What to have ready
- An Android TV, Google TV or Android box
- A Google account signed in on the device
- Your new IPTVever credentials
- Your current provider still active, so you can compare
Still on your old provider? Run a 24-hour test line beside it — nothing needs cancelling first — or look at what the plans cost.
The move, one step at a time
See what is already installed
If TiViMate or IPTV Smarters is on the device from your last subscription, skip the install entirely and go to the step about adding a second playlist. Most people moving providers on this platform never touch the Play Store at all. The two steps that follow are only for a device that has never had IPTV on it, or one where a previous provider pushed their own locked app.
Open the Play Store
It is on the home screen, or under Apps on Google TV. Confirm you are signed in to a Google account first: the store will let you browse without one and then fail at install, which wastes a few minutes and explains nothing about why.
Install a player
Search TiViMate IPTV Player or IPTV Smarters Pro. On a television rather than a tablet, take TiViMate — the programme guide is the reason it exists and nothing else on this platform approaches it. Smarters earns its place when you want one identical app across Android, Apple, Samsung and a laptop, which is a sensible thing to want in a mixed household.
Add the new line as a second playlist
In TiViMate, choose Add playlist, then Xtream Codes login. Do not edit the playlist you already have. Enter the server address, username and password and press Next. Smarters phrases the same thing as adding another user. Either way your existing provider remains in place and selectable, which is the entire point of doing it this way round.
Let it finish, then name it clearly
It now retrieves channels and programme data — a minute or two on a first run. Give the playlist a name you will recognise at a glance, because you are about to be switching between two of them repeatedly and "Playlist 2" helps nobody. Hold off judging the guide until the retrieval has genuinely finished; a half-loaded guide is indistinguishable from a broken one.
Run the comparison properly
Switch between the playlists on the same channel, during the same fixture, at the hour you normally watch. TiViMate makes this quick, which is exactly why it is the right platform to test on. Do ten channels, not one, and include the regional or international feeds rather than only the famous ones — those are what cheap providers quietly drop, and the reason people end up moving.
Rebuild the layout, then remove the old line
Once you have decided, switch off categories you will never open, pin your regulars, and set the guide refresh to every twelve hours under Settings, TV guide. Then delete the old playlist. Twenty minutes of this is the difference between a usable television and an unmanageable list of 25,000+ entries, and it is the same twenty minutes you spent when you set up the last provider.
If something does not behave
The Play Store does not list the app
Some cheaper boxes run the phone build of Android rather than the television build, which hides TV-only listings. Sideload the APK through Downloader instead, exactly as the Firestick walkthrough describes. It works identically; you simply lose the store handling updates.
The new playlist loads but the guide is empty
Let the first retrieval finish, then run Update EPG from the app settings. The guide source travels with the login, so most players need no separate URL. If one playlist has a guide and the other does not, that is a genuine difference between the two providers and worth noting in your comparison.
The box is slow on both lines
Cheap Android boxes are often sold with specifications that are simply untrue. Check hardware decoding is on, then check what the box actually contains rather than what the listing claimed. Under 2 GB of memory and no setting will rescue it — and no change of provider will either, which is worth establishing before you spend money on one.
Sound missing on some channels
An audio codec the device cannot handle rather than a fault in the feed. Switch the player's audio decoder to software — the reverse of the video advice, and worth knowing because the two settings sit next to each other and people change the wrong one.
Players worth running on this hardware
TiViMate
Add a new provider as a second TiViMate playlist without disturbing the first, on Android TV, a Firestick or an Android box. What Premium changes. 25,000+
IPTV Smarters Pro
How to add a new provider in IPTV Smarters Pro without removing the old one, on Firestick, Android, Samsung, LG, Apple TV or desktop. 25,000+ channels.
Every walkthrough
The whole list of hardware and players, on one page.
Try it on your Android TV without cancelling anything
A test line runs beside whatever you are paying for now, so you can compare the same channels on the same hardware on the same evening. Plans open at $15 a month for the full 25,000+ line-up.
What people ask when moving a Android TV
How many playlists will TiViMate hold?
Several, and that is what makes this platform the easiest to switch on. Run the old and the new side by side for as long as you like, compare whenever something is on, and delete one when you are sure. Multiple playlists is a Premium feature, so the free tier holds one — worth knowing before you plan around it.
Which Android box is worth buying?
An Nvidia Shield is fastest and handles 4K HDR without complaint, though it costs more than a year of subscription. Chromecast with Google TV 4K is the sensible purchase for most people. For an unbranded box, insist on 2 GB of memory and an ethernet socket, and read the specification as advertising rather than fact.
Does this work on Chromecast with Google TV?
Yes. It is Android TV underneath, so TiViMate and IPTV Smarters both install from the Play Store and take the credentials as described. For the money it is among the tidiest arrangements on any platform.
Should I change player at the same time?
No. Change one thing at a time. If you move provider and player in the same evening and something misbehaves, you will have no way of knowing which decision caused it. Move the line into the app you already know, live with it a few days, and change player afterwards if you still want to.
Will my recordings survive the move?
No, and it is worth knowing before you delete anything. TiViMate recordings are tied to the playlist that made them, so anything you want to keep should be watched or copied off the device first. Most people have less saved than they think, but it is an unpleasant thing to discover afterwards.
Can I test on a phone instead of the television?
You can, and it will tell you the account works, which is not the question you are asking. Capacity problems show up on a television during peak hours on a home wifi network, not on a phone over mobile data at lunchtime. Test where and when you actually watch or the comparison proves very little.