FilmPlus v2.0.5r (ad-free): Review & Guide (2024.06.15)

★★★★★

[Movies, TV Shows, Other Originals]

FilmPlus is a revived version of the legendary Terrarium TV, which explains the similar look and layout. However, according to its developer, FilmPlus is built completely from scratch with new link-scraping technology, not modding the original Terrarium source like some other Terrarium clones. FilmPlus is also a relatively newer app, debuting only in 2020, but it quickly grew to be a top streaming app like NovaTV and BeeTV. It continues to be regularly updated to date, capable of pulling quality source links for popular movies and trending TV shows.

The official version contains many ads (including fullscreen ads). Fortunately, modded ad-free versions are also available, removing the annoyance of an otherwise great app.

This review and guide covers the 2.0.5r ad-free version (released in June 2024).

Pros

• A large collection of stream sources.
• Can rewind/fast-forward using the arrow buttons on the remote control.
• Has an automatic viewing history (Recent) in addition to the manual watchlist (Favorites).
• Can resume playing from where you left off last time.
• Can automatically retrieve subtitles.

Cons

• Downloading feature not working.
• Glitch in Trakt.tv integration.
• The internal Exo player no longer working.

Details

Vast Source Collection

FilmPlus is frequently updated and has one of the largest collection of stream sources among all the free streaming apps we have tested.

Movie Database

FilmPlus 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 uses information from the database to recommend video titles by relevance or similarity. For instance, if you are on an Oscar-nominated film, it will show you other Oscar-nominated films of a similar genre. It’s a neat feature for discovering titles you are unaware of.

Media Player

This ad-free version of FilmPlus only supports external media player apps (if installed) and the default internal Exo player option doesn’t work. The recommended player app is BPlayer (com.ae.video.bplayer). Ensure you also install an ad-free version of BPlayer; otherwise, you will still get ads. You can also use VLC (org.videolan.vlc) and MX Player (com.mxtech.videoplayer.pro), although they don’t support subtitle integration.

Playback Features

Together with BPlayer, FilmPlus has several nice features during playback:

• You can intuitively use the LEFT/RIGHT buttons on the remote control to rewind and fast-forward.
• It will resume playing from where you left off last time.
• It keeps an automatic viewing history (Recent). You can also manually add a video title to your watchlist (Favorites).

No Downloads

Although this version of FilmPlus gives the option of downloading a stream with the external Advanced Download Manager app (com.dv.adm), the integration doesn’t appear to be working. So regrettably at present, you can’t download 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 properly in the future.

TV-Friendly User Interface

The overall user interface is well-designed for TV viewing and works well with the remote control.

Subtitles

FilmPlus fully supports subtitles. It can automatically list and download the appropriate subtitle files from the free service opensubtitles.org. However, in this version, you must choose BPlayer as the media player option for the subtitles to work properly.

Third-Party Integration

FilmPlus 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.

In this version, there appears to be a glitch that FilmPlus will only retrieve part of your Trakt.tv collection to populate the Favorites list. We hope that the glitch will be fixed in a future update.

VPN Recommended

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

Install & Setup

The FilmPlus app (com.guideplus.co) is not available from the Google Play Store. However, the APK file of the 2.0.5r ad-free version (24,000,316 bytes) can be found from various sources on the Internet. You will also need to install an ad-free version of BPlayer (or VLC or MX Player) for the playback to work. It’s highly recommended that you use a reputable virus checker such as the online Virus Total to check the downloaded APKs to ensure that they are free of any malware.

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

Once installed, you will need to go into Settings and change the media player option to BPlayer, because otherwise, the subtitles won’t work. If you have an existing Trakt.tv or Real-Debrid account, you may want to enter it under Settings.

If you experience performance issues with FilmPlus 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 X96 MAX+ ULTRA and TANIX W2 smart TV boxes both have high-performance hardware and strong WIFI, enhanced with an upgraded IPTV-friendly remote control. They are both fast and reliable, and yet very competitively priced. The 2+16G model of TANIX W2 is only $45.

Payback Control

The following describes the common remote control functions during playback (using the recommended BPlayer):

• ⯅ UP ⯆ DOWN
  Bring out on-screen functions.
• ⯇ LEFT ⯈ RIGHT
  Rewind and fast-forward.
• OK
  Pause/resume.
• ⮢ BACK RETURN
  Exit playback.

Useful Tips

1. 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.
2. FilmPlus has regular updates. You will need to keep the app up to date to keep the source links fresh. Otherwise, you will experience a declining number of quality stream sources. If you are using the ad-free version, do not agree to the update prompt inside the app, because that will install a version with ads.

Other Similar Apps

BeeTV is another great app. 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 FilmPlus still has its limitations. So if there is an obscure video title or TV series that you can’t watch within FilmPlus, try some of the other apps.