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Getting started — for complete beginners

This guide assumes nothing. If you have never connected to your receiver with a computer, never installed a plugin, and do not know what an M3U link is, you are in the right place. Follow it from top to bottom and you will end up watching a channel with live translation.

Set aside about 20 minutes for the first time.

Step 1 — Find your receiver's IP address

Your receiver has an address on your home network, four numbers separated by dots, like 192.168.1.50. You will need it in almost every step.

On the receiver, with the remote:

Menu → Setup → System → Network → Device Setup

Write down the number next to IP address.

If your menu looks different, look for anything called Network, LAN, or Network settings. The address is always shown there.

Tip: it is worth telling your home router to always give the receiver the same address, so this number never changes. In the router's settings this is usually called DHCP reservation or static lease.

Step 2 — Connect to the receiver from your computer

Your receiver is a small Linux computer. To install a plugin you send files to it and run one command. The tool for that is called SSH, and it is already installed on Windows 10/11, macOS and Linux.

Open a terminal

Your computer What to open
Windows 10 or 11 Press Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter
macOS Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Enter
Linux Your usual terminal application

Connect

Type this, replacing 192.168.1.50 with your receiver's address, then press Enter:

ssh root@192.168.1.50

The first time, it asks something like "Are you sure you want to continue connecting?" — type yes and press Enter.

Then it asks for a password. Most images use one of these:

  • no password at all (just press Enter)
  • root
  • dreambox
  • a password you set yourself when you flashed the image

When it works you see a line ending in #, for example root@dreambox:~#. That means you are now typing commands on the receiver, not on your computer.

To leave later, type exit and press Enter.

It says "Connection refused" or nothing happens. Some images ship with SSH turned off. On the receiver: Menu → Setup → System → Network → Network Services, and switch on SSH (sometimes called Dropbear or OpenSSH).

Step 3 — Get a Gemini API key (only if you want translation)

Translation is done by Google's Gemini service. You need a key — a long line of letters and numbers that identifies your account.

  1. On your computer, open https://aistudio.google.com/apikey
  2. Sign in with a Google account.
  3. Click Create API key.
  4. Copy the key. It starts with AIza and is about 39 characters long.

This key is like a password to your Google account's billing. Never post it in a group, a screenshot, or a GitHub issue. If it leaks, delete it on the same page and make a new one.

Cost: Google charges for every minute of audio you translate. Start with short sessions and watch your usage on the same website until you know what a typical evening costs you.

You will put the key on the receiver in step 5.

Step 4 — Install the plugin

Download the package on your computer from the Releases page:

  • enigma2-plugin-extensions-piip_1.0_all.deb — for DreamOS receivers (Dreambox One/Two, DM900, DM920…)
  • enigma2-plugin-extensions-piip_1.0_all.ipk — for OE-Alliance images (OpenPLi, OpenATV, OpenViX, VTi, Zgemma and most others)

Not sure which one? Try the .deb first. If the receiver answers dpkg: command not found, use the .ipk.

Send the file to the receiver

In the terminal on your computer (not the one connected to the receiver — open a second window, or type exit first), go to the folder where you downloaded the file, then:

scp enigma2-plugin-extensions-piip_1.0_all.deb root@192.168.1.50:/tmp/

scp means secure copy. /tmp/ is a temporary folder on the receiver.

On Windows, if the file is in your Downloads folder, first type cd $HOME\Downloads and press Enter.

Install it

Connect again with ssh root@192.168.1.50, then type:

dpkg -i /tmp/enigma2-plugin-extensions-piip_1.0_all.deb

or, for the .ipk file:

opkg install /tmp/enigma2-plugin-extensions-piip_1.0_all.ipk

You will see a few lines of text, then the picture on your TV disappears for a few seconds while Enigma2 restarts. That is normal and expected. Your SSH connection stays alive.

Step 5 — Put your API key on the receiver

Still connected by SSH, type this as one line, replacing YOUR_KEY with the key you copied in step 3:

echo 'YOUR_KEY' > /root/apikey.txt && chmod 600 /root/apikey.txt

chmod 600 means only the owner may read this file.

To check it worked:

wc -c /root/apikey.txt

It should print a number around 40. If it prints 0, the file is empty — try again and make sure you kept the quotation marks.

Prefer not to use SSH for this? You can also type the key into the plugin: PIIP → INFO (Settings) → Translation → API key. The file always wins over the typed value.

Step 6 — Add your IPTV subscription

Open Menu → Plugins → PIIP on the receiver. The first screen asks what kind of subscription you have. Your provider gave you one of these three:

A. An M3U link

A long web address, usually containing get.php?username=...&password=....

Choose M3U Playlist, then paste the address into the URL field.

Typing a long address with the remote is painful. Two easier ways:

  • Use the on-screen keyboard — press OK on the field and type with the number keys, like an old mobile phone.

  • Put it in a file instead. Over SSH:

    echo 'http://your-provider.tv/get.php?username=USER&password=PASS&type=m3u_plus' > /root/m3u.txt

    PIIP reads /root/m3u.txt automatically. You can put several playlists in it, one per line, and even give them names:

    Sport = http://another-provider.tv/playlist.m3u
/media/hdd/my-local-list.m3u

B. An Xtream Codes account

Your provider gave you a host address, a username and a password.

Choose Xtream Codes and fill in the three fields.

C. A Stalker portal

Your provider gave you a portal address and registered a MAC address for you (it looks like 00:1A:79:xx:xx:xx).

Choose Stalker Portal and fill in both.

Press the green button to save.

Step 7 — Check the receiver is ready

From the plugin's main screen, choose Check receiver requirements.

It looks for ffmpeg, for your API key, and for everything else it needs, and tells you in plain words what is missing. Fix anything it complains about before going further — it saves a lot of guessing later.

Step 8 — Watch your first channel

  1. PIIP → Live TV
  2. Pick a group, then a channel, and press OK.
  3. The screen is black for a few seconds while the channel opens. The panel at the bottom tells you what is happening (buffering... 3s).
  4. The picture appears. Five seconds later the panel fades away on its own. Press any key to bring it back.

No translation yet — that is deliberate.

Step 9 — Turn translation on

While the channel is playing, press the red button.

The panel shows connecting to Gemini..., then translation buffering..., then translating. The first Persian speech arrives after about ten seconds.

Now adjust the two volumes with the arrow keys:

Key What it changes
→ and ← Volume of the translation
↑ and ↓ Volume of the original channel

A good starting point is translation at 100% and the original channel at 30%, which is what PIIP uses by default: you still hear the original voices quietly underneath, like a news interpreter.

Press red again to switch translation off.

What next

A note about the delay

Live translation is not instant, and it cannot be. The sound has to travel to Google, be understood, be translated, be spoken, and travel back. PIIP holds the picture back by about 12 seconds so that the translated speech lands on the right scene.

That means the picture you see is about 12 seconds behind live. If you are watching a football match, your neighbour without the plugin will cheer before you do. This is the price of hearing the programme in your own language, and every live translation system has it.