We hear more and more often about IPTV (or IPTV lists) as the future of the transmission of audio and video content via the Internet and, most likely, one day this technology will make the transmission of channels via satellite or digital terrestrial completely obsolete. Returning for a moment to the present we can say that the lists that we can find on the Internet or on dedicated channels are optimized to be reproduced with great ease on an Android TV Box or on the specific apps present on Smart TVs, but nobody cares to make them compatible also for the Chromecast or the Amazon Fire TV Stick, the two most used HDMI adapters to bring multimedia content to non-Smart TVs.
In this guide we will solve once and for all these problems: we will show you the apps necessary to be able to see any IPTV list on Chromecast and on Amazon Fire TV Stick at the highest quality and fluidity possible.
READ ALSO -> Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick "> MPEG transport stream) and in these conditions the list will never work on the Chromecast; if instead a compatible container (MP4 or MKV) is used but the audio is supplied with the codec AC-3, the list will start but we can only see the video without audio.
We can remedy these problems by asking our IPTV list provider if it is possible to "force" the list to provide streams with the MKV container and with perfectly compatible codecs (H264 for video and AAC for audio); if this is not possible (which is very common), we will necessarily have to convert the stream into a format compatible with any Chromecast .
To watch the IPTV list on Chromecast without problems we must install a single app on our reference Android smartphone, making sure that it is powerful enough to be able to convert (i.e. it includes a quad-core CPU or higher) without having to use other tools or device.
The best app to manage the list on your smartphone is IPTV Extreme, also equipped with a converter of audio and video streams for the Chromecast.
Once installed on the device, let's open it and click on the three dots at the top right, so we can open the Playlists menu.
From this menu we click on Add Playlist, then on File or Link Playlist ; in the new window that we will see we will have to enter a name of your choice and the link of the IPTV list in our possession (in m3u format).
If the list is provided by file, click on the folder-shaped symbol in the window and go to the path where we saved the file (inside the phone memory or on the microSD card, if present).
At the end we click OK to add the list to the app; now we open the Settings menu (always clicking on the three dots at the top right) and scroll through the various items until we find Chromecast Mode, in which we will have to select the Alternative item.
Once this item is activated, make sure to restart the app by exiting and re-entering (to be sure we use the Exit item in the menu at the top right) and turn on the Chromecast.
As soon as the dongle is ready, we click on the Cast symbol at the top right, to associate the app with the Chromecast.
Now all we have to do is choose the channel or stream to play; immediately the management window will appear in the app, with the content playing on the TV where the Chromecast is connected.
This interesting feature is reported as Beta, so some problems may still appear during playback; the advice we can give you is to have a good WiFi signal for the phone and for the Chromecast (we use the same network with good or excellent signal) and possibly decrease the quality of the conversion by going to Settings -> Chromecast Settings -> Quality of the conversion and setting the Minimum item.
Alternatively we can install, next to IPTV Extreme and always inside the Android phone that we are using as a "base", the BubbleUPnP app.
This app is provided free of charge to play a maximum of 30 seconds of each video or stream; once tried, we recommend purchasing the BubbleUPnP UPnP / DLNA License file, for the price of € 3.99 (absolutely deserved!).
Open the BubbleUPnP app, turn on our Chromecast (together with the TV connected to it), go to the Now Playing tab and click on the button on the bottom right (in the shape of a Cast button).
We select the Chromecast and bring the app to the background (just use the back button of the smartphone).
Now open the IPTV Extreme app, go to the loaded IPTV list and click on one of the available channels or streams; in the menu that appears, select the item Play with and, in the list of players that we will see appear, click on BubbleUPnP .
The channel will be immediately sent to the BubbleUPnP app, which will convert it and play it correctly on the Chromecast.
In this way, any type of IPTV list or channel can be viewed on the Chromecast, without having to fear that a container or codec is not compatible.
To automate the association between the two apps (so as to open only one) we open IPTV Extreme, click on the three dots at the top right and then select Settings .
Scroll the menu and activate the Play on click item ; once activated, scroll again through the app settings and activate the Use External Video Player item, then select BubbleUPnP in the External Video Player menu.
From now on every time we click on a channel on the IPTV list, it will be sent immediately to BuubleUPnP which will carry out the conversion and send it to the Chromecast.
READ ALSO -> Chromecast guide with 18 tricks and applications to make the best use of it
2) IPTV list on Amazon Fire TV Stick
On the Amazon Fire TV Stick it's (on paper) everything much simpler, since having Android as the operating system, just install the IPTV Extreme app inside the device to have immediate access to all the streams in the IPTV list without having to convert anything !
Unfortunately Amazon has removed the best apps to manage the lists from the integrated store, but nothing is lost, as already explained in the guide to install Android Apps on Fire TV.
First of all we install the Downloader app on the Fire TV Stick, which can also be downloaded from the store inside the device (to quickly install it from the browser we access a browser with access to our Amazon account and click on Download now with 1-click ) .
Now we will have to enable unknown sources to install the required app on the Amazon Fire TV Stick; press the Home button on the Stick remote control, then go to the Settings -> Device -> Developer Options -> Applications from unknown sources path, making sure it is set to On .
Now that we have enabled unknown sources, let's go to the Downloader app and open the APK Mirror site, where we can find all versions of IPTV Extreme .
Scroll down the newly opened page until you find the list of versions of the app, then click on the download arrow symbol next to it; in the new page we click on Download APK to have the necessary file.
At the end of the download we will be asked to install the APK, confirm by clicking Install to have IPTV Extreme on our Amazon Fire TV Stick (we can find it in the Your applications and games section ).
The rest of the guide is applicable as already seen at the beginning, i.e. adding the list to the app and using the integrated player to view any channel or stream, even in HD.
On Fire TV, with the same guide, you can also install Kodi for Android and upload IPTV lists in Kodi through plugins to search on the internet.
READ ALSO -> Amazon Fire TV Stick guide with tricks, apps and hidden functions
