Nirmata Vision — User Guide

Introduction

Nirmata Vision is an Android TV application for watching live television, films and TV series from your own provider. It runs on Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV and most Android-based set-top boxes, and it is driven entirely from the D-pad on your remote — you never need a mouse, a keyboard or a touchscreen.

The app is a player. It does not supply any channels itself. In the same way a disc player needs a disc, Nirmata Vision needs a playlist from a provider before it can show you anything. Almost every playback problem you will meet — a channel that will not start, a missing programme guide, a film that buffers — originates with the provider, your internet connection or your box, rather than with the app.

Installing the App

The quickest route on any Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV device is the free Downloader app.

1. From your TV's app store (Google Play or the Amazon Appstore), install the free app called Downloader — orange icon, by AFTVnews.
2. Open Downloader. In the URL box on the Home tab, type the code 9053413 and select Go.
3. Downloader fetches the installer. When the download finishes, select Install.
4. When it has installed, select Open. Choose Delete when prompted, to remove the leftover installer file and save space.

First-Time Setup

The first time you open the app it asks for your provider details. There are two kinds of playlist, and the app supports both.

Xtream Codes (recommended)

Your provider gives you three pieces of information:

• Server URL — often ends in a port number, such as http://example.com:8080
• Username
• Password

Fill in each field with the on-screen keyboard and select Save. The app tests the connection and loads your channels, films and series automatically.

M3U playlists

If your provider gave you a single long link ending in .m3u or .m3u8, paste that link into the server field and leave the username and password blank. The app recognises an M3U link on its own and ingests it the same way it does an Xtream playlist, so the guide, categories and search all behave identically afterwards.

Set up from the dashboard instead

If whoever manages your account has already assigned a playlist to your device from the web dashboard, you do not need to type anything. The app finds the assignment on launch and loads the channels by itself.

Remote Control Basics

Everything in Nirmata Vision is reachable with the four arrows, OK and Back. Nothing requires a pointer.

The Main Screen

When the app has loaded you are looking at four things:

• The guide — your channels down the left, programmes across the page by time
• The mini player — top left, keeps playing whatever you were watching while you browse
• The category list — press Left from the guide to reach it
• The app menu — press Left again from the categories

The app menu is how you reach everything that is not live television:

• Live TV
• On Demand — films and series
• Search
• Weather Hub
• Plex, where configured
• Settings

The TV Guide

The guide shows what is on now and what is coming up. The current time is marked by a line down the grid, and the columns to the right of it are the future.

• Up / Down — move between channels
• Right — look forward through the schedule
• Left — look back. The guide holds two days of past programming, which is what makes catch-up browsable
• OK on a programme — full title, description, times, and catch-up if the channel offers it

The guide keeps itself current. If the stored guide has run past its end — which happens if the box has been off overnight — the app refreshes it as soon as you open it, rather than waiting for its next scheduled update. You should never need to refresh the guide by hand.

Categories

Press Left from the guide to reach the category list. Highlight a category and press OK to filter the guide to it. Categories come from your provider, so the names are theirs rather than ours.

Categories you never watch can be hidden entirely — either on the TV, or remotely by whoever manages the account, from the dashboard. Hidden categories disappear from the list and from search.

Favourites

Star a channel and it joins a ★ Favourites category that sits at the top of the category list. Long-press OK on a channel in the guide and choose Add to Favourites.

Favourites follow your account rather than your television. Star a channel on one box and it is starred on every other box signed in to the same provider account, usually within a minute of launch.

The ★ Favourites row can be turned off in Settings › TV Guide › Categories if you would rather not see it.

Watching a Channel

Highlight a channel and press OK to fill the screen. While full screen:

• Up / Down — change channel without going back to the guide
• OK — bring up the info bar
• Back — return to the guide. The stream keeps playing in the mini player

The mini player is deliberate: it means browsing the guide never interrupts what you are watching. It stops when you go full screen and starts again when you come back.

The Info Bar

Press OK while watching to open the info bar along the bottom. It shows the channel, the programme, and how far through it you are, and it carries a row of buttons:

You can choose which of these buttons appear in Settings › TV Guide › Info Bar. Anything you never use can be taken out of the row.

Press Up from the info bar to reach the timeline for the current programme.

Jump to Live

Live streams run behind real time — that is normal, and how far behind depends on your provider rather than on the app. If you have paused, rewound, or simply drifted behind, you can catch up in one press.

1. Press OK to open the info bar
2. Press Up to reach the timeline
3. Move to the ● LIVE marker at the right-hand end and press OK

The picture jumps forward to the live edge of the stream.

Catch-up

Catch-up lets you watch a programme that has already finished. It works only on channels where your provider offers it, and only as far back as they keep.

