Instruction Manual

How to use every feature of AAAstreamz with a normal TV remote. Haven't installed it yet? See Install.

1. Logging in

AAAstreamz doesn't come with channels. You log in with the details your IPTV provider gave you. Pick one:

• Xtream Codes: your provider's server address, username and password
• M3U URL: a single playlist link

Tick Remember on this device so you don't have to type it again. Your username and password stay on your device and only go to your provider.

More than one provider? Add each one as a playlist and switch between them (see Playlists).

Setting up a new box? If you saved a backup from another TV, choose Moving from another TV? Restore a backup on the login screen (on a phone or tablet: Have a backup from another TV? Restore it) and skip the typing (see Backup & restore).

Log in from your phone (easiest): on a TV, the login screen shows a QR code next to the form. Point your phone's camera at it (phone and TV on the same Wi-Fi), type your server address, username and password (or M3U link) on the phone and tap Connect. The TV logs in by itself, with no typing on the remote.

Typing on the TV instead? Press Down to reach Server address and press OK to open the keyboard.

2. Finding your way around

The top bar has Search, Edit categories & channels, Guide, Ask, Recordings, Settings and Disconnect. Under it are the tabs: Live TV, Movies and Series.

• Categories are the row of buttons under the tabs. Scroll left and right through them and press OK to open one.
• Prefer a list down the side? Go to Settings › Interface › Layout and choose Side. The categories become a list on the left, the channels (with what's on now and next) sit in the middle, and the video plays small on the right. Press Left once from any channel to jump to the categories, and Right to go back. Choose Top for the classic layout. Side is for TVs; phones keep the Top layout.
• ★ Favorites holds everything you've starred. 🕘 Recent (Live TV) shows the last channels you watched. Your own 📁 folders sit right after them (see My folders).
• Search filters the list you're looking at by name.
• With two or more playlists, the playlist button next to the AAAstreamz logo shows which one you're on. Choose it to switch.
• On a phone or tablet the top bar is shorter: the playlist, Search and ☰. Everything else (Edit categories & channels, Guide, Ask, Recordings, Settings, Disconnect) is in the ☰ menu.

Remote tips

• Hold Up/Down to scroll faster. Fast-forward/Rewind (or Channel Up/Down) jump a whole page.
• Back inside a list takes you up to the categories. From the main screen, press Back twice to leave the app.
• Menu (☰) on Fire TV remotes jumps to the top bar (it lands on the playlist button when you have more than one).

3. Watching Live TV

• Press OK on a channel to play it in the small window. Press OK again to go fullscreen.
• Scrolling the list doesn't change the channel. Only OK does.
• Under the video you'll see what's on now and next.
• In fullscreen: Up/Down changes the channel, OK pauses and plays, hold OK (or ☰ on Fire TV) chooses the audio track, and Back returns to the list.
• Hold OK on a channel in the list for Add to Favorites, Add to folder, Record, Hide or Watch in Multi-View.
• My folders: make your own channel lists, like Sport, News or Kids. Hold OK on a channel and choose 📁 Add to folder…, then pick a folder or choose ＋ New folder and type a name. Each folder gets its own button next to Favorites. A channel can be in more than one folder.
  • To take a channel out, open the folder, hold OK on the channel and choose Remove from "…".
  • To rename or delete a folder, open it and choose Edit categories & channels. The toolbar has ✏ Rename folder and 🗑 Delete folder (press twice). In edit mode you can also put the folder's channels in any order.
  • Each playlist has its own folders, and they're included in backups.
• Multi-View (2, 3 or 4 channels at once): hold OK on a channel and choose ▦ Watch in Multi-View. If something is already playing, the two sit side by side. Otherwise pick the second channel from the list.
  • The arrows move the outline between screens, and the sound follows the outlined screen.
  • OK shows that screen full size. Back returns to the small screens, then to the list.
  • OK on an empty screen opens the channel list to fill it.
  • Hold OK (or ☰) on a screen to change its channel, add a screen, switch between 2, 3 and 4 screens, or remove one.
  • Each screen uses one connection. Many providers only allow 1 or 2 at a time, and the app warns you if you go over.
• Auto-reconnect: if a channel drops or the picture freezes, the app shows Reconnecting… and brings it back by itself, usually within a few seconds. If a channel is really off the air, it tells you after a few tries. Just change channel or press Back.
• Backup feeds: many providers carry the same channel more than once (like ESPN FHD, ESPN HD and ESPN SD). If the one you're watching stops working, the app switches to another copy by itself and tells you which. The list keeps showing the channel you picked. To turn this off, go to Settings › Playback › Switch to a backup feed.
• Too slow? If a channel keeps stopping to load, the app tells you your connection is too slow for it and, when there's a backup feed, switches to it. Run Settings › Speed test to see why.
• On a phone or tablet: tap the video for the controls. The speaker button (bottom right) mutes, and a 🔇 Muted badge stays on the video until you tap it or the button again. It stays muted when you change channels. Turn the phone sideways and the channel list sits next to the video.
• Starting the app goes straight back to the last channel you watched, full screen. To keep it in the small window, change Settings › Interface › Last channel plays. To open the channel list with nothing playing, change Settings › Interface › On startup.

