FAQ

Does Cordbox store or provide any channels?

No. Cordbox is a player, not a content provider — it plays whatever you point it at (a playlist, portal, or media server you already have access to elsewhere). It doesn't host, bundle, or supply media of its own.

What's the difference between the grid and list guide views?

Both show the same electronic programme guide, laid out differently. Grid view shows every channel against a shared timeline, useful for browsing what's on across channels at a glance. List view shows one channel's current and next programme at a time, with more detail per entry — often a better fit on a smaller screen. Switch between them from the guide's own toolbar; your choice is remembered.

What's Zap Mode?

Available for Enigma2 sources — a real set-top box on your network. With Zap Mode on, tapping a channel in Cordbox changes what's playing on the box's own TV output instead of playing it in the app, so you can use your phone or tablet as a remote channel-changer. A full virtual remote for the box is also available once Zap Mode is turned on for that source — see Live TV Extras.

Can I record programmes?

For sources that support it (Enigma2 boxes with their own recording capability), yes — schedule a recording directly from a programme's details in the guide.

Can I edit a recording I've already scheduled?

Yes — from the Recordings screen, tap a timer to change its title or start/end time, or swipe to cancel it outright. See Recording & Downloads.

Can I download things to watch offline?

Where a source offers downloadable content — an Enigma2 recording, or a file on an SMB or NFS network share — Cordbox can save it to your device. See Recording & Downloads.

Does Cordbox support casting to a TV?

Yes, via AirPlay or Chromecast — see Casting. Cordbox only ever sends casts outward; it doesn't receive them from other apps or devices.

Can I check a title's rating without leaving the player?

Yes — and there are actually two ways to check one, depending on when you want it. On the player's tap screen, a Look Up Rating button does this while something's already playing — see Browsing & Watching for what it shows. To check before you start anything, long-press the channel, movie, episode, or folder instead — Look Up on OMDb is one of the options wherever you're browsing. See Long-press for more options. Both need a free OMDb API key set in Settings first.

What does Permanent Display Mode do?

It's for a screen mounted to show the guide continuously, e.g. next to a TV — it makes the guide's auto-scroll recover faster after being touched, and requires confirmation before a tap changes what's playing, so an incidental touch on an unattended screen can't accidentally change the channel. See Settings.

Why don't Picture-in-Picture or AirPlay work on some channels?

Both only work for streams playing through Cordbox's AVPlayer engine — VLCKit doesn't support either yet. Some streams use VLCKit automatically, even with the default Auto setting, because they don't play reliably in AVPlayer itself. See Choosing a player engine for how to check or change which one a specific source is using.

What is Just-In-Time Transcode?

A setting that fixes a video or audio problem on the device itself, in real time, rather than falling back to VLCKit. Some streams have a format AVPlayer can't decode directly — interlaced video that needs deinterlacing, or a video or audio codec it doesn't support — and Cordbox normally works around that by switching to VLCKit automatically. With Just-In-Time Transcode on, it fixes exactly what's wrong instead — only the parts that actually need it — so playback can stay on AVPlayer. See Just-In-Time Transcode for the full picture.

Why isn't Just-In-Time Transcode on all the time?

Two real costs, weighed against what it buys you. It uses more battery than plain VLCKit playback — decoding and encoding at once, rather than just decoding. And it isn't instant: for a download or on-demand video, playback starts within a few seconds and keeps transcoding in the background as you watch, but a live channel that genuinely needs a full fix — both video and audio — has to establish that encode before playback starts at all, which real-device testing has found can take up to about 45 seconds on some channels, not the few seconds it's sized for on lighter fixes.

What you get for that: AirPlay and Picture-in-Picture only work through AVPlayer, so turning this on is what makes them available for content that would otherwise be stuck on VLCKit. For Xtream Codes, Enigma2, and Stalker sources specifically, it's more than a nice-to-have for casting a live channel — there's no other way to cast one at all from these source types, and doing so happens to work over a VPN-only source automatically too, with nothing extra to configure. See Casting for that last part. Worth turning on for content where any of this matters to you, and leaving off otherwise.

A stream won't play — what can I try?

Cordbox tries a couple of different playback engines automatically. When it gives up, it shows the actual reason where one's known — access denied by your provider (a connection limit, an expired line, or a regional restriction), the channel no longer being available, or your device simply being unable to reach the provider — rather than a generic failure message, so you often know straight away whether it's worth trying again or a question for your provider. If a particular stream still won't play, check that source's own settings for the Player option — pinning a specific engine can help with a stream that doesn't play well with the default Auto choice. Playback Diagnostics in Settings keeps a history of recent playback attempts, including any that didn't finish cleanly, which is a good next place to look if a channel keeps hanging or crashing the app.

How do ads work on the free tier?

Cordbox's free tier shows a short ad, served by Google AdMob, before playback starts. Live channels are capped to roughly one every 20 minutes of channel-surfing, so flipping between channels doesn't mean an ad every single time; video-on-demand isn't capped the same way, since starting a new title happens far less often than changing channels. Subscribing removes ads entirely — see Manage Subscription in Settings.

Is my source login information kept safe?

Credentials are stored in the device's Keychain, not in plain settings storage. If you back up or move your sources between devices, that backup is a file you control and share yourself — it's not uploaded anywhere by Cordbox.