Although many Android and PC users know the open source player VLC as a great application capable of opening practically any video format, the truth is that its powers reach much further. We recently mentioned VLC as one of the best IPTV list players to watch live television on the Internet, and today we are going to delve a little deeper into the subject by explaining how to configure these lists on our PC or mobile phone.
Remember that we can also use the KODI app for the same purpose, so if you have any problem with playback from VLC, do not hesitate to take a look at THIS OTHER TUTORIAL .
First step: download the IPTV list with the TV channels
Before giving the player a hard time, we will have to download the IPTV list that we are going to use to load the television channels in VLC. We recommend using only legal repositories. If you have doubts about whether an IPTV service is legal or not, it is best not to use it (if it is too good to be true, it is most likely not of legal origin).
How to play an IPTV list in VLC (Windows)
Once we have the IPTV file in our possession, we only have to add it to VLC. If we are using the player from a Windows PC, it is something as simple as setting VLC as the default player and double clicking on the M3U8 file (we can also right click with the mouse and select “ Open with -> VLC Media Player ”, or from the player itself by clicking on the menu button “ Media -> Open file”).
This will automatically load the full list of channels and we will see how the first TV channel in the list is displayed on the screen. To access the rest of the channels, simply go to the VLC toolbar and click on “ View -> Playlist ”. From here we can switch between the available channels in the list.
How to load IPTV lists from VLC (Android)
In the event that we are using the version of VLC for Android, things are just as simple, or even more so. Once we have downloaded the M3U8 file, we open the VLC app and from the side menu click on “ Folders ”. We locate the IPTV list that we just downloaded (normally it is located in the “ Download ” or “ Downloads ” folder) and open it.
As in the version for Windows, we will see how the first TV channel on the list is loaded automatically. To see and access the rest of the channels we just have to click on the playlist icon, which appears in the upper right corner of the screen .
If we have tried to play IPTV lists in other applications such as KODI, we will see that here with VLC the playback is much simpler, with the extra incentive that VLC is also natively compatible with Chromecast (without the need to make additional configurations as in KODI ). In short, one of the best tools to watch Internet television in a simple and uncomplicated way.
Download VLC from its official website
Other alternatives
Over time, you may end up getting tired of downloading IPTV lists every time a network or provider changes the IP of its live streaming. In cases like this, or if the configuration in VLC gives you any problems, you can always resort to the official web broadcast of the chain . You just have to open the browser and the integrated player will show what is being broadcast live at that moment:
- Spanish Television (TVE1): Watch live
- The 2: Watch live
- Antena 3: Watch live
- Four: Watch Live
- Telecinco: Watch live
- La Sexta: Watch live
- ETB (autonomous television of the Basque Country): See live
- TV3 (autonomous television of Catalonia): Watch live
These are the main Spanish television channels, but in Latin America the system would be the same