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FireDroid TV is not limited to Firestick. If you own an Android TV or Google TV device, including a Chromecast with Google TV, a Sony or TCL Android TV, or an ONN 4K box, you can run the same service on it. The setup path is different enough from Firestick that people often get stuck halfway, so this guide walks through the whole thing in order.
Have three things ready: your FireDroid TV login details, a stable internet connection, and the device powered on and connected to your TV. If you have not received your login details yet, check the email address you used when you ordered, including the spam folder, because activation emails regularly land there.
Your login consists of a username and a password, and sometimes a server or portal address. Keep that information somewhere you can read from the couch, because you will type it on a television screen with a remote, which is slower than typing on a phone.
On Google TV devices, the Play Store is built in. Open the Play Store, use the search at the top, and look for your IPTV player of choice. FireDroid TV works with the standard players rather than requiring a single proprietary app, which means you can pick the one that suits how you watch.
If a particular player does not appear in the Play Store on your device, it may simply not be published for Android TV. That is a normal limitation of the store rather than a fault with your device, and the sideloading section below covers the alternative.
The player is the app that reads your playlist and displays your channels. Different players suit different people:
Start with one player, get it working, and only then experiment with others. Installing three players at once makes it hard to tell which one is causing a problem if something goes wrong.
Most players ask for the same three pieces of information, though the wording varies:
If your player offers Xtream Codes, use it. It pulls in the programme guide automatically and handles updates better than a plain M3U link. Choose M3U only if your player does not support Xtream Codes, or if you have been given a playlist URL instead of login details.
Type carefully. Most login failures are a mistyped character, a capital letter where there should be a lowercase one, or a trailing space pasted in from an email. Use the on-screen keyboard’s shift key deliberately rather than relying on autocorrect, which television keyboards handle badly.
Some Android TV devices let you install apps from outside the Play Store. The route differs by device, but the general shape is the same: enable installation from unknown sources in your device’s security or apps settings, then use a downloader tool to fetch the app.
On Google TV, look for the setting under your profile, then Settings, then System, then About, where you may need to enable developer options before the unknown sources toggle appears. On other Android TV devices the setting is usually in Settings, then Security and restrictions.
Only install files from sources you trust. A player from an unknown site can carry unwanted software, and the convenience is not worth the risk to a device that also holds your accounts.
Once you sign in, the player will fetch your playlist. On a first run this can take a minute or two, especially on a large playlist, because it is downloading channel names, logos and programme data. Let it finish rather than clicking around, which can interrupt the process.
If the list stays empty, work through the obvious causes in order. Check that you typed the credentials correctly. Check that the device has a working internet connection by opening a browser or another streaming app. If your player has a refresh or reload option for the playlist, use it. If you have more connections than devices in use, make sure you are not already watching on the maximum number of screens, because exceeding your connection limit will block a new login.
Two settings are worth changing once everything works. First, pin your player to the home screen so you are not hunting through the app list every time. On Google TV, long-press the app and choose to add it to your favourites. Second, turn on the programme guide if your player supports it, so you can see what is on rather than scrolling through a channel list.
If the picture stutters, the cause is usually the network rather than the device. Wired ethernet is more reliable than Wi-Fi where you can run a cable, and if you cannot, moving the device or router so they have a clearer path between them often helps more than any software setting.
Firestick runs Amazon’s own operating system rather than Android TV, so the menu names and the sideloading steps are different even though the players are largely the same. If you are setting up a Firestick instead, follow our Firestick setup guide, and for general Fire TV device maintenance see the setup and update guide.
