Following the news across channels with Vizwriting in TiviMate

The TiviMate setup, in nine steps

1. Set the clock before the grid exists

   A guide grid is only as accurate as the clock behind it. Open the Android or Fire OS settings, set date and time to automatic and confirm the time zone is the one you live in. Do this before anything else, because TiviMate places every listing and every replay against that clock, and correcting it later means refreshing the guide and waiting again. Two minutes here keeps the 9 p.m. bulletin in the 9 p.m. column.

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2. Install TiviMate on Android hardware

   Google Play lists it as TiviMate IPTV Player for Android TV and Google TV sets and Android boxes. Fire TV sticks running Fire OS take it through Downloader, as the Firestick walkthrough describes. The Fire TV Stick 4K Select is the exception: it runs Vega OS, which permits no sideloading, so TiviMate cannot go on it. Apple hardware, Samsung sets and LG sets have no version at all; those screens use another player with the same login.

3. Add the login as an Xtream Codes playlist

   On the first screen choose Add playlist, then the Xtream Codes login type. Fill in the server URL first, http:// and port included, then the username, then the password, each as written in the WhatsApp message, and continue with Next. No separate guide address is needed: listings arrive through the same login from the server’s xmltv.php source. Give the playlist a short name and let the first download finish.

4. Jump through the grid by group

   Press left in the guide, or open the menu, to reach the group list: channels are sorted by country and genre, with news and factual groups among them. Pick the news group for the country you follow and scroll its rows; each hour’s column shows what every desk has on. On a remote with number keys, typing a channel number jumps straight to it. While you are in the settings, set the guide to refresh at least once a day.

5. Read the replay marks on past programs

   Move the grid back in time along a news channel’s row. On channels that keep catch-up, finished programs carry a small replay mark, and selecting one offers to play it from the beginning. That is the evening bulletin at 10:30 p.m. instead of 9, or the first half of a two-part science program you only caught the end of. Channels without an archive show no mark, and how far back each archive reaches varies by channel.

6. Decide whether Premium earns its place

   Premium is sold by the TiviMate developer, not by Vizwriting, and bought in TiviMate Companion, a separate phone app; the TV app then signs in to that Companion account. It unlocks favorites, hiding groups, recording, multiple playlists and multi-view, and Companion shows the current yearly and lifetime prices. One channel at a time, navigated by group, needs nothing beyond the free version; following a story across several desks is where Premium pays off.

7. Hide the groups you never open, star the ones you do

   With Premium active, open the group list, choose the option to manage or hide groups, and hide the countries and genres nobody in the house watches. The grid shrinks to what matters: the news desks, the weather, the factual networks and whatever sport someone insists on. Then add your daily channels to favorites from each channel’s menu. Favorites form their own group at the top, the shortest path from switching on to the headlines.

8. Put two news desks on screen with multi-view

   Multi-view is a Premium feature, opened from the menu while a channel plays; the exact path varies by version. Add a second channel, or up to four on a box powerful enough to decode them. Following one event on BBC News and Al Jazeera side by side, with the sound on one tile, is exactly what it is for. Each tile is a separate stream and counts against your plan’s connections, so two tiles need at least two and four tiles need the five-connection plan.

9. Choose what TiviMate opens on

   The last setting is the start screen. In the general settings, if your version offers it, set TiviMate to resume the last channel watched, and on a box used only for television, to launch when the device boots. Switching on then lands on the desk you left, with the grid one press away. Test it once: power off, power on, and check that a bulletin appears without touching a menu.

Once it plays: where the factual side lives

With the player signed in, the rest is finding things. Live channels arrive in groups, and the on-demand library keeps non-fiction on shelves of its own; the Vizwriting documentaries and news channels page explains how both are arranged. What airs next on most channels, the 9 p.m. bulletin included, is in the Vizwriting program guide. A bulletin that aired an hour ago can often be replayed through catch-up, on the channels that carry it.

TiviMate faults, by what the screen shows

The favorites option asks you to upgrade

That is working as designed: in TiviMate, favorites and hiding groups belong to Premium. On the free version, get around by group and channel number instead, or put IPTV Smarters Pro beside it, since its favorites cost nothing. Both take the same three details.

Downloader cannot be found on a Fire TV Stick 4K Select

The 4K Select runs Vega OS rather than Fire OS, and Vega OS allows no sideloading, so neither Downloader nor TiviMate can be installed on it. Look in that stick’s own app store for a player that accepts an Xtream login, or move TiviMate to an Android TV device or a Fire OS stick. The Firestick guide lists which models run which system.

The grid still shows yesterday’s listings

Listings stop moving when the guide has not refreshed. Open Settings, then the TV guide section, run an update, and choose an automatic interval of 12 or 24 hours. If one channel stays blank after the update while its neighbors fill, that channel sends no listings; it still plays.

No replay marks anywhere in the guide

If not a single channel shows a replay mark, check how the account was added. A playlist entered as an M3U URL can miss the catch-up details that an Xtream Codes login carries. Remove it and add it again through the Xtream Codes login type. If marks appear on some channels but not the one you wanted, that channel simply keeps no archive.

A recording never starts or stops after a few minutes

Recording needs Premium, a place to write the file and room on it. Choose a recording location with free space, internal memory or a USB stick formatted for the device, and set the recording up once more. A recording is also a stream: on a one-connection plan, recording one channel while watching another needs a second connection. On channels with catch-up, replaying from the archive often makes recording unnecessary.

Nothing above matches? A photo of the screen sent on WhatsApp usually settles it faster than a description, and the Vizwriting not-working page covers faults that are not tied to one device.

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Prepared by Vizwriting Team · Updated October 5, 2026