IPTV playlist: what is it, how to download, create and solve problems when working with IPTV lists

An IPTV playlist makes it possible to watch movies in high quality on an appropriate
set- top box or on a computer or phone with a special program. To
create or download a playlist, check out all the features for the correct display of the video.

IPTV playlist and how it works: advantages and disadvantages

An IPTV playlist is a collection of links to streams that allows a viewer or set-top box to navigate the information streams of the Internet. To watch IPTV channels on a TV box, Smart TV or smartphone, the easiest way is to use the applications of content providers that provide subscription access. But this is not always possible, sometimes it is not profitable, and sometimes it makes no sense to buy a full package if only a few channels are of interest.

The way out is to use programs for viewing broadcasts from m3u playlists, the IPTV playlist can be downloaded ready-made, or you can create it yourself.

Download free current IPTV lists in 2020: https://youtu.be/BXvurzAR0MM To view, you need:

• select a player and configure it;
• download a current, working playlist or create it;
• load the playlist into the program and run.

Providers that provide customers with the service of watching the broadcast, as a rule, post playlists on their web resources with a selection of federal and regional TV channels for the respective area.

Some providers may supply modified builds of players (at least for Windows devices) with playlists already integrated in the “Get it and use” type of products.

Benefits of an IPTV playlist

Of the main advantages can be identified:

• creating or downloading is absolutely free;
• viewing in high quality;
• when you create your own playlist, you only watch what you like.

Closed IPTV playlist

Such a playlist is available only to a certain circle of people who have received links to it. Peculiarities:

• available on 5 devices with different Ip;
• differs in the number of channels and refresh rate.

This is a kind of VIP access to certain content.

Private IPTV playlist: https://youtu.be/YxnWvzcLgdE

Create a playlist for IPTV

To create a playlist, it is enough to have a text editor on your computer, know the construction structure and find links to the channels that the playlist will consist of.

Introduction/IPTV playlist structure

The most common IPTV playlist structure is shown in the picture. An IPTV playlist begins with the characters
#EXTM3U – this is the title from which the playlist format becomes clear to the device.
After the title comes the line
#EXTINF , which contains information about the media files that will be played with it. Thus, you can register any number of channels.
#EXTINF
( extended information) should describe the main:

• duration, in this case “-1” (-1 is used when the exact length of the file is not known);
• the name of the file being played, respectively – “365 days of TV”.

In addition to the duration and name, there are a number of additional parameters. For example:

• “tvg-name” — channel and program name;
• “tvg-logo” — channel logo;
• “audio-track” — audio track of the channel (Russian, English, etc.);
• “group-title2” — name of the channel group (Children’s, Educational, etc.).

IPTV playlist structure with additional parameters:

In the IPTV playlist, you can use links to media files, both local and global.

http:// — global or local link to the media file:
#EXTINF is followed by 
http://5.128.252.68:81/udp/239.1.5.20:1234 — link to the file that will be played by the IPTV player. https://youtu.be/wdqr91eWhO0

Create an IPTV playlist in notepad

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Create a new text document in Notepad. By right-clicking on the desktop, select “New” – “New Text Document”.
2. Open a document. Write #EXTM3U as the first line.
3. Fill in the playlist as follows: #EXTINF:-1,Channel name http://site-address-with-file.m3u8 For example: #EXTM3U #EXTINF:-1,Health http://ott-cdn.ucom.am/s90 /04.m3u8 #EXTINF:-1, Channel One HD https://megogo.cdnvideo.ru/1tvstream/playlist.m3u8 #EXTINF:-1,112 Ukraine HD http://app.live.112.events/hls-ua /112hd_mid/index.m3u8.
4. Collect the desired movies in a playlist and save a text document by selecting “File” – “Save As”.
5. When saving, add “.m3u” after the file name. Click Save.

The name can be changed immediately after the file is created. For this:

1. Right-click on the created text file and select “Rename”.
2. Add “.m3u” to the end of the file name and click on the free part of the screen.
3. The computer will warn you that after changing the extension, the file may become inaccessible. Confirm the changes by clicking the “yes” button.

How to create a playlist in notepad++

Instruction:

1. Open notepad++ and save the file. To do this, click on the “File” button in the upper left corner of the screen and select “Save As”.
2. Give the file a name (or leave the default) and add “.m3u” at the end. Click Save.
3. Enter the structure of the playlist (the principle is the same as with “Notepad”). The first line is #EXTM3U.
4. Write the links to the video and the name – #EXTINF:0.365 Days http://37.194.35.79:81/udp/239.1.5.20:1234.
5. Add all the channels you need, after which the playlist should look something like this: #EXTM3U #EXTINF:0.365 Days http://37.194.35.79:81/udp/239.1.5.20:1234. #EXTINF:0,Animal Family HD http://92.253.188.37:81/udp/239.72.4.37:1234
6. Save.

Creating a playlist through special IPTV players

In addition to standard text editors, you can use special IPTV players that include the function
of creating playlists . This is much more convenient than creating them manually. One of these players is Simple TV. Installation instructions:

1. After installing the program, open it and go to the “Playlist” section, select “Search channels” in the pop-up list.
2. Set the range of addresses within which the scan will be performed. During the scanning process, delete the already existing default playlist.
3. After scanning is completed, a list of TV channels will open. Check the boxes next to the ones you want to add and click “Save”. The list of selected TV channels will appear in the file that was deleted in the previous step.

If you want to create another file, then click “Upload channel list”, then enter a name, specify the area in which the file will be saved, and click “Upload”.

