Xtream Codes API
Three separate fields: server, username, password. Use this wherever the player offers it. The guide, the catch up and the film library all arrive down this route, and the list loads in sections instead of as one heavy file.
Setup
Set up Trex IPTV on the box you already own
Every device is on this page rather than scattered across six of them. Find yours below, open it, and work down the steps in order. Most people are watching inside ten minutes. The Fire Stick takes longest, and only because Amazon hides one setting behind seven clicks.
01Before you start
Three details, and knowing which sort your app wants
Your subscription is not a file or a box. It is a line on a server, and a player app reads from it. Which is why the same login works on the television, the laptop and a phone in a hotel.
After payment clears, the server address, username and password are emailed to you and they also sit permanently in your account, with a copy button next to each one. Nothing is posted out and there is no activation key to lose.
Players ask for those details in one of three shapes. It is worth two minutes to know which shape yours wants, because most failed setups are a login typed into the wrong kind of field.
ServerLooks like http://your-server:8080. The port on the end is part of it. No trailing slash, no extra path.
UsernameCase sensitive. So is the password.
PasswordWatch for a space added on the end when you paste it on a phone.
MAG onlyA portal address plus the MAC of the box. No username is typed at all.
TimeFour to ten minutes depending on the device.
M3U playlist link
One long URL with your username and password already inside it. Certain television apps and VLC accept nothing else. Treat that link exactly like a password, because it contains one.
MAC portal
MAG and Formuler only. Nothing is typed in: the box announces its MAC address and the portal recognises it. That is why we ask for the MAC before the line is built rather than after.
Three mistakes account for most failed logins
A server address with no port on the end. A capital letter typed in lower case. A space that a phone keyboard silently added to a pasted password. Before you message anyone, read the three fields back slowly.
02Device by device
Pick your hardware and open it
Each guide has the actual menu path, not a vague instruction to look in settings. Menus move between firmware versions, so if a name is one word out on your model, the shape of the path will still be right.
Amazon Fire TV Stick and Fire TVAbout 8 minutes
The device most Trex IPTV customers use, and the only one where Amazon puts a locked door between you and the player. Nothing below is exotic. Fire OS just moves the wording of one setting every couple of updates, which is where people stall.
Wake up Developer Options
From the home screen go to Settings > My Fire TV > About, highlight the name of the stick, and click it seven times. A small counter appears at the bottom of the screen while you do it. Older sticks skip this and show Developer Options straight away.
Let Downloader install things
Back out one screen into Settings > My Fire TV > Developer Options > Install unknown apps. Find Downloader in the list and switch it on. Give the permission to Downloader alone rather than to everything on the box.
Install Downloader from Amazon
Search for Downloader from the Fire TV home screen, install it, open it, and accept the storage permission it asks for on first run. It is a normal Amazon store app.
Fetch the player
Downloader takes a short numeric code instead of a full address. On the Home tab type 3926837 and press Go. When the download finishes choose Install, then Done, then Delete to remove the installer file. Storage on a Fire Stick runs out faster than anyone expects.
Sign in with your line
Open the player and pick the option called Xtream Codes, Login with API or Add User depending on the build. Type the server address, the username and the password exactly as they appear in your account. Capitals matter and the server address needs its port number on the end.
Let the first load finish
The first run pulls the whole channel list and the guide down in one go. On a two or three year old stick that is a minute or two of a screen that looks like it has frozen. It has not, and it only happens once.
Worth knowing
- A Fire Stick has no network socket. A powered USB Ethernet adapter costs less than replacing the stick and cures far more stuttering than a newer model would.
- Hold the Home button, open Apps, and move the player to the front of your app row so nobody in the house has to go hunting for it.
- If the install is refused at the last moment, you missed the toggle in step two. That is the cause nine times out of ten.
Android TV, Google TV, boxes, phones and tabletsAbout 5 minutes
This covers Android TV boxes, Google TV dongles, the Nvidia Shield, and any Android phone or tablet. It is the most forgiving platform on this page and the one where cheap hardware gives itself away quickest.
Allow the install
On Android TV the setting is Settings > Device Preferences > Security & restrictions > Unknown sources, then switch on whichever app you are installing from, normally Downloader or the browser. On a phone or tablet the browser simply asks the first time and you tap Allow.
