Have these to hand before you start
- A Formuler Z8, Z10 or Z11, or a MAG in the 25x, 3xx, 4xx or 5xx ranges
- The MAC address, printed on the label underneath the box
- A network cable, because both of these are better wired than wireless
- WhatsApp open, since the portal is switched on at our end rather than yours
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Do these in order
Work out which family you have and therefore which route
Turn the box over and read the label. If it says MAG and a number, you are on the portal route and there is no alternative: the box is designed to be pointed at one address and nothing else. If it says Formuler, you have a choice. The portal route behaves like a MAG and puts everything in one place. The login route uses MyTVOnline with the same username and password every other device on this site uses, and it sets up in two minutes without waiting for anybody. Our suggestion on a Formuler is the login route, because you stay in control of it, and the portal route on a MAG because there is nothing else.
Read the MAC address and send it to us
The MAC address is the permanent hardware number of that box, and every one in the world is different. On a MAG it is printed on the label underneath, and it starts 00:1A:79, which is the block of addresses issued to Infomir. You will also find it on screen under Settings, System settings, About, on the line marked MAC. Do not type it into a message. Photograph the label and send the picture on WhatsApp, because a MAC has six pairs of characters, several of which look alike on a small label, and one wrong character sends your portal to a box that is not yours. Wait for the reply confirming it is switched on before you touch the box again.
On a MAG, enter the portal address
Press the Settings button on the remote, or open Settings from the main menu. Go to System settings, then Servers, then Portals. You are looking at two rows, Portal 1 and Portal 2. Put any name you like in the Portal 1 name field, which is only a label. Paste or type the portal address we sent into the Portal 1 URL field, exactly as it appears including the ending. Press OK to save, then go back and choose Restart Portal, or take the power out of the box for ten seconds. The restart is not optional: a MAG reads the portal address when it starts and at no other time, and skipping it is why people conclude the address does not work.
On a Formuler, use MyTVOnline
Open MyTVOnline 3, or MyTVOnline 2 on an older model, and go to the playlist screen. To use a login, choose Xtream Codes and enter the server address, username and password, which is the same set of three values that works on every other device you own. To use a portal instead, choose Add Portal, give it a name and paste the address we sent after confirming your MAC. Either way the box downloads the channel list and the guide once you save. A Formuler will also run TiViMate and IPTV Smarters from an install file, since Android is underneath, and some people end up preferring that.
Wire it in and fix the video output
Put a network cable between the box and the router if there is any way to run one, because the Ethernet socket on the back is the main reason these boxes feel steadier than a stick, and a 4K feed over wireless on a five-year-old chipset is the least reliable thing you can ask of one. Then open Settings, Video, and set the resolution to match your television rather than leaving it on automatic: on a 4K set choose 2160p and a 50 or 60 hertz refresh to suit your region. Automatic switching between modes is what produces the black flash between channels that people blame on the stream.
Confirm it comes back on its own
Once the box has restarted, the channel list appears with the guide beside it. Play a news channel for a minute, then a sports channel, and use the colored buttons on the remote to add one to favorites and to open the guide, since those two buttons are what make these boxes comfortable to live with. If your model handles 4K, open a channel marked as such and check it starts rather than sitting on a spinning icon. Then pull the power out, count to ten, and plug it back in. The box should return to your channel list without you touching a menu. That last test is the one that tells you the portal is genuinely saved rather than merely loaded.
If the screen does not look right
The screen says STB blocked, or the portal will not load
Two causes and both are quick. Either the MAC has not been activated at our end yet, in which case the answer is to wait for the confirmation message rather than retyping anything, or the MAC we were given is not the one on the box. Photograph the label and send the photograph. Zero and the letter O, and the number one and a lower case L, are the usual culprits, and they are indistinguishable in the font Infomir prints. Once the correct MAC is in, the box works after one restart.
The portal was working and went blank after a firmware update
MAG firmware updates sometimes clear the portal fields, which leaves a box that looks broken and is intact. Go back into Settings, System settings, Servers, Portals, and check whether Portal 1 still holds the address. If it is empty, enter it again and restart the box. This is also why the portal address is worth keeping in the same place as your other login details, rather than relying on the box to remember it for the life of the subscription.
A 4K channel sits on a spinning icon and never starts
On a MAG 250, 254 or 256 this is the expected result rather than a fault. Those models decode H.264 and stop at 1080p, and the 4K feeds are H.265, which the chip inside them cannot open. Nothing in the settings changes that. Use the FHD copy of the same channel, which exists alongside almost every 4K one, and the picture is as good as that box can produce. If 4K matters on this television, a MAG 5xx or a Formuler Z11 is the model that does it.
The guide is showing yesterday evening for every channel
The box has the wrong time rather than the wrong guide. Open Settings, System settings, Time, and set the time zone to your own, with NTP switched on so it corrects itself against a time server. Restart the box afterwards. A guide that is out by exactly one hour is usually daylight saving on the box rather than the region, and the same screen fixes it.
The app we would put on this one
TiViMate
TiViMate is Android only, and its grid guide is the reason to use it. Free against Premium, the Companion app, and how to shape a very long list.
Every guide in one list
One page for each television, box and app we cover.
Working through this with no login yet?
The steps above are the same whether you are on the free day or a paid term, so there is nothing to undo later. Tell us it is a MAG and Formuler box and we will send the three lines that make it work.
MAG and Formuler box IPTV FAQ
Would a MAG box beat a stick on the main television?
On a main television used every evening, it is more comfortable: a real remote with colored buttons, a guide that opens instantly, a network socket on the back, and nothing to install ever again. The price gap is real: somewhere around $120 to $180 for a box, against $30 to $50 for a stick. On a second television watched an hour a week, that money is better left in your pocket, and nobody in the room would be able to tell you which device was behind the picture.
Do I have to send the MAC address every time?
Once, for each box. The portal is bound to that MAC and stays bound for the life of the subscription, so renewals need nothing from you beyond the renewal itself. You only send a MAC again if you replace the box, or if you move the same box between the network socket and wireless, because those are two different MAC addresses on the same machine and the portal is bound to one of them.
Can I move my subscription to a new box later?
Yes, and it is a message rather than a new account. Send the MAC of the new box and the old portal is unbound and the new one switched on, usually within minutes. Nothing is lost except the favorites you built inside the old box, which live on the box rather than in the account. If you are replacing a MAG with a Formuler, ask for the login as well as the portal, because the Formuler can use either.
Which Formuler model should I buy?
The Z11 range is the current one and handles 4K and H.265 without complaint. The older Z8 still works well at 1080p and is common secondhand. What matters more than the model number is that it has an Ethernet socket, which all of them do, and that you buy it from a seller who has not preloaded it with anything. A box that arrives with a portal already loaded by the seller should be reset from the settings menu before you put yours on.