Before you begin
- A MAG 3xx, 4xx or 5xx, or a Formuler Z8, Z10 or Z11
- The MAC address printed under the box
- Your VISNOVAA portal URL, sent once you share the MAC
- Eight minutes, most of it waiting for a restart
Nothing to sign in with yet? Take a 24-hour trial and keep every subscription you have while you check what this covers, or see what it costs first.
Getting it running
Find the MAC address and send it
It is printed on the label underneath the box and also appears under Settings, About device. On a MAG it begins 00:1A:79. Send it on WhatsApp and wait for confirmation before going any further — every other step depends on that activation having happened, and doing them out of order produces an error message that suggests something quite different is wrong.
MAG: enter the portal address
Settings, System settings, Servers, Portals. Name Portal 1 whatever you like, paste the portal address we sent, save, and restart the box. It will not work before that restart, and the screen you see in the meantime looks convincingly like a failure. Restart first, diagnose second.
Formuler: use MyTVOnline instead
Open MyTVOnline 2 or 3, choose Add Portal, and give it a name plus the portal address. Alternatively pick Xtream Codes and use the standard three credentials, which is the easier route if you already have them to hand. Formuler also runs Android players such as TiViMate, so nothing here locks you into the portal method.
Let it load, then set up favourites
After the restart the box pulls the 25,000+ channels with its built-in guide. The coloured remote buttons handle favourites and the EPG, and a MAG remote is genuinely better at this than anything bundled with a streaming stick. Build a row of thirty or forty channels before deciding how you feel about the interface.
Add the same account to a second screen anyway
Even with a dedicated box on the main television, put the credentials on a phone or a laptop. It costs two minutes and gives you somewhere to check a channel without interrupting whoever is watching. Your plan governs simultaneous playback rather than how many devices hold the login, so there is no reason not to.
Leave your subscriptions alone for a fortnight
Nothing has been replaced. Every app on whatever else is connected to that television carries on exactly as before, and the boxes here do not touch them. The fortnight is for noticing which of those apps you stop opening — that number, not the channel count, is what decides whether anything gets cancelled.
Then reconsider where the box lives
If it turns out this gets used daily, the MAG belongs on the main television and the streaming stick can move to a bedroom. If it does not, you have learned something for the price of a fortnight and nothing has been cancelled. Both outcomes are worth the eight minutes.
When something misbehaves
The portal says STB blocked, or the screen stays blank
Either the MAC has not been activated yet or a character was mistyped on the way to us. Photograph the label and send the picture rather than retyping it — that settles it within minutes in nearly every case, and it removes the one variable neither of us can see.
The box worked, then stopped after a power cut
MAG units occasionally lose the portal entry when they lose power unexpectedly. Re-enter it under Settings, System settings, Servers, Portals and restart. Your activation is unaffected, so there is nothing to ask us for and nothing to pay again.
Formuler asks for a portal but I only have Xtream credentials
Then use the Xtream option instead, which MyTVOnline offers on the same screen. The portal method exists for MAG hardware; on Formuler it is one route among several and not the recommended one unless we specifically sent you a portal address.
The remote is slow to respond in the guide
On older MAG models the guide redraws slowly across a very large channel list. Hiding the categories you never open makes a visible difference, and it is the same advice that makes any of this pleasant. If the box is a 3xx series it is genuinely old hardware and no setting will make it feel new.
Players worth using on this hardware
TiViMate
Set up TiViMate on Android TV, Firestick or an Android box with your Xtream login, load the guide, and see what Premium adds. 25,000+ channels.
All of them
Every device and player covered, on a single page.
See what it covers on your MAG and Formuler box
A trial costs nothing and runs alongside everything you already subscribe to, so you can work out what would genuinely go and what you would keep. Plans open at $15 a month for the full 25,000+ line-up.
What people ask about the MAG and Formuler box
Is a MAG box better than a Firestick?
On a main television watched daily, yes — a better remote, a quicker guide, and nothing ever to sideload. It costs $120 to $180 against $30 to $50 for a stick. On a bedroom set the stick is better value and nobody in the house will notice the difference.
Does buying one commit me to anything?
No, and it is worth being clear about the order. Run the trial on hardware you already own first. Buying a box before you know whether this replaces anything on your bill is spending $150 to answer a question a Firestick answers for nothing.
Will it work alongside my streaming apps?
The box is a separate input on the television, so your apps live where they always did and are untouched. Some households end up with the MAG on one HDMI socket and the set's own apps on another, and that arrangement works perfectly well indefinitely.
Why does it need my MAC address?
Because the portal method binds your line to that specific box rather than to an account you log into. It is how Infomir designed the platform. The practical consequence is that replacing the box means sending us the new MAC — a two-minute job, but worth knowing before you buy a second one.
Which model should I buy if I am buying one?
A Formuler Z11 Pro Max if you want Android players available alongside the portal, which most people eventually do. A MAG 540 if you want the simplest possible appliance and no app store at all. Both sit in the $120 to $180 range. Neither is worth buying before a trial has told you whether this gets used daily.
Does the box need its own internet connection?
It uses your existing one like anything else, and it has an ethernet socket, which is the reason to prefer it over a stick on a main television. A wired connection removes the single largest cause of complaints about live streams, and no setting anywhere compensates for weak wifi as effectively.
Can the box be moved to a different house later?
Yes, since the portal follows the MAC rather than the address. Take it with you, connect it, and it works. What does not follow you is anything your internet provider was doing locally — a connection that was fine in one house may behave differently in another, and that is worth remembering before concluding the box has developed a fault during the move.