Please can someone help me with my Britbox?

Can someone please help. I have bought a Britbox with the full package, so that I can get English television, but I am having such a lot of trouble with it, it will soon be thrown through the window. It appears that we are the only people in spain who can´t work the damn thing. We are having to use a mouse to access channels as the remote does not work most of the time. If that is what we have to do then so be it. We also bought the air remote with it, but the instructions are a translation from Chinese and they don´t even make sense let alone tell us what to do with it, so can´t use that either. We can get some of the basic channels, ITV, BBC, etc, but can´t find sports channels, when we go into that nearly all of the icons relate to films. We chose the full package as I like to watch UK motorsport and was told I would get it on the sports channel. I wish!! We would also like to see catchup TV as we work strange hours and can´t always get to see what we want. We also find that when we do get into a channel, we can´t get back out of it and when we click on something else it just keeps the original screen and pixelates. I know you have to be patient with this system as it is obviously not like the satellite tv that we have been used to, but it has tried my patience to the limit and I am desperate for help. Thankfully we are not TV addicts and do not watch it much, which is just as well. If anyone can help we would be really appreciative. Thanks.

Hi Pete

I don't have a Britbox but I think I might have a similar box. When you use the mouse the left mouse button is to select what you'd like to click on and the right mouse button takes you back to where you were before - try that out and see if that helps navigating around. If you get lost keep pressing the right mouse button until you get back to the start.

Did you get a keyboard as well as a mouse? If you'd like to watch catch up TV or films try looking for something called Mashup - click on that and then look for where it says SuperSearch or Search, and from there you can search for a TV show or film you would like to watch. Often it will give you many different links for the same film or TV show and you just have to go through each one until it works.

If you'd like to watch live sport then look for something called Sports Devil, select Live Sports, select Website Parser and then select Wiziwig and from there it should be straight forward.

Hope that helps!

Hi Pete, We have the Britbox, but just the normal remote, ours also doesn't work ALL the time, have you tried new batteries? What we've found is that you have to point it at the box in a certain way, we've obviously found that 'position' & all ok now, it is trying Did you not get a sheet of paper with it telling you where to find most of the channels? You will get used to it, once you know where the channels are which you watch most.
We actually gave up with ours in a sense that our internet wasn't strong enough to work it, we've gone for the English tv channels with Torresat, still use the box for Motorsport. I'm not sure if your is the same as our's but Motorsport is found in 'Sports-A-Holic';K1m05 Sports - choose which channel you want to watch, Or you can go to: 'Sports-A-Holic';Buzzy Sports;Buzzy's Channels - choose which channel.
What you need to remember that when you are on a channel, to exit it you MUST press stop first, then you should be able to get out of the channel.
If all else fails - I've done it before when I couldn't find something - I sent them an email, they're pretty helpful. It is a great box to have, as long as your internet is strong enough to run it & you get used to it.
Good Luck, hope that helps

Hi Alex and Sara19. Thanks for replying. We will try your suggestions. We did buy the keyboard as well but don´t know how to set it up as the instructions we have are just a translation from chinese and are totally gibberish, so thats back in the box. We are using a old mouse that we had with our computer. I know we sound like idiots but we do not know what button to press for STOP to exit a channel. The only motorsport we can find is american and it is formula 1 that I want, I was told that I can get that with sky sport but when I go into that all I get are film icons. We have been back to the company that we bought it from but have not really had much luck, we have been told that he doesn´t have enough time to teach us. We have not been given a list of where to find most of the channels. That would be a great help as we haven´t got a clue where to find most of them and do not have the time or patience to experiment. We run an ethernet cable and are on 10meg internet, so should be ok for most of the time.

Hi Pete

Have a look at these links as it gives you a few instructions for finding channels:

http://www.costasmarttv.com/#!user-guide/c1p0h

http://www.costasmarttv.com/#!need---faq/c1tkp

To stop a channel from playing left click once with your mouse on the picture and press the square in a circle button at the bottom

I'm afraid I can't comment on the use of a mouse, as I say we only have the standard remote.
there is unfortunately not just 'one' button to push to get to your favorite channel - but do persivere - you will get there.
F1 should be under as I said before: Click on 'Sports-A-Holic', then KM05 Sports & you should find all Sky Sports channels there

Thank you both for your response. We have not had the time to check it out yet as we work in the holiday rental sector and as you can imagine, it is manic. Hopefully we will get the hang of it soon.

With this type of equipment you have to separate the marketing BS from the reality. We do offer a similar if more powerful piece of subscription free equipment (and other IPTV equipment), but do our utmost to advise people on the differences of different IPTV products, services & products and (importantly) ease of use.

