So you cut the cord, already did some reading around research on IPTV, and are now ready to make the jump into the actual act of buying/trying an IPTV service. A lot of guides/stickies out there do a fairly solid job of presenting the info you need in a general sense, but ultimately fall short on providing the key explanation details in some areas that make weeding between the endless options out there after-the-fact a lot easier. So in general...this guide is aimed at you. Think of it as a rather long worded shortcut to what you'd eventually find out and realize for yourself anyway after an endless amount of testing around with different providers while looking for "the one" (which in my case is pushing hard on triple digits at this point btw).

Now before getting into what you ideally want to be looking for it's important to both acknowledge and dispel a couple surrounding IPTV myths. Which ultimately just serve the purpose of leading people down a fruitless side track search for what they **want** to exist, and prolonging the process of picking the best provider for you that actually **does** exist.

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MYTH #1 - YOUR IPTV PROVIDER IS A DEPENDABLE CABLE ALTERNATIVE IN THE LONG TERM:

This myth is probably the biggest misconception that newbies and/or people looking to save every last penny in particular get hung up on. Regardless how professional that website may look, and/or the effort a provider may put into presenting themselves in a broader "we the company here" sense, it's important not to lose sight of what it is you are actually buying here. At it's core IPTV is a get your profit in the moment business, run in a back room type setting, and built on a model that is offering these providers themselves no guarantee of a tomorrow. As such, the behind-the-scenes infrastructure and decision making processes on when/where to reinvest the profits (if at all) it sees tend to reflect fairly heavily on that. Basically and if making any assumptions always assume profit in pocket is going to stay in pocket (AKA: they ain't running that heavily discounted sale which cuts their own long term profit potential throat with a surrounding goal to turn around and reinvest that money). Even if that means bleeding out some unhappy subs latter while simply choosing to ride out rough patches after a profitable run is achieved.

MYTH #2 - PICTURE QUALITY EQUAL TO CABLE:

In the grander scheme of things IPTV boils down to a game of trade offs, and the very first one you should expect going in is the sacrifice being made here. In short, and while the amount of quality channel feeds can/do certainly vary on a provider to provider basis...no single IPTV provider out there is offering the same across the board FHD channel lineup as your legit cable company or streaming service (such as Playstation Vue/Sling/DTVnow). Going back to myth #1 (this won't be the first time in this guide)...they simply aren't going to realistically have the invested infrastructure to reliably support that.

MYTH #3 - PROVIDER X IS BEST FOR SPORTS:

One of the more popular general questions always being asked, and which at best are always going to just generate flawed answers that almost never take into account the all important variance factor in play there. For starters, it's important to understand that there is no "static" and across the board factor going in to each of provider's specific sport coverage feeds. They are all usually sourced individually from different places, subject to differing levels of quality/stability, and as a whole have a tendency to see random switch outs for something completely different at any given time (which never comes with a guarantee of maintaining that same exact level of previous quality/stability either). For example, the last 3 providers I tested for a full month all switched their base NFL section feeds at least once during my sub period, some not for the better, and I've yet to ever come across a single provider that saw every one of their sport sections always out-preforming something else I already had.

On top of this, it is also important to not to get caught up in the hypothetical paper theory that everything is going to be ok when you need it to be. Especially on things that are going to see a high amount of server traffic. If you are the type that loves sitting down to watch your NFL Sunday coverage or UFC PPV every month, you really need to account for the outside-the-hypothetical and reality based variance a lot of that stuff can see. NFL coverage in particular can be notorious for running into bad buffering weeks, and that big UFC PPV is always going to subject to a monthly roll of the dice that is more or less unpredictable. Outside the "I've never had a problem!' claims being made by people who are either not watching enough of this stuff to actually notice, or who are just flat out lying, you won't find a single provider that isn't going to let you down hard in these areas at one point or another. Hence...the serious consideration that should always go into running at least 2 different providers. Trust me, I'm as cheap/frugal as they come with a lot of different things in my life, and *always* am looking to save an extra buck wherever I can. But that extreme tendency to be frugal goes out the window in a hurry those moments my Sunday football game/s starts having issues, or when that UFC PPV I've spent all month looking forward to watching live starts buffering heavily on all a provider's feeds right before the main event (I could not load up a backup provider a single time all month and in that moment - it's hands down worth the extra $5 to me and then some).