Detailed video instruction for creating an IPTV playlist through Simple TV:

What to do if the file format is not displayed

If there is nothing after the file name and you cannot view and change its extension, do the following:

1. Open “Start” in the lower left corner of the screen. Go to “Control Panel”.
2. Change the display of the “Control Panel” menu to large icons if there is another category. This can be done using the “View” menu, which is located in the upper right corner of the window.
3. Among the many icons that appear, find the “Folder Options” setting and select it.
4. Select the “View” tab on the top layout.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the slider and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”. Click “OK” to save your changes.

Ready. Now you can change the file format to “.m3u” as described above.

How and where to get links to movies for IPTV

The main condition for the operation of Internet television is working links to
channels with films, cartoons and other content . You won’t be able to find them just like that, because many do not have official streaming broadcasts in the public domain (many online broadcasts are encoded from “pirated” use).

There are 2 working ways to search: google forums dedicated to IPTV, or extract links from ready-made playlists that are freely available.

More about each method:

1. Search forums dedicated to IPTV . Quite often, users share working links here. Such links “live” for a short time, so before adding them to your own file, you should first check their performance.
2. Extracting links from ready-made playlists . This method is easier in terms of search, but it also has its own drawbacks. You can, on request ” download open IPTV playlists ” in any search engine, download files with links and select the ones you need. Many open m3u files are a hodgepodge with many uninteresting channels. To sort by categories for yourself or collect only the channels you need, copy the links from the downloaded files and add them to your own sheets. You can simply edit the playlist by opening it through Notepad and remove everything unnecessary from it.

You can also take links yourself from any video you like on the Internet. For this:

1. Open any site, select a movie and open a page with it. Simultaneously hold down 3 buttons on the keyboard: “Ctrl + Shift + i”. The developer tools will open.
2. Switch to the “Network” tab and start the movie.
3. Open the menu with the right mouse button and in the column “Type” find the line “Video”. Copy the link by right-clicking again.
4. Paste the link into your playlist in the usual way.

To find and download pre-made playlists, do the following:

1. Go to the site iptvmaster.ru .
2. Copy the link to the desired playlist and paste it into your player.

Breakdown of channels by groups and categories

In order to group channels in an IPTV playlist, you need to open the m3u.file using notepad and add the line: group-title=”Group name:” to the existing code. Group names can be written in both English and Russian. An example of an IPTV playlist divided into groups:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF: 0, group-title=”Kids kanaly:” Carousel
http://185.70.130.89:1234/udp/239.0.0.17:1234
#EXTINF: 0, group-title =”Kanaly Novostey:” Vetta
http://185.70.130.89:1234/udp/239.0.0.62:1234
#EXTINF: 0, group-title=”Kino i serialy:” TV1000 Russian cinema
http://185.70.130.89: 1234/udp/239.0.0.64:1234
#EXTINF: 0, group-title=”Poznavatel’nye kanaly:” Discovery Channel
http://185.70.130.89:1234/udp/239.0.0.30:

Self-updating up-to-date IPTV playlists 2020

Featured playlists:

• IPTV one (general/MIX), link – http://iptvm3u.ru/one.m3u ;
• IPTV HD (all channels in HD quality) – https://iptvm3u.ru/iptvhd.m3u ;
• IPTV Kids (only children’s channels and cartoons) – https://webhalpme.ru/kids.m3u ;
• IPTV Forever (general/MIX), links:
  • (general) – https://webhalpme.ru/if.m3u ;
  • 18+ – https://webhalpme.ru/if18.m3u ;
  • only Russian. channels – https://webhalpme.ru/rif.m3u ;
• Smarttvnews.ru – https://smarttvnews.ru/apps/iptvchannels.m3u.

Causes of malfunctions and their solution

There are several main reasons for a playlist not working properly. Determining the source of the freeze is easy – there are only 3 of them:

• the player and playlist you use;
• quality and speed of the Internet connection;
• set-top box or TV with Android and Smart TV.

Bad playlist or player

If the interference is only on a few channels, and the rest are working fine, then the problem is due to a faulty playlist, and if it does not show most of the channels, then in the set-top box or the speed of the Internet connection. Some files in the m3u format use the UDP protocol to transmit the video stream, but this method has 2 significant disadvantages – broadcasts do not always contain all the necessary information and there are often losses in the stream. The situation is corrected by setting the caching of the player. For example, in VLC it is done like this:

1. Go to the Source – Network tab.
2. Open advanced options and increase caching to 3000ms.

Internet problems

Internet speed is the main and most common reason for buffering and freezing. There are 2 main types of network connection:

1. Wired connection , it is recommended to use at least 3 Mb / s if you decide to connect directly to the modem.
2. Connection via Wi-Fi : if you are connected via Wi-Fi, depending on the workload of your home network, it is recommended from 15 Mb / s. Also, the distance from the router to the set-top box plays a big role. Perhaps the Internet source is too far away.

You can check the speed of the Internet in the
service
2ip.ru.

If it is not possible to change the router to a more expensive model, connect the set-top box via a special Ethernet adapter. It costs much less than a new device and will allow you to connect the IPTV box directly to the modem and get the maximum Internet speed.

Problem with set-top box or TV with Smart/Android TV

If
all TV channels do not work well, the problem is in your device. In this case, you will have to go to a service center, in case of a breakdown, or change to a new, more advanced version. Read the forums about a particular model of TV or set-top box, you may find a method that suits your case. When creating a correct playlist without errors, with the help of special programs, you can watch movies and TV shows that you like. If you do not want to create it yourself, then you can simply download from the relevant links what you are most interested in.