TVZion - A Great Popcorn Time and Showbox Alternative - Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android

If you haven’t tried out TVZion yet, you won’t regret giving it ago now - the app is fairly versatile as it works with Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android for Mobile, similar to the build of Popcorn Time from one of my previous Articles.

Instead of going down the route of supporting the Leanback Library like Popcorn Time does, they’ve opted to create their own Netflix-style navigation. It’s good but it leaves much to be desired, I much prefer the look and style of Material Design for Android TV and Mobile. The filters on the front screen show films in different categories, I always find it repeats Films in the lists, which is bad for discovery.

The TV app doesn’t support Voice Search yet, which doesn’t make it easy to find exactly what you want without using a clunky on-screen Keyboard, unless you use your Mobile device to type. I found that it was really good for hard-to-find TV shows, but occasionally the episode was labelled incorrectly and played a completely different TV show.

What is the developer playing at?!

I have to commend the developers of the app, they kept up a very healthy update cycle. Pretty much, every time I launch the app there’s a new update waiting for me.

I wish this can be done silently in the background but that might be an Android limitation more than anything else, as this app won't go anywhere near the Play Store! TVZion isn’t without its drama, recently one of the devs took to Reddit to vent his frustration with people modifying his APKs to be ad-free - similar things are done to Showbox, there’s always an Ad-free APK on Reddit somewhere…

This isn’t what caused a fuss, it was more so the actions he was proposing to take against these modders.

One of which involved recording the IP addresses of the people using Modded APKs and threatening to keep a hold of them for future reference. Luckily for everyone, this isn’t going to happen! The Dev took to Reddit to apologize and clear a few things out:

“I have realized that none of those suggestions mentioned is a solution. If anything they are the problem. Mods exist and a lot of apps are surviving through that, without doing any of that. If my app can't survive without implementing those solutions, then it's my failure, not the users, or the modders. Considering that and the fact that I need a break from all this, at the moment this is what I have decided for the time being”

Check out the whole Reddit Thread, He followed with a couple of points on what he plans on doing with the app next:

• I have upgraded the server with 2 more CPU cores and re-optimized code, and it should keep the server in a good condition unless we get a surge of new users.

Please know this was not out of my own pocket, this was from the money ZionClub members paid for the subscription (thank you).

Once I get into development again, I will try to figure out a way to fully block mod users, WITHOUT tracking their IP or crypto mining or anything that can even remotely seem malicious. If I fail to do so, the app will run as long as it's viable, but honestly, if the app is truly as good as I think, I don't think it'll ever come to that.

His apology seems sincere but most of the YouTubers or Media outlets haven't acknowledged it since the backlash, no doubt the number of users using the app would have dropped because of this story. I don't think it should affect your choice of downloading the App, it's well worth a try!

As always I recommend using a VPN when using any Apps like this, it's good practice to have that extra layer of protection. If you're looking for a great VPN service, the only one I can recommend is NordVPN - it's one of the most highly regarded Services out there.

There is a VIP club membership on offer which gives you a few perks, I haven’t signed up for this so I can’t give you much of an opinion other than I’ve had no desire to sign up. The app works absolutely fine for me as is! Here are a few perks that you get when signing up:

• 100% Ad-free
• Cached Torrent Streaming: Now stream HIGH QUALITY (10-15GB+ Movies, and HQ episodes too) content off torrents seamlessly with your Real Debrid/Premiumize account.
• Cached torrent season pack support: Now stream old episodes from full-season pack cached torrents with RD/PM. Meaning more HQ links for old episodes (that might not be available anywhere else).
• More sources: ZionClub members currently have access to more link sources [+9] including HQ fast server sources.
• Advanced metadata detection: TVZion will report EXACT resolution, and bitrate data for your links on-screen to help you choose the best link for playback.
• Link filtering/sorting: Filter/sort links by bitrate, ping time, quality, resolution, and type (RD/PM).
• Improved autoplay: Now autoplay is even better with link filtering, playing just exactly what you want it to, AUTOMATICALLY, EVERY TIME.