IPTV SMARTERS WINDOWS APP
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Hotrod369
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This is mostly English and mostly working but it's free. the list shrunk from over 7k to under 2k channels but makes for a lot less scrolling. I would recommend using a favorites list in your player. Save it as a .m3u or .m3u8 file and you'll need a player that will load a playlist from a local file instead of a URL. Enjoy!
Hotrod369
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I'm not sure how but I missed your reply back when we were discussing this. I found a pretty decent(for being free) playlist that started out at around 8k channels and cleaned it up and put most of the channels into groups. When I got finished I thought of you and figured that since you were gracious enough to share with me I'd return the favor. This one is about 90% working channels and about the same percentage of English speaking channel. It has just over 1800 channels. Enjoy!
PS. I removed the adult channels. And you'll need to open if with a text editor then save as .m3u
Michalmark
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I don't want to disparage his product; it's a great software. However, on the Microsoft Store, there is an app called "Best Player" for Windows. It offers more features than any other IPTV software I've seen. It's not free, but it's usually $2.99 on sale. And no, I'm not associated with it in any way. I'm just an ardent IPTV viewer that enjoys trying out new apps whenever I can. Are you looking for further information? I recommend that you go to tech sites like Techwire, AJDpark, techRaddar, and others to choose the best player.
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You know I really don't care to argue, but every player in the world utilizes the exact same codecs which is what drives the machine. Some have a better GUI, and this one sure has some major organization built in. However it doesn't really seem to have much to offer the pirate, and if you are paying for a service I guess you don't mind shelling out another $2.99. I see it as totally unnecessary for my needs and VLC has got their stuff back in order. Personally I am a huge HVEC fan and wish more people would adopt it. It is perhaps the best video compression scheme available but only has gained limited acceptance.
hacxx
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Thanks
Hotrod369
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I've got Best Player also and agree it has the most options by far over any other player I've seen as well. It does have a couple of major cons. There is no version for Android and it crashes a lot. I do still use it a lot for testing because it loads fast and is super easy to add a playlist. Whether it's an m3u URL a file or an XC super fast.
Your welcome. @DVDR_Dog Give that playlist a try. Most of the channels are working.
Hotrod369
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I still use it sometimes but most of the time I use a cheap Android TV box the I've flash a custom ROM to with an HDMI switcher to my monitor. I use Tivimate on any non touchscreen Android device. But right now I'm in a hotel. We had a kitchen fire and it's going to be 4-6 months before we can move back in. So I'm just using my Shield on the Hotel wifi. I've also got a firestick 4k that I rooted and unlocked the bootloader and put a hybrid OS Fire TV/ATV. Don't use that much though. I'm on a crappy old laptop now but should have access to my desktop in the coming days. If I retrieve it to soon it will cancel my ins. claim on it.
Was hoping one of the experts on this thread.... @Hotrod369 or @Thumper can give impartial advice on the best way to stream English Premier League without the buffering. Better ANdroid box
Current setup
-------------
Android Box 8GB DDR RAM
Ping 10-25ms
Ethernet connection 150MB/s fiber optic
APPS currently installed
- Smarters IPTV
- ALTVXC
- IPTV
- SmartS*Y
Using a paid service at £50 per year for streams, only use it for football.
Want to eradicate buffering, happy to go any direction linux, different box, different app, different service etc.... just looking for a solution
Any help much appreciaetd
Current setup
-------------
Android Box 8GB DDR RAM
Ping 10-25ms
Ethernet connection 150MB/s fiber optic
APPS currently installed
- Smarters IPTV
- ALTVXC
- IPTV
- SmartS*Y
Using a paid service at £50 per year for streams, only use it for football.
Want to eradicate buffering, happy to go any direction linux, different box, different app, different service etc.... just looking for a solution
Any help much appreciaetd
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Why is my show buffering?
First you need to understand circuit speeds. For example I have a 1Gbps fiber to the premise circuit.