Lastly and as an extension of everything above, always be wary of any best claim that isn't actually telling you what it is they are specifically watching. If you are a strictly US based content consumer like myself for example, who doesn't watch a lick of soccer, that foreign soccer fanatic poster (who doesn't watch a lick of NFL football) from elsewhere who is essentially basing their entire recommendation on their own experience with something you'll never watch probably isn't the best one for *you*.

MYTH #4 - "PREMIUM" PROVIDERS AND ANY 99% UPTIME CLAIMS:

Two surface advertisement terms that can be completely misleading. Starting with the fact that for the most part and generally speaking, you are going to find a lot of these providers using the same sourced feeds (example: 4 the 5 providers I keep on my Perfect Player setup atm all use the same one for all the paid movie channels) and regardless of the price they are charging. In fact, price tag usually boils down more to a matter of individual profit margin goals, and something more centered around the market area of people it's aiming to pull it's subs from. For example, Youtube is generally full of a huge amount of people that don't spend any time debating/comparing IPTV on a forum like Reddit, and who as a result are are basically more open to spending $15 on a one line provider when they aren't being openly or directly compared to any of the better $5 providers. Hence, and to break it down in simple street terms - the typical going rate you can effectively charge for an IPTV service over there is higher.

Secondly, "uptime" claims are essentially just BS fluff to an advertisement line. From a user end perspective the more important factor there is the reliability %, or more specifically how often you aren't going to run into any potential playback issues when you click on something you want to watch. Which is obviously a much more complex % to calculate accurately, but don't kid yourself....even among the most reliable providers out there it's not going to be 99%. Or even 95% for that matter. Which is again why, and I know a lot of people out there looking to save every last penny hate hearing this (and why I'll keep making a point to repeat it), it's always going to be recommended by experienced IPTV users that you plan on buying/budgeting for/keeping at least two separate providers.

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So with the myths out of the way we'll now move on to better identifying the potential red flags to look out for, and which can help make that initial weeding out of the crap out there a lot less tedious. Especially if/when you aren't hobby shopping like I tend to do, and with at least a decent surrounding expectation that I more or less just threw some $$$ out the window in the name of testing different stuff ;)

THE HEAVILY DISCOUNTED YEARLY OR LIFETIME SUB:

See Myth #1 on why this is always a terrible idea to begin with. But never-the-less, that surrounding appeal to get cute in trying to "save" every dollar is always a strong one for many, and there is never a shortage of crappy IPTV providers out there trying to capitalize on this. It's always a safe bet that these deals are essentially being offered because it's the easiest way to rip you off, and the general rule of thumb that 'if it's too good to be true - it probably is" applies in spades here. IPTV providers exist to make $$$, not to be your friend or only take a quick $35 instead of the $60 they might otherwise accumulate in a fraction of that time with any internal projection of still even being around and thriving 6 months down the road.

My personal favorites on these are the ones running with a "LIMITED TIME OFFER ONLY!" add btw. Now stop and think this completely through for a hot minute. Even if you want to believe these are not a scam, if a provider is apparently so hard up for cash that they need to sell a couple heavily discounted lifetime subs at a measly $50 or whatever...what is that really telling you about the overall financial situation going on in the backround? (extra hint: providers without a financially stable base on the back end are always going to make for both the worst short and long term bets).

