Guides

M3U player for TV, phone and desktop

An M3U player is an app that opens an M3U playlist and plays the streams it lists. Tivelio is one: you add your own playlist, and its live TV channels and videos become a catalogue you can browse with a remote, a mouse or a finger.

Tivelio is a player only. It comes with no playlist, no channels and no subscription, and it never suggests where to find one.

What an M3U or M3U8 playlist is

An M3U playlist is a plain text file. Each entry is a stream: an address, a name, and often a logo and a group. You receive it from your IPTV provider as a link, for example http://example.com/playlist.m3u, or sometimes as a file.

M3U8 is the same format encoded in UTF-8, so accented and non-Latin channel names display correctly. Tivelio works as an M3U player and an M3U8 player alike: both extensions are read the same way.

What Tivelio does with your playlist

  • Live TV: the channels appear in the groups written in the playlist, with their logos when the playlist gives them.
  • Videos: the films and other videos that the playlist lists are kept in the Playlist section and play in the same player.
  • Resume: a video recognised by its address starts again where you stopped.
  • Search and favourites: one search covers the whole playlist, and you can put channels in your own favourite lists.
  • Offline: video files (mp4, mkv, avi, mov, webm, m4v) can be downloaded to the device.
  • Refresh: a playlist added by its address is refreshed automatically, so what your provider changes shows up without adding it again.
  • Several sources: keep several playlists and accounts side by side and switch without typing anything again.

One limit to know before you start: with an M3U playlist, Tivelio shows no programme guide (EPG) and no catch-up today. Both come with an Xtream account, when the provider offers them.

Add your playlist in 3 steps

  1. Open Tivelio and choose M3U playlist on the first launch, or go to Accounts in the app menu and add an account.
  2. Give the playlist a name and enter its address. On phones, tablets, Chromebooks and computers you can pick a local file instead; on a TV, use the address.
  3. Confirm. Tivelio downloads the playlist and imports its channels and videos. A large playlist can take a moment the first time.

The detailed walkthrough, with what to check when the import fails, is in Add an M3U playlist. If the list stays empty, see M3U playlist not loading.

Where you can use it

The same M3U player runs on every platform where Tivelio is published:

The LG and Samsung TV apps are under review and not available yet.

M3U or Xtream?

If your provider gives you only a playlist, add it as M3U: live channels and videos play the same way. If you also received an Xtream access (a server address, a username and a password), use it instead: it is the one that brings the TV guide, catch-up and the Films and Series sections.

A playlist address that contains get.php?username=…&password=… is an Xtream access in another form. Paste it in the M3U form: Tivelio recognises it and adds it as an Xtream account.

The full comparison is in Xtream Codes or M3U?, and the Xtream side is described in Xtream player.

Free, with an optional Pro licence

Tivelio is free, and reading an M3U playlist needs no purchase. Tivelio Pro adds picture-in-picture, playback that continues outside the player and in the background (phone and tablet), resume at startup and adding a device by QR code. One licence covers 5 devices, on every system. See plans and prices.