IPTV Deck — FAQ

Does IPTV Deck come with channels?

No. It is a player and nothing else. It carries no channels, films or series, and it provides none. You add your own playlist — M3U or Xtream Codes — from a provider you already pay for. Nothing in the app finds, sells or recommends providers, and support questions about them cannot be answered here.

Fire TV — installing and updating

IPTV Deck is not in the Amazon Appstore, so on a Firestick it is installed with the free Downloader app, the way players like this normally get onto Fire TV. It takes about two minutes and needs no computer.

Check the device first

You need Fire OS 7 or newer (Android 8.0+): Fire TV Stick 3rd gen (2020), Stick Lite, Stick 4K Max, Stick 4K (2023), Fire TV Cube 2nd gen and newer, and Fire TV televisions on Fire OS 7 or 8. On older hardware — the 2016 Stick on Fire OS 5 and the 2018 Stick 4K on Fire OS 6 among them — the download finishes and the screen says "There was a problem parsing the package". That is the device refusing the app, not a damaged file, and downloading it again cannot change it. Your version is under Settings → My Fire TV → About.

Installing

1. Install the free orange Downloader app from the Amazon Appstore.
2. Settings → My Fire TV → Developer options → Install unknown apps, and switch it on for Downloader.
3. Open Downloader and enter the code 7083371, or the address zssoftware.eu/tv. Confirm the install when the download finishes.
4. Open IPTV Deck and sign in — with an account, or by scanning the QR code with your phone, which also sends your playlists over.

Updating

You do not reinstall for every release. Smaller updates arrive over the air and the app offers them on startup. When a new installable build is published, the same Downloader code always points at the current one, so you repeat step 3 and install over the top — your playlists, settings and sign-ins stay where they are.

The install says "App not installed"

That message comes from Android itself, before any of our code runs, so the app cannot explain it. Three causes cover nearly every case, and they are worth trying in this order.

1. An older copy is still on the device. Android refuses an install that clashes with the signature of one already there, and this is the message it shows. Uninstall IPTV Deck, then install again.
2. The download was cut short. Downloader does not verify what it fetched, so a partial file fails at install with exactly this wording. Delete the file in Downloader and fetch it again.
3. The build does not match the device. Most Fire TV Sticks run a 32-bit system even though the chip is 64-bit. Use zssoftware.eu/tv-v7a — it is the smallest build, about 100 MB, and it installs on every Fire TV we know of.

Find the real reason

If all three fail, a small free installer will name the fault instead of leaving you guessing. SAI does not download anything — it installs a file that is already on the device, which is exactly what Downloader left behind when the install failed. In Downloader, enter zssoftware.eu/sai and install it; it is about 5 MB and it turns up in your Fire TV app list like any other app. Open it, choose Install APKs, browse to the Download folder and pick the IPTV Deck file. Allow SAI to install unknown apps when it asks — that permission is separate from the one you gave Downloader. SAI then shows the system's own error code.

What the codes mean: INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE is a leftover copy with a different signature, INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS is the wrong build for that device, INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED is a damaged or partial download, and INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE means the install needs several times the size of the file in free space. Send us that code and we can tell you what to do next.

TMDB — posters, plot, cast, your watchlist

Without TMDB the app shows what your provider sends, which is often a name and nothing more. Connect a free TMDB account and films and series get a plot, a cast with photos, genre, rating, poster, backdrop and trailer, in your language. Sign in on top of the key and your TMDB watchlist, favorites and ratings work from inside the app.

Why your own key and not ours

TMDB's terms treat a paid app as commercial use, which their free licence does not cover. So no key of ours ships inside IPTV Deck. Yours stays on your device, it is never uploaded to our servers, and your requests count against your own quota rather than a pool shared with every other user.

Getting the key

1. Create a free account at themoviedb.org and confirm the email.
2. Open Settings → API on your TMDB profile and request a key. Pick the free Developer option, accept the terms, and fill the short form — for personal use, the app name and a URL of your choice are enough.
3. Copy the API Key (32 characters, listed as "API Key (v3 auth)").

On a phone or tablet

1. Settings → Integrations → Connected accounts → TMDB.
2. Paste the API key and press Connect without signing in. Descriptions, cast and posters start working straight away.
3. Optional, for watchlist, favorites and ratings: add your TMDB username and password and press Sign in. If you created the TMDB account with Google, use Approve in a browser instead — same result, no password.

On a TV

The same screen lives at Settings → Services → Integrations. Typing a 32-character key with a remote is miserable, so set TMDB up on your phone first and send it across — see moving your setup to another device. Everything arrives already connected.

If it stops working

When TMDB refuses your key or your sign-in, the Integrations screen says so and asks you to reconnect, instead of retrying in silence. A changed TMDB password shows up exactly this way.

OpenSubtitles — subtitles inside the player

With an OpenSubtitles account connected you can search and download subtitles from the player, and attach a subtitle track to an offline download. The daily download allowance is yours — the app no longer shares one allowance between everybody.

On a phone or tablet

1. Create a free account at opensubtitles.com. A free account is enough; VIP raises the daily limit.
2. In the app: Settings → Integrations → Connected accounts → OpenSubtitles.
3. Enter your username or email and password, then press Sign in.
4. During playback, open the subtitle menu and search. The app matches by file and by title, so the first hits are usually the right ones.

