Here's my (newbie) IPTV story

by ScousePete

I'm brand new to IPTV, but as a Brit living in the US I wanted to find a way to watch HD British TV and lots and lots of football. HBO and PPV events would be nice too!

I cut the cable cord about 3 years ago so I mostly use Apple TV and thanks to my wife's granny and her cable subscription I have access to NBC Sports for the premier league matches. I subscribed to fubo.tv for la liga and the champions league, but unfortunately granny doesn't have Fox Sports as part of her package so I was SOL for the Europa League. I also use a HDHomerun and a digital antenna to get the HD local channels.

I use a smartdns service and a UK apple ID to load BBC iPlayer which is great quality and TVPlayer for a bunch of the SD OTA channels.

So I bought a MAG 254 box. Initially I thought about just side loading Kodi on to the Apple tv (one box to rule them all!), so I did that, but I wasn't a great fan of the experience.

My first foray into paid IPTV was using a free 24 hour trial at iptvsubs.is. The channel line up looked great and for the first 20 minutes everything was perfect. The price is reasonable ($132 for one year). Then everything started to slow down. Channels were buffering, cutting out or simply not loading. I went to their website and looked at their forum and realized I was not the only one and maybe they need to buy additional hardware to keep up with demand.

Next I tried the free 24 hour pass from AlphaCS. ($135 for a year). Great quality HD/SD channels, very Eurocentric, but no HBO (in English).

Third choice was iks66.(NFPS) They didn't have a 24 hour trial, so I paid for a month ($9). They were the most difficult to set up, and I was charged twice. They said the first credit card did not go through, so I used a different card. In actuality both went through and I am working now to get the extra charge refunded. At $80 per year they were the cheapest of the bunch and had a huge selection of global channels, especially South America. I did not experience any buffering, but every channel is SD and some were really poor quality.

I really liked the channel selection of IPTV Express. I saw the channel listing on a couple of different resellers websites, but it took some investigative work to find out who the actual provider was. They are very big on southwest Asian language channels but also have a great selection of English HD channels, both from the UK and US and a lot of HD sports channels including about 20 cricket channels! I found a price of $100 a year. The reseller did not offer a trial, so I paid for a month and although he had the slowest response time (24+ hours) the selection and price is exactly what I was looking for. They even had Liverpool FC channel, which was a big bonus! No buffering, very clear HD/4K channels. Assuming everything continues well, this is probably the service I will continue with.

As a side note I discounted ntv.mx because of cost (~$500 p/a for the channels I wanted) and ruyu (~$360 p/a).

I'd like to thank everyone in the sub for some great recommendations and especially the list of preferred vendors. If I can answer any questions for anyone hesitant to take the plunge, let me know!

**Edit to add - forgot about Rapid IPTV. Requested a free trial, as listed on their website, and a week later I'm still waiting....

jbl0ggs

Thanks for the info! Very interesting. For the IPTV Express, what is the difference between "Black Diamond" vs "Orange" vs "Emerald"? Do you have to provide a "real" MAC address of the actual device? Does it have EPG for Android and/or Kodi setup?

Rockin_Zombie

+1 for iptvchanels, been using it for the past month. Did buffer once or twice during some NBA games, but NBD as the game was being broadcasted on other channels too. The yearly subscription is tempting, as the cost is a lot lower, but I am probably gonna stick to monthly, who knows when they start buffering too.

riqulemel

I strongly recommend www.ntv.mx I stopped using my satellite dish. I have tried many IPTV services, but this is the best I've tested. I've been with them for over 2 years and all works smoothly.

StudentOf33

While you were using IKS66, how was the quality? Did you by chance see a good list of US channels? Also, with IKS66, can you use Kodi?

Zgembo12

Can you give us some more information on IPTV express. like channel list or a possible link to order the donation?

venomo160

Did you use a prepaid credit card to buy the subscription? I'm also based in the US, and am hesitant about using the credit card linked to my bank account. Any tips?

Bubba_Nosferatu

Have you tried the service with Kodi at all? Even on desktop?