1. In the guide, press Left to move back in time
2. Highlight the finished programme you want and press OK
3. Choose Watch from start

How many days of past programming the app keeps browsable is set in Settings › Playlists › Catchup.

Multiview

Multiview puts up to four channels on screen at once. Open it from the info bar, or from App Menu › Multiview, then choose 2, 3 or 4 panels.

One panel is always the active one. It is the one with sound; the rest are muted. Move the D-pad to change which panel is active.

The panel menu

Press OK on any panel to open its own menu:

From a full-screened panel, Back returns you to the grid.

Picture-in-Picture

PiP shrinks the current channel into a small floating window so it keeps playing while you use other apps on the television. Open it from the info bar.

Audio, Subtitles & Captions

Audio tracks

Where a channel carries more than one language, Audio on the info bar lists them. The button is only offered when there is genuinely a choice to make.

Subtitles

Subtitles lists whatever tracks the stream carries. Your choice sticks: picking English keeps English, including across channel changes, until you choose otherwise.

AI subtitles

Where a stream carries no subtitle track at all, the app can generate subtitles from the audio. This is a premium feature, and it is switched on from the Subtitles button on the info bar while a programme is playing.

Captions on Mute

Turn this on and subtitles appear automatically whenever you mute the television, then disappear when you unmute. It is meant for muting an advert without losing the thread of what you were watching.

Picture & Sound Enhancement

Two optional processors, both in Settings › Playback.

Browsing Films & Series

Open App Menu › On Demand. Films and series are separated, and each is broken into the categories your provider supplies.

Press Left inside a category to bring up the On Demand sub-menu, which lets you move straight between Films and TV Shows without backing all the way out. Press Left again for the main app menu.

Sorting

Each category can be sorted — by name, by date added, and so on. The sort control sits apart from the poster grid so that arriving in a category never lands on it by accident.

The poster menu

Long-press OK on any poster for a quick menu, without opening the title first:

Title Pages & Cast

Opening a title shows its artwork, synopsis, year, rating and running time. For a series, the seasons run across the page with that season's episodes beneath them.

Cast

Underneath the details is a row of the main cast, with photographs. Select an actor to open their own page, which carries a short biography and the other films and series they appear in that are available on your playlist. Selecting one of those takes you straight to it.

Cast rows appear on both films and series.

My List (Watchlist)

My List is your own shelf of things to watch later. Add to it from the poster long-press menu, or from the button on any title page.

Reach it from the On Demand sidebar. Titles stay until you remove them, and the same button removes what it added.

Continue Watching

Films and episodes remember where you stopped. Reopen something you were partway through and you are offered:

• Resume — carry on from where you left off
• Start Over — begin again from the start

Recently watched titles also appear on the home screen. Selecting one there opens that title directly.

Search

App Menu › Search looks across everything at once — live channels, films, series, and the programme guide.

Type with the on-screen keyboard; results appear as you type, grouped by what they are. Results from the guide appear under On the Guide, which is how you find a match or a film that is being broadcast rather than sitting in the on-demand library.

Choosing a result

Selecting a result opens a small menu:

The menu also offers Add to Watchlist and Show Related.

Sports Features at a Glance

Nirmata Vision has several separate sports features. They overlap enough to be confusing, so here is what each one is:

Sports+ Panel

Press Sports+ on the info bar. A small menu appears above the button with three choices:

When the panel opens, the picture shrinks to make room for it, so the whole frame stays visible beside the panel rather than partly behind it. The ticker does not shrink anything — it is a thin strip that hides very little.

What the panel shows

• The scoreboard for the match, with crests
• Live statistics where the competition provides them
• The league table for the competition, with the two sides playing highlighted, and the rows immediately around them for context
• The stream sync control, described below

The panel finds the match by reading the programme title and the channel name, so it needs the channel to be showing a fixture it can recognise.

Score Ticker

The ticker scrolls live scores from other matches along the bottom of the screen. It floats over the picture rather than pushing it out of the way, and it can be used on its own without the panel — chosen from the same Sports+ menu.

In-Game Stats

In-Game Stats puts a card on screen when something happens in the match you are watching, naming the player responsible and their figures so far.

Switch it on at Settings › Sports+ › In-Game Stats › Play Alerts & Player Stats. That single switch covers both sports, because it is what fetches the data.

What raises a card

A card carries the player's photograph, their club crest, their line in this game and — for baseball — the pitcher it came off and their season average. It clears itself after a few seconds.

Batter Info Panel (MLB)

A standing card in the top-right corner naming whoever is at the plate. Switch it on at Settings › Sports+ › In-Game Stats › MLB › Batter Info Panel.

