Emporium

OK.. I managed to reproduce the HDMI CEC issue even with my HP 27" computer monitor the X5 is connected to. Went into settings->device preferences->display and sound->HDMI CEC section. Then just in case, before disabling "CEC SWITCH" (first option), I first disabled the second option "DEVICE AUTO POWER OFF" (just in case it was made unavailable but actually still internally enabled). Then I actually disabled the "CEC SWITCH" option. If I then go back to home screen (this point is not needed), and then just turn off my monitor, it actually turns off the X5. So it looks like the X5, even though CEC is switched off, it still detects monitor being turned off, and it goes into a Standby mode. And obviously, the remote has no way to wake it up, since the remote device is still powered off. IF I turn on the monitor, the box turns on and is ready before my monitor even has a chance to initialize So it seems like the X5, regardless if you have turned off the CEC option in the settings, it ignores it, and still follows the remote device state. Maybe @allaboutbuzz, when he gets a sec, could look into why the X5 unit is NOT ignoring CEC commands to turn off when the setting is actually disabled.

OK.. I found something interesting. I no longer have an LG TV, but I do have a few remotes left over from various TV sets I used to have. I used 2 different model LG remotes. But, even though the POWER button button does NOT have any effect on the X5, some other keys from the LG remote do. Keep in mind that this test was done with the X5 connected to computer monitor via HDMI (so no CEC or anything else affecting anything here). And there is no LG TV in my home, just 2 different model LG remotes pointed to the X5 Findings: the "FLASHBACK" key (labeled as "Q.View" on the second LG remote) react like a DISCRETE POWER OFF. They will not power the X5 back up, but they will power if OFF only The "9" key on the LG remotes, reacts like a VOLUME DOWN (there is obviously no auto repeat on this key so with every press the volume is lowered one notch). The "OK" button (labelled as "Enter" on the second remote - effectively the center button on the DPAD", from the main home screen, will bring up the "SETTINGS" menu, as if you selected the settings option on the top of the screen. Then there are 2 key "sequences". Strange, but after playing with it, I noticed it is ONLY of a series of quick presses of the following keys in sequence, will "work". So pressing 4-5-6 in sequence or pressing 8-4 in sequence, will react like the "Buzz logo" button on the BT400 remote, and launch you straight into LiveTV (I put cursor on home screen to PVR, to ensure it was not an ENTER/OK key which was registering, and no matter where cursor is, it launches into LiveTV). I tried these many times to ensure it was not just one of the keys triggering the effect, but strangely enough it is the full sequence. Any variation did not do anything. I tested the same remotes on an xrs4900 and had no reaction to any key from the LG remotes on the 4900. I did not test any other boxes, but if needed, I can gladly check. I also tested 2 different Samsung Remote, 2 different Sharp Aquos remotes, and 1 Sony remote. None of these, no matter what sequences or keys I tried, seem to have have any effect. I did not test the remotes to see how they react within the LiveTV app, but if needed I can gladly test things also. I did these tests quickly, so there may be other key sequences that have some effect, but the combinations are endless. The ones above are just some I happened to stumble on accidently. So this is something specific to the codes LG uses which seem to also be picked up by the X5. Considering this does NOT affect the xrs4900 in any way, I am assuming this is probably some debug code that may be left over on the X5 from the testing of the new BT400 remote on the X5. I am not the dev on this, so this is just an assumption, but maybe @allaboutbuzz can check the remote IR detection routines and see if there is anything which would explain why the X5 also responds to these keys. I would have assumed the IR stuff would have been very similar between the X5 and the 4900, but then again it is different hardware, so maybe it uses different routines. Guess we'll wait to get a response.

If you turn your TV off without the remote (ie: via the buttons on the TV itself), does the X5 also turn off ?

No. and no Making the pvr recording available over the network, would involve the buzz box having some sort of file server running on the box. Right now, there is not many readily available file servers for Android. And similarly, for the the PVR client to be able to save on a network share, it would need to include some sort of filesystem network client (like NFS or SMB). With few exceptions, this is typically only found in file managers like ES File explorer, Solid Explorer, etc.. Yes there are some media players that include SMB clients to be able to scan network shares, but for the PVR to be able to use it, it would ideally be at the OS level, and NOT at the application level. And at the oslevel, being able to remotely mount a filesystem has all sorts of implications other than just the kernel support for the various filesystems. There would need to be all sorts of error handling added for alot of things. example of a few is when credentials fail to mount a remote filesystem. when a remote filesystem is not available (powered down or otherwise), when it becomes unavailable while being used, and also the OS root permission to be able to actually perform the mount. Not saying it will never exist, and it is very interesting. But I would be surprised if it is high on the future feature list. Considering I have a few NAS servers, I agree being able to put all recordings into one location from all devices would be nice. IF you want, you can always download an FTP server for your Buzz box from google store ,and then setup some script on your NAS (or other machine) to be able to occasionally connect to you r buzz box and synchronize/mirror the pvr storage directory. Keep in mind however that the metadata which describes the episodes/content of all the files is stored elsewhere (not in same directory). So you would be getting just a bunch of media files with what seems like random names.

Thanks. Just tested and works as expected now.

I'm assuming it will just run off the MicroSD, and ignore the onboard eMMC ? Just curious on WHY you would consider doing this on a new box, with so much going for it ? If you want Kodi, just install Kodi as an app. CoreElec is great on older devices if they are out of support or have no dedicated IPTV app like BuzzTV5, but I just don't see the point on using it on a Buzz box, and the latest flagship one at that.

Just tested it on the 4900 and it works as expected now Much appreciated. Thank for the super quick turnaround.

OK. Ran a few more tests. Seem like the refresh issue is ONLY present on the Modern UI (and only when you install. On Uninstall it is refreshed). Using Classic, Media Player or Media Player 2, it works as expected. I did not even consider it could be related to just the modern UI (Thanks @dishuser). Anyhow, it is nothing urgent.

Forgot to mention, I also use modern. I did not try with Classic or any of the media ones. I'll try them tomorrow and see if they behave any differently.

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.