M3U link or file
An M3U playlist is a flat list of channels. It works, but it carries less than an Xtream account: no category tree of its own, no films and series as separate sections, and no guide unless you supply one.
From a link
Section titled “From a link”Settings → Playlists → Add playlist → M3U playlist URL.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Playlist name | Whatever you want to call it |
| Playlist URL | The .m3u or .m3u8 address |
| EPG URL (optional) | An XMLTV guide address for this playlist |
| User-Agent | Only if your provider asked for one |
Press Add playlist.
The EPG URL field is the quickest way to give an M3U playlist a guide. You can add more sources later, see Adding your own XMLTV.
A file on the device
Section titled “A file on the device”Add playlist → Local file imports an .m3u or .m3u8 that is already on the device. The file is
read once, into the app’s own database; moving or deleting it afterwards changes nothing.
A file playlist can be renamed and given a User-Agent like any other, but it has no link to refresh from, to update it, import the newer file.
What the app reads out of an M3U
Section titled “What the app reads out of an M3U”The app uses the standard tags, so a well-formed playlist gets most of what an Xtream account gets:
tvg-idandtvg-name, used to match the channel to the guidetvg-logo, the channel logo, unless TMDB has better artworkgroup-title, becomes the categorycatchupandcatchup-source, enables catch-up on that channel
Entries are sorted into Live, Movies and Series by their address, not by their title: a
path containing /series/ is a series, a path containing /movie/ or ending in .mp4, .mkv,
.avi, .mov, .flv or .wmv is a film, unless its group name says series. Everything else is a
live channel. A provider who serves films from a plain path leaves them in the channel list, and
there is nothing the app can read to know better.
When the link will not load
Section titled “When the link will not load”- It downloads but nothing appears: the file is probably not an M3U. Open it in a browser; it
must start with
#EXTM3U. - It worked yesterday, many providers rotate the link. Get the current one and change the address.
- It is enormous and slow. That is normal for a hundred-thousand-line list. Trimming categories is the fix, and it is a big one.