Why is the IPTV scene such a toxic shit hole?

I know it's probably because there's money to be made.

I just wish there was a good place to discuss IPTV providers that wasn't full of sketchy resellers over promising and under delivering. You'd think they could at least sort out their EPGs as most I have used are like 80% complete at best.

Not asking for provider recommendations, not sure if that's allowed here. Just wondering if y'all know of a place where that shit can be discussed in a neutral and honest environment?

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I once got downvoted in Reddit for asking how I could use legal IPTV streams with the TiviMate Android TV app (which IMO it is the best you can have for IPTV experience).
They even told me I was surely using clever writing to get other users spit their secretly guarded IPTV resellers lol.

I don't think I'll ever sub to IPTV because of the community around it. I miss the days of setting up your own satellite dish and downloading the decryption keys.
- Honestly if it weren't for sports and Jeopardy I wouldn't bother. I wish more leagues went the way if F1 with their decent price and amazing app.
  
  If you don't need to watch Jeopardy live it is pretty readily available via torrents. Probably in better quality and without ads.
  Sports are much harder to find. There are trackers but they are much harder to get into and I can't attest to the completeness (I'm not really into sports) and watching it live is probably more relevant.
  
  Isn't IPTV shit for sports or really anything popular? I've read there's a tonne of buffering and quality problems... I dont watch sports but I have family and friends looking for a solution and ask me because they're on my Plex server.
  Personally the *arr stack is perfect for what I do. When I want to watch something I'll scroll through the recently added and pick something.
- Those were fun times. Raise your hand if you made a $100 mistake and got your sat box killed by an ECM, haha.
- I am still using ccam with satellite dishes ,there are "providers" where u can buy cheap decryption keys. Did I miss something in time?
  
  Can you explain a bit more? Any resources I can read up on?
  From what I've read, the keys rotate every 6 seconds so you'll need to find a reliable, low latency source that will allow you access. Aside from that I haven't found much in the way of required equipment or providers as everyone is talking about IPTV these days.

I think you are right on the money (heh pun).
It's one type of pirate to hoard and spread about the booty, but it takes a special form of hypocrisy to turn around and charge for hard money.
As to communities, I can't help too much there but instead offer that there actually do exist groups that effectively have created swarms that are like a private tracker but for live/on demand viewing. Think an invite group of dozens of jellyfin servers. It might be safer to work toward identifying and joining one of those, depending on your desire.
- I get that the services themselves cost money and there are ties to organized crime (or so I've read).
  Interested in these jellyfin swarms I'll have to do some research thanks!
- In Canada, where they can put up brick and mortar shops, it’s not uncommon to see resellers. It’s a business to them. The market sees an opportunity, and fills it.
  
  Ironically I'm ok with this in moderation... But scalpers that charge a high price, more than materials and maybe a small fee, I dislike.
  Filling a void is a service. While there a grey area, there's a balance between acceptable fee and blatant junk.
  Region locking of any type I feel should be outright illegal, but I'm just a lowly pirate with bent ethics.

Isn't Lemmy the perfect chance to create a non-toxic community?
- Totally. I just don't have the desire to create it lol.
  Would have to basically ban resellers or flair them or maybe a monthly reseller thread. But open and good faith discussion of the different services would be nice.
  
  I feel like banning all direct links gets you 90% of the way there. No referral codes, if a user wants to find your site, they have to go looking, automated spam is harder, etc.

I’ve tried 4 iptv providers for long term subs and evaluated a ton more. They’ve all been okay but none were amazing so I keep trying new ones when my sub runs out
My basic thing is this: if they don’t offer a trial I don’t fuck with them. If the epg is totally fucked or the buffering on channels I watch is atrocious during the trial I don’t bother. If that’s all good I buy a month and see how it goes. I do this because I’m pretty sure some have better servers for trials, or maybe I just got lucky during the trial period, because during the month service goes to shit sometimes. If the month is good I’ll extend it longer
I’ve never found one with a complete EPG. I’ve found ones with complete epgs for us channels (my current one has this) but international channels, raw 4k streams, etc? They always have no EPG
https://forum.iptvinsider.org/ is the best forum I’ve found for this but as you’ve said it’s a nightmare to browse and absolute garbage. It does at least have some user reviews but I ultimately don’t trust them too much and go with the above
- Thanks for the forum link I haven't seen this one before.
  
  Sure.
  I’m not sure what the rules are about recommendations of specific providers here as you’ve said but I can certainly write about my experiences with providers
  Emu streams is my current provider and they’re decent. The EPG is complete for us channels but not for some of the foreign stuff or for 4k. They have a pretty extensive vod library but the quality ranges, sometimes it’s 4k but sometimes it’s 480p, mostly 1080p, almost none of it has subtitles (but the channels do). I think they just grabbed shows as they came out and never updated them. Buffering is uncommon but does happen sometimes. I don’t watch sports but my partner does; the Super Bowl 4k stream had lots of buffering but the 1080 stream was perfect and basketball games work fine. Pricing was about 70cad for 7 months when I got it and they accepted paypal and crypto
  I also tried earl hickeys iptv, very similar experience but more issues with buffering and not as many channels. However pricing was extremely attractive, 35gbp for 12mo
  And not via that forum but another provider I found via a private tracker called media solutions that is similar to emu. Less issues with buffering but pricing and most responsive to support via telegram but priciest. I don’t remember the pricing offhand but like $140usd a year or so?

Personally I stick to relatively legal IPTV playlists, such as https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv
Straight and to the point, no bullshit.
The only place where I struggle is finding the perfect player. On PC I use iptvnator and on Android I use IPTV Pro. They work well enough, but I wish I had a universal app that could carry the configuration between devices.
- @mp3 @Yppm This - I use this with kodi (iptv simple and iptv manager addons) and m3u4u to cut down the list as it tends to overwhelm it over like 3k channels.
  
  Yea I've definitely browsed this list before with VLC. Should give it another shot with an actual IPTV app though for ease of use.
- What a great link, thanks for that.

So what exactly are the rules here about discussing various providers and sources. I'm not a reseller (have no intention of becoming one) but I do have useful info to share. Would be nice to have a dedicated lemmy community that is safe from the usual takedowns & spam.
- If y'all want to make a tier list that'd be fine with me. Just so long as it doesn't start looking like an advertisement :)

For EPG: Webgrabplus.
Annoying as heck to configure but at least it works.

Yep, money poisons everything.

My general take away from the random posts I read, is to find a seller on z2u. I currently have a sub to 8k iptv through a seller there 39$ for a year.... Works well. My favorite service so far has been from thetvsub.to but it is more expensive than I wanted to pay (150$ a year)
- Z2u?
  
  I think kickassduke42 and I have been using the same source of info. It's all thanks to mrrobvs at the other site and started with this post. Prior to that, I had always used various resellers at 2x-5x of what I'm paying now.
  I'm surprised that group hasn't been taken down yet. Maybe we could find a way to post reviews of the various services, something that doesn't clutter up the community and makes it easy to search for relevant info.

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