You can forget the instructions, as those supplied with box will be of no use are just only basic set up and not for all the additional applications as mentioned. All of this hardware is customisable, so applications will be based on how britbox has set this up.

With this type of equipment 'technically' you can get all the channels, but what you are not told is (a) quality of sports streams, which is generally quite poor (b) sometimes you have to do a lot of searching around to find what you are looking for & yes you can sometimes struggle - basic TV and Films are o.k, but not everything. They can be technically quite complex and in truth the subscription free models are not suitable for everyone. We deal with a few rental companies and do not supply this type of equipment for this purpose as simply put - would be troublesome and if reset or technical issue is not always simple to rectify. The subscription based boxes (which you do pay for the service) are far more akin to using a satellite system / sky box, though you pay the price accordingly.

I've not seen stable catch up on the subscription free services, though software may be out their somewhere. Mentions above of 'Sports-A-Holic';K1m05 Sports - choose which channel you want to watch, Or you can go to: 'Sports-A-Holic';Buzzy Sports;Buzzy's Channels are good advice for the sports, but still not perfect as ultimately you are reliant on the freely available streams. Mashup as also mentioned above is good. You can also have a look around youtube for advice / installation on some of this software.

Buffering issues can also be down to lack of internal memory - we use equipment with 2GB internal for this (not main ram) most use 512 mb - 1 GB, so less cache ram to buffer if speeds drop, will buffer sooner.

Ultimately if you want 'free' this type of equipment is the way to go - though the britbox is not the best example. Would suggest you do purchase an android / linux compatible mouse or keyboard as this you may need if adding / changing settings in software. If you do want something nearer the use of a UK Sky box, IE none of the faffing around - it is available, though expect to pay a monthly subscription.

Only other suggestion I could make is if you simply cannot get anywhere with this, there is an application we can provide which is compatible with android which will allow access to our paid for IPTV servers and will get you the sports streams and other premium channels / sports in much better quality, though would cost €14.49, monthly pay as you go type service - still not as slick as the subscription based boxes (which have 7 day catch up, 7 day epg), but will give you the quality and channels required.

If you need any more info on this application and channels available, welcome to drop us an email on [email protected]

Hi Paul
Thanks for this information. Hopefully when we have a bit more time we can play around with it and find out what it can do, but as time as at a premium at the moment, we do not have the time to experiment, or the patience for that matter. I am sure it is easier to work than we think, I find it hard to believe that we are the only people in Spain that can´t use it. I wouldn´t mind if we were dum dums but we are both qualified City & Guild engineers and I used to teach at the college. On saying that I think we are technophobes as we have no real interest in the workings of a computer, as long as it does what we want that if fine, if it doesn´t we shout help and our son´s deal with it.

Hi Pete,

The issue with this type of hardware is that it is based on a number of different software applications which each individually give you access to freely available content, aside from the basic TV, if not used to this type of hardware - which is very different from a satellite receiver or cable type box.

Even though i've been involved with TV receivers of various flavours took me a little while to get my head around this type of equipment, took me 6 months to truly understand all the set up and workarounds (necessary for my job).Which ever way you spin this, they are more technical to use than 'traditional' set top boxes and when such things are a little unfamiliar do take a while to figure out. Not suitable for everyone, our oldest customer was 84 and I did warn him! Eventually o.k, though with about 5 hours of customer support. Lots of wrong button pressing!

Ultimately if wanting the equivalent of the simplicity of a UK Sky box, but in IPTV form, the subscription based units are far simpler, one set of software (rather than multiple application) far better resolved with easy catch up and weekly program guides - but the key difference is of course, you pay for the service. Subscription free boxes offer a lot for free (as long as well set up and you know what you are doing), but ultimately if you want to have blissful simplicity without any technical know how or knowledge, they are not the simplest of devices. That is the compromise between subscription free & subscription based hardware.

Also remote controls, such as the fly mouse you purchased this is likely to be generic rather than the same as the box manufacturer, so this could explain why some buttons may not work, though it is easy enough to pick up something on ebay that does the job a little better.

Technicians use this for the linux / android type equipment (though it's on the large side) easy to use and has a full size keyboard and touchpad. Useful if you want to use the multimedia side of the box and actually use the keyboard.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-K400-W ... itech+k400

Or a cheaper / smaller alternative
http://www.amazon.co.uk/JUSTOP-Wireless ... d+keyboard

For an explanation in English on the differences in types of IPTV equipment and services types http://tvtech.sharepoint.com/Pages/IPTV ... ision.aspx