THE APPEAL TO EVERYBODY POSSIBLE SPAM ADD WITH NO PERSONALIZED TEXT:

I'm sure you've run across them. Copy and pasted in short format wherever they can find IPTV interest, and usually re-posted again after being taken down. "7000+ CHANNELS! 40 DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL GROUPS! 5000 VOD TITLES! INCLUDES ALL SPORTS! 24/7 UPTIME AND SUPPORT! BLAH BLAH BLAH". Yet other then an original poster not even bothering to list the price and that is simply replying "PM me" to everybody instead of engaging in any personalized conversation, you can't seem to dig up any actual information on them. No reviews, no other users with an account that wasn't made the previous day talking about or recommending them, ect.

Now your first instinct might be to think to yourself 'wow that is a a lot of stuff to be offering, and I've been looking for a good US based provider that also offers some polish channels for a while now. Maybe this will be a hidden gem!". You need to ignore that first instinct though, because the reality there usually amounts to the easiest crap filter warning of them all. Unless of course you are specifically looking for a provider that basically just throws together the cheapest channel feeds possible they can find, with no real emphasis placed on anything beyond the initial advertisement sell. Much less one placed on maintained reliability. Fun fact - No provider that has accomplished any notable level of popularity on reddit, while I've been posting here at least, got their push start from these type of mindless spam ads. Of the couple hidden gems I have hit on, none were just random buys on my behalf without a little finger pointing in that direction from somebody I trusted either. I'm genuinely like 0-30 and down a couple hundred bucks on random shots in the dark lol.

TOO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE OFFERING TO SELL THE SAME SUBS:

Another fun fact - Outside a virgin public message board like the one I'm posting this on now, most feedback places you'll find see a heavy population of people with an underlying interest in reselling these IPTV services for profit. As such, the potential overall "popularity" any individual one can achieve isn't going to be equal, and will largely be dependent on the profit margin potential being offered to resellers behind it. So basically, being more popularity doesn't always translate into a default assumption that it's going to be better. For example, Provider One (we'll use N24 which I just reviewed btw) may be a great value on the pure consumer end at $6/per account, but only offer a bulk account sale rate that comes out to $5/per for resellers (a small difference which then also has to account for website/transaction fees, the potential absorption of charge backs from unhappy customers, ect). Provider Two isn't as reliable/stable and hence might not of made my cut on providers I choose to sit down with for an entire month of testing, but the difference between their individual consumer offered rate and the one being offered to resellers in bulk might be $5. Guess which one is going to end up seeing a lot more reseller sales, and as a result gross a higher total amount of hype/recommendations? ;)

On top of this, and we'll just go ahead and label this "The Vader Streams rule" - more people is generally never a better thing once a provider branches out from it's initial growing stage. Again, check your wishful thinking assumptions of what ideally **should** happen on the provider end at the door and go back and re-read Myth #1. Or more specifically, don't lose sight of the basic math principle going into all this. These pirated servers trying to turn an expiration date which could always be tomorrow profit, and that don't have big corporation $$ behind them, are realistically only going to be able to comfortably accommodate X amount of people before running into server load issues. The more outlets you have dumping in subs and/or an endless stream of free trials towards that limit, the faster things are potentially going to go to buffering crap.

NO DISCORD OR TELEGRAM OR WHATEVER ELSE CHAT ROOM:

Granted there are some exceptions to this, specifically among the long running and super well known providers already running a couple 100k subs. But for newer or up and coming providers, this is pretty standard customer service stuff to expect nowadays. It can also be a great go-to way, or at least was before some started (understandably) restricting access to paying members only, to really get a legit pre-purchase feel of what a provider is all about. If able my advice is to always hop in one of these chats first thing, and at least make the effort to read a couple days back. Paying extra attention to how active the chat is, how often are the people asking for help receiving some, and how much overall complaining about the service is going on.

A HEAVY EMPHASIS SELL PLACED ON THE VOD FEATURE:

Saved the best for last, and since I already know this is going to be highly controversial for many. I do get it though, and realize a lot of people out there love the added all-in-one benefit of having their VOD bundled in. But again and to remind people that IPTV tends to boil down to a game of trade offs, it's important to realize though that such a benefit comes at a cost. Namely that it's shared existence tends to leech away from your provider's servers and the one area you should care most about paying out on IPTV to begin with....Live TV stability. In fact, nowadays you can pretty much even conclude that the only services out there completely ignoring the long term legal concerns and pushing hard on some "MASSIVE VOD COLLECTION!!!" sell aspect anymore are only doing so to essentially compensate for the fact that their live tv stream stability (not to mention the underlying investment on their end going in to it) isn't measuring up to some of the better ones to be found out there.

