M3U4U public service announcement

[mnwxman132]

For those using the M3U4U for playlist management and custom channels.

As of just a few days ago, M3U4U made some changes that now require you to have a dropbox account and do some authentication with dropbox in order to use their free service.

I had one custom channel that was using a URL based playlist that I was managing there. I was using a separate link for the EPG data for this custom channel.

The folks at M3U4U inserted a tag in the M3U at their site to “Visit M3U4U.com”. The stream in my custom channel still worked, but my EPG that I was using for that channel - Weekly Game Previews appeared to get hosed in the channels guide.

I fixed my use case by hard coding my one channel and bypassing M3U4U..

However, if anyone is using a huge playlist and linking that back into a custom channels source, you might want to update your M3U4U account to adhere to their dropbox requirement.

[babsonnexus]

I'll give myself a plug. If you're looking for a simple and easy self-hosted playlist management solution with a focus on integration into Channels, check out:

BETA: Playlist Manager for Channels (SLM Add-on)

There are a lot of fantastic methods for integrating custom stations into Channels DVR, especially from FAST and similar providers like Pluto, Plex, Tubi, Samsung TV+, ESPN+, NFL+, and plenty more! The problem is, they require a fair bit of maintenance. For instance, there are whole threads and tools dedicated just to keeping track of which stations have been added and removed. And that doesn't even get into the redundancy of when each of these services have the same stations, but you have to de…

[rpaulmerrell]

The playlist manager part of Stream Link manager is great.
The application is a great tool for the Channels user.

[Fofer]

Back when I tried to use m3u4u, which I paid a subscription for, I had nothing but problems, and my use case was pretty simple. Seems like the developer had a bad attitude and was always complaining, and changing things, and never explained why my account would only work intermittently. It was one of the most annoying experiences I’ve l had with any software or service, and I’ve used a lot of them! The whole interface felt like a trash heap to me. Not worth the aggravation.

I am now using the Playlist Manager function built into Stream Link Manager to consolidate, curate and clean up my 5 FAST sources, and am much, much happier with the setup. It actually works!

[spud]

I just download the m3u, rename it to a text file, and copy and paste the channels I want and upload that to channels. I only have 25 or so that I watch consistently, so this works perfectly 95% of the time. I have not found a great epg yet. They all seem to only load the programs for the next 6 hours or so.

[rpaulmerrell]

I tried using the m3u4u service and really never saw any advantage.
I love Stream Link Manager with the Playlist manager ad on.

[LazarusLong]

Just to add to this, it appears that the auto-sync function in M3U4U doesn't currently work. I got my sources adjusted to use the new Dropbox requirements and synced once - then updated the URL in Channels without issue. However, it doesn't appear to be auto-syncing daily in M3U4U - confirmed in their Discord channel.

[Jean0987654321]

Yeah...it had its use for me with the underground IPTV stuff but after I got off that train, I'm content with using Sling, FAST stuff with PLM and Olivetin on hand to curb out the herd of the thousands and thousands of channels...which I got it down to about 100 (+200 Eplus channels).

They do too much for no reason over there.

[mnwxman132]

Wow. Thanks for reporting back.