Top 10 Best Video Player for Mac 2021. Video player software isn’t rare, but top free video player for Mac users is not easy to come. Hence we picked out the 10 best video players for Mac and give you some detailed information below. Cisdem Video Player. VLC Media Player. List of The Best IPTV Player for Firestick & Fire TV. Area 51 IPTV is the #1 IPTV player for Firestick users. You can stream more then 1000 HD live channels with you can also access on. KODI Solution IPTV.
How to find the best free IPTV player for Windows and Mac to play IPTV streams on computer when there is no TV set available at the moment? This is especially true for college students living in campus dorms, squeezing in a small apartment with loads of other stuffs to store. Actually, there is basically no space for a big HDTV set, and computers’ screens are roughly enough for daily video views. To obtain more TV resources, especially sports live broadcasting and TV shows outside of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, getting access to IPTV channels (Web TV) and other online video streaming sites on computer is an efficient way to go.
Hence, we sort out top IPTV players for Windows 10 and Mac to help stream IPTV M3U/M3U8 playlist links to enable you to watch TV on computer. No matter where you are, in school, office, or hotel, you can always be connected to live football streams, TV shows, News reports, TV replays and VODs as you wish.
Warnings: Government and ISPs across the world monitor their users’ online activities. If you are found streaming copyright contents, you may get into serious legal trouble. So, do not stream copyright contents and use any contents for commercial purposes.
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Best Free IPTV Player to Play IPTV on Computer
This IPTV player - 5KPlayer supports smooth playback of IPTV M3U/M3U8 streams with quickest response speed to deliver quality streaming visual of IPTV channels. Input any M3U/M3U8 IPTV links of, say, football games, News express, TV shows of US/France/Canada, to this IPTV M3U/M3U8 player, and you will get instant playback with highest resolution, best frame rate and lowest latency possible.
Table of Contents:
What Is IPTV?
IPTV - short for Internet Protocol television, is to deliver television shows over IP networks. As long as you have connected to the internet with an IP address, you can manage to stream source media contents continuously.
According to Wikipedia, IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:
- Live television and live media, with or without related interactivity;
- Time-shifted media: e.g. catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning);
- Video on demand (VOD): browse and view items in a stored media catalogue.
Protocols used by IPTV are mainly HTTP, RTSP, RTP, RTMP, HLS, IGMP, UPnP etc, while the most popular format is M3U playlist file.
8 Free IPTV Player Software for Windows (10) and Mac
5KPlayer, VLC media player PotPlayer, KMPlayer, Kodi, Free TV Player, TiviMate IPTV Player and GSE SMART IPTV are the top 8 free IPTV players for Windows and Mac we list for you to stream IPTV M3U/M3U8 playlist channels. Take a look at these free IPTV players with our hands-on test reviews, then you will know what is the best for you.
No.1 5KPlayer – Free IPTV M3U/M3U8 Player for Windows 10/Mac with Quickest Response
Main features: Quickest IPTV M3U/M3U8 response; play downloaded .m3u8/.m3u file and directly stream .m3u/.m3u8 IPTV URLs.
Compatibility: Windows 10/8/7/Vista, macOS Big Sur beta and earlier.
With full support for .m3u and .m3u8 network files, 5KPlayer, as a streaming media player opens IPTV M3U and M3U8 links like a charm. Compared with other similar players, this IPTV player gives the quickest response to IPTV .m3u/.m3u8 playlist links and offers smoothest M3U/M3U8 video streaming experience right away. Its hardware acceleration feature greatly enhances the playback quality to render better color and sound. You can even force enable 360-degree playback mode to these IPTV streams.
No.2 VLC – Open-source IPTV Player for Windows 10/macOS
Main features: Play downloaded .m3u/.m3u8 file and stream .m3u/.m3u8 links; create multiple IPTV playlists for you to choose at will.
Compatibility: Windows 10/8/7/Vista, macOS Catalina and earlier, Android, iOS, etc.
As a network based media player, VLC was and still is developed in a networking environment. Thus, its top priority is to play network files and network streams. IPTV stream is among them the easiest network files for VLC media player to open. Drag and drop an M3U/M3U8 IPTV playlist file or a single M3U/M3U8 file to the player and it will start streaming stably. VLC streams IPTV M3U/M3U8 files as one of the earliest .m3u8/.m3u IPTV players on PC/Mac.
