Strong 8K on Android TV, phones and tablets, start to finish
The platform with the fewest obstacles. The installer can arrive through a browser on a phone or through Downloader on a television box, and one set of details covers both.
Have these to hand
- Any phone, tablet or TV box on Android 7 or later
- Your Strong 8K server address, username and password
- Six minutes, plus the Downloader app if you are working on a television box
Decide how the installer reaches the device
On a phone or tablet the browser is the shortest path: reach the apps page from the menu and take the installer straight from there. On a television box, spelling out a web address with a remote is the slow route, so install Downloader from the Play Store and give it the numeric code instead. The file that lands is the same one either way, and so is the sign-in that follows it.
Grant the one permission Android asks for
Android will not install a file from outside the store until you allow the app that delivered it. On a television box the switch lives under Settings, Security and restrictions, Unknown sources. On a phone the browser or file manager simply asks the first time and you say yes. Either way it is a single permission attached to one app, and you can withdraw it after the install.
Install the player
Open the downloaded file and confirm the install. Any Xtream-capable player will run the line, so a player you already know is a perfectly good choice; what matters is that it speaks Xtream Codes or M3U rather than the badge on it. If you keep a second player installed, choose one with a visibly different layout so it is useful for comparison later.
Add the line
Launch the player and add an account. With Xtream, enter the server address, the username and the password from your Strong 8K account page. With a playlist, paste the M3U link instead; it is one long address that already contains the username and the password, which is why it must not be shared. Give the first load a minute on a television box and a few seconds on a recent phone.
Turn on hardware decoding, then test the extremes
Set the decoder to hardware in the player settings, then open one 1080p channel and one 4K channel. Fast motion is where a weak box gives itself away, so a football match or a music channel tells you more in thirty seconds than a news studio does in ten minutes. If sound plays with no picture on a single channel, change the audio decoder for that channel rather than globally.
Worth knowing
- Prefer the Xtream login to a playlist link wherever the player offers both. The catalogue then loads in pieces as you browse rather than in one long fetch every time the app opens.
- Open a 4K channel early in the first session. If it softens and drops frames while a 1080p channel is flawless, the box is decoding in software and no other setting will rescue it.
- Boxes with an Ethernet socket should use it. A cheap television box on a cable beats an expensive one on wireless in a busy house, every evening.
No line yet?
Pick one of the eight terms and pay; the panel reads the confirmation and issues the three values on screen and by email at once.
Get Strong 8K