What does that mean? I have a circuit provisioned that gives me a 1 gigabit line from the demarc at my premise to the NOC (Network Operations Center). From the NOC it's off to the wild, wild, web. I constantly have buffering problems with specific feeds at times regardless of what the player/hardware combination is. So while the NOC has provisioned my circuit, they have little to no control of the path the rest of the run to the target IP. Normally that really shouldn't be a problem in most developed countries. Then you get to your target IP which in this case is tasked with providing you and every other IP trying to connect in this case to a streaming server. In the case of live video, this is highly dependent of your IPTV provider. You would think well hey, I could just cache the video stream to get me over the stream interruptions. Well it sounds good, but it doesn't work well except for some very small stream interruptions. The problem becomes indexing the video and audio streams which are both very separate data streams that in this case count on arriving at the player in real-time. There are no key-frames or indexes that allow accurate reassembly and synchronized video and audio. This explains when one does experiences lag the audio and video lose sync. Sometimes this just begins a process that never fixes itself and results in a freeze or blue screen as the buffer invariably fills up.
None of these problems have anything to do with line quality or equipment shortcomings. The world is full of rabid football fans and I am sure they put a stress on the IPTV servers that cannot be supplied. Other than possibly another provider or putting pressure on your current provider to increase capacity that would be the only solution. If this was normally a common problem regardless of the program, more to come.
(To be continued, hardware next)
First you need to understand circuit speeds. For example I have a 1Gbps fiber to the premise circuit.
What does that mean? I have a circuit provisioned that gives me a 1 gigabit line from the demarc at my premise to the NOC (Network Operations Center). From the NOC it's off to the wild, wild, web. I constantly have buffering problems with specific feeds at times regardless of what the player/hardware combination is. So while the NOC has provisioned my circuit, they have little to no control of the path the rest of the run to the target IP. Normally that really shouldn't be a problem in most developed countries. Then you get to your target IP which in this case is tasked with providing you and every other IP trying to connect in this case to a streaming server. In the case of live video, this is highly dependent of your IPTV provider. You would think well hey, I could just cache the video stream to get me over the stream interruptions. Well it sounds good, but it doesn't work well except for some very small stream interruptions. The problem becomes indexing the video and audio streams which are both very separate data streams that in this case count on arriving at the player in real-time. There are no key-frames or indexes that allow accurate reassembly and synchronized video and audio. This explains when one does experiences lag the audio and video lose sync. Sometimes this just begins a process that never fixes itself and results in a freeze or blue screen as the buffer invariably fills up.
None of these problems have anything to do with line quality or equipment shortcomings. The world is full of rabid football fans and I am sure they put a stress on the IPTV servers that cannot be supplied. Other than possibly another provider or putting pressure on your current provider to increase capacity that would be the only solution. If this was normally a common problem regardless of the program, more to come.
(To be continued, hardware next)
Hotrod369
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There is another big reason for buffering on this type of IPTV stream. Many ISPs will throttle a connection they deem illicit. In such cases and recommended regardless of buffering is to use a VPN preferably one that doesn't keep logs. With the VPN on your, ISP can see that you are streaming but cannot tell what or where you are streaming from. Also, your IPTV provider may have the bandwidth to easily cover all their connections but you still get buffering because of the route the hosting company has assigned to the connection. I know of one IPTV provider that has a deal worked out with their hosting company where in special cases will set up a special reroute of a user's connection for a smoother stream in cases where all else has failed to correct buffering issues for that user.
All in all, there is not one clear-cut answer as to why a stream buffers. It's a process of elimination.
All in all, there is not one clear-cut answer as to why a stream buffers. It's a process of elimination.
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Throttling by an ISP is risky and illegal business. The gauntlet was thrown a long time ago, Comcast was using a program called Grapevine which throttled bandwidth. Comcast Litigation Yes it was a slap on the wrist but a precedent had been cast and the warning was issued.
Unless there has been a static route for the streaming IP set up BY THE PROVIDER not the ISP, it's impossible for an ISP to set up traffic routes, I do it for a living. All that throttling folk lore goes back to P2P and cable ISPs. In order to look more attractive to customers they would provision their circuits with asymmetric bandwidth. In other words, you have an coax cable running to the premise. Before the days of high DOCSIS compression that pipe had to carry MPEG-2 video with multi-channel audio, encrypted pay per view and premium video as well as Internet connectivity. That was a hell of a lot to be pushing through a coax cable at the time. So the market boys figured that most of the time people would be downloading or watching YouTube, etc. so they provisioned the bandwidth with a huge percentage devoted only to downstream data. Now here comes music sharing programs, the premise being you share what you download. Only problem is cable only has a wee bit of upstream data provisioned. Normally that stream relies on return ACKs as part of TCPIP protocol. In essence you overwhelm that upstream and no return ACKs or any other data makes it, so the Internet slows WAY down. Comcast's answer was to ID the P2P users and throttle their circuits to allow the rest of the customers useable bandwidth. It's also worth noting at that point cable was fiber to the node and that node routinely supported 8 or more residential customers, TV and Internet.