No.3 PotPlayer – Free IPTV Player with Preset IPTV Playlist Channels
Main features: Many preset IPTV playlist channels for direct IPTV streaming
Compatibility: Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista
The best part of PotPlayer as an IPTV player is that you are provided with preset IPTV playlist channels and you can watch them instantly. The connection is based on your own network environment, therefore 100% playback success cannot be granted. Limited connection speed and bandwidth can interrupt IPTV streaming smoothness. Do lift firewall restriction for your PotPlayer to play IPTV on Windows computer successfully.
No. 4 KMPlayer – PotPlayer’s Alternative as an IPTV Player for Windows
Main features: Smooth IPTV M3U/M3U8 streaming
Compatibility: Windows 10/8/7
KMPlayer would be another good IPTV player for Windows to download for IPTV M3U streaming, since in our test, it gives an even better and smoother playback of IPTV links than PotPlayer. You can add filters and 360-degree playback mode to the IPTV streams, and even capture your favorite parts as GIFs from IPTV videos.
No. 5 Kodi – Award-winning Home Theater Software with IPTV Streaming Ability
Main features: Automatically obtain movies and movie information from IMDB
Compatibility: Windows, OSX/iOS, Android, Linux, Raspberry Pi
Kodi is a free and opensource software that you can customize its features by adding add-ons. You can add and enable the 'PVR IPTV Simple Client' on Kodi media player, and then set up it to play stream videos through the local path (include local network) or remote path (URL). The setup process is a bit complicated, but once the setup is done, you can automatically grab the movie and movie information, and easily manage them. For example, go to the 'Movies' navigation on the left side, you can find the very specific categories include 'In progress movies', 'Recently added movies', 'unwatched movies', 'Random movies', 'Genres', 'Movie Sets'.
Read more: How to Watch IPTV on Kodi with Kodi Add-ons & M3U/M3U8 URL?
No.6 Free IPTV Player – Windows 10 OS Official IPTV Player
Main features: Free TV Player allows users to play their own M3U IPTV playlist.
Iptv Player Download
Compatibility: Xbox One, Windows 10 version 14393.0 or higher
Free TV Player is a free software from Microsoft Store and as long as you are using Windows 10 OS, you can install this extension to your Windows 10 computer. If you do not have any playlist you can search on the internet for IPTV playlists or M3U playlists, download and play them through this app. Although this software has poor stability and compatibility, even the feedback says 'less than half worked', it is worth trying because it is 100% free and safe without any plugin.
No.7 TiviMate IPTV Player – Free IPTV Player to Watch Contents on Computer & TV
Main features: Watch live TV channels from your IPTV provider on Android set-top boxes.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Android TV
TiviMate IPTV Player does not support touch functionality, so it won't work on a tablet or so on. Also, TiviMate IPTV Player does not provide any TV source, you should add a playlist from your IPTV provider to be able to watch live TV channels. This is a free APP with basic features to play IPTV content, but if you want to enable other features like multiple playlists, scheduled TV guide update and more, you should pay to upgrade to premium version.
No.8 GSE SMART IPTV – Free Complete User Defined Advanced IPTV Solution
Main features: Import channel playlists and EPG guides from IPTV subscriptions and offers an easy way to stream your channels.
Compatibility: iOS, Apple TV, Android and macOS
GSE SMART IPTV player is officially available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, if you cannot visit any one of them, you can go to the webpage to download it. GES SMART IPTV is free to use with advertisement, and you need to pay a small bill to move the ads if you want. However, the sad point is that you cannot use it on Windows PC.
5 Free Online IPTV Player Sites for Windows (10) and Mac
If you do not want to install anything on your computer, you can simply make use of online IPTV player to play IPTV .m3u/.m3u8 playlist URLs. And here we will introduce 5 free examples for you. Worth mentioning, you have to always open your browser to make these online IPTV players work properly.
No.1 Castr Player
Site: https://castr.io/hlsplayer
Castr live streaming player lets you test your HLS/M3U8 streams of IPTV very easily. This online player can transcode your live streams to multiple bitrates so you can deliver contents across multiple devices without buffering. It also supports Chromecast and AirPlay. However, your streaming URL of IPTV should be HTTPS compatible otherwise your stream may not play.
