MAC portal (Stalker or Ministra)
Some providers do not hand out a link or a login at all. Instead they register a MAC address on their side and give you a portal address, and anything presenting that MAC is treated as your set top box. IPTV Deck can be that box.
Adding one
Section titled “Adding one”On a phone or tablet:
- Open Settings → Playlists and tap Add playlist.
- Choose MAC portal.
- Fill in the fields below. Connect stays greyed out until the name and the portal address are filled in and the MAC address looks right.
- Tap Connect, then choose the categories to download on Choose categories and tap Load selected or Load everything.
On a television, Windows, the Mac and LG or Samsung TVs: Settings → Playlists → Add a playlist → Type it with the remote, then pick MAC portal at the top of the form. The first field is called Name and the button is Add playlist.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Playlist name | Whatever you want to call it. Only you see it |
| Portal address | What your provider gave you, like http://example.tv:8080/c/ |
| MAC address | The one your provider registered, like 00:1A:79:XX:XX:XX |
| User-Agent | Automatic unless your provider asked for one. The same choices as for Xtream |
No username, no password: the MAC is the account. A MAC address is six pairs of digits and the letters A to F; until it looks like that, the form says so in red.
When the portal says no
Section titled “When the portal says no”The app shows the portal’s answer in its own words when the portal gives one. Otherwise:
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The portal did not accept this MAC address | Check the MAC with your provider |
| The portal did not answer | Check the portal address |
| The portal is busy right now | Try again in a few minutes |
| The portal ended this session | Try again in a moment |
| The portal refused this device without giving a reason | Usually another device is using the same MAC at the same time. Try again once it is off |
| This portal only accepts its own set-top boxes | The app cannot connect to this portal. Ask your provider for an M3U or Xtream login instead |
The first download takes a while
Section titled “The first download takes a while”Longer than an Xtream account, and that is the portal’s own doing rather than the app’s: a portal hands out its films and series in small portions, so a large catalogue takes many requests. On a big portal the first download is measured in minutes, not seconds.
Live channels come quicker.
Two things make it shorter:
- Untick the categories you do not want before it starts. A category you leave out is never downloaded at all, not downloaded and then discarded.
- Leave it alone while it runs. The portal limits how fast it will answer.
Refreshing later is much quicker, because the app mostly reads what the provider has added since last time. The whole catalogue is read again when you change which categories you keep.
The guide
Section titled “The guide”A portal carries its own programme guide and the app uses it. You do not need to add an XMLTV source for it, and it does not mix with one.
How much of it arrives is the provider’s decision. On some portals only a small part of the channels carry any programme data at all. That is their guide, not a fault in the download, and no setting on this side will add the rest.
Your MAC and your account
Section titled “Your MAC and your account”The MAC is a credential, so it is treated like one.
It stays on the device unless your playlist passwords are kept in your account, see Keep my passwords in my account. With that on, the MAC travels with the rest of them and a new device gets the portal ready without you typing anything. A new account starts with it on, an older one only if somebody turned it on, and what we store is readable by us, which that page says plainly.
Changing the address or the MAC
Section titled “Changing the address or the MAC”On a phone, the pencil next to the portal in Settings → Playlists opens Edit MAC portal; Save & refresh applies it. On a television, Windows and the Mac, OK on the portal, then Edit and Save and reload. Renaming it or changing the User-Agent asks nothing.
A different MAC is a different line, the same way a different link is a different list. So changing either asks you the same question as changing any other playlist’s source: keep your favorites and channel settings, or start clean.
Keep them when the provider moved you to a new address or re-registered the same box. Start clean when it is somebody else’s line, or a different provider altogether, otherwise your favorites land on whatever channel happens to hold that number now.
One portal is one line
Section titled “One portal is one line”If your provider gave you two MACs, add them as two playlists. You can have several open at once and see them together.
A portal treats one MAC as one box. Two devices using the same MAC at the same time cut each other off, even on a line that allows several connections, because the portal ends the first box’s session when the second one signs in. When the portal answers that way the app says that another device is using this MAC. For a second device at the same time you need a second MAC from your provider.
Recording and downloads
Section titled “Recording and downloads”A portal playlist records and downloads like any other, and catch-up works on the channels where the portal keeps past programmes. Casting to a Chromecast and multiview do not work with it, because a portal’s stream address is made for the one device that asked for it.
