Your checklist
- A phone, tablet, television, stick or computer that runs IPTV Smarters (see step 2)
- Your Zyminex server URL with its port, your username and your password
- The names of the thirty or forty channels you watch most
Still waiting on a login? Ask for the 24-hour trial or look over the terms.
Installation, then the guide
Decide whether Smarters suits this screen
Choose the player before you touch any settings. Smarters is the sensible pick on a Samsung, LG or Apple device, in a home with several kinds of hardware where one familiar player everywhere saves explaining, and for anyone who likes browsing catch-up by channel and by day. On an Android TV or a Firestick where the main wish is a full grid of the evening, TiViMate draws the guide more clearly. Nothing stops you trying both on the one login: installs are unlimited, and what your plan counts is streams playing at the same moment.
Install the version for your device
Google Play has it for Android phones and Android TV. A Firestick has no store copy, so it is sideloaded through Downloader, which our Firestick guide covers screen by screen. On Samsung and LG it sits in the television's own store as IPTV Smarters. Apple devices list it as IPTV Smarters Player, and for a Windows or Mac computer the installer is downloaded from the developer's own site. Menus are arranged a little differently on each, but the sign-in and the settings used below do the same job everywhere.
Sign in through Xtream, not M3U
The app opens on its terms of use; agree to them, and on the following screen pick Login with Xtream Codes API. Give the profile any name you like, then enter the server URL, starting with http:// and ending with the port, followed by your username and password, precisely as the WhatsApp message shows them. Tap Add User. The M3U option is on the same screen and is worth ignoring: the Xtream sign-in is what carries the guide, the on-demand library and the archive information for catch-up along with the channels.
Switch the guide on for live TV
Smarters will happily play a channel without telling you what is on it. Open Settings, then EPG, and turn on Enable EPG on live TV. After that the channel list and the playing channel carry now-and-next information. On a first sign-in the guide data needs a few minutes to arrive, longer on a slow stick, so if half the list is blank straight away, leave it five minutes before deciding something has gone wrong.
Line the listings up with your clock
Smarters reads the time from the device. If the 10 pm news appears in the guide at 9 or at 11, correct the phone, television or stick first: automatic time zone on, or your city chosen by hand, with daylight saving applied. Close and reopen Smarters so it redraws the guide. Some versions of the app also carry a guide time adjustment of their own; touch it only when the device clock is already right and the listings are still out by exactly one hour.
Cut the list down to your own channels
Nobody scrolls 25,000+ channels twice. Open Live TV, find each channel you actually watch and add it to favorites, usually with a long press or from the channel's own menu, depending on the device. Favorites then appear as a category of their own in Live TV, and that is where your evenings should start. For anything outside the shortlist, use the search in the channel list rather than paging through country groups one screen at a time.
Open catch-up from the home screen
Catch-up does not live inside Live TV. Back out to the home screen and open the catch-up section. Channels that keep an archive are listed there; choose one, choose a day, and the programs that have already aired appear with their start times. Pick one and it plays from its opening minute. This is the rewind for the evening you worked late: the 8 pm documentary is still waiting at 11, provided its channel keeps an archive.
Set the playback engine once
The engine that decodes the picture is chosen under Settings, Player settings. Pick the built-in player with hardware decoding and leave it; current devices handle nearly every channel that way. The exception is a single channel that judders while its neighbors run smoothly. Switch only that channel to software decoding, from the menu that appears during playback, and keep the global setting as it was.
Check it against tonight's schedule
Before calling it finished, spend two minutes on what you will depend on. Open Favorites: every channel should show what is on now and what follows. Pick a program whose time you know and confirm the guide agrees with the clock on the wall. Then open the catch-up section, choose something that ended an hour ago and let it play from its start. When all three hold, Smarters is ready. When one does not, the section below names the usual cause.
Problems we see on this one
A channel plays but the guide line under it is blank
Two causes account for nearly every case. Either Enable EPG on live TV is still off under Settings, EPG, or the guide has not finished its first download. Check the switch, then leave the app on Live TV for five minutes. If the line is still empty, sign out and back in to the same user, which makes Smarters fetch the listings again from scratch.
The catch-up section is empty
An empty catch-up section nearly always means the profile was added with an M3U link. Go back to the user list, add a new user through Login with Xtream Codes API with the same three details, and delete the old profile. If catch-up then lists channels but the one you wanted is absent, that channel does not keep an archive.
Two profiles on the user screen, and only one has a guide
Smarters remembers every login ever added and lists them all on its user screen, so it is easy to open an old one by mistake. A profile made with an M3U link, or with a server address that has since changed, shows channels with a thin guide or none at all. Delete everything except the Xtream Codes profile and the app will always open the right account.
Listings slip by an hour in spring or autumn
When the clocks change and the guide does not follow, the device is set to a fixed offset rather than a named time zone. Switch it to automatic, or choose your city instead of a bare GMT figure, then restart the app. Touch any time adjustment inside Smarters only after the device itself is correct.
The guide ends at midnight or still shows yesterday
The app is holding an old copy of the listings. Signing out and back in replaces it. On a Firestick that has been asleep for days, restart the stick itself first, then open Smarters and allow several minutes for the listings to come down before you look again.
Other players worth a look
TiViMate
TiViMate shows 25,000+ Zyminex channels as a scrolling guide grid. Add the Xtream login, set the refresh and local time, then replay shows from catch-up.
Xtream Codes login
A Zyminex Xtream Codes login is a server URL, username and password. Enter all three correctly and 25,000+ channels arrive with the guide and catch-up.
Every guide
Thirteen walkthroughs, from the Firestick to a bare M3U link.
Run the free trial on this IPTV Smarters Pro first
The 24-hour trial costs nothing and runs on this exact device, guide included. Terms start at $15 once you are sure.
IPTV on IPTV Smarters Pro: short answers
Does IPTV Smarters Pro cost anything?
Nothing. Every version, whatever the platform, is free to install, and nothing inside it is for sale. It also holds no channels of its own, so it looks bare until you sign it in with a service. Sign it in with a Zyminex Xtream login and the channel list, the listings and the on-demand library all arrive, while the same three details work on every device you install it on.
Where is catch-up in IPTV Smarters Pro?
On the home screen, in a section of its own next to Live TV, Movies and Series, not inside the Live TV list. It shows only channels that keep an archive, and only when you signed in with the Xtream Codes login. If the section is empty, the problem above about M3U profiles is almost certainly the cause.
Smarters or TiViMate, if the guide matters most?
On Android hardware, TiViMate: its full-screen grid is the clearer way to read an evening, and Premium adds recording and multi-view. Everywhere else, Smarters, because TiViMate does not exist on Samsung, LG or Apple. Smarters also lets you browse catch-up by channel and day, which some people find easier than scrolling back through a grid.
Can I use Smarters on several devices with one login?
Yes. Install it wherever you like and use the same three details on each one. Your plan counts simultaneous streams, not installations, so the number of devices holding the login is up to you. On a two-stream plan, two screens can watch different channels at once; a third has to wait until one of them stops.