Short answer: TiviMate is an Android-only player, and two things decide whether it feels good or awful. Add a separate EPG source rather than relying on the one bundled with your playlist — mismatched guide data is the commonest complaint and it's fixable in two minutes. And build a favourites list immediately, because scrolling eight hundred channels with a remote is what makes people give up. Everything else is refinement.
At a glance
Using TiviMate
| Platforms | Android TV and Fire TV only |
| First fix | Add your own EPG source |
| Second fix | Build favourites, hide the rest |
| Free vs Premium | One playlist free; recording is paid |
| Do this early | Back up your settings |
Which devices it runs on
Worth establishing first, because it rules the app out entirely for some people.
TiviMate is an Android application. It runs on Android TV and Google TV devices, on Fire TV sticks and boxes, and on Android phones and tablets.
It does not run on iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. It does not run on Roku. It does not run on Samsung's Tizen or LG's webOS televisions. Those platforms don't permit this kind of app, and no amount of searching will produce a version for them — if you're on one of those, you need a different player.
On Fire TV it isn't in Amazon's own store, so installation means sideloading — using a file manager or downloader app to install it. That's permitted on Fire TV, and the usual caution applies: get the installation file from the developer rather than an aggregator site.
One note on the remote: TiviMate is designed around a directional pad. It works on a phone, but the interface is unmistakably built for a television remote, and that's where it's pleasant to use.
Adding your playlist
First run walks you through this, and there are two ways in depending on what your provider gave you.
If you have a playlist URL — an address ending in something like .m3u or .m3u8 — choose to add a playlist, paste the address, and give it a name. TiviMate downloads the channel list and you're watching within a minute.
If you have a server address, username and password, choose the Xtream Codes option instead and enter those three fields separately. This route is generally better where it's offered: it gives the app access to the catch-up archive and on-demand sections, which a plain playlist file usually doesn't carry.
Two things worth knowing at this stage:
Typing a long URL with a remote is miserable. Most people get a character wrong and blame the provider. Either use the phone-keyboard feature in the Android TV remote app, or pair a cheap Bluetooth keyboard for setup and put it away afterwards.
The free version allows one playlist. Multiple playlists require Premium. If you have two sources, that's the main reason to pay.
If the playlist loads but nothing plays, the playlist itself is fine and the problem is further along — a connection limit on your account, or a stream the provider has broken.
Fixing the programme guide
This is the section that makes the difference, and it's the single most common complaint about any player of this kind.
Symptoms: the guide is empty, or it shows the wrong programmes against the wrong channels, or it's blank for some channels and populated for others.
The cause is almost always that the EPG data bundled with your playlist is poor or badly matched. The fix is to add a separate EPG source:
Go to Settings → EPG → Add source and enter an XMLTV guide address. Many providers publish one separately from the playlist — ask them for the EPG URL specifically, because it's often not mentioned. Public XMLTV sources also exist for many countries' channel line-ups.
Then deal with the matching. TiviMate pairs guide data to channels using an identifier, and where the playlist and the guide disagree, you'll get the mismatches described above. Each channel's settings let you set the EPG channel manually — tedious for eight hundred channels, trivial for the fifteen you actually watch. Do it for your favourites and ignore the rest.
Two refinements worth setting while you're in there:
Set the guide to update automatically at a sensible interval rather than on every launch, which makes startup slow.
Check the time zone if everything is consistently offset by a fixed number of hours. That's a time zone mismatch in the guide data, not a fault in the app.
Favourites and channel groups
The second thing that separates a usable setup from an abandoned one.
A large playlist is unusable as supplied. Hundreds or thousands of channels, most in languages you don't speak, in an order nobody chose. Fifteen minutes of tidying pays for itself every evening afterwards.
Create a favourites group and add the channels you genuinely watch. Long-press a channel to find the option. Aim for a list that fits on one screen.
Hide what you'll never watch. Channel management lets you hide whole groups — other countries' channels, adult categories, duplicate feeds of the same channel. Hidden channels stop appearing in the guide, which makes it load faster as well as read better.
Reorder what's left so the ones you use most sit at the top.
Set TiviMate to open on your favourites rather than the full list, so the app starts where you want to be.
If your provider gives several quality variants of the same channel — HD, FHD, a backup feed — keep one in favourites and hide the others. Having four versions of the same channel adjacent is a common and avoidable annoyance.
Learning the remote
A few controls that aren't obvious and save a lot of button-mashing.
Up and down change channels during playback, in your current group's order.
Left and right seek within a programme where the provider supports it — useful for catch-up and recordings.
The OK button brings up channel info and the mini guide without leaving the stream.
Pressing OK twice typically opens the full guide.
Long-press on a channel is where most per-channel settings live — favourites, hiding, EPG matching, stream selection.
Worth exploring the three main layouts in settings as well. The channel list, the mini guide and the full programme guide suit different habits — someone who flicks between a handful of channels wants a different default from someone who browses what's on.
Buffering and playback settings
If streams stutter, these are the settings that matter, in the order worth trying.
Increase the buffer. In playback settings, a larger buffer means the app holds more video in reserve before showing it. Channel changes get slightly slower; interruptions become much rarer. On an uneven connection this is the single most effective change.
Try a different decoder. TiviMate offers hardware and software decoding. Hardware is right almost always, but if a particular channel shows a green or corrupted picture, switching that channel to software decoding often fixes it.
Check whether it's one channel or all of them. One bad channel is the provider's stream. Everything stuttering is your network or your device. Diagnosing which saves changing settings that were never the problem.
Wire the device if you can. The usual point, and the usual answer: the Wi-Fi link between router and device is the most common cause of buffering, more often than internet speed.
Watch for heat on sticks. A stick behind a television that plays fine for twenty minutes and then stutters is throttling, not buffering. No app setting fixes that — get it into free air.
Back up your settings
The most useful thing in this article for anyone who has already set the app up properly.
Once you've added your playlist, fixed the EPG matching, built favourites and hidden the rubbish, that configuration represents real work. TiviMate can export it as a settings file.
Why it matters:
Replacing the device. A new stick or box can restore in a minute rather than being rebuilt from scratch.
A second television. Restore the same file and both sets behave identically.
Before any major change. A factory reset, an app reinstall, a firmware update that goes wrong — the backup turns a lost evening into a two-minute restore.
Export it to a USB drive or cloud storage rather than leaving it on the device, since the device is the thing that fails. Do it once now and again whenever you've made significant changes.
Quick answers
What devices does TiviMate work on? Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV, and Android phones and tablets. Not iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Tizen or LG webOS.
Why is my programme guide empty or wrong? The EPG data bundled with your playlist is usually the problem. Add a separate XMLTV source in Settings → EPG, then set the EPG channel manually for your favourites.
How do I stop scrolling through hundreds of channels? Build a favourites group, hide the groups you'll never watch, reorder what's left, and set the app to open on favourites.
Is TiviMate free? The free version covers one playlist and ordinary viewing. Premium adds multiple playlists, recording, multi-view and other features — see our separate page on what Premium costs and includes.
How do I stop it buffering? Increase the buffer in playback settings first. Then check whether it's one channel or all of them — one is the provider, all is your network. Wire the device if possible.
Can I move my setup to a new device? Yes. Export a settings backup and restore it on the new device. Worth doing before you need it.
Menu names and option locations change between app versions, so exact paths may differ slightly from those described. TiviMate is developed independently of any content provider, and this page covers using the app rather than recommending any particular service. Checked October 2026.