MAX 101



  • The Blue Ribbon.
    • Here you will find Live TV, Sports, Music, Favorites, System, Movies/TV, Debride Only, I will explain a bit about each in detail. I am taking them in the order they are currently displayed on the Blue Ribbon. Jump down to your section of interest if you like.


  • Live TV Underneath the Blue Ribbon
    • in this section, you will find several options to watch live TV, they are: Live TV, Live TV 2, and TV Guide.
    • For many of you, the TV Guide will be your first choice. The TV Guide looks most like what you are familiar with if you had Cable or Satellite service. It is designed to display a guide that shows what’s playing. The guide for the TV Guide section is frequently down so most find Live TV 2 a better option to watch live TV, as the TV Guide is also the most unreliable. It tends to buffer, wherein instead of watching a show, there is a circle spinning in the middle of the tv screen while the MAX box is searching for a good signal, or other times, you will get completed 'kicked' out of what you are watching.
      • This is most often caused by two factors. Either the service you are receiving from your internet provider, or high traffic on the source (server) the stream is coming from.
      • Some internet providers place filters or set security settings that make streaming more challenging. If you continue to buffer or get kicked out of live shows, the easiest way to determine the cause of the loss of the stream is to set up a Hot Spot on your phone. Then, go into your internet setting on box (Home Page -- upper right of the page -- Network -- look in the list of options for your phone’s Hot Spot. You may need to Select “See All'. If you get a good signal via your phone’s hot spot, then, but buffered when connected to your Modem/Router, then, it’s your internet provider. Contact them. Streaming is not illegal, so, they will work with you to improve your signal. If you continue to buffer or get kicked out even using your phone’s hot spot, then, the buffering/getting kicked out is most likely due to high traffic on the server sending the stream.


  • Live TV 2:
    • If you choose to watch live TV under Live TV 2, you will find it much more reliable, and also that it often provides more than one option for the live show you are trying to watch. When you click on Live TV 2, It brings up several categories, listed below:
Network TV -- ALL normal content of what is available via cable and satellite can be found in this category. You will find ABC, CBS, A&E, AMC, Food Network, HGTV, etc. Sports Networks -- It has most of the sports channels (ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN U, Fox Sports, a couple NFL channels, NBA, MLB, Golf etc.).


Movie Channels. -- Here you will find ALL the Premium Movie channels available on cable and satellite. There are also movie channels from the UK in this category. It’s rare that you would come in at the beginning of a movie though so I suggest you watch ALL movies in Movies/TV or Debrid Only.


Locals -- You can search through the local channels, or an easier way to search
for them is to open up the category (in this example, Local Channels), and click the left arrow (beside the OK button on your remote). This brings up a dropdown list of options. From here select Filter. Then in the dialog box that comes up, type in the call letters of your local channels, or you can also try inputting your city (mine is Des Moines. I'm fortunate that all three of my locals, KCCI, WOI, WHO are available), not ALL locals are available. If your locals are displayed, you can add them to Favorites, by highlighting, hold down on the OK button, which brings up a drop-down menu, then click on Add to Favorites.


PPV -- In this category, you will find PPV Events. ALL sporting events typically ONLY are listed on the day of the event.


NFL -- Here you will find ALL NFL games Hint: If the game you are watching is buffering, look in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and see what Network is
broadcasting the game (for example ABC. Then, look for an ABC channels (located above in Network TV or Locals) If Dallas Cowboys is playing the Denver Broncos, search for an ABC channel in Dallas or Denver.


NCAAF -- You should be able to find all your college football games here. NCAAB -- College Basketball


NCAAW -- Women’s college Basketball.


There are LOTS of other sports categories listed under Live TV 2. NBA, MLB, MiLB, MLS, NHL, FUTBOL, F1TV, lots of ESPN+ channels, MOTOGP.Lots of Peacock channels, SuperSport, SuperCross, There are also links to Sports in Many of the Addons (Crew, Promise, etc.). Under Promise -- IPTV Sports, under Crew -- under Sports, Homelander -- Under Live TV -- Daddylive, Fight TV.


Not necessarily ALL the links within the Addons will work, as things are continually changing. But at least there are alternatives and most likely with new addons there will be more.


You will also find Music, 24/7 channels, Religion, Some Foreign channels.


Hint: If you want to know what is playing on the channels in ANY of the categories listed above, turn on Fanartlist. To do this, click on the left arrow (beside OK button). It brings up the dropdown menu. Click on View List. Then click on the third one down, FanartList. Then use the right arrow (to the right of OK button). This returns you to the sports channels, but now, there are 4 dots before each channel, and a description of what is currently playing on the lower right of your screen. Is it 100% accurate? No, but much better than the buffering you get trying to watch via TV Guide.


  • Live TV 1 -- Live TV 1 has most of the same channels available via Live TV 2, but the channels are not categorized. You can still find channels by scrolling down the list or when you have opened the channel list. Use the left arrow on your remote to go down to Filter to find your specific channel.


There are other options for Live TV as well. I will talk about them when I explain the Addons under Movies/TV and Debrid Only.