Unless there has been a static route for the streaming IP set up BY THE PROVIDER not the ISP, it's impossible for an ISP to set up traffic routes, I do it for a living. All that throttling folk lore goes back to P2P and cable ISPs. In order to look more attractive to customers they would provision their circuits with asymmetric bandwidth. In other words, you have an coax cable running to the premise. Before the days of high DOCSIS compression that pipe had to carry MPEG-2 video with multi-channel audio, encrypted pay per view and premium video as well as Internet connectivity. That was a hell of a lot to be pushing through a coax cable at the time. So the market boys figured that most of the time people would be downloading or watching YouTube, etc. so they provisioned the bandwidth with a huge percentage devoted only to downstream data. Now here comes music sharing programs, the premise being you share what you download. Only problem is cable only has a wee bit of upstream data provisioned. Normally that stream relies on return ACKs as part of TCPIP protocol. In essence you overwhelm that upstream and no return ACKs or any other data makes it, so the Internet slows WAY down. Comcast's answer was to ID the P2P users and throttle their circuits to allow the rest of the customers useable bandwidth. It's also worth noting at that point cable was fiber to the node and that node routinely supported 8 or more residential customers, TV and Internet.
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Final installment: Hardware.
First let me be straight, other than some different ways to connect to specific sites (ports, protocols) all players are running on one of two engines more or less. The heart of any video stream is the codec (encoder/decoder). They are an amazing piece of software, the people who write them are some of the most brilliant contributors to the Internet. Codecs explained here
Now depending on the compression factor of the codec it can use up beacoup CPU cycles and keep in mind on the receiving end this must be done in real-time. Here's one possible bottleneck for video stream problems. Keep in mind when things get backed up the player will off-load received data to the buffer which sounds great, however once that buffer fills, all hell may break loose. Also remember a normal video playing locally from a file has "key frames" or indexes. Believe it or not these take up a fair bit of space and the quality of a rip usually is dependent on an ample number of key frames. Some video files that are ripped from a player on the web will have a .TS file extension. Because they are real-time players they have no need for indexes just like for example the live football broadcasts. They can only be viewed in sequence, you can't fast forward thru them at will.
So back to the codec. In the old days we were pretty much confined to .avi files which could be anything, the format info was in the header of the video file. It's not good form to use that extension any more. Then there was the grand daddy MPEG-2, too bulky for web use. Today we have some very good high compression formats. They compress video, audio and ISPs are using them to compress bandwidth which is another story.
So once this arrives at your system, they player springs into action and another source of problems. Currently many of the Antivirus programs in Windows and Apple boxes are hyperactive. They feel a need to inspect every bit of data that enters a system, that eats up CPU cycles and slows the available bandwidth to the player. On top of that many time the CPU is tasked with running the GPU and let's face it many times we are multi tasking if it's a system and O/S that allows it. So what does that mean? Well in all modern CPU's (now including AMD which burned themselves up in the past) have a sensor which decreases the voltage to the CPU effectively throttling it and preventing destructive over-heating. When the CPU slows guess where the program goes? Into the dreadful RAM cache which doesn't ever reassemble the program correctly.
So with the type of systems the average user of this forum uses, I highly doubt hardware performance would be an issue. If the feed for some outside reason is cached with the exception of a little burp now and then, you are going to have problems. I gave up trying to watch premium live events because it makes me crazy when the program starts doing shit like this. I head of to some reliable sources that usually have it available in an hour or two. I am not going to say where, it's not P2P and will start and argument. All I can say Is I have access and they folks arguing usually don't, their loss.
