New YouTube Review

[Joe Boutiette]

The Lon.TV YouTuber just posted a highly critical review of the P6 (the low-end version, not the Unlimited). Aside from perseverating on the lack of support for certain audio and video codecs (features that are lost on me), ignoring the Power Station’s purposeful design as an IPTV player, as well as overlooking the plethora of admonitions about using Netflix, Disney+ and Plex on the Power Station, he does make a potentially useful observation that the last security update for the Power Station (according to him) was in August 2023. Is this correct, and if so, does Buzz TV plan on improving the frequency of the security updates for the Power Station? 

On a related subject, the YouTuber Triple M recently posted a review of the Power Station that was taken down by YouTube. Does anybody have any information about the content of this review?

[dishuser]

security updates ends this year

[Emporium]

P6 runs on Android 13, which is actually one of the few mainstream media boxes that has such a later version of Android. And DU mentioned above, security updates end in 2026.

One of the other big media box manufacturers released their "latest box" last fall (Sep 2025), and they released it with Android 12, which  google discontinued security updates on Android 12 since March 2025.   

There are a few generic boxes which advertise Android 14, but but they are generic boxes which you can't compare, since most don't even get any updates after delivery.

Most people do not use these boxes for very sensitive tasks.  No banking, or browsing the IRS/CRA or other sites which they would be afraid of being compromised.  They are primarily for consuming media, and typically behind a router using NAT anyhow, so rarely facing the outside world.  So unless you sideload some sketchy app or addon for some package, there is very little risk of anything.  And if you suspect something, a simple reset, will clear it to factory settings, if you were smart enough to take a backup of your servers/favorites,etc.. you can restore your backup and be back up in less than 10 minutes.

So there is really nothing wrong for these purpose built devices to run older versions of Android (Andoid 9 and 11 are also very popular for media boxes).

And unless you have a "certified" box for netflix, disney, etc.  you will always have to jump through hoops unless you sideload custom mods.  And you say "plex" ?  What is wrong with plex.  Not a huge fan of it, but it works.  I have Plex server running on one of my synology, and plex client on most of my buzz boxes and it works.

It all comes down to what you want to do with the box.  But as a media player there is no super critical need to have latest security fixes.  How many new Android TVs out there are still being sold with Android 13 or lower ?  You'd be surprised.

 

[Stugots]

22 hours ago, Joe Boutiette said:

 

The Lon.TV YouTuber just posted a highly critical review of the P6 (the low-end version, not the Unlimited). Aside from perseverating on the lack of support for certain audio and video codecs (features that are lost on me), ignoring the Power Station’s purposeful design as an IPTV player, as well as overlooking the plethora of admonitions about using Netflix, Disney+ and Plex on the Power Station, he does make a potentially useful observation that the last security update for the Power Station (according to him) was in August 2023. Is this correct, and if so, does Buzz TV plan on improving the frequency of the security updates for the Power Station? 

On a related subject, the YouTuber Triple M recently posted a review of the Power Station that was taken down by YouTube. Does anybody have any information about the content of this review?

Hi Joe, thanks for posting this and keeping it constructive.

On the security patch date, yes, the P6 is currently on an older Android security patch level. That’s a valid callout and we agree it should be more current. I’ve already flagged this internally and we’re pushing to improve the security patch cadence on P6 going forward.

On Netflix, Disney and home theater style Plex use, it comes down to certification and licensing. P6 is Android 13 AOSP, not Google TV certified Android TV. The TV versions of apps like Netflix and Disney require certification and DRM compliance to run properly and to support features like 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Also worth noting, Google does not certify every chipset. As powerful as RK3588 is, it cannot be Google TV certified, which is why P6 remains an AOSP performance and IPTV focused device.

On the Triple M video being taken down, we don’t have any official information from YouTube or the creator, so I don’t want to speculate.

Appreciate you bringing it up.

Cheers