On a TV

Settings → Services → Integrations → OpenSubtitles, same two fields. As with TMDB, entering it once on the phone and sending it to the TV is the easier route.

Moving your setup to another device

Nothing here has to be typed twice. One code carries your playlists, the categories you kept, and your service sign-ins to another phone, tablet or TV.

What travels

• Your playlists, including the provider password. It is encrypted on the sending device for the receiving device only, so it never passes through your account in readable form.
• Category choices — the trimming you did per playlist, which is stored per device and would otherwise have to be repeated.
• Service sign-ins — your TMDB key and session, your OpenSubtitles login, in the same sealed envelope.
• The sign-in itself, when the other device is not signed in yet.

Setting up a new TV

1. On the TV, open IPTV Deck and go to the sign-in screen. It shows a QR code and a short code underneath.
2. Point your phone's camera at that QR code. IPTV Deck opens by itself on the right screen — the app only has to be installed, you do not have to open it first or find anything in the menus. If you would rather type the code by hand, the same screen is at Settings → TV → Connect a device.
3. Pick Send everything — playlists, categories and your service sign-ins in one go — or pick a single playlist if that is all you want over there.

Setting up a new phone

Identical, in the same direction: the new phone shows the code, the phone you already use scans it with its camera. Phone-to-phone works the same way as phone-to-TV.

The other way round

A TV can also do the entering: Settings → Devices → Connect a device on the TV, then type the code your phone shows. The TV signs that phone in and hands over its playlists and categories.

Sending again later

Once a device is on your list you do not need a new code. In Settings, televisions are listed under TV and phones, tablets and computers under Other devices. Next to any of them that is online there is a send button, and it does the same thing everywhere: it pushes your category choices and then your service sign-ins. Useful after you connect a new service, or after you trim categories again.

Pulling instead of sending

It also works from the empty side. On the device that has nothing yet, open Settings → Other devices → Show this device's code; scanning or entering that code on the device that already has your playlists sends them over. Handy when the new device is the one in your hand.

A TV that is asleep

If the TV supports it, the same list can wake it over the network before sending. A device that has never published its key — an older build that has not been updated — will say so rather than fail quietly.

Profiles, PINs and locked categories

The PIN belongs to a profile, not to the app. Every profile can have its own four digits, or none. A profile with a PIN asks for it every time the app opens and every time it comes back from the background, and again before a locked category is shown. A profile without a PIN opens straight away and never sees locked categories: not in the lists, not on the home screen, not in Recently watched, not in search. That is the whole trick for a shared phone or TV.

Set it up for a family

1. Settings → Profiles → Add profile, pick Kids for the children. A Kids profile has no Settings tab and no way to unlock anything.
2. Open your own profile in the same list and give it a PIN. On a TV: Settings → Parental control, pick the profile, Set a PIN.
3. Settings → Playlists & categories, tap the lock on every category the children must not see. The lock needs a PIN on your profile, otherwise the app tells you so.

From now on the app opens on the PIN screen of your profile. The children tap Switch profile there, pick theirs and watch without any code. Nothing from the locked categories reaches their screen, even if you watched it a minute earlier. Your history is kept, so when you come back and type the PIN, Continue watching is where you left it.

What travels between devices

Profiles, their PINs and the locks on categories sync with your account, so a PIN set on the phone is asked on the TV as well. The categories you unlocked stay unlocked only until the app goes to the background on that device.

Forgot the PIN

On the phone: Settings → Parental control, tap the profile, then Forgot the PIN? on the PIN screen. The app asks for the password of the account it is signed in to, or sends you through Google or Apple sign-in again, and removes the PIN. A device that is not signed in has no account to check, so there the only way out is Settings → Account & sync → Reset this device.

Where the app lock went

Older versions had one PIN for the whole app under Parental control. That PIN is now the PIN of your adult profiles, so nothing was unlocked by the update. Give the children a profile of their own and they no longer need it.

Volume boost does nothing on my Samsung

On some Samsung phones the boost has no effect with the built-in player, while the same setting works on other devices. Samsung runs its own audio effects on the same output, and they can leave our loudness effect out of the chain.

What fixed it for the testers who hit this: Settings → Sounds and vibration → Sound quality and effects → Dolby Atmos, switch it On and pick the Movie preset. Then set the boost again in the player.

If that does not help, play the title with the VLC engine instead — there the boost is applied inside the player itself and always works, up to +6 dB.

Why does volume boost show fewer steps sometimes?

The steps say how much louder they make things, in decibels. The built-in Android player uses a loudness effect that goes to +12 dB. VLC and the desktop engine take a plain multiplier that stops at twice the amplitude, which is +6 dB — so on those engines the ladder ends there instead of promising a level they would silently ignore. A title that falls back to VLC therefore drops to the loudest step VLC actually has.

How do updates arrive, and how do I check what I am running?

Most updates arrive over the air: the app checks on startup and offers to update, or you can force a check in Settings → Check for updates. The version number does not change with these updates — what changes is the update id at the bottom of Settings. That id is the only reliable way to tell what a device is actually running.

Fire TV installs update the same way, over the same Downloader code — no reinstall.

Something is broken. What helps most?

The update id from the bottom of Settings, the device and its system version, and what the screen showed. If it concerns one title or one channel, its name. Write to mistyksu@gmail.com.