My recommendation is to ONLY watch live TV for news from your Local TV channel (if they are available) and sporting events. Live TV tends to buffer MUCH more than prerecorded shows.
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  • Sports
    • Under Sports, you will find several sports categories. Live TV PPV -- Another link to the PPV channels found in Live TV 2. APEX Sports -- Doesn't seem to have any streams at this time. Endzone -- Currently no streams to most of the categories available. Probably will have during the seasons.
    • There are other Addons in Sports as well, Check them out. Some are working, some are not. That is the nature of streaming, Addons come and go. The great news is that they are always replaced and typically with better a one.


  • Music -- You will find lots of music channels in this section.


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  • Favorites --
    • Here is where you will place ALL the Channels, TV Shows and Movies, if you like. Its a great place to put your Local channels if they are available. To add items, see the specific category you want to add (i.e. — Channels from Live Tv 2). After you have added items to Favorites, you can manage them by holding down on the OK button on your remote and choosing Move Up/Down, Rename, and Remove. A caution with Favorites. If a new Update is necessary, you will NOT be able to save your Favorites, so, if you tend to place a lot of channels, movies, and TV shows in Favorites, you may want to consider another method of storing some TV shows and Movies elsewhere. Trakt is a perfect solution for helping organize your TV shows. More information can be found by doing a Google search for Trakt.tv.


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  • System --
    • This is where all major system functions reside. Some are under System on the Blue Ribbon.
    • Build 6.4 -- this is the current build (which is the Update)
    • Debrid/ Trakt Manager -- If you have either Real Debrid or Trakt, you can go into Accounts and authorize Real Debrid for the Addons. Real Debrid will be explained more in another file.
    • Power -- You can click on Power, which exits you out to the Home Page. Maintenance -- You can click in maintenance and see when the next Auto Cleanup will occur, Clear Cache, Clear Packages and Clear Thumbnails. Not normally necessary as many of these are cleaned up each time you exit the box and come back in, Auto maintenance is preformed.
    • Speed Test -- You can test the speed of your internet.
    • YouTube -- Currently not working but you can install YouTube on the Home Page viaPlay Store.


When you get more experienced, System is also where you can go to save some Addons that aren't currently loaded under the Blue Ribbon into Favorites. You can also go into Skin Settings and set up new categories on the Blue Ribbon or Addons under the Blue Ribbon, but again, those are more advanced features of the box.


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Prerecorded Movies and TV Shows


  • Movies/TV -- This is where many of the Addons reside. These don't require Real Debrid to play movies and TV Shows, but recently it is becoming more difficult to find streams without Real Debrid. If you get an error message saying Playback failed, it is telling you that either Real Debrid IS required to find streams, or if you are trying to play a movie that is currently in the theater, its' telling you that the digital stream has not yet been released. Often digital streams are not released until a couple months AFTER theatrical release.


  • Addons
    • Asgard, Crew, Homelander, Magic Dragon, Promise, METV, Nightwing, and Scrubs are the Addons currently under Movies/TV. Within these addons, you will find, Movies, TV Shows, (My Movies My TV Shows -- only used IF you have Trakt), and a variety of other categories. They vary a bit within each addon, but there are more similarities than differences. Within EACH Addon, you will find Search function. In most, it is near the bottom. in some others closer to the middle. regardless Search is each Addon, familiarize yourself with its location of the addons you use. There is also Tools and/or Settings tab where you can Authorize Real Debrid and/or Trakt, if you choose to get them, settings that allow you to adjust Playback to play automatically, Settings to remove 4k movies if your TV isn't 4K capable, and many other settings.


  • TV Shows -- Under TV Shows in most Addons:


    • Genre -- (where you can search for comedies, westerns, dramas, game shows, etc.).
    • Networks -- is one of my favorite categories, as it literally has ALL Networks and is the path to finding all the shows available on ALL networks both new and old. This is where you will also find the Premium Networks, like Amazon, Apple +, Disney +, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and Paramount +. You can also turn on FanartList within these categories as well. and it will show you all their available content. From here, you can find the shows you like to watch and add to Favorites (Or Trakt if you decide to use it). There are many other choices to find shows. All Addons are similar but there are minor differences. Check them out. For example, Promise has, TV Shows Most, People Watching, Languages, Airing Today, and two of my favorites...Returning TV Shows and New TV Shows. Click on these; check them out. Add to Favorites the shows you want to watch. Again. FanartList provides descriptions. You can search for shows from each Addon via the Search feature. its location varies within Addons. In Promise, Homelander, and Crew, it’s at the bottom of the first menu. In Magic Dragon it’s further down the list. Check out the various Addons and you will find Search. When you click on Search, it will bring up a dialog box where you type all or part of the show/movie. Try to type in enough that it limits the results.


    • Language -- There is a language section in most, if not all the Addons where you will find foreign content.