First let me be straight, other than some different ways to connect to specific sites (ports, protocols) all players are running on one of two engines more or less. The heart of any video stream is the codec (encoder/decoder). They are an amazing piece of software, the people who write them are some of the most brilliant contributors to the Internet. Codecs explained here
Now depending on the compression factor of the codec it can use up beacoup CPU cycles and keep in mind on the receiving end this must be done in real-time. Here's one possible bottleneck for video stream problems. Keep in mind when things get backed up the player will off-load received data to the buffer which sounds great, however once that buffer fills, all hell may break loose. Also remember a normal video playing locally from a file has "key frames" or indexes. Believe it or not these take up a fair bit of space and the quality of a rip usually is dependent on an ample number of key frames. Some video files that are ripped from a player on the web will have a .TS file extension. Because they are real-time players they have no need for indexes just like for example the live football broadcasts. They can only be viewed in sequence, you can't fast forward thru them at will.
So back to the codec. In the old days we were pretty much confined to .avi files which could be anything, the format info was in the header of the video file. It's not good form to use that extension any more. Then there was the grand daddy MPEG-2, too bulky for web use. Today we have some very good high compression formats. They compress video, audio and ISPs are using them to compress bandwidth which is another story.
So once this arrives at your system, they player springs into action and another source of problems. Currently many of the Antivirus programs in Windows and Apple boxes are hyperactive. They feel a need to inspect every bit of data that enters a system, that eats up CPU cycles and slows the available bandwidth to the player. On top of that many time the CPU is tasked with running the GPU and let's face it many times we are multi tasking if it's a system and O/S that allows it. So what does that mean? Well in all modern CPU's (now including AMD which burned themselves up in the past) have a sensor which decreases the voltage to the CPU effectively throttling it and preventing destructive over-heating. When the CPU slows guess where the program goes? Into the dreadful RAM cache which doesn't ever reassemble the program correctly.
So with the type of systems the average user of this forum uses, I highly doubt hardware performance would be an issue. If the feed for some outside reason is cached with the exception of a little burp now and then, you are going to have problems. I gave up trying to watch premium live events because it makes me crazy when the program starts doing shit like this. I head of to some reliable sources that usually have it available in an hour or two. I am not going to say where, it's not P2P and will start and argument. All I can say Is I have access and they folks arguing usually don't, their loss.
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I use EMBY for the movies and the M3U player is included and currently has 635 free TV Channels. Here is my list USA m3u working list I use the 1st download and the last in the list. You will have to register to view the list. Most of the m3u lists available have many broken channels that just need to be turned off or removed from the m3u playlist file. In Emby you can just turn off the broken channels. FYI to date, I have seen zero lists without broken channels.
Hotrod369
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This is exactly what I was saying this IPTV provider is able to do. They have a good enough relationship with the hosting company that hosts their servers to get the route changed for certain problem users.
ThumperTM
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@jackoliver is there a problem with your app for LG/Samsung TV?
hacxx
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I don't watch live sports much on TV over IP these days. As a result I currently use TVTAP primarily (works best w/vpn) and Live Net TV. I refuse to pay for aggregators, I'm a freakin' pirate, that's why I am here.
I know many people here poo-poo it, but the Usenet is my main source for movies and TV shows. The trick is to get hooked up with the right indexer. All the release groups use the Usenet as their primary distro. For example, I counted a total of 50 different releases of Aquaman yesterday. Stuff shows up usually sooner on the Usenet. I normally do not trust the Usenet for programs but I do have a trusted source that heavily encrypts and hides that stuff in the dark corners of the Usenet. Another bonus is once something is posted, it stays there for years and doesn't rely on seeders. The only downside are DMCA takedown notices to providers, that's why posts are obfuscated and hidden in rarely used binary groups. Only the indexers know it's there.
Just thought I would share how I get by these days.
I know many people here poo-poo it, but the Usenet is my main source for movies and TV shows. The trick is to get hooked up with the right indexer. All the release groups use the Usenet as their primary distro. For example, I counted a total of 50 different releases of Aquaman yesterday. Stuff shows up usually sooner on the Usenet. I normally do not trust the Usenet for programs but I do have a trusted source that heavily encrypts and hides that stuff in the dark corners of the Usenet. Another bonus is once something is posted, it stays there for years and doesn't rely on seeders. The only downside are DMCA takedown notices to providers, that's why posts are obfuscated and hidden in rarely used binary groups. Only the indexers know it's there.
Just thought I would share how I get by these days.
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