4. The TV Guide

Choose Guide in the top bar for a full TV listing of what's on now and later. The red line marks the current time.

• The video keeps playing, shrunk into the bottom-right corner, while you browse.
• Move with the arrows. Press OK on a show to tune to that channel.
• Hold OK on a show that hasn't started to record it, or every episode of it (see Recording).
• Catch-up (watch shows that already aired): channels that keep past shows have a small rewind-clock icon next to their name. In the Guide, press OK on a show that already aired on one of those channels to watch it from the start. Pause and skip work like a movie. How far back you can go depends on your provider (often 1 to 7 days). It needs an Xtream Codes login.
• Download a show that already aired: on a catch-up channel, hold OK on a past show in the Guide and choose ⬇ Download this show. It's saved like a recording and shows up in Recordings. If the provider's copy has gaps, the app warns you first, and if some pieces can't be downloaded the recording says so.
• Press Back once to jump up to the categories and switch category without leaving the Guide. Press Back again to close it.
• If shows are listed at the wrong time, use Settings › Interface › Guide time shift to move every time by whole hours.

5. Movies & Series

• Open the Movies or Series tab and pick a category.
• Choose a movie to play it. Choose a series to pick a season (the tabs at the top) and an episode.
• Playback resumes where you left off.
• While playing: Left/Right skips back or forward 10 seconds, OK pauses and plays, and Up/Down or hold OK opens Audio & Subtitles.
• The ☆ in the corner of a poster adds it to Favorites.
• 4K movie keeps stopping? If it's arriving slower than it plays, the app offers to switch to the HD version of the same movie, carrying on where you were.

6. Ask: search by voice or words

Open Ask and type or speak what you want: "football", "something funny", "cooking", or a channel name like "CNN".

Hands-free: start with a play word, like "play CNN", "watch ESPN 2" or "put on the Weather Channel". AAAstreamz finds the channel and starts it full screen after a 3-second countdown. Press OK to start right away, or Back to cancel. If it isn't sure, it shows a "Did you mean…" list with the best guess selected.

You can also say the name of a show that's on now, like "put on America's Morning Headquarters". Your Favorites and Recent channels are preferred when a name matches several channels.

To use your voice, press and hold the microphone button on your remote, or use the mic on the on-screen keyboard.

7. Use your phone as a remote

Open Ask. It shows a QR code and a web address. Open it on your phone (on the same Wi-Fi as the TV) and you get:

• Arrows, OK and Back that work anywhere in the app
• Play/Pause, Rewind, Fast-forward, Volume and Mute
• A keyboard and mic for searching and logging in (much easier than the TV keyboard)
• A 📺 TV guide button: browse your channels by category or search them on the phone, see what's on now, and tap one to play it full screen on the TV. Your teams' games (see Follow my teams) are listed at the top

Nothing to install on the phone. The address stays the same for that TV, so you can bookmark it and use it again later (the app needs to be open on the TV).

8. Recording (DVR)

Record what's on now, set a show to record later, or record every episode of a series. Recordings start by themselves at the right time, even if the app is closed or the TV is asleep.

Record something

• What's on now: hold OK on a live channel and choose ⏺ Record.
• A show later today or tomorrow: open the Guide, move to the show, hold OK and choose ⏺ Record this show. A red dot marks it in the Guide. It starts a minute early and runs 5 minutes over, in case the show starts or ends late.
• Every episode: in the Guide, hold OK on the show and choose 🔁 Record every episode. Each new episode on that channel is added as the guide lists it, usually about a day ahead. Reruns of an episode you've already got are skipped (for a nightly show, tonight's records and the 2 AM repeat doesn't). To stop, hold OK on the show again and choose ✕ Stop recording this series, or press Stop next to it in Recordings.
• Only one recording runs at a time. If two shows overlap, the app tells you, and a series skips the episode that clashes (Recordings says which).

Your recordings

Choose Recordings in the top bar. It lists your Series, what's Scheduled (press Cancel to drop one) and what's Recorded (Play or Delete). While playing a recording, Left/Right skips back and forward and OK pauses.

Keep the app around: a series only picks up new episodes while the app is open or running in the background, so open it at least once a day. Recordings that are already scheduled still start with the app closed, and after the TV restarts.

