Your checklist
- Any Roku: a Roku TV, a Roku Stick or a Roku Ultra
- Your Roku account, for adding channels from the store
- Your Zyminex Xtream login: server URL, username, password
- For mirroring: an Android phone or a Windows PC on the same Wi-Fi
Still waiting on a login? Ask for the 24-hour trial or look over the terms.
Installation, then the guide
Decide where the guide will live
Before touching the Roku, decide which of the three routes you are taking, because they give very different evenings. Route one is the IPTV Smarters Player channel from the Roku store, where your region lists it: the guide and the Xtream login stay on the television. Route two is mirroring: the guide lives on your phone or computer, you choose there, and the Roku shows the result. It works, but the phone is busy all evening. Route three is a Fire TV Stick, $30 to $50, plugged into another of the television's HDMI inputs, which brings TiViMate or Smarters and a full grid to the same screen. If this is the television you watch most evenings, route three is the one to take; the steps below cover the first two.
Look for the player in the Roku store
From Home, open Streaming Channels, or use search, and type IPTV Smarters Player; IPTV Player is the other name worth trying. If one appears, add it. If neither does, the problem is not your account. Roku adds and removes these listings by region and without notice, which is why nobody can promise a particular player will be there on the day you look. In that case skip ahead to the mirroring step.
Sign in with the Xtream login
Open the channel and choose its Xtream Codes option. Enter the server URL, with http:// at the front and the port after the colon, then the username and the password, capitals exactly as sent. Typing on a Roku happens letter by letter with the direction pad, so go slowly and check each value before confirming. If you use the Roku mobile app, its keyboard can type into the television's text fields, which is much quicker.
Let the list and guide arrive, then shortlist
The first sign-in loads the channel list and then the guide data, the larger of the two. Give it a few minutes before judging what is there. Then build a favorites list of the 30 to 40 channels you actually watch and start every evening from it. With no number pad and a remote made for menus, a short favorites list is what turns 25,000+ channels into a few presses of the direction pad instead of a long scroll.
No player in the store: set up mirroring
Mirroring needs the Roku's permission first. Open Settings, then System, and turn screen mirroring on. Next, install IPTV Smarters on the phone or computer you will mirror from and sign in there with the same Xtream login, so the guide, catch-up and your favorites live on that device. From an Android phone use Cast or Smart View, depending on the brand; from a Windows PC press Win+K and pick the Roku from the list that opens.
Choose on the phone, watch on the television
With mirroring running, the phone screen becomes the television picture, so the routine changes: browse the guide on the phone, start the channel, turn the phone sideways and let the picture fill the television. The phone is occupied while you watch, and its notifications appear on the big screen too, so switch on do-not-disturb for the evening. Keep it on charge as well, because mirroring ends when the phone's screen goes to sleep.
Or plug in a stick and skip the workarounds
If the Roku sits on the television you use every evening, the cleanest fix is a Fire TV Stick on a second HDMI input, which costs $30 to $50. It runs TiViMate or Smarters with the full grid, catch-up and favorites, and the Firestick guide on this site gets it working in about ten minutes. Switch inputs when you want the guide, and leave the Roku for the services it handles well.
Check tonight's listings wherever they live
Whichever route you took, finish with the same check. Open the guide, on the television or on the phone, and compare a channel you know with the clock: the 8 pm program should sit in the 8 pm slot. Move along to late evening and make sure the listings keep going. Then pick a channel showing the archive or clock icon, go back to something that aired earlier tonight and play it from the start. If you are mirroring, watch the result on the television for a whole program, not a minute, to be sure the picture holds.
Problems we see on this one
The player vanished from the Roku
Roku withdraws these listings from time to time, and a channel you added can stop working or disappear with it. Your Zyminex account is untouched, and the same login works in any other player. Mirror for tonight, and if it keeps happening on your main television, treat that as the signal to add a stick.
The phone cannot find the Roku
The phone and the Roku have to share one Wi-Fi network, so check the phone is not on a guest network or on mobile data. Then confirm screen mirroring is switched on in the Roku's System settings and not set to refuse requests. If the Roku still does not appear, restart it from its settings and try again from the phone's Cast or Smart View menu.
Win+K does not list the Roku
The Windows connect panel only shows screens the PC can reach by wireless display, and that needs Wi-Fi hardware in the PC. A desktop connected by cable with no Wi-Fi adapter cannot mirror at all. On a laptop, check that it is on the same network as the Roku and that screen mirroring is allowed on the Roku, then press Win+K again and wait a few seconds for the list to fill.
The mirrored picture looks soft or stutters
Mirroring re-sends the phone's screen over Wi-Fi instead of playing the stream directly, so it will never look as sharp as a player running on the television. Move the phone and the Roku closer to the router, keep other devices off big downloads during the evening, and pick the HD version of a channel, since the phone is decoding the stream and sending its screen at the same time.
Guide times on the phone are an hour out
The guide follows the phone's clock; the Roku plays no part in it. Open the phone's date and time settings, turn on the automatic time zone, then quit the player and start it again so the grid redraws in local time. If you mirror from a laptop, the laptop's clock is the one to check.
Players that suit this device
Firestick
Sideload a player on your Fire TV Stick, sign in with Xtream, then get the guide for 25,000+ channels showing local time, favorites and catch-up.
IPTV Smarters Pro
IPTV Smarters Pro with a Zyminex Xtream login: turn on the guide over live TV, open catch-up from the home screen and cut 25,000+ channels to a shortlist.
Every guide
Thirteen walkthroughs, from the Firestick to a bare M3U link.
Run the free trial on this Roku 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 Roku: short answers
Can you watch IPTV on a Roku?
Partly. Roku allows no sideloading and the players that do work come and go from its store, so of all the platforms here it is the one you can least rely on. Where IPTV Smarters Player is listed in your region it signs in with the Xtream login. Mirroring from a phone or PC always works as a fallback. For a television you use every evening, an Android box or a Fire TV Stick is the better base.
Does mirroring give me the guide and catch-up?
Yes, on the device you mirror from. The guide, catch-up and favorites all live in the player on your phone or computer, and the Roku simply shows what you choose. The costs are that the phone is tied up for the evening and the picture is softer than a player running on the television itself.
Can I AirPlay to a Roku from an iPhone?
Some recent Roku models accept AirPlay, and if yours does, it appears in the iPhone's AirPlay list like any other receiver. Start the channel in IPTV Smarters Player on the iPhone and send it with the player's AirPlay control. If your Roku does not appear in that list, mirroring from Android or Windows, or the stick route, are the alternatives.