1. First launch
On first start you will see the content rights notice. IPappTV is a player only - it does not supply channels or any video material. After accepting it you land on the home screen, which has no channel list yet.
Before adding your own playlist you can load the demo playlist in one tap. It contains openly licensed material only and lets you check that playback works on your device. You remove it like any other list.
2. Adding your own channel list
On the home screen choose Add list, give it a name and point to a source:
- URL - a link to an M3U or M3U8 file from your provider.
- File on the device - if you keep the playlist locally. On some TVs this option does not appear, because the system has nothing to open a file picker with.
The EPG address field is optional. The app first looks for the guide in the playlist header (the url-tvg attribute) and usually finds it automatically. You only enter the address by hand when your provider supplies it separately.
Where do you get an EPG address? Usually your playlist provider supplies
it alongside the M3U address itself. Many playlists carry it in the file header (the
url-tvg attribute) and then nothing needs to be entered. If your provider does
not offer one, look for a public XMLTV source for your country; the app accepts
.xml files and gzipped .gz ones.
If the guide from the playlist is poor or empty, tick Use the app's default EPG. The app then ignores the address from the playlist and uses the one set in settings. The same option is available when editing an existing list.
3. The channel list
The list shows channels with their logos and what is on now and next. Above it sit the categories: All, Favourites, your own groups, and then the categories that come from the playlist.
Search works two ways: by channel name and by the title of the programme on air right now. Typing "wheel" will find the channel showing "Wheel of Fortune".
The channel menu opens with a long press on a channel. It holds the EPG guide, favourites, the parental lock, group assignment and - in Favourites and in your own groups - reordering. A channel with a padlock icon is protected by a PIN.
On TV
The menu opens with a long press of OK. When you release the button the selection lands on the first entry, and only the next press of OK activates it - so holding the button never triggers anything by accident. To leave the menu: Back.
The left and right arrows switch categories. The up arrow from the first channel moves the selection to the currently selected category.
4. The player
While watching you can call up the channel list without interrupting the picture. In settings you choose whether it appears as a side bar (narrow, the picture stays visible) or a centred window (wider, with a progress bar on every channel). You can also set how far the picture shows through its background.
Below the picture there are two tabs: Live with today's schedule and Archive with days back and forward. The current programme is highlighted and every entry carries its airtime.
The bottom bar holds: previous and next channel, play and pause, favourites, programme details, the guide, picture settings, volume and the channel list. If a channel broadcasts in more than one language, you switch the audio track with a single tap.
Gestures work on phones and tablets: swipe sideways across the middle of the screen to change channel, swipe up from the bottom for the programme details, tap the left edge for volume and the right edge for the channel list.
5. Remote control
Full button map with a remote diagram: Remote control.
The whole app is driven from the TV remote - no mouse or touchscreen needed. A white outline shows where the selection sits.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| OK | Starts a channel, picks an entry, shows and hides the control bar in the player |
| OK (hold) | Opens the channel menu or the playlist menu |
| ◀ ▶ | In the list: change category. In the player: previous and next channel |
| PR- PR+ | Previous and next channel - works with the bar visible too |
| ▲ ▼ | Move through the list. Holding scrolls continuously |
| ▼ in the player | Shows the control bar with the buttons |
| digits | Jump to the channel with that number |
| Back | Closes a menu, ends reordering, returns to the previous screen |
When you switch channels with the arrows or the PR keys, a short panel appears with the channel name and the current programme - without buttons, so it never interrupts fast hopping.
6. Favourites and your own groups
Add a channel to favourites from the channel menu or - on a phone - with the heart button in the row. Favourites have their own category above the list.
Your own groups are your personal grouping of channels, independent of how the provider arranged them. Groups are shared across all lists, so one category can gather channels from different playlists. A channel can belong to several groups at once.
You set the order in Favourites and in your own groups yourself. On a phone, drag a channel by the handle on the left.
On TV
Choose Move in the channel menu. Then: OK grabs the channel, the ▲ ▼ arrows move it, another OK drops it in place, and Back ends reordering.
7. Parental lock
The lock protects selected channels with a PIN. A locked channel asks for the code before it starts, and until you enter it the app does not connect to the provider's server. The correct code unlocks the channel until you close the app - after a restart the lock is back.
You set the PIN in settings or the first time you lock a channel. Locked channels carry a padlock icon before the name, both in the list and in the player panel.
8. Settings
- Default EPG address - the guide used when a playlist does not supply one, or when you deliberately skip it.
- Refresh - how often the app downloads playlists and the guide again.
- Playback buffer - smaller means a faster start, larger means fewer interruptions on a weaker connection.
- Decoding - four modes. Prefer software (the default) starts with FFmpeg and falls back to the hardware decoder only when a stream proves too heavy for FFmpeg; with interlaced 1080i playlists this makes channels open noticeably faster. Prefer hardware works the other way round. The only variants switch off the fallback entirely: the channel starts straight away with the chosen decoder, without a dozen seconds of attempts. The app remembers the choice per channel.
- Tunnelled playback - often smoother on Google TV and Android TV; on some devices it has to be turned off.
- Clock in the player - the current time in the corner while you watch. Off by default.