Install the player
On a TV box use Downloader exactly as on a Fire Stick. The code for the phone and stick build is 2270632. On a phone, open the download link from your account in the browser and tap the file when it lands. Any player that speaks the Xtream Codes API will also work, because the line is the subscription and the app is only a window onto it.
Add the account
Server address including the port, then username, then password. Choose the Xtream option over the M3U one if the app offers both. The list arrives in sections rather than as one enormous file, and catch up only comes down the API route.
Prove the box can decode
Open something marked 4K or HEVC and watch a fast camera pan. If motion smears and the picture goes soft while the sound stays perfect, the box is decoding H.265 on its processor instead of in hardware. That is the chipset talking, not your broadband, and restarting the router will not touch it.
Worth knowing
- Use the Ethernet socket if the box has one. It is the cheapest upgrade available to you and the one people skip.
- A phone with the player installed is the best fault-finding tool you own. If a channel plays on mobile data with Wi-Fi switched off, the problem is inside your house.
- Android boxes sold with a player already on them are usually running an old build. Install a current one rather than trusting whatever the seller left behind.
Samsung Tizen and LG webOS televisionsAbout 10 minutes
No extra box and no extra remote, at the cost of the slowest menus of anything here. One thing to know before you start: the IPTV players on television stores are written by other developers, and one or two of them charge a small fee of their own.
Open the television store
Samsung: the Apps tile on the home bar. LG: the LG Content Store. Search for an IPTV player and read the description rather than the name, because what you need is a player that says it supports the Xtream Codes API or an M3U playlist.
Check what the app is asking for
Some television players want a server, a username and a password. Others accept only a playlist link, which is the M3U URL sitting next to the other details on your account page. Both routes reach the same line. Work out which one the app wants before you start typing on a remote.
Register the app if it demands it
A few of the well known television players show a device key or a MAC address and ask you to register it on the developer website, sometimes for a one-off payment of a few euros. That money goes to the person who wrote the app. We have no part in it and cannot waive it.
Enter the details and wait it out
Typing a long password with a directional pad is miserable, so go slowly and check the field before you confirm. The first load on a television is genuinely slow. Give it three minutes before you decide anything is wrong.
Worth knowing
- Plug the network cable in. The Wi-Fi aerial in a television is usually the worst one in the house, tucked behind a metre of screen.
- If browsing the list stays painful even after it has loaded, that is the television processor and no setting will fix it. A cheap Android box in the HDMI socket turns the same subscription into a completely different experience.
- Model year matters more than brand. A 2016 set may not carry any current player at all in your region.
MAG and Formuler set-top boxesAbout 4 minutes
These boxes need no app installed. The box asks a portal who it is and the portal answers based on its MAC address, which means the MAC is the credential. Send it to us before you order, because a portal line cannot be built without it.
Find the MAC address
It is printed on the sticker underneath the box and shown on screen under Settings > System Settings > Device Information on a MAG, or Settings > System > About on a Formuler. On a MAG it begins 00:1A:79.
Open the portal settings
MAG: press the SETUP button on the remote, then System Settings > Servers > Portals. Formuler: open MYTVOnline, go to Settings, then Playlists or Portals, then Add.
Add the portal address
Name it Trex so you recognise it later, and paste the portal URL from your account into the Portal 1 address field. Leave Portal 2 empty unless we gave you a second address. Save before you leave the screen.
Restart from the menu
Use the restart entry in the menu rather than pulling the power out. The portal is loaded at boot, and a clean restart stops a stale session being carried into the new one.
Worth knowing
- Changing box means telling us the new MAC. There is nothing you can do at your end to move a portal line yourself, so message us and it takes a minute.
- Formuler Z boxes will also take an ordinary Xtream login inside MYTVOnline, which is usually less fuss than the portal route if you have the choice.
- Treat the MAC like a password. Anyone holding it can point a box at your line.
Windows and macOSAbout 4 minutes
The most comfortable place to explore a large catalogue, because searching with a keyboard beats scrolling with a remote. It is also the quickest way to settle whether a problem lives in the line or in the television.
