Back in January, M3U4U did some huge site-wide purge and wiped out all of my playlists for "inactivity." The the next day they sent a message they'd "banned my IP" too, for flooding their service... when I wasn't using it at all. And I'd donated a few times, too!
And there was no "7 day notice," either. I don't trust that service anymore.
I’ve totally moved to a different service. M3u4u server goes down quite frequently where you can’t access your list. The mod on Discord is a complete ass, and I feel like any time a question is asked, he (or she) gets pissy about it. Donated money to them last year, but never again.
Any suggested alternatives are welcomed.
While I’ve suggested it for years, after using it for just an hour, it’s impossible to test with. Their request limits are completely insane. Especially if they’re banning IPs.
Thanks.
I used to use https://epg.best/ for a long time. They are a pay $ service. I found them great for cough m3u playlist I had found.
I no longer use them as I got tired of the unreliability of cough online m3us.
I always found m3u4u to complicated and unreliable. And found it worth it to pay a fee.
I've had good success with IPTVEditor. There's a small yearly fee, but I've found it to be worth the money and much more reliable than M3u4u.
I saw a post on Reddit today complaining about the same.
Most of the comments I saw from whoever manages the m3u4u service have been unpleasant. I’m very glad to be learning about alternatives.
I tried forking xTeVe last year because it has this odd bug that duplicates everything randomly when editing lineups. And it needs some changes to output all of the extra metadata that Channels consumes. My go sucks worse than my ts but I'm happy to try again and see if I can get something self-hosted going.
But there is an issue with Channels hammering away when it doesn't get a valid response. I raised the issue at Custom Channel Never Refresh still refreshes but I don't think there was any response to it. it's a guaranteed IP ban when it happens.
And yes, the M3U4U moderation staff has some major 'chip on shoulder' issues.
I’ve noticed “403 Forbidden” errors in the logs. I think I might look elsewhere too
Tried IPTVeditor on a three day and it's good once you get your head around how it works. Definitely better EPG data. 15€/YEAR so more expensive than M3U4U.
Strangely M3U4U have unblocked my IP since posting here yesterday....
I think those blocks are system generated automatically. Once you no longer flood their system for a period of time, it automatically UN-blocks.
There’s definitely a little more of a learning curve with IPTVEditor, but it’s more stable and has friendlier customer support than M3u4u.
Does Channels update the playlist everytime its started up , ie. on a tivo stream 4k, there is no android "recents" so you have to force close the apk file. I have 10 playlists on M3u4u, and have them set to update 1 hour a part from each other throughout the day? Should they all be set at the same time maybe? I have recieved an IP ban at this time for flooding. I have the playlists set to update"daily" in Channels? What can I do to prevent IP blocks in this case from m3u4u . or is it just a waste for the $2 bucks that I donated. I have to break the playlists up because channels supports 500 basically per playlist , correct? Currently with the IP ban i can only load from file , the url pulls zero channels. Surely there is a way to prevent channels from updating on launch of the server , running as a docker?
Don't let them update more than every 3 hours max, and you shouldn't get banned. Though it likely depends on just how many channels you have in each playlist. The larger the list, the less frequently you might be able to set the updates.
For anyone who is still looking for an alternative and was using xTeve, Threadfin is a fork of xTeve and has added many new features, bug fixes and is still being developed.
Threadfin/Threadfin: an M3U proxy for Plex/Jellyfin/Emby based on xTeVe (github.com)
Look at your logs, see if you have repeated lines showing Channels trying to load the m3u's every minute or so.
Edit: There's no real need to update every hour though, the m3u shouldn't change that often. EPG's are a bit different though. And I have found that a failed m3u update will set the number of channels to 0 instead of keeping the existing channels until there is a successful update. I've brought this up but it doesn't seem to be acknowledged.
I think breaking up the list was a bad idea , I am gonna let tivimate handle those , and maybe just go through the effort to make one or two, vs. 10 . Its too taking on m3u4u or just load them manually from local path every once in a while. There is no way to stop channels from updating. and you are right, it replaces the number previously with 0 if its blocked or timed out.
Good lookin out. Using Threadfin to “cleanse” my streams by using the 8MB buffer + disabling tuner sharing in Channels to utilize the larger (more stable?) buffer from Threadfin seems to have eradicated all of my issues related to dropped connections or 404. Granted, you need to make sure your config is sound but once that’s done. It’s rock solid.
Do you just create a global override for tuner sharing?
