IPTV streaming on Sony smart TV

[rikkitic]

I have been trying to learn about IPTV and HLS streaming and a lot of it is still over my head. I have a Sony smart TV (Linux, not Android) and I would like to create my own streaming apps for it if possible.

The Sony comes with hundreds of built-in streaming apps that are complete rubbish. Through the Opera store there are a handful that might be worth watching but my goal is to find a way to stream from external sites I already have access to, but to be able to watch these directly on the Sony instead of having to go through a PC or STB. From what I have been reading, this should be possible.

I have found two sites that are supposed to enable the streaming of external M3U playlists on the Sony and other smart TVs. One is OTT Player. The other is SS IPTV. I have been using downloaded playlists for testing but I keep running into a problem I don’t understand.

When I play any playlist stream on the Sony using either OTT Player or SS IPTV, the stream repeatedly freezes and drops the connection. If I play the same stream on the computer using VLC, it works fine. If I play any stream on the Sony from one of its own apps or the Opera store, that also works fine. There is no issue with my LAN connection or Internet speed.

I don’t understand what is causing this difference. It has to be something in the Sony or the player apps. Other people seem to be using these apps without any issue and I wonder what, if anything, I might be doing wrong. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. Maybe I should add that I am not specifically trying to watch pirate streams. If I want to do that, which I don’t, I can easily do it on the computer. I am just using these as a convenient source of test streams until I get this working.

[Krispy Kritter]

Sounds like an issue with the apps. Do single streams have the same issue or just playlists? I ask as many players seem to have playlist issues, but otherwise work fine.

[rikkitic]

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it and apologise for taking so long to come back. Other issues got in the way.

It looks like I may have just had bad luck with the streams I tried, or possibly there was a problem communicating with the players. Since I posted I have found a few other streams I know are legitimate and they seem to work fine so the problem may be confined to the shady streams I was using for testing. I still don't know why they seemed to work okay on the pc, though, but this is new to me so I am still learning how it all works.

Thanks again for the response.

[jagabo]

Some IPTV streaming sites only stream a short segment at a time. The player needs to re-open the stream and seamlessly join the new date to the previous date for each segment, every 10 to 30 seconds or thereabouts.