What is an IPTV box, and do you need one?

How does an IPTV box work?

An IPTV box works like a small computer built for the living room: it gets the stream from the internet, runs the player app and sends the picture to your TV through an HDMI cable.

1. It connects to the internet by Wi-Fi or, on most boxes, an Ethernet cable to the router.
2. It runs an IPTV player app, such as TiviMate or a Smarters app, installed from the box's app store.
3. You sign in with the login from your IPTV provider: a username, password and server URL, an M3U link, or a portal address on MAG boxes.
4. A video chip decodes the stream, including 4K in the H.265 format on newer models, so the picture plays smoothly without the box working hard.
5. You change channels with the remote, just like with a cable box.

The box never "contains" TV. If the subscription ends or the internet goes down, the box still turns on, but the channels stop. For the bigger picture, see how IPTV works from server to screen.

What types of IPTV boxes are there?

There are five main kinds, and the right one depends on the apps you want and the TV you have.

Our setup guides cover the most common ones: the Fire TV Stick, Android TV and Google TV boxes and MAG and Formuler boxes. If you are about to buy, we compare them in the best device for IPTV in Canada.

Do you need an IPTV box to watch IPTV?

No. You need a device that can run an IPTV app, and you may already own one.

• Samsung and LG Smart TVs have IPTV players in their own app stores, such as IBO Player, Smart IPTV and Set IPTV. Most charge a small fee per TV after a trial, and the list changes by model year.
• TVs with Google TV built in, such as recent Sony models and some TCL and Hisense models, already have Google Play, so they work like a box.
• Phones, tablets and computers run IPTV apps too, which is handy in a bedroom or on the road.

A box or stick is still worth it in a few cases: your Smart TV is a few years old and slow, its store has no IPTV player you like, you want the cable-style guide of an app like TiviMate, or you want to plug the TV into the router with a cable. More on that in watching IPTV on a Smart TV without a box.

Is a Roku an IPTV box?

Not really. A Roku is a streaming player that installs apps from the Roku Channel Store only, so you cannot add other IPTV apps the way you can on an Android device.

The store does list some third-party IPTV players that accept an M3U link, many with look-alike names, trials and activation fees. They work for some people, but the choice is small and the TV guides are basic. If you own a Roku and want a smoother IPTV setup, a Fire TV Stick 4K Plus or a Google TV device on the same TV is usually the easier path. Read more in can you get IPTV on a Roku.

What about "fully loaded" IPTV boxes?

Be careful with them. A box sold with channels "already inside" is really an ordinary box plus a subscription from a seller you may know little about.

• The channels depend on the seller's service. If it stops, the box goes quiet.
• You usually have to go back to the same seller to "recharge" it each year.
• The software is often locked or out of date, which makes it hard to change apps or providers.
• Canadian courts have ordered sellers of preloaded boxes to stop, and in one case to pay more than $29 million in damages. We sum up those cases in Is IPTV legal in Canada?

The simple rule: buy the device from a regular store and choose the service separately. IPTV Nord does not sell boxes. You use your own TV, stick or phone, and our login works in common apps on all of them.