No.2 m3u8player
Site: https://m3u8player.net/
Also requiring HTTPS compatible IPTV URLs, this free IPTV web player allows you to input a links and hit Play to start streaming quickly. With this player, you are able to test and watch M3U8, HLS and MP4 streams.
No.3 HLSPlayer
Site: https://www.hlsplayer.net/
Compatible with M3 U8, RTMP and MP4 streams, HLSPlayer like any other online IPTV players gives you super convenience to parse your IPTV links and play in good quality. However, you have to know that sometimes this player responses very slowly if your network weak or the IPTV content is heavy.
No.4 m3u8play
Site: https://www.m3u8play.com/en
With quick response, m3u8play IPTV player analyzes your .m3u8 IPTV playlist link immediately and offers quite smooth playback. In case needed, you are also allowed to play your IPTV in fullscreen.
No.5 hlstester
Site: https://www.hlstester.com/
You can test and play all your IPTV streaming links using this online IPTV player. It supports every stream type such as HLS, M3U8, RTMP and MP4. All you need to do is to input your URL to this player and click on Play to start streaming.
5 Free IPTV Player Extensions for Browsers on Windows
As you can directly input IPTV playlist URL to Safari to play on Mac, here we suggest you to use one of the below IPTV player web extensions to stream IPTV on Windows with your browser. The examples are prepared for Chrome browsers, you can search for extensions for Firefox or other browsers if needed.
No.1 TV for Google Chrome
Site: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tv-for-google-chrome/licccgnfdlgmmmgaddmbcepikfadcmpe?hl=en
Powered by the biggest and most up to data database, the TV for Google Chrome lets you to watch thousands of TV channels freely available on the internet. You can choose your desired IPTV channel from 600 live TV channels sorted by country and category.
No.2 Native HLS Playback
Site: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/native-hls-playback/emnphkkblegpebimobpbekeedfgemhof?hl=en-US
Used by over 100,000 users, Native HLS Playback extension allow the browser to play HLS video URLs (.m3u8) natively. It is a great IPTV player that supports subtitles and allows you to switch between zoom and native video size in the options.
No.3 Play HLS
Site: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/play-hls/hahkjjkedonglpienpfiganogikkkoii?hl=en
By adding this IPTV player web extension to your Chrome, you are able to play the .m3u8 links you click on and any .m3u8 URLs you paste into the address bar.
No.4 Chrome IPTV Player
Site: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-iptv-player/defmmfhdopkfcgngoklpbbcnpfpagbfh?hl=en
Specifically designed for Chrome to play M3U files (m3u8) with EPG, Chrome IPTV Player makes it possible for you to watch IPTV from your Internet service provider on TVs, tablets and smartphones or any OS that support Chrome.
No.5 SmartIPTV
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/smartiptv/hgdebfhcidocpafllahppdflfadplbkn?hl=en
SmartIPTV is another Chrome based extension to browse and watch live streamed content from m3u and m3u8 IPTV lists right in your Chrome browser. Also, the newest version of this IPTV player supports Picture in Picture playback.
How to Stream IPTV with IPTV Player on PC/Mac?
Imagine, enduring a long time finding and managing a free IPTV playlist, what you expect most afterwards? - The instant playback of each IPTV links. For this reason, 5KPlayer is my top choice over other IPTV players for Windows 10 and macOS computer.
Step 1. Free download 5KPlayer, install and launch it on your computer.
Step 2. Play IPTV M3U/M3U8 streams.
* You can directly drag and drop .m3u IPTV file to 5KPlayer to play.
* Or click on the “Live” icon on the main UI of 5KPlayer, and input the IPTV .m3u or .m3u8 URL and hit Play to start streaming.
5KPlayer is as much an HLS streaming IPTV player as it is a free media player to play back local videos upto 4K, 360-degree videos, 3D videos, LAN streams via DLNA and AirPlay protocols. In case you are annoyed by buffering and waiting, watching an online IPTV stream, 5KPlayer also lets you download videos from online video sharing sites. Humm...then, why not give 5KPlayer a try below?
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