BeeTV: Review & Guide

★★★★★

[Movies, TV Shows, Other Originals]

BeeTV started in late 2018 as one of the Terrarium TV clones. So it is no surprise that it looks similar to other clones such as NovaTV and CyberFlix TV. BeeTV didn’t offer much substance at the beginning and there were lots of dead links. But the developer seems to have done a lot of work recently, adding more resolvers and refining their scrapers. As a result, the app has been delivering a solid performance to a growing user base. We expect the trend to continue because the hard-working developer is rolling out updates about once a month and is actively engaging the user community for feedback on Facebook.

Pros

• A large collection of stream sources, including many “trusted” sources.
• Will list related video titles by cast members.
• Can change stream during playback.
• Can rewind/fast-forward using the arrow buttons on the remote control.
• Has an automatic viewing history in addition to the manual watchlist (like favorites).
• Can resume playing from where you left off last time.

Cons

• The voice search function requires a mouse pointer.
• No downloading feature.
• The most recent versions force you to use their own Titan Player, which imposes ads.

Details

Vast Source Collection

BeeTV has probably the largest collection of stream sources among all the free streaming apps we have tested. More amazingly, it marks certain sources as “trusted”. Those sources are more reliable and are of better quality and performance. Try the trusted sources first, and that will save you from having to wade through a bunch of poor-quality sources.

Movie Database

BeeTV is fully integrated with The Movie Database project (TMDb). It shows detailed and useful information on every movie and TV show title (such as description, rating, and nice posters). It also has the unique feature of listing cast members and allowing you to view their other performances. It’s a very neat feature for discovering titles that you are not aware of.

Downloads

Regrettably, BeeTV does not provide an option for downloading a stream to a local file for later viewing. It is an important feature, especially for slow sources with lots of buffering. We hope that the feature will be implemented in the future.

Playback Features

BeeTV has several really nice features during playback:

• You can pick a different stream without having to stop playing first.
• You can intuitively use the LEFT/RIGHT buttons on the remote control to rewind and fast-forward.
• It can resume playing from where you left off last time.
• It keeps an automatic viewing history. You can also manually add a video title to your watchlist (like favorites).

Voice Search

BeeTV supports voice search. However, it uses the voice search button from the Android onscreen keyboard rather than implementing a separate voice search button. And that voice search button on the onscreen keyboard is not accessible using the arrow buttons on the remote control. As a result, you will need to either switch the remote control to mouse mode or use an air mouse.

TV-Friendly User Interface

Other than the small annoyance of the voice search button, the rest of the user interface is well designed for TV viewing and works well with the remote control.

Subtitles

BeeTV fully supports subtitles, with subtitle files from the free services opensubtitles.org and subscene.com.

Third-Party Integration

BeeTV used to support several external video player apps including MX Player and VLC. However, the most recent versions force you to use their own Titan Player, which imposes ads.

BeeTV supports online accounts with Trakt.tv, Real-Debrid, AllDebrid, and Premiumize. The free Trakt.tv service is really handy for tracking your viewing progress and history. And the other three paid services will provide you with additional high-quality premium stream sources with very little buffering.

Ads, But No Ads

The official BeeTV app has many ads, including both banner ads and full-screen ads. Fortunately, there are modified ad-free versions out there, removing an annoyance of an otherwise perfect app. However, the most recent versions force you to use their own Titan Player, which brings back ads.

VPN Recommended

Due to the dubious copyright status of the free Internet video sources, it’s recommended that you protect your own privacy by setting up VPN protection on your TV box first.

Install & Setup

The BeeTV app has just recently changed its package name. The latest app (com.busydev.audiocutter) is not available from Google Play Store. But it can be found from various sources on the Internet.

If you have further questions regarding this app, please contact us. We will be glad to help you out.

Once installed, the app is pretty much good to go. If you have an existing Trakt.tv account, you may want to enter it under Settings. It will bring back all your viewing history and the list of shows you are currently watching.

If you experience performance issues with BeeTV on an older TV box, you may consider upgrading to one of our latest TV box models. We have tested the app thoroughly and it runs smoothly on all our boxes. For example, our TX3 Smart TV box has high-quality and high-performance hardware, enhanced with a customized version of the SlimBOX firmware. It is very fast and reliable, and yet very competitively priced. The 4+32G model is only $65.

Useful Tips

1. During playback, press the UP button (not the usual OK button for other apps) to bring out other functions, such as changing stream, changing subtitle, rewind, fast-forward, and etc.
2. When browsing through video titles, if you want to see more titles on the screen, you can reduce the media poster size by changing it from the default Normal to Small in Settings.
3. The most recent versions force you to use their own Titan Player, which imposes ads. The workaround is to install a modified ad-free version of Titan Player.
4. BeeTV has frequent updates, and you will need to keep the app up to date. Otherwise, you will experience a declining number of quality stream sources.

Other Similar Apps

NovaTV is a very similar app in both screen layout and functionality. Both apps seem to also share a large portion of their stream sources. In addition, there are several other free streaming apps that we recommend. Even a great app like BeeTV still has its limitations. So if there is an obscure video title or TV series that you can’t watch within BeeTV, try some of the other apps.