Have these to hand before you start
- An Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD, or an iPhone or iPad running iOS 14 upwards
- The Apple ID the device is signed in to
- Your VOCOIPTV server address, username and password from WhatsApp
- An iPhone in the room if you are setting up an Apple TV, which makes the typing far easier
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Do these in order
Decide which Apple device is the main screen
This changes what you install and what you might pay for, so settle it first. If the television is where you will watch, the Apple TV box is the main screen, and a paid player there is worth considering because you will look at its interface every evening. If you mostly watch on a phone or an iPad and only occasionally put it on the television, the phone is the main screen, the free player is enough, and AirPlay covers the television when you want it. Setting up both is fine and costs nothing extra in the account, but the plan counts streams playing at the same time, so a phone left running in a pocket while the television plays is two.
Check the software version before you install anything
On an Apple TV, open Settings, then System, then Software Updates, and update if one is waiting. On an iPhone or iPad, Settings, General, Software Update. Current players ask for tvOS 14 and iOS 14 as a floor, and an older device will download an app that then refuses to open, which is a confusing way to spend ten minutes. While you are in Settings on the Apple TV, look at the model line under General, About. Apple TV 4K is the one that can output 2160p; Apple TV HD stops at 1080p regardless of the channel you open.
Install a player from the App Store
On the Apple TV the App Store sits on the home screen. Search for IPTV Smarters Player and install it, which costs nothing. If you would rather pay once for a better interface, iPlayTV and GSE Smart IPTV are the two worth looking at, and both are one-off purchases rather than subscriptions. On an iPhone or iPad, the same names appear in the ordinary App Store. Read the developer name before you install: there are several apps trading on a resemblance to TiViMate, which has no Apple version, and they are not the same software.
Put your three values in, using the phone to type
Open the player and choose the Xtream Codes option, worded as Login with Xtream Codes API in Smarters. On an Apple TV, the moment a text field opens, an iPhone signed in to the same Apple ID and on the same Wi-Fi shows a keyboard notification on its lock screen. Tap it and type on the phone, which turns the worst part of this into thirty seconds. Failing that, the on-screen keyboard has a symbols layer reached from the key at the bottom left, which is where the colon and the slash live. On an iPhone, open the WhatsApp message alongside, hold each value until Copy appears, then hold the field and choose Paste. Copy them one at a time rather than all three at once.
Set the playback engine while you are in the settings
Apple devices decode some streams natively and refuse others, and every player here carries more than one engine to deal with it. In Smarters this is under Settings, Player Settings, where you can choose between the built-in player and VLC or FFmpeg. Leave it on the default for now and remember where it is, because the symptom of the wrong one is a channel list that fills in perfectly and a picture that never appears. Changing the engine takes one press and solves that specific problem almost every time.
Test it on two channels, then test it locked
Play a news channel for a minute and a sports channel for another, since sport carries the most data and gives way first. Check the guide is showing program names rather than blank rows. On an iPhone, lock the screen while a channel is playing and unlock it again: the picture should come back where it was. Then, if AirPlay is part of your plan, send it to the television from the control center and watch for a minute there too. If you have set up both an Apple TV and a phone, open a channel on one while the other is playing, and confirm what happens matches the tier you bought.
If the screen does not look right
The channel list is full but nothing will play
This is the playback engine rather than the account, and it is the single most common Apple problem. Open the player settings and switch the engine: from the built-in decoder to VLC, or from VLC to FFmpeg, whichever is available. Come out and try the same channel again. If one channel refuses on every engine while the rest behave, the channel itself has a stream format that device does not handle, and the FHD copy of the same channel almost always plays.
The Apple TV keyboard will not give me a colon or a slash
The tvOS keyboard hides its symbols behind a key in the bottom left, marked with punctuation marks, and it goes unnoticed because the letters take up the whole strip. Press it and the row changes. The better answer is the iPhone: unlock a phone signed in to the same Apple ID while the text field is open on the television, and a notification appears offering to type for you. If it does not appear, check Bluetooth is on and both are on the same Wi-Fi.
AirPlay gives a black rectangle on the television with sound
Some players stop sending a picture to an external display while continuing to send the sound, which looks like a fault and is a decision made inside the app. Nothing in your account controls it. The way round it is to stop using the phone as a middleman: install the player on the Apple TV itself and play the channel there, which also frees the phone. If there is no Apple TV on that set, a small HDMI box is the honest fix.
Playback stops when the phone screen goes off
iOS suspends video when an app loses the screen unless the app has asked to keep running. In Smarters, look under Settings for a background or keep-screen-on option and switch it on. Separately, set the phone itself to a longer auto-lock under Settings, Display and Brightness, Auto-Lock, while you are watching. On an iPad propped up for a long match, both settings are worth changing together.
The app we would put on this one
Smarters Pro
IPTV Smarters Pro runs on nearly every screen and carries no channels of its own. Which install route your device needs, and the settings that matter.
M3U playlist
An M3U link is a plain list of channel names paired with addresses. When to use it instead of the login, where it goes, and why it carries no guide.
Every guide in one list
One page for each television, box and app we cover.
Working through this with no login yet?
The steps above are the same whether you are on the free day or a paid term, so there is nothing to undo later. Tell us it is a Apple TV and iPhone and we will send the three lines that make it work.
Apple TV and iPhone IPTV FAQ
Is IPTV Smarters really on the Apple TV store?
Yes, on tvOS, and it is free. It takes the Xtream login, fills the guide, and shows the on-demand sections in the same layout as the phone version. It is not the prettiest thing on the platform and it is entirely sufficient. The reason people ask is the number of pages claiming TiViMate is available on Apple TV, which it is not, and never has been.
Can I watch on a Mac as well?
Three ways, none of which need anything from us beyond the login you already have. Take IPTV Smarters Player from the App Store on the Mac itself. Or open your M3U link in VLC, which is a two-key job once VLC is installed. Or use the browser player, which installs nothing at all. Our Windows and Mac page walks through each of the three and says which suits a quick check and which suits an evening.
Is iPlayTV worth paying for over the free player?
It buys you a faster interface and a guide that is more comfortable to read from a sofa, for a one-off price rather than a subscription. Whether that is worth it depends on how often the Apple TV is the screen you use. Start on the free player, live with it for a week, and buy the paid one only if something about it irritates you daily. Your account is untouched by which player you use, and switching takes two minutes.
Does an iPhone count as one of my devices?
It counts while it is playing. Installing the player on a phone, an iPad, an Apple TV and a laptop uses nothing from your plan, because the count is of streams running at the same moment. On the One at a time tier, a phone quietly playing in another room is the reason a television says the limit is reached. Closing the app on the phone releases it within a few seconds.