Before you begin
- An Apple TV 4K or HD, or an iPhone or iPad on iOS 14 or newer
- An Apple ID
- Your VISNOVAA credentials
- Nothing cancelled
Nothing to sign in with yet? Take a 24-hour trial and keep every subscription you have while you check what this covers, or see what it costs first.
Getting it running
Start on the phone
Whatever else you do, enter the credentials on an iPhone or iPad first. Each field can be pasted straight from the WhatsApp thread, which removes typing mistakes entirely and proves the account works before you approach a tvOS remote. Ten seconds there saves a quarter of an hour of entering a password with a touchpad.
Open the App Store and install a player
Search IPTV Smarters Player, iPlayTV or GSE Smart IPTV. Smarters is free; the other two carry a one-time price. Skip anything named TiviMato or Tivimax, which are not TiViMate and trade purely on the resemblance of the name.
Add your account
Open the app, choose the Xtream Codes option, and enter username, password and server address. The app sits alongside everything else on the device and changes nothing about it — this is an addition rather than a replacement, whatever you eventually decide to cancel.
Repeat on the Apple TV
There is no account syncing between Apple devices for this, so each is configured independently. Use the iPhone keyboard prompt that appears on the lock screen when the Apple TV asks for text, or paste from a notes app. Two minutes once you have the credentials to hand, which is the argument for keeping them somewhere other than a chat thread.
Set the screens up in the right order
Configure the iPhone first, then the iPad, then the Apple TV, reusing the same three values each time. Nothing syncs between them, so each is a fresh entry, but by the third you will have the credentials memorised and it takes under two minutes. The limit on your plan is simultaneous playback rather than installations, so there is no reason to leave a device out.
Change the player engine if a channel refuses
Some channels use codecs Apple devices decode only with the right engine selected. Switch the player to VLC or FFmpeg in the app settings. Worth doing before concluding a channel is missing, because from the outside the two look identical.
Use it where you actually watch
A channel playing perfectly on an iPhone over 5G tells you very little about what the living-room set does on a Saturday evening. Run the comparison on the television, on your home connection, at the hour you normally watch — that is where the subscriptions you are weighing get used.
Then count, after a fortnight
Keep everything you currently pay for. After two weeks, look at which apps on this Apple TV you have not opened. That number is the whole decision, and on Apple hardware in particular people are often surprised — the live channels get used more than expected and one of the catalogue platforms rather less.
When something misbehaves
The channel list loads but nothing plays
A codec the default engine will not handle. Switch the player engine to VLC or FFmpeg and try again. If one channel does this and the rest are fine, it is that channel's encoding rather than your setup, and its HD or SD counterpart will usually play without complaint.
The server address is rejected
Check for a trailing space, which is close to guaranteed when pasting from a chat on iOS. The field wants http:// at the front and the port at the end, with nothing after. Retyping it by hand once settles the question either way.
Works on the iPhone but not the Apple TV
Almost always a typing error on the television, because entering a password with a tvOS remote is genuinely unpleasant. Use the iPhone keyboard prompt, or paste from a notes app. If it still fails, check both devices are on the same network.
A paid player will not restore on a new device
iPlayTV and GSE are ordinary App Store purchases tied to your Apple ID, so restore them from the Purchased list rather than buying again. If the purchase genuinely will not restore, that is between you and Apple — we have no visibility of it and cannot refund it.
Players worth using on this hardware
IPTV Smarters Pro
Install IPTV Smarters Pro on Firestick, Android, Samsung, LG, Apple TV or PC, sign in with Xtream Codes and load the guide. Free, 25,000+ channels.
M3U playlist
Every plan includes an M3U playlist link. How to open it in VLC, Smart IPTV or Kodi, when to prefer the Xtream login, and why free lists fail.
All of them
Every device and player covered, on a single page.
See what it covers on your Apple TV and iPhone
A trial costs nothing and runs alongside everything you already subscribe to, so you can work out what would genuinely go and what you would keep. Plans open at $15 a month for the full 25,000+ line-up.
What people ask about the Apple TV and iPhone
Is IPTV Smarters really on Apple TV?
It is, on the tvOS App Store, and free. The Xtream login works, along with the guide, catch-up and on-demand sections. TiViMate genuinely does not exist on Apple TV whatever the similarly named listings imply, and we would rather say so than watch you pay for the wrong thing.
Can I watch on a Mac?
Three ways: IPTV Smarters Player from the Mac App Store, the M3U link in VLC or IINA, or the browser player. The Windows and Mac page covers each. For simply confirming the account is live before touching the television, the browser is quickest.
Does it work on an older Apple TV?
Fourth generation and later, yes. The third generation and earlier have no App Store, so there is nowhere to install a player and no workaround worth attempting. AirPlay from an iPhone is the only route and it occupies the phone for as long as you watch.
Why are the good players paid on Apple?
Because Apple's store takes a cut and its review process costs developers real time, which pushes free projects off the platform. iPlayTV and GSE charge once and are better presented for it. Smarters remains perfectly adequate if you would rather not pay, and it is where we would start.
Does it work with AirPlay?
Yes, from an iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV or an AirPlay television, and it is genuinely useful for showing somebody something. As a permanent arrangement it is poor: the phone is occupied for as long as you watch, the battery drains, and any notification interrupts the picture. Install the app on the Apple TV itself and keep AirPlay for what it is good at.
Can I download anything for a flight?
No, and this is a real difference from the platforms you may be weighing this against. Live television is live, and the on-demand catalogue here streams rather than downloads. If offline viewing on a commute or a flight is something your household actually uses, that is a genuine reason to keep the subscription that provides it.
Is the Apple TV worth using as the main screen for this?
It is fast, the picture is excellent and the app is stable, so yes on every count except choice of player. What you are giving up compared with Android hardware is TiViMate and its guide, which for a household watching live sport is a genuine loss. If most of your viewing is on demand and the occasional live channel, the Apple TV you already own is entirely sufficient and there is nothing to buy.