The PVR IPTV Simple Client add-on allows loading an M3U playlist to Kodi. By loading the playlist, you can watch free IPTV with thousands of channels from all around the world using the powerful live TV of Kodi. M3U is a file format for defining multimedia playlists by storing the locations of various media files.
Here are the instructions on how to install PVR IPTV Simple Client:
- Launch Kodi
- Click Add-ons
- Click the add-on browser icon
- Click Install from repository
- Click Kodi Add-on repository
- Click PVR clients
- Click IPTV Simple Client
- Click Install
- Wait until you see Add-on installed message
After installing the add-on there are two ways to configure it. The first is using a remote path, which is a URL of an M3U playlist found on the net. The second is using a local path, which is an M3U file stored on local storage.
Here is how to configure PVR IPTV Simple Client using remote path:
- Click IPTV Simple Client
- Click Configure
- Change Location to Remote Path (Internet address)
- Click M3U Play List URL
- Enter the URL of the M3U playlist you what to load and click OK
- Click OK in the PVR IPTV Simple Client settings menu
- Go back to the Kodi homepage
- Click the power options icon
- Click Exit
- Launch Kodi
- Wait until you see a message that all the channels were loaded
- Click TV
Later in the tutorial, you can find URLs of good M3U playlists, which can be used freely.
Here is how to configure PVR IPTV Simple Client using local path:
- Click IPTV Simple Client
- Click Configure
- Change Location to Local Path (include Local Network)
- Click M3U Play List URL
- Choose the M3U file you what to load and click OK
- Click OK in the PVR IPTV Simple Client settings menu
- Go back to the Kodi homepage
- Click the power options icon
- Click Exit
- Launch Kodi
- Click TV
How to manage channels and groups:
An M3U playlist can contain many channels you don’t need and other channels you often use. Therefore, managing the channels that appear in the list of channels is essential. It can be done by arranging them by groups, so it is easier to filter the needed ones. Also, other ways like hiding unwanted channels, hide unwanted groups, and adding channels to favourites will help you get a better live TV experience.
Hide unwanted channels from the list
- Launch Kodi
- Click TV
- Click the menu button
- Click Manage…
- Click Channel manager
- Hover over the channel you want to hide
- Click Active to disable it
- Click OK
Hide unwanted groups
- Launch Kodi
- Click TV
- Click the menu button
- Click Manage…
- Click Group manager
- Hover over the group you want to hide
- Click Hide group to enable it
- Click OK
Add a favourite channel to favourites
- Launch Kodi
- Click TV
- Hover over the channel you want to add
- Click the menu button
- Click Add to favourites
The Favourites are located under the Kodi home page.
Using M3U playlists has several advantages over the regular live TV add-ons:
- The live TV of Kodi is based on M3U playlists and it fits perfectly for watching IPTV. Its functionality includes showing recent played channels, recording, built-in EPG (Electronic Program Guides) support, power saving, parental control and other useful features
- You don’t need to install any add-on
- The playlist is played directly by Kodi without any intervention of add-ons, which can affect the stream
- You can replace your current playlist at any time, it only requires changing the URL or file
There are good sources for M3U playlists, we recommend this one:
Collection of 8000+ publicly available IPTV channels from all over the world: https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u
Also, you can use the following playlists grouped or filtered by a certain criterion:
- https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.country.m3u (grouped by country)
- https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.category.m3u (grouped by category)
- https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.language.m3u (grouped by language)
- https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.nsfw.m3u (channels for adults)
There are many other M3U playlists you can use, or you can even create your own playlist.
This add-on works great but has one limitation. It can load only one playlist at a time. That is to say, when loading a new playlist, it overwrites the old one. If you want to load multiple playlists, use the Playlist Loader add-on.
That’s all, now you can watch IPTV using the live TV of Kodi. Enjoy it!