Before you start
- A MAG 3xx, 4xx or 5xx unit, or a Formuler Z8, Z10 or Z11
- The MAC address printed on the label underneath the box
- Your Smart4K portal URL, issued once you send us that MAC
Nothing to sign in with yet? Take a 24-hour test line first, or pick a term.
Setting it up
Decide between a portal and an Xtream login first
On a MAG this is decided for you: portal only, bound to the MAC, which is why the first thing that happens is you sending us a number off a sticker. A Formuler gives you a genuine choice. The portal route through MyTVOnline puts nothing to type on the box and behaves exactly like a MAG. An Xtream login in MyTVOnline, or in an Android player such as TiViMate on a Formuler that runs them, keeps the line portable: the same three values move to a phone or a stick without anybody reissuing anything. Portable is usually worth more than tidy.
Read the MAC off the box and send it
It is printed on the label underneath and shown on screen under Settings, About device. On a MAG it begins 00:1A:79, which is Infomir, so if what you are reading starts differently you have the wrong number. Send it to us on WhatsApp and wait for confirmation before touching any menu, because until the MAC is registered at our end the portal address you are about to type will simply refuse you. Photograph the label rather than copying it out; one wrong character costs an evening.
MAG: enter the portal and restart properly
Go to Settings, then System settings, then Servers, then Portals. Give Portal 1 any name you like, paste the portal address exactly as we sent it into the URL field, and save. Then restart the box from the menu rather than pulling the power. The portal is only read at boot, so a MAG that has not been restarted will sit there showing nothing and looking broken, and this is the single most common reason people message us twenty minutes in.
Formuler: add the portal in MyTVOnline
Open MyTVOnline 2 or MyTVOnline 3 and choose Add Portal, then supply a name and the portal address. If you decided on the Xtream route in the first step, pick Xtream Codes here instead and enter the server address, username and password. Formuler units will also run ordinary Android players, so TiViMate is available on them if you would rather have its guide grid than the built-in one.
Put it on a cable while you are behind the television
Both makes have a proper Ethernet socket and most people never use it. This is the one device in the whole guide where wiring is genuinely easy, because the box is already sitting on a shelf near the television rather than plugged into the back of a panel. A cable removes the most common cause of a picture that softens during a match, and it costs nothing if the router is in the same room.
Check what arrives, then set up the remote
After the restart the box loads the 25,000+ channels with the built-in guide. Play a 4K channel and then its HD twin, and watch movement rather than the station logo; on a wired MAG or Formuler feeding a 4K panel the difference should be plain. Then learn the coloured buttons on the remote, which handle favourites and the guide directly. Thirty favourites is what turns a list this size into a television.
When the picture is wrong
The screen says STB blocked, or stays blank after the restart
Two causes and they are easy to tell apart. If the box was never confirmed at our end, the MAC has not been registered yet and nothing on the box will change that; message us and it takes minutes. If it was confirmed, a character in the MAC or in the portal address is wrong. Photograph the label under the box and send the picture rather than retyping it, because the characters that get confused are always the same ones and reading them aloud does not help.
The picture is steady on films and softens during live sport
Sport is carried at a higher bitrate than almost anything else, so it is the first thing to reveal a marginal link. If the box is on wireless, move it to the Ethernet socket it already has, which is the whole reason these units ship with one. If it is already wired, the bitrate of that particular feed is what you are seeing rather than a fault, and the lower-bitrate copy of the same channel exists for exactly this.
It worked at the old address and loads nothing at the new one
The MAC did not change when you moved, so the registration is intact and the portal is fine. What changed is the network. Check the box actually has an address under Settings, System settings, Network, and that it is on the new wireless name rather than hunting for the old one. A MAG will show a portal error rather than a network error in this situation, which sends people looking in entirely the wrong place.
The player to run on this device
TiViMate
TiViMate runs on Android only. Add your Smart4K Xtream login, set the guide to refresh, pick the decoder and browse 25,000+ channels in the grid.
Every guide
The full list, device by device and player by player.
Ready to point your MAG and Formuler box at a real line?
Terms start at $15. Send one message and the credentials come back in under 15 minutes.
Questions people ask about the MAG and Formuler box
Is a MAG box better than a Firestick for IPTV?
On a main television watched daily, yes: a better remote, a quicker guide, a wired socket as standard and nothing to sideload ever. It costs roughly $120 to $180 against $30 to $50 for a stick. On a bedroom set nobody will notice the difference, and the stick is the better value. That is the whole comparison, and the price gap is the only reason it is a question.
Why does it need my MAC address?
Because a portal is not a login. Rather than typing credentials on the box, the line is attached at our end to that one piece of hardware, so the box asks the portal who it is and the portal already knows. That is why setup is quick and why the line does not move to another box without us reissuing it, which is the trade the portal route makes.
Can I run TiViMate on a Formuler box?
On the Formuler models that run Android, yes, and plenty of people do exactly that: the built-in MyTVOnline for everyday viewing and TiViMate when they want the grid. Feed TiViMate the Xtream login rather than the portal, since it does not speak portal at all. A MAG runs its own operating system and will not install Android apps of any kind.