I am reading all the post on lamenting over SET TV going down and I cannot figure out why you guys want to keep doing business with SET TV or any off shoot from SET TV.
They are getting SUED! Which means they have to answer in court. There is most likely a document preservation order which means at some point they have to produce customer lists
READ THIS.
https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-set-tv-over-iptv-piracy-180422/
and this
Public Service Annoucement: If your IPTV provider has been sued, do not buy a subscrption with them (ACE, SET TV). If your IPTV provider is actively hiding their tracks and shows signs of getting sued (FLAWLESS) , do not buy a subscription from them.
Its been a good three months now since purchasing my Buzz TV XPL 3000 box for first and foremost IPTV viewing.
Background I've been a cord cutter for 2 years now. Started with IPTV in Kodi, then an Android box running Perfect Player, then wanted more cable like experience and got a Dreamlink T1+ Loved that box still enjoy it but you will see it has moved down the rankings. Was excited for T2 as it upgraded to Android 7.0 but keeps the same 1, but that has been a waste as the firmware issues have problem with IPTV and the better live HD content. Now I'm onto the Buzz TV XPL 3000. Side note I comment about the Nvidia Shield at the bottom.
The quick and clean conclusion. I find the Buzz TV XPL 3000 to be superior to the Dreamlink T1+ and especially better then the T2. I have not had a Formuler but assume being the same box with different brand name, its not much different.
Now the dirty in depth review. I've spent quite a bit of time and money getting what I think is the best setup for IPTV viewing. I've used Vaders, FAB, and Epic as the 3 providers on all 3 of these boxes to test and make sure I wasn't leaving out any variables as to why one was working better then the other.
To get this out of the way, take with a grain of salt, the Dreamlink T2 has been nothing but a let down. A friend who works with IPTV reselling and had the box at the same time had the same issue shown below which occurs on a 45 second loop or so. Notice the green loading bars, thats your connection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXmeffWbOA
Was able to narrow it down to, the higher data/bitrate intensive HD streams were unable to be handled by the box due to a firmware issue. Messaged Dreamlink many times to get zero responses, would blast them on facebook to no avail. He confirmed that data over 4 mb bogged down the box thus getting the buffering green bar issue.
Yet....the Dreamlink T1+ with the same service same channel would not buffer or even hiccup.
This is where the Buzz TV XPL 3000 entered three months ago as I was sick of the T2 and the wife was getting annoyed because it was on her TV.
The next month I ran FAB and Vaders on all 3 boxes. The T2 was quickly put in a closet as it was beyond frustrating to watch tv while the other two boxes worked well.
I then added EPIC into the mix just to give another provider a shot. Again no problems on either box when it came to viewing live tv.
So why does the Buzz TV beat the Dreamlink T1+ (and I would assume Formuler boxes)
The Buzz looks visually looks like it runs android. I hate the cartoony look of Dreamlink. Its almost childish, and comments I've gotten from friends when I show them IPTV is very off putting to its nintendo era home screen.
The EPG though not perfect, is much better then the Dreamlink. It actually loads within one second of scrolling. Single channel info is instantaneous like the dreamlink. The full EPG guide of 6 channels, which is more then the 4 of dreamlink, is faster to load then you can say "one mississippi" -You will have to update your time zone so the show lines up properly but other then that its been correct and fast. If its incorrect and I check the dreamlink, its incorrect on their which I assume is a provider issue.
Recording is simple and easy. Worked right out of the box. I gave up on the recording aspect of the Dreamlink. This I could be wrong about I will admit. But to be honest, we don't use recording. We have apps to watch past shows so this doesn't really need to be taken into consideration. Did they update it?
Buffering is less often on the Buzz. I would attribute this to the higher 2 gb of ram vs the 1 gb on the Dreamlink. I had thought the T2 would fix that issue even though its still 1 gb of ram, but the firmware is a problem on that box it would seem. Apps like Terrarium, ESPN Watch, Netflix, run smoothly on the Buzz as they do on the T2. Where the Dreamlink T1+ though the streaming works flawlessly, the app itself is glitchy or not smooth in its scrolling / loading of search results. Think about how Terrarium has the scrolling bar on the top when you search. Buzz XPL 300 and T2 it moves smoothly. The T1+ it pauses and hops around from left to right. As if its computing to hard on the search result it can't keep up with the scroll graphic.