Where recordings are saved

Go to Settings › Recordings and choose Choose folder (or Change folder). Pick 📺 This TV or a 💾 USB drive. Each shows how much room is left, in GB and hours. Recordings are big, about 2.7 GB for every hour of HD, and most streaming sticks and boxes only have 8 to 16 GB in total, so a USB drive is best.

• The app always keeps 10% of the storage free so the TV keeps working. If a recording may not fit, it asks first, and a recording that runs out of room stops early (what was recorded is kept).
• Recordings saved this way are removed if you uninstall AAAstreamz. To keep them, save them to your PC, NAS or server (below).

Save recordings to your PC, NAS or server

Recordings can be copied to a shared folder on your Windows PC or NAS (Synology, QNAP, WD and others), or to your own storage online such as an Ultra.cc service or Nextcloud (anything with WebDAV). They're copied there after they finish and removed from the TV, so the TV never fills up.

• Open Settings › Recordings › Save recordings to your server. Point your phone's camera at the QR code (phone and TV on the same Wi-Fi) and pick one:
  • PC / NAS share: type the share as \\computer\share, for example \\192.168.1.50\Media, with that computer's username and password. Use the computer's address (its numbers) rather than its name. On a Windows PC signed in with a Microsoft account, the username and password are that account's email and password (not the PIN). Leave them empty for a share that's open to guests.
  • Ultra.cc: just your username, your server name (like "arcturus") and your password.
  • WebDAV: paste its WebDAV address.
  You can also choose Type it on the TV instead.
• The TV checks the login and makes a folder for recordings. Shows go in Shows/<show>, games in Sports/<team>.
• Every TV can watch them: set up the same share or server, with the same folder name, on each TV. Recordings made on another TV show in Recordings as ☁ On your server (recorded on another TV) and play straight from the server. Deleting one removes it from the server for every TV.
• Your server password stays on the TV and is never shown again. It isn't included in backups.

Connections

A recording uses its own connection to your IPTV service. To watch something while recording, your account needs at least 2 connections. With a 1-connection account, the app warns you that you can't watch anything else while it records. Connections are shared by every TV and phone logged in with the same account.

9. Follow my teams

Tell the app which teams you follow and it tells you when their games are on.

• Open Settings › Follow my teams (the first section), type a team and choose Add. Use the full name, like "New York Liberty" rather than "Liberty", so other teams with the same word don't match.
• About 5 minutes before a game starts, a pop-up says your team is on. Press OK to watch it or Back to dismiss it. It works while the app is open, full screen or not.
• Games are found in your provider's TV guide and in event channel names like "NFL 04: Packers vs Bears 8:20 PM ET", so it works even when the guide doesn't list the game.
• Coming up lists the next games. Games that have started have a ▶ Watch button. With two or more on at once, ▦ Watch all … games on now in Multi-View puts them all on screen together.
• Record my games records each game from kick-off to the end, plus 15 minutes for overtime, while the app is open. It uses one of your connections and about 2 to 4 GB an hour, so choose a USB drive in Settings › Recordings first (see Recording).
• Don't want the pop-ups? Choose Pop-ups off. The Coming up list still works.

10. Editing your lists

Put your channels, movies and shows in the order you want, and hide the ones you never watch. Choose Edit categories & channels (Live TV), or Edit categories & movies / & shows, in the top bar. The button changes to Done. Press it when you're finished.

Move or hide one channel

• Move: press OK on a channel to pick it up (it's marked Moving). Move it with Up/Down, then press OK again (or Back) to drop it.
• Hide or unhide: press ► (Right) on a channel. Hidden channels stay on the list, dimmed, while you're editing, so pressing ► again (or OK) brings them back. A hidden channel disappears from All, every category, Favorites and Recent.
• Hold OK for the full menu: 🚫 Hide, ↕ Move, ⤒ Move to top and ⤓ Move to bottom.
• Movies and series work the same way, except ◄ ► move between posters: hold OK to hide one, and OK on a hidden one to unhide it. A picked-up poster moves with all four arrows.

Manage categories (hide lots at once)

Most providers have hundreds of categories, many in languages you don't watch. In edit mode, choose ☰ Manage categories for a full list:

• The column on the left groups categories by country or language, like Arabic (AR). Press one to hide or show the whole group.
• ► hides or unhides the category you're on. OK picks it up to move it, and OK again drops it.
• Type in Find a category… and use 🚫 Hide … found to hide everything that matches (handy for Movies and Series, where the language is often in the middle of the name).
• 👁 Show all and 🚫 Hide all (press twice) change every category at once.

The toolbar

While editing, a toolbar sits above the list:

• 🚫 Hide this category hides the category you're in. Hidden categories show dimmed with 🚫 while editing. Open one and choose 👁 Show this category to bring it back.
• ↺ Reset order puts your provider's original order back. Press it twice to confirm.
• 👁 Show all hidden brings every hidden item back. Press it twice to confirm.

