The first time you open the app

First launch is a short setup: accept what the app is, then answer seven screens. It takes about a minute, and everything decided here can be changed afterwards without repeating any of it.

A numbered rail down the left side tracks where you are, marks which screens are optional, and carries Skip setup and go to Home from the moment you are signed in.

1. Accept the disclaimer

The opening screen is headed Bring your own playlist, under it Watch where you actually watch, with three statements: the app is a player and nothing else, your credentials are encrypted on your account, and obtaining what you watch lawfully is on you. Read the full disclaimer opens the whole text in your browser.

Tick I’ve read and understood. Until you do, both buttons stay disabled and the screen says why. Then choose Get started to make an account, or I already have an account to sign in.

This text is in Settings, About afterwards, so you never have to hunt for it again.

2. Create your account, or sign in

Create account asks for your name, your country, an email address and a password. The country is filled in from Windows and sets the billing region. The password rules are listed under the box and tick off as you type: 12 characters or more, upper and lower case, a number, and a symbol.

Accept the terms and privacy policy to enable the button. Product email is a separate checkbox and is off unless you ask for it.

I have an account is the same screen with one field fewer. Signing in here takes one device slot, and if the plan is full you are offered the list to release one rather than being locked out.

Check your inbox

A new account goes to a second screen: Check your inbox. There is no code to type. Open the link in the email, from this PC or your phone, and the screen moves on by itself. The link lasts 24 hours, and a resend link appears after a short wait if nothing arrives.

Opening the link also starts the 7-day trial, which is why it is worth doing now. It is not a gate: Verify later carries straight on into the rest of setup and leaves the reminder in Settings.

3. Name your profile

This is the profile the app opens into, the one on the picker, and the one your watch history and preferences attach to. The name is pre-filled from your account name; something short reads best under the avatar.

The avatar grid has five sets of ten, with Surprise me if you would rather not choose. This first profile is the owner: it creates the others, holds the parental PIN, manages the plan, and cannot be deleted. Choose Save profile to continue.

4. Add your first source

Three kinds are offered here:

• Xtream Codes portal, the most complete, is the card for a provider login: a server address, a username and a password you were given in place of a playlist file. The app signs in to that server with them and builds the live channels, movies, series and program guide from what it returns.
• Playlist URL, an M3U or M3U+ link. A link that turns out to be the playlist export of a provider login is recognized and registered as a provider login instead, so the guide and series work too.
• Upload an M3U file from this PC, up to 200 MB, encrypted before it leaves the device.

Test connection runs five calls and takes about two seconds: resolving the address, authenticating, reading the account status, looking for a guide, and playing a test stream. What comes back is a summary of what the portal says about your account, including how many live, movie and series groups it carries and how many streams it will serve at once. Nothing has been read yet at this point.

If the test fails, the message says which of the five calls failed and what that usually means. One case is worth knowing: an address that answers without credentials but not with them is normally security software on this PC blocking the login rather than a bad password. Save without testing gets you past it, because the import runs from your account rather than from this PC.

Credentials are encrypted on this device before they reach your account, and every other device you sign in on gets this source without you typing it again.

5. Let the import run

The app now reads the source into a local database. Sections are read in the order that makes a page usable soonest: live channels first, then movies, then series, then the guide. Live TV works while the rest is still arriving.

A first read takes a few minutes on a large source; later updates are incremental and take seconds. You do not have to watch it. Continue and set up sport while this finishes moves on, and the two screens after this one do not need the catalog, so answering them usually costs you nothing at all.

6. Answer the two optional screens

Sport is off unless you turn it on. Turned on, you pick sports, then competitions, then individual clubs, and Home gains a fixtures rail and a Sport page. Every toggle saves as you go, and only sports with real fixture data are offered.

Taste orders your Home rails and hides groups in languages you do not watch: channel languages, the extras your source bundles in (pay-per-view, replays and 24/7 loops, all off by default), the genres you like, audio languages for movies and shows, and a switch for hiding adult groups. Nothing is deleted; Filters on each page brings any of it back.

Both screens carry Skip this step, and skipping is a real answer rather than a postponement.

7. Start watching

The last screen recaps what was set up: the account and how many device slots this PC uses, the profile, the source and how much of it has been read, and what sport and taste you chose. Each card has a link to the place that setting lives, so you can change it now or later.

Choose Start watching. If the read is still going, Home reorders itself as the rest arrives, and nothing needs restarting.

Running setup again, or not at all

Skip setup and go to Home is on the rail from the account step onwards. The app works without the optional answers; Movies and Shows keep the order your source gave them until you set a taste.

You can run the whole thing again at any time from Profiles. Signing in on a second PC does not repeat what is already done: setup marks the finished steps and opens on the first one that is still outstanding.

If it will not let you in

• The password is right but sign-in fails. Check the email address for a typo, then use Send a reset link on the same screen.
• The verification email never arrived. Look in spam, then use the resend link. If the address was wrong, Change it and resend keeps everything you already typed.
• Something else. The app shows a code beginning MTP- when it can be specific. Look it up on the errors index for what it means and what to do about it.