ELI5 how gray/black market IPTV actually works?

by TimIsColdInMaine

So I was surprised when yesterday's XStream takedown happened, and that it affected nearly everyone. I had no idea it actually works. I guess I just assumed random guys had semi commercial server racks hooked up to commercial subscription services for rebroadcast. I remember seeing a channel down occasionally when I used FabIPTV where it showed the "dish network" error screen, so that made sense to me.

So, where exactly are the streams coming from? Not counting the resellers, but where are the providers getting their content from? Why was Xstreams the control that nearly everyone was using? Any insight is appreciated

AsleepOnTheTrain

OK, I'll ELI5 for you. There's nothing secret about what I'm telling you, so I don't think I'll rile up the masses here.

  1. People around the world connect TV boxes to the internet and send the video signals out to servers that ingest them.

  2. People who bundle and redistribute these video signals are called providers. They provide stream "packages" to either end users or other providers. Sometimes it can go many levels deep (providers provide providers who provide providers etc.)

  3. There is/was software called "Xtream Codes" that provided these providers with the ability to manage their streams and users. That is, they could decide which incoming streams could be seen by which end users.

There was nothing illegal about Xtream Codes per se, as all it did was offer a way to organize streams and authorize people to view them.

It's not unlike torrents being legal, as long as you only use them to download legal content. My understanding is someone at Xtream Codes got a little too greedy and started a side business as a stream provider. That is what opened the door for Xtream Codes seizure.

Now that Xtream Codes is down, even though the streams work, the providers have no way to manage them or their users.

TL;DR Rebroadcasting streams is illegal. Providing streams is illegal. Xtream Codes was legal. Xtream Codes ownership did illegal things. Xtream Codes got shut down. They are stupid.

theanimalbar

Nice try, Italian police

Deletko

Xtream-Codes was the panel that manages stream and users.

Xtream-Codes was not illegal but ppl wore using it for illegal re-streams. Which is illegal to shutdown i dont know what are the police doing. Lots of companies are using Xtream-Codes legally and are affected.

Main Problem is because the licensing and adminPanel was on their server.

People that use v1 cracked Xtream-Codes are not affected by this shutdown. Because licensing server is setup locally.

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As for your question streams are coming from cable operators. And 1 channel can be re-streamed 1m times if u like.

Xtream-Codes was good and cheep if u want to buy professional streaming software and equipment it will cost you not less the 100.000 euros, xtream was 60eu montly.

easy2017

hey mr Johnson from Europol/sky investigative unit, haven't you guys done enough damage already? still need to get more information?

ether1978

Blame Metallica for the whole thing. They didn't see the writing on the wall decades ago, went after Napster, and created this while environment, instead of working with people to find an amicable solution. Fuck Metallica lol

T3chGuy1980

No offence but I highly doubt that the providers will publish where they get their streams from.
As far as I know Xstreams was the best panel out there for ease of use and pricing hence why so many companies used it.

50vitamins

/u/TimIsColdInMaine - Just came across this old post ; thought you might find it interesting