What you hide is saved for each playlist, so hiding something on one provider doesn't hide it on another.

Moving categories

Hold OK on a category button for about a second to pick it up. Use ◄ ► to move it along the row, then press OK to drop it. You can also move them in Manage categories.

11. Settings

• Follow my teams: your teams, game pop-ups and recording (see Follow my teams).
• Playback: Buffer size (Fast, Balanced or Stable), Decoding (Auto, Hardware or Software), Switch to a backup feed, and Live stream format (Auto (HLS) or TS). Buffer size and stream format are saved for each playlist, because providers differ. Decoding is for the whole TV.
• Find the best settings for this TV (top of Playback): choose Run the test. It plays the last channel you watched (a feed that works) for about 2 minutes, tries hardware and software decoding and both stream formats, and suggests what works best. Pick another channel from the list or search for one first if you like. On some boxes it asks "Can you see the channel playing?" because it can't read the picture itself. Nothing changes until you choose Apply these settings. It uses one of your connections while it runs.
• Recordings: where recordings are saved: this TV, a USB drive, or your PC, NAS or server (see Recording).
• Interface: Layout (Top or Side), 12h/24h guide times, row size, accent color, what happens on startup, and Guide time shift.
• Parental control: set a PIN and lock categories behind it, separately for Live, Movies and Series.
• Playlists: add, rename, switch between and remove playlists (see Playlists).
• Backup & restore: save everything to your phone, or restore it here (see Backup & restore).
• Data: refresh the guide (EPG) or the channel list if something looks out of date.
• Speed test: checks your internet and your provider (see below).
• About: your version number, Check for updates, Report a problem, Request a feature, and an optional Ko-fi tip QR code.

The option you're on turns white, and the option that's switched on has a ✓.

12. Playlists

Keep more than one provider or M3U link in the app and switch between them in seconds.

• Add one: Settings › Playlists › + Add playlist. Enter the login or M3U link, give it a name if you like (for example "Main" or "Sports"), and choose Connect. It switches to the new playlist straight away. Cancel or Back takes you back to the one you were on.
• Switch: choose the playlist button at the top of the screen (next to the logo) and pick one. It's also under Settings › Playlists › Switch.
• Rename or remove: Settings › Playlists › Rename or Remove.
• Each playlist keeps its own favorites, folders, recent channels and last channel.

13. Backup & restore

Save your playlists (with their logins), settings, favorites and folders as a file on your phone, then put them back on this TV or move them to a new one. Your phone needs to be on the same Wi-Fi as the TV.

Save a backup

1. Open Settings › Backup & restore. A QR code appears.
2. Point your phone's camera at it and open the page. It says which TV it's connected to.
3. Tap Save backup. On an iPhone it goes to the Files app (Downloads in Safari, or On My iPhone › Chrome in Chrome). On Android it goes to Downloads.

Restore it (or move to a new box)

1. On the TV you're restoring to, open Settings › Backup & restore. On a brand-new box, choose Moving from another TV? Restore a backup on the login screen instead.
2. Scan that TV's QR code with your phone.
3. Tap Choose backup file and pick the aaastreamz-backup file.
4. The TV asks Restore this backup? and shows when it was saved and which playlists it has. Choose Restore. The app restarts with everything in place.

Restoring replaces that TV's playlists, settings and favorites. The backup file includes your provider logins, so keep it private. The backup goes straight between your phone and TV over your Wi-Fi and never through us. The QR link only works while the Backup & restore screen is open.

14. Updates

When a new version is out, the app shows a pop-up when it starts. Choose Update and confirm Android's install screen. You'll see what's new each time. To check yourself, go to Settings › About › Check for updates, where your version number is shown too. See every version's changes on What's new.

The first time, Android may ask you to allow AAAstreamz to install apps. Say yes. If Play Protect shows a warning, choose More details › Install anyway. Your login, favorites and settings are kept.

15. If something isn't working

The first load of a very large channel list can take a few seconds. That's normal. More answers are in the FAQ.

Speed test

Go to Settings › Speed test › Run speed test. It takes about 25 seconds and checks your provider's server and your home internet separately. HD needs about 10 Mbps and 4K about 25 Mbps. If your internet is fast but your provider is slow, the buffering is on the provider's end, not your Wi-Fi.

Report a problem

Go to Settings › About › Report a problem. Add a note about what happened (optional) and send. We get your app version, device and a log of what went wrong, but never your username or password. You'll get a report number. Mention it if you contact us at aaastreamz@gmail.com. Crashes are reported automatically.

Request a feature

Have an idea? Go to Settings › About › 💡 Request a feature, type it and send. It comes straight to us, and we read every one.