Bottom line - None of the providers I've tested and would recommend as having one of the best and most stable live TV stream experiences possible offer a notably huge or extensive VOD selection, if it's even being offered at all. Which in essence leaves you with a one or the other priority choice to be made there...you don't get an option to have the best of both worlds.

***(additional red flag note - a lot of people would choose to include the lack of a free trial here, and which while always nice to see...honestly couldn't be further from the actual truth. The reality there is that for the most part and outside brand new providers who essentially are forced into begging for more subs, free trials are essentially a waste of time/effort on the provider end. As in maybe on average 1-2 out of every 100 lead to an actual sale, then sees most of the rest just create a fresh email address and re-apply to leech another freebie. Where as even a $1 leech filter price on the trial tends to vastly limit the amount of inquired trial requests, but while drastically increasing the actual buy rate % that results out of them. This approach also tends to cater more on the flip side to, you know...the people already paying out in full on the service and who don't see any potential benefit in having a bunch of constant leechers eating up the finite amount of server capacity)***

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Myths and potential red flags to look out for aside, we'll now move on to the fairly straight forward basics. Which starts with an understanding that for the most part...any provider worth a dang is essentially offering you the same exact thing as the next one. More obscure channel offerings and international feeds (if any) can vary of course, but it is all largely built on the same platform sell regardless of cost, and especially if you are primarily after US content. All the popular channels and then some will be present, all the major sports and PPVs will be be covered, ect ect. In short and assuming you are already following the guidelines laid out above, you don't have a waste any time asking whether a provider has ESPN or Fox Sports, the NFL package, Soccer game coverage, or plans to carry the next UFC PPV. To quote an old Ragu spaghetti sauce commercial - it's in there.

So with that all that said, I **strongly** recommend starting your search in the $5/month price range, and as already noted above with a preferable aim that you'll ultimately be shopping for two different providers. From the "I just want the basics" point of view, and given all the emerging quality options that already exist in this price bracket, there is really no legitimate reason outside your own (usually misguided) wishful thinking fantasies to stretch beyond that. Depending on your own individual experience preferences, there are exceptions to this rule where paying out more can be beneficial though. Which I personally like to summarize up as what additional feature offerings are unique enough to be classified as "premium", and hence potentially worth the extra cost:

RELIABLE TV CATCHUP:

TV catchup is a continuous recording log of everything airing on the specific channel it's being offered on, and spanning back X amount of days before gradually being over-written by the new stuff (time period depending on the provider, and where longer logs as I'm about to explain aren't always the most ideal btw). I included the reliable tag there because while only a small % of providers offer it nowadays, even fewer tend to actually get it right. Basically due to the fact that it can generally be a tricky pita to both add and successfully maintain on the provider end, and therefore ultimately regulated to something that ends up being viewed more as window dressing for their features advertisement then something that actually sees a lot of consistent maintenance effort.

When it is done right it can be a fairly invaluable tool in your streaming arsenal though, especially for adequately covering your playback area needs in a timely manner when the otherwise fantastic free VOD options like Kodi/APK's don't. For example and in my own experiences: CBS soap operas, same night WWE PPVs, UFC/Bellator shows airing on FS1/Paramount, ect.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS:

Being able to watch your provider on one then more device at a time is obviously a biggie, and usually the #1 feature people rightfully look for in any value based offering. That said, it's also **extremely important** to be mindful here that the surrounding concern within Myth #1 and the X amount of server capacity red flag math above still can apply in spades here. Especially if/when those extra connections are not IP locked, and can therefore be shared/abused among multiple people. It's really really easy for servers offering this, which on the provider end is aimed at selling the most amount of subs in the least amount of time (with not a lot of caution thinking usually going towards it's down the road future), to start hitting problem inducing server capacity levels in comparatively quick order.

