Android & Android TV
Install from Google Play, open the player's playlist or portal screen, paste, save. Full walkthrough: Android setup.
Setup
From order to picture
The same five steps on every device. What changes is the player you install and where its settings live.
Have your details to hand
After we confirm your order we send them on WhatsApp: usually a portal or playlist address and a username and password, or a single link. Keep the message; you will paste from it.
Install a player from the official store
Your device's own store — Google Play, the App Store, the Amazon Appstore, the television's own store. Not a file from a website. Choosing a player lists what to look for.
Enter the details exactly
Character for character, including capitals. Typing errors are the single most common reason a first attempt fails, and they look exactly like a service fault.
Let the channel list load
The first load is the slow one — the list and the programme guide come down together and it can take a couple of minutes. Later starts are quick.
Test properly before you settle in
Play something for five minutes, not five seconds. Then try a second channel. Two clean minutes on two channels tells you far more than a flick through twenty.
By device
Where the settings live
Fire TV Stick
The Amazon Appstore has suitable players. Pair a phone with the remote app first — typing a long password on a d-pad is misery. Firestick setup.
Windows
A desktop player or a browser. The quickest place to prove a subscription works before you touch the TV. Windows setup.
Samsung & LG
Whatever suitable player your model's store still carries. Older sets are the limitation. Smart TV setup.
iPhone & iPad
App Store players only, which keeps things simple and safe. iPhone and iPad setup.
MAG & MAC boxes
You send us the MAC address printed on the box; we register it and the portal appears. MAC device setup.
If the first attempt fails
It usually is not the subscription. In order of how often it turns out to be the cause:
- A typing error. Retype rather than re-reading. An l and a 1 look identical on a television at three metres.
- The wrong field. Portal details pasted into a playlist box, or the other way round, fail in exactly the same way as bad credentials.
- Wi-Fi. Try the device beside the router, or on a cable, before assuming anything else. What speed you actually need.
- The player. Some free players are unmaintained. Trying a second respected one takes two minutes and settles it.
Still nothing? Send a photograph of the screen on WhatsApp. A picture of the actual error saves an hour of describing it.
Worth doing on the first evening
- Build a favourites list. Ten minutes now saves scrolling past four hundred channels every night for a year. Every decent player has one.
- Check the guide lines up. If the EPG is showing yesterday's programmes, tell us which channels — that is fixable at our end and nobody ever mentions it.
- Test at peak. Nine on a Saturday, not eleven on a Tuesday morning. It is the only test that tells you anything about how it will feel in normal use.
- Set the parental controls if children use the same television. Easier now than after a surprise.
- Save the WhatsApp thread. Your details are in it. People lose them and it is always at the worst moment.
Setting up a second device later
The same details work on as many devices as you like — the limit is on simultaneous streams, not installations. Install a player, enter the same details, done. If the second device refuses to start while the first is playing, that is the connection limit doing exactly what it is supposed to do rather than a fault.
Stuck part way through?
Send a photo of what you are seeing. We would rather fix it in five minutes than leave you guessing.