure how Buzz PVR app records the streams - same format as they come in, or does it transcode to some specific format all the time ?). I would strongly recommend getting some USB storage for recordings. The eMMC storage like any other storage has a limited number of write cycles. Problem is that one it fails, there is no simple way to replace it. USB storage however, is simple to just remove and replace should it fail. Also, nowadays USB storage is pretty cheap.

I was just testing the VOD download features, which is pretty nice. However as I was testing, adding, deleting, etc.. I noticed a few small things. 1. When you have a list of downloads, and you scroll down, select one and hit delete, it does delete, the selector points to the next download, but the metadata/description of the file is still showing the info of the episode you just deleted. Scroll up then back down, and it is refreshed. So after a delete, when selector is on the next episode, there should be a refresh of the metadata displayed. Probably a small fix, and obviously nothing major. 2. If you start a download and it fails. Then go back and click "download failed" , it restarts the download, no problem. BUT then in the list of VOD downloads, you will see 2 listing for the download, and one will show "failed" and the other which is "successful". If you select and delete the "failed" download, it will delete it, and you will only have the "succeeded" one showing. BUT if you now select the succeeded one to play it, there is no media file in the back end associated to it, since it was deleted when you deleted the "failed" download. I suspect that the second download (after the failed one), get's downloaded with the same filename. But in the list of downloads (internal download list), both entries (the successful and failed one) both point to the same filename. When you delete the failed entry, the good one left in the internal download list has had it's file deleted (since it pointed to same file as the failed one). When you REdownload the same VOD (since it has the same name), if an entry exists in the internal VOD download list, it should probably be overwritten/deleted to avoid 2 entries pointing to the same file. Running on 5.0.727, on the X5.. (Oops.. I just realized I put this in the BuzzTV 5 section instead of the X5 specific - feel free to move it). If something is unclear or need me to run more tests, let me know. Thnx

xrs4900

The VOD is designed to stream content from a remote service, so I really doubt that the VOD service itself can do that (at least not in it's current form - at least not simply). But you can always use a 3rd party app on the box. Anything like Kodi, VLC, Solid Explorer, MX Player, (even Plex I believe can play local media), etc. Can certainly play any of the files you have on the drive.

I know it is a little off topic, but one thing that works great in 740, is recording I just recorded 4 streams simultaneously (all launched using One button record), and was watching a 5th one and it all worked like a charm. I only did it for 20 minutes, but it did not glitch at all. Box is using a wired connection and has an SSD installed for storage. I was using a custom M3U file with a bunch of "public" streams, so server connection limits were not an issue. Thnx.. Nice work.

I can confirm that it worked on 734 when it was introduced. But I did not test it since then. Now I am at 740 (which I just got today) and it is also not working for me either. I tried a few things, and could not get it working either.

Not saying it can't be done. It all depends on the streams. I have seen streams that are sub 5Mbps, but I have also seen some streams that peak at 12Mbps (and I'm sure there are some that are higher if they have high bitrate, 4k streams). Really depends on the server/stream. Whenever someone says they have issues with multiple streams, I always suggest to try with some of the low bitrate streams (which many servers offer - at least with some channels). @AndyIf you do a lot of recording, then the 4900 might be interesting since it does have a compartment on the underside where you can internally connect a SATA storage drive (I recommend an SSD [less heat and a lot quicker when searching) - but you can use a regular 2.5" HDD if you prefer) . But the X5 is the latest box with "for now" the most powerful CPU of all the buzz boxes. And in my experience, it has the best WiFi reception compared to any other box I have tested (buzz or otherwise).

The latest buzz with the latest processor is the new X5. It comes with a new Amlogic S905X4 Quad-core 64bit Cortex-A55 processor, and 4GB of RAM. However when you say you have issues with recording, you realize that when you record you are streaming 2 streams (even if you are watching the same). So it all depends on the channel quality and bitrate that your channel is being transmitted. Some services offer low bitrate channels or lower resolution explicitly to help. When you say you have 25MBPS are you sure it is MBPS or Mbps.. Big difference. if it is 25Mbps, it is truly borderline for 2 high quality streams. Also, the drive you are using to record to, are you sure there are no issues with it ? Very often people use cheap USB sticks which are barely able to keep up with the write speeds required for high bitrate streams. You'll love the X5, but before you assume the problem is with your box, I would verify to make sure it is not your available bandwidth or your external storage.

For RCU not working, are you trying only using IR, or have you tried to pair them with BT ?

Under PVR->PVR options you will also need to configure the record destination to go to the sata drive and not internal storage.

