Before you begin
- An LG webOS television from 2016 or newer
- An LG account signed in
- Your VISNOVAA M3U link or Xtream credentials
- Nothing else changed on the television
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
Open the LG Content Store
From Home, open the LG Content Store, move across to Apps, and use the search field. Older webOS versions are slower about this than they should be, so give the store a few seconds before deciding the search has failed.
Install a player, and ignore the copies
Search IPTV Smarters Player, iPlayTV or GSE Smart IPTV. The first is free; the others carry a one-off price and better interfaces. Anything called TiviMato or Tivimax is not TiViMate, is unrelated to it, and is not worth money. TiViMate has no webOS build in existence and no listing claiming otherwise is genuine.
Have the credentials in front of you
Typing with an LG Magic Remote is slow and the pointer makes mistakes easy, so open the WhatsApp message on a phone beside you and read the values across carefully. Two minutes of preparation removes the commonest cause of a failed login here, which is a mistyped character nobody can see afterwards.
Enter your details
Smarters wants Login with Xtream Codes API followed by username, password and server address. Smart IPTV instead wants the M3U link sent to the MAC address it displays, via siptv.app/mylist on another device. Two very different procedures, and knowing which app you installed saves a puzzling quarter of an hour.
Let it restart and load
After restarting, the set pulls the full line-up with its built-in guide. The coloured buttons on the LG remote handle favourites and the EPG, and they are genuinely what makes these televisions pleasant rather than merely functional. Learn which is which now; it pays back over the following months.
Decide about the guide before you decide about the service
webOS players differ considerably in how well they render a programme guide across thousands of channels, and on an older LG the guide is where the set will feel slow if it is going to. Open it, scroll a few hours ahead, and see whether it is pleasant. If it is not, that is a limitation of this television rather than of the account, and an Android stick on a spare socket removes it entirely for about thirty dollars.
Fix the decoder if the screen goes black
A black picture with working sound is a decoder mismatch and the single commonest report on webOS. Switch the player to native or hardware decoding before concluding anything about the service. It is a two-tap fix that has cost people entire evenings.
Build a favourites group, then leave it a fortnight
Thirty or forty channels in a group is the difference between using this television and avoiding it — a remote without a keyboard makes a long list genuinely unpleasant. Then simply watch normally for two weeks with every existing subscription still running, and see which apps you stop opening.
When something misbehaves
Black screen, sound still playing
Decoder mismatch rather than a dead channel. Change the player to native or hardware decoding, or select the lower-bitrate copy of that channel, which exists alongside most sports feeds. Where one channel does it and nothing else does, change that channel rather than the global setting.
The Content Store has none of these apps
LG rotates its catalogue by region and webOS version. IPTV Smarters is the most widely stocked, so try that first. On a set older than 2016 there is nothing to be done within the television, and an external stick is the honest answer.
The app opens and immediately closes
Almost always a webOS version too old for the current build. Check for a television firmware update first. If the set is current and it still will not stay open, install one of the alternatives rather than fighting it — they differ in quality but not in function.
The pointer makes it unusable
Press the wheel on the Magic Remote to switch between pointer and directional modes. Most IPTV players are built for a directional pad and behave badly under a floating cursor, which reads as the app being broken when it is being driven the wrong way.
Players worth using on this hardware
Smart IPTV (SIPTV)
Set up Smart IPTV on a Samsung or LG television: find the MAC, upload your M3U at siptv.app, activate. Deliberately minimal, 25,000+ channels.
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.
All of them
Every device and player covered, on a single page.
See what it covers on your LG Smart TV
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 LG Smart TV
Which app is best on an LG?
IPTV Smarters is free, takes the Xtream login and carries a full guide, which makes it the sensible first attempt. Smart IPTV is leaner and very stable once configured, for a one-time fee paid to its developer. Both run on webOS 3.0 and later and there is little reason to pay before trying the free one.
Does TiViMate run on LG?
No, and it never has. TiViMate is Android software and webOS is not Android. Every similarly named listing on an LG store is a different product trading on the confusion. If TiViMate matters to you, that television needs an Android box or a Firestick attached.
Will a firmware update break it?
It can clear app data, meaning three values re-entered in Smarters or a playlist re-uploaded for Smart IPTV. Neither touches your subscription and neither costs anything. Keeping the credentials somewhere retrievable turns it into two minutes of mild irritation.
Can one subscription cover the LG and a bedroom set?
Install it on as many as you like; the limit is on screens playing at once, not installations. On a single-screen plan both sets can be signed in while only one plays. If two rooms regularly want different things simultaneously, that is what the higher tiers are for — and still under what a platform charges for a family tier.
Does this affect the apps already on my LG?
No. It installs from the same store as they did, runs in the same sandbox, and has no access to them. Netflix keeps its profiles, Prime keeps its downloads and nothing about the set's own interface changes. What you are adding is one more tile on the home row, and what you cancel later is a decision taken separately.
Which LG models are genuinely supported?
webOS 3.0 and later, which in practice means 2016 onwards. Sets from 2014 and 2015 either lack the apps in their store or run versions too old to install the current builds. On those, an external stick is the only sensible answer and it will give you a better player than the television ever offered.
Is an LG a good television for this specifically?
It is competent rather than ideal. The store carries a workable player, the coloured remote buttons suit a channel list well, and on a recent model the guide is responsive. What you cannot have is TiViMate, which is the best player in this category and is Android-only. If the guide matters to you more than tidiness, a thirty-dollar stick on a spare socket gets you it and costs less than a month of most platforms.