if you have it set to external you need to use an external player like mx or vlc to play the video
your comment about having to reboot everytime to watch live tvis unclear Post some detail
there are two media players in menu for playback Have you ried them both
also try inserting a usb stick or dr sd card ,changing storage location to usb stick and see if it records to that
it looks like you have tried most everything It could be a bad download?
i might consider a reset but i would uninstall the ssd first
you could try that or wait for allaboutbuzz for more advice
If you do a reset leave the ssd out and just try recording to internal first
are you on buzz 4 or 5? what buzz version number?
In buzz 5 there is an issue with recording from epg but all other ways work fine
On rare occasions there have been server/box conflicts and that has to be discussed in pm with allaboutbuzz
There is a beta update available for buzz 5
Home page check for updates
When it says no update available Type 2015 on remote If it says no beta available your mac will go on a list for next week
I would wait till then to troubleshoot issues