- Picture scaling - Fit (default) shows the whole picture, Fill crops it to the edges of the screen, Stretch distorts it to fill the surface. Useful for channels broadcasting in 4:3. The setting applies to all channels, but you can change it for a single channel in the decoder window.
- Autostart of the last watched channel - when you open the app on TV it goes straight back to the channel you were watching. Handy when you switch the set off in the middle of a broadcast. Off by default, works on Android TV and Google TV only. A locked channel still asks for the PIN, and if the playlist or channel is gone, the app stays on the home screen.
- Bar hide timings - how long the control bar and the channel information bar stay on screen. The countdown restarts after every press, so the bar will not disappear while you are still choosing.
- Channel list in the player - side bar or centred window, along with the background opacity.
- Channel list size - compact, normal or large. TV only, and it applies to the channel list and the centred window.
- Language - seven languages; by default it follows the system setting.
- Cache - removes downloaded copies of playlists and the guide. It does not delete playlists, favourites, groups or the PIN.
9. The PRO version
PRO is a one-time purchase in Google Play - no subscription, nothing renews. It unlocks: several channel lists at once, catch-up and rewinding broadcasts, custom ordering of favourites, your own channel groups, the parental lock, scheduling programmes, picture in picture on phones, a backup of your settings and a choice of interface colours.
The entitlement is tied to the Google account used for the purchase and returns automatically after reinstalling. If it does not come back on its own, use the Restore purchase button in the PRO window.
Without the entitlement the PRO features are inactive, but your data does not disappear: groups, locks and the chosen colour stay saved and come back after purchase.
10. Scheduling programmes
Scheduling is a PRO feature. In the EPG guide every programme that has not started yet carries a bell icon on the right. Tapping it on a phone, or pressing OK on the remote, adds the programme to your plan; pressing again removes it.
One minute before it starts, if you happen to be watching, a countdown appears in the corner of the screen and at the appointed time the app switches the channel. You can cancel it: by tapping on a phone, or with the Back key on a TV.
If you are not watching at that moment the channel will not switch by itself - you will find your scheduled programmes on the home screen, below the playlists. Holding a card (or a long OK on the remote) opens the details and lets you remove the entry.
Only one automatic switch can be pending at a time. If you mark a second programme for the same moment, the app will ask whether to replace the previous one or add the new one as a plain reminder.
11. Picture in picture
A PRO feature. On phones and tablets you can keep watching in a small window while you use other apps. During playback press the picture-in-picture icon in the top right corner, next to the channel name. The window also appears by itself if you go to the phone's home screen while watching.
Tapping the window reveals a button to return to full screen (in the centre) and to close it (in the corner). You can drag the window, resize it by pinching and stash it at the edge of the screen. The feature is not available on TV - there is no second activity there that would justify keeping the picture in a corner.
12. Backup of your settings
A PRO feature. In Settings, under Data and storage, you will find Save to file and Restore from file. The backup holds your playlists, favourites, custom groups, parental lock, scheduled programmes and all settings - in a single file whose location you choose.
Nothing is sent to the internet. The file goes where you save it and only you decide what happens to it next. It is a plain text file, so you can open it and see exactly what is inside.
Restoring replaces your current configuration, so before it happens the app shows the date of the backup and how many playlists, favourites and groups it contains. The backup does not carry your PRO entitlement - that belongs to your Google account and comes back automatically.
13. The programme guide and the archive
Providers usually put only two or three past days into a single EPG file, even when their playlist declares ten days of archive or more. This is not a fault of the app or the provider - it is simply how the file is built.
IPappTV adds each download to what it already has instead of replacing everything. After a week of daily use the database holds far more days than the file itself, and the archive reaches as far back as your provider allows.
In Settings you will find Days of guide history to keep. The default Auto follows what your playlists declare; you can also pick a value between 1 and 10 days. Below it you can see how many days have actually been collected so far - that number grows day by day.
Refresh can be set to 12, 24 or 48 hours. The guide is downloaded again only when the provider's file has actually changed - otherwise the app simply checks and uses no data. The line above the channel list tells you what is happening: Loading from memory, Checking for updates, Guide is up to date or Downloading.
If the data ever looks wrong, use Reset the guide in Settings. It is kept separate from clearing downloaded files because it deletes all collected history - which will then start building again, one day at a time.
14. Troubleshooting
A channel will not play. Check that the playlist address is current and that the same stream works at your provider. Then try switching decoding to software - some streams do not work with a given device's hardware decoder.
The picture stutters. Increase the buffer in playback settings. On a wireless connection it is worth checking whether the problem disappears over a cable.
No programme guide. Make sure the playlist supplies an EPG address, or enter it by hand. You can also switch on the default guide from the app settings.
A channel will not let me rewind. Catch-up only works where the provider offers it - the app reads that information from the playlist. On channels without an archive only live viewing is possible.
My groups or interface colour disappeared. Those are PRO features. Check in the PRO window whether the entitlement is active and, if needed, use the restore purchase button.
I removed a list and added the same one again, and my favourites and groups came back. That is intended. Channel settings are stored per channel, not per list - so a change of address at your provider does not wipe your configuration.