Windows: run the installer
Download the Windows build from the link on your account page, run it, and sign in with the server, username and password shown there. It installs like any other desktop program and needs no unknown-sources permission.
macOS: use an Xtream player from the App Store
There is no Mac installer from us. Any Mac player that supports the Xtream Codes API takes the same three details and behaves the same way. Read the description before you install, not the star rating.
Either machine: keep VLC for testing
In VLC choose Media, then Open Network Stream, paste the M3U link from your account and press Play. VLC has no guide and no categories, so it is a diagnostic tool rather than a way to watch. If channels play in VLC, the line is healthy and the fault is on the other device.
Worth knowing
- A desktop holds a big catalogue comfortably because the machine has the memory for it. A television does not.
- An HDMI cable from a laptop is an underrated way to watch on the big screen for one evening while you sort a box out properly.
iPhone, iPad and Apple TVAbout 4 minutes
Apple does not allow apps to be installed from outside the App Store, so the route here is always a store player and never a downloaded file. That is a limit of the platform, not of your subscription.
Install a player that supports Xtream Codes
Search the App Store and read the description. Several of the good ones are a one-off paid app, and that payment goes to the developer rather than to us. Pick one and stay with it, so that when something needs troubleshooting we are both looking at the same screen.
Add the account
Some apps call it Xtream Codes, some call it Login with API, some just say Add User. It wants the same three things every time: server address with its port, username, password.
Turn off the keyboard helping you
iOS capitalises the first letter of a field and will add a trailing space to a pasted password. Both produce a login failure that looks exactly like an expired subscription. Paste, then read the field back character by character before you tap save.
Worth knowing
- Apple TV runs the same players and takes the same login. You do not need to tell us that a second device has appeared.
- Keep the player on your phone even when you watch on the television. Two minutes on mobile data settles most arguments about whether the line or the house is at fault.
Using something not listed, like a Chromecast with Google TV, a Zgemma or an old Enigma2 receiver? Message the WhatsApp number and say what the model is. Most of them work, and the ones that do not, we will tell you straight.
03When it will not play
What the symptom usually means
Read the left column, then act on the right one. The pattern that matters is whether everything is broken or only one thing is: those two have completely different causes and completely different fixes.
| What you see | What it usually is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing plays, on any channel | The line rather than the stream: an expiry that has passed, a character wrong in the login, or another device already holding the connection. | Check the expiry date in your account, close the player on the other device, then retype the login by hand instead of pasting it. |
| One channel freezes, the rest are fine | That source moved or buckled. It is upstream of your house and nothing on your device caused it. | Try the backup entry if the list carries one, then send us the exact channel name. A channel nobody reports is a channel that gets re-pointed slowly. |
| Perfect all day, breaks up at nine in the evening | Contention, and far more often on your own Wi-Fi than at the exchange. | Move to the 5GHz band or run a cable. Play the same channel on mobile data at the same moment to prove which side of the front door the problem is on. |
| Invalid credentials, or user not found | A character is wrong, or the server address is missing its port. | Type the details rather than pasting them. Check the port is there. Check the capital letters, because usernames are case sensitive. |
| The guide is empty, or every programme is hours out | An empty guide is a mapping problem at our end. A constant shift is the clock on your device. | If everything is out by the same number of hours, fix the time zone on the device. If one channel alone shows nothing, tell us which one. |
| A 4K channel smears on movement | The device is decoding H.265 in software because it has no hardware decoder for it. | Watch the 1080p version of the same channel. If that is clean, you have found the ceiling of the hardware rather than a fault. |
| Works on mobile data, not on home broadband | The router or the provider is in the way. | Restart the router first, since that clears most of it. If it stays broken, message us and say which provider you are with. |
| The app sits on a loading screen the first time | It is pulling the whole catalogue and the guide down before it shows you anything. | Give it two or three minutes on a Fire Stick or a television. It happens on the first run and then never again. |
The one message that gets a fast answer
Tell us the channel name, the device, and whether the same channel also fails on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off. Those three facts skip an entire day of back and forth, because they separate a broken source from a broken connection before anyone has to guess.
Still stuck after all that
Send a message rather than spending an evening on it. Most of what looks like a dead subscription turns out to be a router, a time zone or a missing port number.
No line to type in yet?
Pick a length, pay once, and the login is created automatically within a few minutes. Then come back to this page, find your device, and follow it through.