A HEALTHY AMOUNT OF BACKUP CHANNEL FEEDS:

This goes double for the cheap people out there who are still going to ignore the advice I laid out twice already on buying at least 2 separate providers. This also includes the option for SD alternatives as well. Don't underestimate the potential value in having backup options you can immediately switch to once outside of ideal "everything is running smooth" paper theory, and especially when it comes to the day in and day out reality of running with IPTV as your only access to what you are sitting down to watch live

AN APK THAT HAS A BETTER PROGRAM GUIDE THEN WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS OFFERING:

This in particular applies to you android box/stick users out there. Coming in right after that wishful thinking expectation of a complete FHD channel lineup is the reality sacrifice you have to expect on the program guide aspect. With the exception of one established APK out there and another one that's still a stability work-in-progress, pretty much every single provider is offering the same exact player options to run your your service on. All of which have their own pros and cons, and none of which include anything even remotely resembling that hassle free channel surfing experience you found in cable TV. At best the guides are clunky while still retaining a more 80's vibe generic type feel. At worst they aren't even worth the hassle, or just flat out non-existent.

No fail shopping rule of thumb here btw - Don't spend more then $10/mo for 1 connection or $15 total (regardless of the offered connection total they force bundle in) on anything that is just defaulting to using Smarters as their APK. If it's running Smarters as it's base APK (instead of you know...being "premium" and actually developing their own), and it isn't offering a less aggressive upfront $10 or less buy in plan option to start with...it is extremely likely you buying what essentially amounts to an inferior IPTV product and overpaying in comparison to what else one can find out there. Period.

50-60 fps CHANNEL FEEDS:

As an IPTV whole most of the reliable feeds you find are going to be 30fps, which is generally due to surrounding costs, bandwidth concerns, and a need to cater more the consumer masses who generally don't mix well with the increased probability that their unknowingly weakened wifi internet connection is going to lead to buffering. None of which is to say this should be viewed as some "more is always better" make or break factor either, or that those 30 fps can't be of high picture quality mind you. In fact in a lot instances, such as my TV shows/movies or something like a UFC PPV, I honestly could care less about FPS and half the time couldn't even pick them out on sight alone anyway (which in the case of UFC PPVs routinely is never the best quality one to begin with imo/btw). That said and for other stuff like my NFL football games...I do find it to be a nice extra have, and indeed find myself making that effort to search out.

**(additional extra note - While I won't go as far as to label it a premium feature, a lot can be said about having a large extra lineup of local channel feeds for ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX. Especially when it comes to keeping you covered for something like NFL football games, and which can be a day saver when as noted earlier your direct NFL package feed runs into that bad week of buffering. The locals are usually always carrying those games)***

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Lastly but certainly not least, I'm going to close this guide out with one last bit of advice. Something routinely ignored, and which honestly is most common pitfall of them all that people find themselves falling into. Not to mention the #1 gateway to making a bad decision - DON'T GO INTO THIS TRYING TO SAVE EVERY LAST DOLLAR ON DAY ONE!Seriously, I can't stress this enough. At minimum your first 2 months should be dedicated to trying and testing different things. Because regardless how much total info I can cram into a guide, or how many people line up to tell you what your own best choice will be.... **nothing** trumps that extended period of first hand trial and error. Especially considering all the potential variance factors that can come into play, and where something that is great for me might not be great for you for whatever random reason (location, primary channel interests in things I never watch or tested, ect). Don't be overly cheap and hesitant to pay out a measly $1 trial cost on something of potential interest that requires one, and don't get lazy in that approach with the first decent thing that comes along either. In fact and whatever you do decide to buy, go in to that purchase both completely open and all but expecting to buy something different the following month. Even if you pick well that first try. If those latter choices end up busting out, you'll always have the option to go back and re-spend that measly $5 or whatever again on whatever provider you liked best before.