On Demand Video from your IPTV provider I give the win to Buzz box. The extra ram helps with loading I believe. Also, the T2 was better with on Demand (Android 7.0?) But so shitty with live tv lol, and the T1+ we would normally have to do the pause for two or three minutes to get it to play a 25 minute sitcom all the way through without stopping. Not cool for a 2 hour movie having to give pauses every 30 minutes. Not a deal break, but not ideal. You could go the download movie route of terrarium but thats not ideal either.
The Live TV app on Buzz is also more refined and professional looking. It works very similar to the Dreamlink DOL2 app. Which in itself is great too. I'm basically comparing Buzz to a newer updated Cable/Dish menu or style to the Dreamlinks DOL2 more dated looking style. No deal breaker here either way. Just saying....
Buzz has a better App store called Aptoide. Honestly its like a second hand Google Play. Which you also have access too google play. The dreamlink box has the cartoony looking very small library of apps in its Marketplace as its called. There is a way to access Aptoide by putting in some code I read. But it loads up within the same market window. I'm kinda nit picking here, no deal breaker either way. I feel like the Aptoide store was built for Buzz over the Dreamlink basically.
DOWNFALL of the Buzz TV. It does not have the 10 channel recall list that Dreamlink/DOL2 has. If you hold the back/recall button on a dreamlink it gives you the last 10 channels you watch and thus much easier when you might be flipping between 5 college football games all spread out through the Sports Categories. This is very annoying on the Buzz TV. We all know that IPTV provides 1000's of channels. Which means you are scrolling a lot to hop around. As you can only go back and forth between the channel your on and the last one you viewed. IF ANYONE HAS FIGURED OUT A WORKAROUND OR I MISSED THE BUTTON/OPTION THAT CAN DO THIS PLEASE MESSAGE ME lol. Seriously this is my only gripe thus far with the box.
You will need a keyboard/mouse combo. I don't understand why you wouldn't when your probably using apps to search for movies but the remote is no different with the mouse button aspect that the Dreamlink has on its own remote. More or less just saying
Some other random things. HBO Go doesn't work on my Buzz, no sound??? But Terrarium takes care of it, and we already cancelled Netflix because there was no point in having that when Terrarium runs very smoothly with great picture quality and minimal buffering on the Buzz vs the Dreamlink T1+ which has some loading/buffering lag. Netflix was needed on the Dreamlink box. I think the bandwith was better handled on a professional app like netflix thats paid for vs the terrarium app. This is where the keyboard might be vital though, as scrolling with two fingers on the mouse pad is needed if your using a Mobile Netflix app vs the full netflix website on say a desktop.
The Buzz/Dreamlink/Formuler's are not going to keep up with the Nvidia Shield. Being totally honest. My buddy has one. But you won't beat the cable like experience of the Buzz/Dreamlink boxes with the iptv apps on Nvidia. I have an android box running perfect player in the bedroom, which is what he has on the Nvidia, and its just not a preferable visual experience. STB Emulator can do the mag box visual but that looks just as old and dated. Can it produce a DOL2 experience? Then I would consider a Nvidia.
So all in all, if the T2 somehow gets the IPTV issues figured out, maybe they have by now as I haven't used the box in a month and I know they send out updates as I get the same updates on the T1+. But your going to get a much more updated cable like visual experince with the buzz box with a working EPG for the exact same price.
RANDOM: Buzz and T1+ have wireless built in. T2 you have to use up a USB port to attach the antenna. Don't know why they changed that but I just remembered this when I was about to press submit.
For IPTV and best cable like experience I am loving the Buzz TV XPL 3000 even more then I was loving the Dreamlink T1+ when I first started this a year ago. I feel I learn more about cord cutting and IPTV as I always look for the next best thing to make it a better experience. The Buzz box in my opinion...could be wrong...is better then the Dreamlink Boxes all around but especially true for the IPTV Live experience.
Cheers! Sorry if there is some shitty grammar or spelling lol.