Pretty sure the "We will be removing it as an option" was referring to the option of using internal storage. If you want to use TS you will eventually need some sort of external storage. This was not referring to the option of TS entirely. Using Internal storage is also unnecessary wear and tear on the internal storage. External storage can easily be replaced if it eventually fails, internal you don't want to use for this kind of activity.

Thanks.. I had read that a while back. But for the most part the recording are working . It's just that if I start the recording using the one button record, it will not allow me to change channel (while it is recording). However if I manually schedule the recording (even on same channel I'm watching), the recording will start and work fine in the background and I can still change channels. I'm only doing recording at a time so I am not going past my number of max connections (1 server I tried I have 2 connections, the other one I used was a custom M3U file with many public streaming sources, so no server limit). Just seems that scheduled recording, work as expected. But starting a recording using the one button record option does not allow me to continue recording if I decide to change channel. Anyhow, I will try a few more scenarios tomorrow. And I'll still haven't had a chance to try the same on the HD5 however. I'll even try it on my other 4900 which I still have the last "public" release (4.x from last April I think). Just curious, if you are watching a channel and they start one button recording (red button - assuming one button recording is enabled), once it starts recording (a second or 2 later) can you successfully change channels ?

Scheduled recording work exactly as expected as far as I have tried so far. However I tried on the fly (one button record) and the recording starts no problem. And if I stay on the channel, it works fine also. But if I start this one button recording on a channel, then I can't change channel (even though my service allows 2 connections). I get a message that warns me that "Recording is in progress. The recording will be cancelled if you change channels". I even tried using one of my personal M3U files of various streaming sources which would have no concurrent connection limits since all independent sources), and same. Is that normal, or just a current limitation/bug ? For reference, I am running v5.0.727 (V20220624). And I tried with both Default and Secondary players, just in case. "IF" I remember correctly on my 4900, it works fine if I am using the default player (can change channel even once I start a 1 button record). But same reaction (warning message if trying to change channel) and I am using the secondary player (or vice versa). I can double check tomorrow if more details are needed. Sorry if I am overseeing something obvious. Thnx in advance.

I'm assuming if things get really mangled, you can also do a factory reset by the usual button in the AV hole, and booting to the Android Recovery screen, and selecting the "Wipe data factory reset" option ? Thnx

Same here.. Just tested it. Power off from X5 remote is a proper power off (since I have powerkey definition set that way). But if I turn off my monitor (which is where the X5 is presently connected), about 5 seconds later, the light in front of the X5 goes RED. Turn on monitor and before monitor even has time to turn LCD on, the X5 is already powered up, led is blue, and image is ready. So it obviously goes into suspend. I checked and under CEC control, I have CEC Switch enabled, and the Device auto power off is also enabled (but it does not power off, it goes to suspend. For me it does not bother me one way or another. I usually do a full power off out of habit from ages ago, since there were funny behavior over time. I have not tried the X5 long enough using suspend to see if there are still strange behaviors after a while. I always assumed it was due to all sorts of strange states, memory leaks and other unexpected states, but I guess time will tell. Guess "if" it is an option maybe they can add a dropdown/submenu to the "Device auto power off", so we can select "disable, power off, or suspend". @PapaS you say you have 2 options, shutdown and restart. I am assuming you are referring to the options if you LONG press the power button on the remote. If you just quickly hit the power key on the remote, it will just do whatever is defined under the "Settings->More Settings->Powerkey Definition" There you have option for suspend, force suspend, shutdown and restart. Not sure what the difference is between suspend and force suspend however.

The specific drive being used makes all the difference. many of the older drives generate quite a bit of heat. Even SSD. Initially when I got my 4900 I had installed and old intel 120GB SSD I had lying around, and it would get quite hot. Then I eventually replaced the drive with a Micron 240GB enterprise grade SSD and the unit now get's just barely warm to the touch. The controllers used on many of the older SSD would generate quite a bit of heat. I'm sure many of the older mechanical SSD would get incredibly hot also. The newer drives often use better bearings with a little less friction and therefore less heat. Even on desktop drives, I had tried some regular drives in a synology NAS server and the drive temps would hover around 41C to 42C on average. When I replaced the drives (with Constellation ES.3 enterprise drives) in the same unit with the same settings, the drives would hover around 31C to 32C on average. The type of bearings used in mechanical drives is very important to heat generation. One hint also, if I remember correctly, the 4900 used to come with a small thin rubber pad to put on the HDD to fill in the gap between the HDD and the door to avoid it from rattling/moving. Don't intall that on the whole face of the drive. Just need a small slice (about 1cm wide), and you can install it just on the opposite end of the sata connectors. That is sufficient to keep the drive from moving around, and also leaves a small gap to allow a little airflow. I know it is not much, but every little bit counts.