M3U · M3U8
What is an M3U playlist?
An M3U playlist is a plain text file that lists streams, one address after another, each with a name. An IPTV provider usually gives it as a link, the M3U link, which a player downloads and reads.
Lumen·TV is an IPTV player for Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV and Android phones and tablets. It needs Android 8.0 or later. It plays the M3U or Xtream Codes playlist you already have, and includes no channels. 21 days free, then €0.99 a month for one device, or €19.99 once for 2 devices, or €29.99 once for 5. The trial needs no card and ends by itself.
What is inside one.
The format began as a list of music files and grew a few extensions on the way. A playlist that uses them starts with #EXTM3U. Each channel then takes two lines: an #EXTINF line that describes it, and under it the address the stream plays from.
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="news24.example" tvg-logo="http://provider.example/logos/news24.png" group-title="News",News 24
http://provider.example:8080/USER/PASS/1001.ts
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="sport1.example" group-title="Sport",Sport 1 HD
http://provider.example:8080/USER/PASS/1002.ts#EXTINF:-1- The start of a channel. The −1 says its length is unknown, as it always is for live television.
tvg-id- The channel’s identifier in a TV guide, which is how a guide’s programmes find the channel. See what an EPG is.
tvg-logo- The address of the channel’s logo.
group-title- The group the channel is listed under: news, sport, a country, a language.
- After the comma
- The channel’s name, as a player shows it.
M3U, M3U8 and the link.
M3U8 is the same format saved as UTF-8, so that names in any alphabet survive. The extension is also used by HLS, a streaming protocol, for its own lists of video segments: a channel whose address ends in .m3u8 is usually one HLS stream, not a list of channels.
A provider rarely sends the file itself. It sends a link to it, often shaped like http://server:8080/get.php?username=…&password=…&type=m3u_plus: the playlist is built when you ask for it, with your channels, from an Xtream Codes server (what Xtream Codes is). Such a link carries your username and password, so keep it as you would a password.
The TV guide is not part of the playlist. It is a second file, with its own address; some playlists name it on their first line, as url-tvg or x-tvg-url.
What Lumen·TV does with an M3U.
- Reads it by its link, as it downloads, so a playlist of 100 000 channels starts filling the screen instead of freezing it. A file on a USB stick or a phone has to be put somewhere reachable by a link first.
- Keeps the name,
tvg-id,tvg-logoandgroup-titleof each channel: groups, logos, and favourites keyed bytvg-id, so they survive the provider changing its addresses. - Does not read a guide address written inside the playlist. Give the XMLTV address separately, from your phone or on the TV: adding a guide.
- Takes a
get.phplink with a username and a password as the Xtream Codes login it is, and then finds the films, the series and the guide by itself. - Holds up to eight playlists, one loaded at a time, and adds each from your phone: the TV shows a code, you paste the link, the TV collects it.
Get Lumen·TV.
Every way to install it is on one page, with the steps for each device. The trial starts the first time you open the app.
21 days free, no card · From €0.99 a month, or €19.99 once for 2 devices
- The TV app as a file (APK) lumentv.app/apk
- The phone and tablet app as a file (APK) lumentv.app/apk/phone
On the TV, in Downloader, enter
8581959
or lumentv.app/apk