It shows:

• The batter's photograph and club crest
• Squad number, name, position and which side they bat
• Their season line — average, on-base and slugging
• How they have fared against the pitcher they are facing
• Who is up next

Between innings there is no batter, so the card names the next man in and labels itself DUE UP rather than AT BAT.

Stream Sync & Delay

This is the setting that matters most for every sports feature, and it is worth understanding.

An internet stream runs behind real time. How far behind depends on your provider, the channel, and the moment — it drifts during a session as the player buffers. Live data does not run behind: a scoring feed knows about a touchdown the instant it happens.

If the app simply showed data as it arrived, it would announce the touchdown before you saw it. So everything sports-related is held back to meet the picture: the cards, the batter panel and the pop-up alerts are all delayed by the same amount.

Adjusting it

The control lives at the foot of the Sports+ panel. Nudge it up or down a second at a time until cards land at the same moment as the play.

• Cards arriving too early — increase the delay
• Cards arriving late — decrease it

Pop-Up Score Alerts

Alerts tell you about matches you are not watching. They appear briefly at the bottom of the screen with the teams, the score and the crests.

Configure them at Settings › Sports+ › Pop-Up Alerts, where each sport can be switched on or off independently:

• Soccer — then by league, and by team within each league
• NFL and College Football — by team
• MLB — by team
• Hockey, Basketball, Tennis, UFC

An alert names which side scored and by how much, so a single alert covering more than one play still reads correctly.

Sports Hub

Separate from live viewing, the Sports Hub is a full screen of fixtures, live scores, standings and results. Where a match is on one of your channels, the hub can take you straight to it.

It is available on the Classic and Glass themes.

Weather Hub

App Menu › Weather Hub gives a full weather screen for your location: current conditions, hourly and multi-day forecast, and an animated rain radar.

Set your location by postcode or ZIP in Settings › TV Guide › Ticker & Weather › Weather Settings, along with °C or °F.

Weather alerts for your area can also be shown as a banner over whatever you are watching. That is configured under Weather Alerts in the same menu.

Plex

If you run a Plex server, Nirmata Vision can play from it alongside your provider's content.

1. Open the Plex hub from the app menu
2. A four-character link code appears on screen
3. Enter that code at plex.tv/link on a phone or computer
4. Your libraries appear — films and television, by library

News Ticker

The ticker along the bottom of the guide carries headlines, sport, markets and local news. Its content, scroll speed and which categories appear are set in Settings › TV Guide › Ticker & Weather › Ticker Settings.

Local news is chosen from the same location you set for the weather.

Sleep Timer

App Menu › Sleep Timer closes the app after a chosen period. A countdown appears shortly before it acts, so you can cancel it if you are still watching.

Parental Controls

Lock categories behind a four-digit PIN so they cannot be opened without it. Set it up in Settings › Parental Controls: turn it on, choose a PIN, then choose which categories to lock.

A locked category asks for the PIN before it will open, and stays unlocked for the rest of that session. Whoever manages the account can also set this remotely from the dashboard.

Themes

Choose a theme in Settings › App Settings › Display & Appearance › Guide Theme. Each theme is a complete look, not just a colour change.

Each theme has its own sub-page of options once selected, reached by opening the theme row again.

Guide Appearance

Playlists

The playlist switcher

In the switcher, long-press OK on any playlist for a menu:

• Update — refresh that playlist immediately. Progress appears as a slim bar across the top, so the screen stays usable while it runs
• Info — the login details for that playlist and the expiry date of the subscription

EPG Settings

Beyond the interval, the app refreshes the guide by itself whenever the stored guide can no longer describe what is on now — so a box that has been off overnight corrects itself on the next launch without anyone asking it to.

TV Guide

Everything about how the guide looks and what surrounds it: Guide Options, Guide Size, Categories, Info Bar, Clock Settings, and the Ticker & Weather group covered above.

Sports+

Playback

App Settings

Diagnostics

Tools for working out what is wrong, rather than settings to leave changed.

About

Subscription & Activation

Your status is shown in Settings › About › Subscription.

To activate, choose Activate / Purchase and follow the prompts. A device can also be activated from the dashboard, or with an eight-character activation code.

Premium features include the Weather Hub, AI subtitles, and parts of Sports+.

Updating the App

When a newer version is published, a banner appears at the top of the screen. Select it and the app downloads and installs the update.

To look manually: Settings › About › Check for Updates.

Troubleshooting

A channel will not start

• Try another channel. If that works, the first channel is off at the provider's end
• If nothing plays, check the box's internet connection
• Refresh the channel list: Settings › Playlists › Update Playlist

A channel stops after a few minutes

Usually the provider's feed has gone silent while your internet stays perfectly healthy. The app watches for a stream that has stopped delivering and reconnects on its own, but a feed that is genuinely down cannot be reconnected to.

