My 8K on Windows Computers and Laptops
Handy for testing whether a problem is your subscription or your telly, and perfectly good for watching in its own right on a laptop in the kitchen.
Before you start
- A Windows computer on your internet connection
- Your My 8K details
- Permission to install a program on that computer
Download the Windows player
Go to the apps page on this site and choose the Windows download. Save the file somewhere you will find it again, which for most people means the Downloads folder.
Get past the blue warning
Windows may show a blue box saying the publisher is not recognised. Click More info, then Run anyway. This appears for any program that has not paid for a Microsoft signing certificate and says nothing about whether the program is safe.
Sign in and watch
Open the player, choose the Xtream login and paste your server address, username and password. Pasting on a computer is the easiest way to prove your details are right, which is exactly why this is a useful test.
Use it to narrow a problem down
If a channel plays perfectly here but stutters on the telly, your subscription is fine and the issue is the network or the device in the living room. That is genuinely useful to know, and it is the first thing we will ask you to try.
Worth knowing
- Close anything doing a big download in the background. A computer backup running quietly will ruin a stream and give no clue that it is doing so.
- A laptop on battery saver often limits network performance. Plug it in before deciding a channel is at fault.
- The computer and the telly can use the same slot at different times, just not at the same moment.
No subscription yet?
It takes about two minutes from paying to having your details on the screen in front of you, and this guide will be waiting when you come back to it.
Set mine up