  • Debrid Only section.
    • You can only use the Addons under Debrid Only section IF you have signed up for Real Debrid. Within this section, Ezra and Seren are the most popular. Each of these (and Shadow) are capable of auto playing the next episode. I will discuss Autoplay below. Other Addons under Debrid only are Ghost, which has a Live TV section (Exactly like Homelander). Here you may find links to some subcategories like Daddy Live, which carries some live sports and also some Sports Replays. Among the other options is Org.TV, here you will find all the cable channels in the USA plus some local channels. I found WISN, which I was unable to find in any other live location. Odin is also under Debrid Only, but it currently is not working. Shadow is also under Debrid Only and is another option for Autoplay Episodes.




  • Autoplay -- For those wanting to Autoplay the next Episode. Three current addons have this feature.


EZRA -- Go to Settings: EZRA Scroll down to Playback. Go down to Episodes and Enable
Autoplay. You can also change Automatically Resume Playback. Options are Never, Autoplay, only and Always.


SEREN -- Go to Tools -- Open Settings Menu -- Go down the list and click on
Playback. In the General section, you can set both Movies (I wouldn't, due to preferring to choose the stream size) and TV Shows to Auto Play. Then you can also enable Resume to Auto Resume Shows From Next Unwatched Episode if you like. You can also change the Watched Progress Resume Style. I prefer ASK here as I may want to stop watching for the night and not automatically play the next episode. Your choice. Shadow -- For Next Episode, Click on Settings. -- Next Up. The options are displayed in the middle of the screen and fairly obvious. Choose the options that work best for you.


Also, within Playback you can set the Resolution for BOTH Movies and TV shows to NOT bring 4K streams, IF your TV is not 4K compatible. You could also set Movies to Autoplay, but I wouldn't as it could automatically start playing a stream in excess of 15Gig, which might cause buffering.




Extra Services
• Real Debrid -- As I mentioned above, it is reaching the point that Real Debrid is needed to
download any current stream I know there is some hesitation with some as its another 'subscription', but in the streaming world most will agree its the best $34 (approximate annual cost) you will ever spend. You will get hundreds more streams for movies and dozens more streams for TV shows. You can use Real Debrid in ANY Addon. I typically use Promise or Crew. but without Real Debrid, as mentioned above, you can't use the Addons under Debrid Only. If you choose NOT to get Real Debrid, don’t be surprised by the limited number of streams available for movies, and limited resolutions. You will be lucky to get 720p.


  • When choosing a stream, make certain you don’t pick a LARGE stream. Pick a stream in the 2gig -- 15Gig size and you will be fine.


  • Without Real Debrid, while watching a TV series, you will often get a repeated episode to play instead of the current episode. This is NOT MAX’s fault; they have no control over content. They just provide the hardware, software that allows you to access the content.


  • If you decide you want Real Debrid, check the website under the Helpful Information tab, for more info.


• Trakt -- Trakt is a useful tool that allows you to easily organize ALL your TV Shows, and movies, if you like into Lists that work like Favorites. For example, I have Trakt Lists for each day of the week, Sunday -- Saturday. So, if I decide if I want to watch a Monday show, I go to my Monday list and there it is. I also have a list of names Reality, Game Shows, History, Documentary, Apple TV, Foreign Game Shows, etc. I have over 40 lists. Within these lists, there are close to 600 shows. Imagine having that many shows in Favorites and how would you find them?
  • Advantages of Trakt -- If you have more than one streaming device (it doesn't need to be a MAX), Trakt works across these devices and keeps track of what episodes have been watched and which is up next. So, I can watch an episode of a show in my living room and three days later decide to watch the next episode in the bedroom and I know right where I left off as Trakt checkmarks the last watched show. When you place shows in Favorites, if an update is required, the shows saved in Favorites go away. Not in Trakt. Any show in Trakt remains there until you delete it. It’s a web-based program, so you can even do maintenance on your lists (remove shows, rename lists, delete lists and shows...etc) from the Trakt.tv website.


• Ease of use -- How I use Trakt, I put a link to My TV Lists (where Trakt saves your shows) in Favorites. When I am ready to watch a show, I go to Favorites, click on My Trakt Lists, and ALL my lists are displayed (For the Addon I choose to use). I then scroll down the list to find the show I want to watch. I place My TV Show Lists for Promise, Crew, and Homelander in Favorites, in case one of them is down I still have quick access to my tv shows. If an update has to be done all I lose is the link to MY TV Shows List. It takes me 2 seconds to add back into Favorites.
  • Cost -- There is a free version of Trakt that allows you to set up 5 lists. Think of them as free Favorites...but better, as the content won't disappear with an update. There is also a $30 a year version that I have. It allows unlimited lists and provides a bit more record keeping on their website. It also breaks it down by drama, comedy, etc. Trakt can also be used for Movies but since the way I watch movies is to pick a few, save them to Favorites and then, when watched, delete them. TV Shows are different since we tend to watch seasons and episodes.


  • Trakt Information -- Trakt.TV If you decide you want Trakt, go to Trakt.TV, signup for a free account, and then, if you later decide you want more lists, sign up for the $30 annual subscription.


Happy streaming.
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