[thl Super Box] Notes for thl Super Box

[Alberto]

Since I bought a thl Super Box, I've encountered all kinds of questions or suspected bugs happening on it.

Now I start to make some notes here, gonna share the questions I met during I use it. I think it can be the supplementary of official Frequently Asked Questions, to help other users who have the same interests and hobbies with me, and I will keep updating this post in the future if I get some new questions.

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1. I'm pretty sure both of my phone and thl Super Box connected the right same home LAN, but the APP thl Home on my phone couldn't log in or sign up.

I got a reply for troubleshooting from thl offical, write down a memo here.

When the network connection of mobile APP "thl Home" malfunctions, please follow these steps below to try fixing it:

(1) First of all, let your cellphone connect to WiFi hotspot generated by TV box, test whether mobile APP works well. and you'd better re-launch mobile APP: in Android, press return key multiple times to exit mobile APP then re-launch it; In iOS, swipe up "thl Home" in recent list to clear it, then re-launch "thl Home".

(2) If mobile APP doesn't work when your cellphone connects to WiFi Hotspot generated by tv box, then probably something wrong happened on APP service deployed in TV box. Please goto Settings->Storage & reset->Factory data reset, reset your tv box, test if the problem can be fixed.

(3) If mobile APP works well when your cellphone connects to WiFi Hotspot generated by TV box, please go on to test if mobile APP works well when your cellphone connects to your Home WiFi. Please read this post to know about what the LAN connection mode is: Let's talk about what on earth LAN connection mode exactly is 

(4) Located in Settings->About, the string below "Build" is consistent with the firmware version, remember this string, and then you go find out what build the latest firmware is from thl official site: Official support page for thl Super Box, thereafter compare if the firmware in your TV box is latest, if not, you may try to update the firmware to see if the problem can be fixed.

(5) If you did everything above, but the network connection problem is still not fixed, then contact with official after-sales service for return factory repair.

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2. I have connected thl Super Box with my home WiFi hotspot, but after thl Super Box reboots into system, it can't automate to connect the saved home WiFi hotspot.

For all we know, in Android system, once WiFi is turned on at the same time the WiFi hotspot will be disabled and vice versa.As an Android TV Box, thl Super Box also follows this functional characteristic. The reason why thl Super Box can't automate to connect the saved WiFi hotspots is that its WiFi hotspot will be enabled automatically by default when thl Super Box reboots up, in order to keep the connection service for the APP on cellphone working anytime and anywhere, which makes thl Super Box not to connect your saved home WiFi hotspot automatically.

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3. I tried to upload a movie to thl Super Box via the APP thl Home on cellphone, sometimes I succeeded in uploading but sometimes I failed, and the failure has never happened when I uploaded an image or video recording taken by my cellphone.

For quite some time, I haven't understood why the failure happened randomly, until I contacted with thl official after-sales service who had told me that a single file larger than 2GB can't be uploaded. Said it's because that the 32-bit system can't recognize the capacity larger than 2GB. I still can't understand the official explanation, but now I'm not stuck in this problem any more, because I got two alternative ways to solve it: 1. Use thl Super Box as a portable hard drive to copy and paste a single file larger than 2GB (This way is only effective when a hard drive is put in thl Super Box.); 2. Upload a single file larger than 2GB via FTP (see the post by Dannis: Upload and download files via FTP service. 

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4. When I use the mobile APP "thl Home", some file types of video can't be played online.

When I use the mobile app on my Android phone, the videos with file types of 3gp, mp4, and avi can be played online, but other videos such as mkv and rmvb cannot be played online; 

When I use the mobile app on my iPhone, only the videos with file types of 3gp and mp4 can be played, almost all other videos cannot be played online.

I spent some time to find out why:

(1) On an Android phone, the mobile APP automatically invokes a selection menu of video players in Android system to let user select one of video players to play online. Whether to support playing the current video online depends on whether the invoked player supports audio and video decoding of the current video;

(2) On an iPhone, the mobile app automatically calls the original video player in iOS, which means there is no pop-up selection menu of video players for user to choose, Whether to support playing the current video online depends on whether the original video player supports audio and video decoding of the current video;

Therefore, on my Android phone, I installed some third-party video players, such as MX Player, so that most of the file types of videos can be played online.

But on iPhone, because the iOS limits data or file access between different applications, I still don't know how to play online those videos with file types of neither 3gp nor mp4. 

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5. The remote control accessory of thl Super Box interferes with the nearby devices equipped with infrared receiver such as television or DVD player.

I put thl Super Box and my television close together. When I press on the remote control, try to control thl Super Box, my television responds at the same time.

I've contacted with thl after-sales service to feed back this problem, they said that in some specific using environment almost all IR remote controls have this interference problem if nearby there's a device with infrared receiver which has the same IR parameters. They suggested I'd better put thl Super Box at a place with proper distance from television or DVD player... (๑‾᷅^‾᷅๑) 

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6. After the pre-installed theme "MediaBox Launcher" was replaced with the third-party theme "Nova Launcher", the APP "thl Home" on cellphone doesn't work any more.

I installed "Nova Launcher" in thl Super Box for test, and set it to be the default Android launcher, after thl Super Box was rebooted, the APP thl Home on my cellphone couldn't work normally any more.

I've already figured it out: If you paid attention, you would notice that there will be an APP service automating to start when thl Super Box powers on up to the main interface of system, at the same time it pops up a window saying "The storage services are being deployed in the background..." (see the screenshot below), which means it is an intentional design that MediaBox Launcher leads this APP service to start automatically when the Android system starts. 

Therefore if I replace the pre-installed MediaBox Launcher with any third-party launcher, the APP service won't start any more, then the APP "thl Home" on cellphone also won't work normally.

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7.How to fix thl Super Box if unexpectedly it cannot enter system due to some modifications to the important system files in system.

Please view this very simple and helpful way in this post by Dannis: How to fix thl Super Box without downloading firmware when thl Super Box cannot enter system

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8. What can we do when a popup window "Device is not certified by Google" appears.

Please read this post from XDS forum, written by Mishaal Rahman: How to Fix the “Device is not Certified by Google” Error

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9. To be continued...

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