• If it happens on one channel only, it is that channel
• If it happens across many channels at the same time of day, it is the provider or your connection
• A larger buffer in Settings › Playback can absorb a marginal connection

Channels are missing after the provider changed the line-up

Settings › Playlists › Update Playlist re-downloads everything.

The guide is empty, or showing the wrong programmes

• Force a refresh: Settings › Playlists › EPG Settings › Update EPG now
• If your provider supplies no guide data, no amount of refreshing will produce any
• Wrong programmes against the right times normally correct themselves on the next launch

Favourites are missing on another box

• Favourite syncing needs an Xtream Codes playlist — M3U has no account to sync against
• Both boxes must use the same server and username
• Allow a minute after launch for the sync to finish

Sports cards arrive before the play happens

Your stream is further behind real time than the app is allowing for. Increase the delay at the foot of the Sports+ panel until they land together. See Stream Sync & Delay.

The Sports+ panel or batter card never appears

• They only appear while watching full screen, not while browsing the guide
• The channel must be showing a fixture the app can recognise. A channel whose guide entry reads "Post Game Show" while the game is still on is matched from the channel name instead
• Between innings there is no batter — the card says DUE UP and names the next man in
• Cards only mark real events, and a quiet game can go twenty minutes without one

Multiview stutters or a second panel is black

Most boxes have only one or two hardware video decoders. Panels beyond the first are decoded in software, which is heavier. Use fewer panels, or a more capable box.

Subtitles keep reverting to Forced

Fixed in current versions. If you still see it, update the app — Settings › About › Check for Updates.

The app asks for an update every time it opens

The installed version is older than the published one. Accept the update; if it will not install, install it manually with Downloader as in Installing the App.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Nirmata Vision come with channels?

No. It is a player. You supply a playlist from a provider.

Can I use it on a phone or tablet?

This app is built for the television and a D-pad remote. There is a separate mobile app for phones and tablets.

How many devices can I use?

That depends on your plan. The number registered and your limit are both shown in Settings › About › Subscription.

Why is my stream a minute behind live television?

That is normal for internet streaming and comes from the provider, not the app. Use Jump to Live to move to the live edge, and set the sports delay to match if you use the sports features.

Which playlist type should I use?

Xtream Codes where you have the choice. M3U works, but has no account behind it, so favourites cannot sync and some catch-up features are unavailable.

Do I lose my settings when I update?

No. Updating keeps your playlists, favourites, watchlist and settings.

Can someone else manage my box for me?

Yes. Whoever manages the account can assign playlists, hide categories, change the theme and activate the device from the dashboard, and the television picks the changes up within seconds.

Remote Quick Reference

Overview

The dashboard is the management side of Nirmata Vision. From it you can register and activate televisions, assign playlists, change what a device shows, publish app updates and check subscription status.

Logging In

Go to the dashboard address and sign in with your email and password. Every management page sits behind that login. If you have forgotten the password, use Forgot password on the sign-in page.

Devices

The Devices page lists every television registered to the account, with its device ID, playlist, app version, last-seen time and activation state.

Activating a device

A television registers itself the first time the app opens on it, and arrives inactive.

1. Find it in the list. Identify it by the device ID shown on the television at Settings › About › Device Info
2. Turn the Active switch on
3. The television unlocks immediately — no restart

Deactivating a device

Turn Active off. The television notices within seconds and locks itself with an "access suspended" message. Turning it back on restores access just as quickly.

Assigning a playlist

1. Open the device and choose one of your saved playlists
2. Save
3. The television loads the new channel list on its own

Hiding categories

Under Hidden Categories, tick anything that should not appear on that television. It disappears from the guide and from search straight away. Hidden categories are set per device, so different televisions on one account can show different line-ups.

Watch history and analytics

Each device shows what has been watched and for how long, which is the quickest way to confirm a box is working and being used.

Playlists

Playlists are created once and then assigned to as many devices as you like.

Adding one

• Name — what it is called here and on the television
• Connection type — Xtream Codes or M3U
• Server URL, or the M3U link
• Username and Password — Xtream Codes only

Editing and removing

Editing updates the stored credentials. To push a changed playlist to a television, assign it again from the Devices page.

Remote Device Settings

These are pushed to the television and take effect within seconds, without anyone opening Settings on the box.

Subscription

The television reads the same figures, and shows them at Settings › About › Subscription.

Notifications

A message can be pushed to any television from its row on the Devices page. It appears as a banner over whatever is playing and clears itself after a few seconds.

Useful for:

• Warning of maintenance before it happens
• Announcing new content or features
• Confirming a box is online and responding

Dashboard Quick Reference