I'm using IPTVsubs right now, I like the channel selection, but the long pause to before a channel starts, and that my guide resets after almost every restart is annoying.

Also how accurate is the EPG? IPTVsubs is very hit or miss.

I'm using DexterPro also, the Quality is there, and the response time is great. but, there's no real EPG and the channel selection is weak.

It's still in Beta so I'm not judging Dexter too harshly. Yet!

Thanks

Edit, I found the problem with my guide. I had "Synchronize channel groups with backend(s)" enabled. this needs to be disabled or it's going to mess up custom channels.

bamagsouth

hey i read alot of your stuff and thought you might could give some helpful information. i purchased a month black diamond donation from iptvchannels.com sunday night and couple hours later i got and email welcoming me and asking me for user pass mac and box type did all that and i still havent heard nothing back from them. i sent a couple messages since then asking how much longer it will be"completely ignored by them as it seems. i dont know what to do lol. have any you had any problems like this before? any info you can give would be great!

thisisAziz

Do they provide m3u link so it can be used with Apple TV without side loaded kodi ?

pairughdocks

What was the URL you found IPTVExpress at? If they are the same as Black Diamond for half the price I would like to check them out.

Rockin_Zombie

Just wanted to provide some updates. I bought my second sub from IPTVChannels last weekend. This time, I switched to their Emerald server offering ($25 for one month).

Picture quality for emerald is as good as black diamond. I like the fact that you can use emerald with Kodi. It has all the channels I watch (TSN, Sportsnet, CP24, HBO). One bonus is W network, black diamond doesn't have that. Since I watch a few shows on W network, it's a big plus for me.

For my first month with black diamond, I watched a lot of basketball and hockey. I think it buffered once or twice, a non-issue. Quality is excellent (720p).

HBO never worked very well for me, a lot of times HBO was just linked to some other random channel.

The guy at iptvchannels does have communication issues. He takes ages to reply to emails, the longest have been a week. But he is not a scammer, he will eventually get back to you. A bit frustrating, but that's IPTV in general.

As for servers, Emerald = Voodoo IPTV. Black Diamond = IPTV express. You can probably get cheaper subs elsewhere, I didn't bother looking. I am probably gonna get the year-long sub of emerald or black diamond next month, as it comes out a lot cheaper. If the servers go belly up in a couple of months, I won't lose a lot of money as opposed to continuing monthly subs.

Mpp82

Hello any updates on how you are getting on with black diamond iptv/ iptv express. I used to have iptv express but there were too many dead channels and buffering issues. So I would like to know how you find the black diamond server. I also jsigned up to it for a month. It seems better than my previous experience on express but sports channels play back poorly with lags jumps and a grainy picture even on HD channels like tsn. I am wondering if this is due to my internet connection. I am also not able to record to a Usb hard disk as was advertised . I use a mag254. Any updates on long term use of black diamond would be appreciated!!

Socalnugz

In case anyone is wondering iptv express is NOT 4k Just labels some channels that way not sure why seems kinda shaddy to me. Where are they getting 4k content? It doesnt exist there is no 4k cable/satellite tv service. The one exception MIGHT be in the vod section, i think some of the porn is 4k....lol thats it though.

zappermac

I bought 12 months Diamond Subscription two days back, till now no email from them..so frustrating..don't know what to do.

vbcrain

Tried IPTVChannels Orange server for a month, was fine until I tried to extend for another month and I'm now stuck waiting 2 weeks (without service) for them to get back to me. I've had 1 reply in those 2 weeks. Moving on to a more responsive reseller who isn't charging twice as much.

myindiantv

Well, perhaps you should have a look at NTV . They have been around for quite a while. To add to that, picture quality is really good and streams are quite reliable. They have got great support too. They definitely give free trials but be sure to ask for it during the week i.e. Monday till Thursday. For some odd reason, they do not give free trials from Friday till Sunday. Anyway, maybe they can give you what you are looking for...

lorocator

I'd like to add that alphacs doesn't have an epg guide, have tested on MAG254 and it works fine but no guide.