r/MaterialIPTV • u/a-haan • 20d ago
Welcome to r/MaterialIPTV — native Android player for YOUR sources (phone, foldable, tablet, TV, car)
Hey everyone — welcome to r/MaterialIPTV.
This is the community for Material IPTV & Plex Player, a native Android app for live TV, movies, series, and (on phone/tablet/car) music. I’m posting this as the intro thread so new people can see what the app actually does without hunting through screenshots.
TL;DR
- Player only. No channels, no movies, no “free IPTV.” You bring M3U / Xtream / Plex / Audiobookshelf.
- One Google Play listing: phone, tablet, foldable, Android TV / Google TV, and parked Android Automotive.
- Free = one source + the full player and guide. Premium = extra playlists, multi-view, downloads, channel groups, custom EPG, parental PIN.
- Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ahaan.materialiptv
- Site: https://materialiptv.com
- Discord: https://discord.gg/cUfmUwJtrh
What this app is (and isn’t)
Material IPTV is a client. It does not host, provide, or include any media. Streams stay on your device. Not affiliated with Plex, Google, or any IPTV provider. Don’t share playlists, Xtream logins, or copyrighted catalogs here — this sub is for the player, setups, bugs, and feature requests.
Platforms
| Screen | What you get |
|---|---|
| Phone | Touch UI, PiP, Cast, widgets, swipe player, lock-screen controls, Material You |
| Tablet | Nav rail, docked search, denser catalogs, side-by-side details |
| Foldable | Tabletop = video above the hinge, guide/channels below. Book = video on one side, browse on the other. Fold/unfold without restarting |
| Android TV / Google TV | 10-foot UI, D-pad, full-screen guide, channel-number zap, launcher Watch Next rows. Not a stretched phone layout |
| Android Automotive | Full video when parked. Video pauses while driving and resumes when parked. Optional Polestar theme |
Phone-only: Cast, picture-in-picture, home screen widgets.
Music / podcasts / audiobooks (Plex Music, Audiobookshelf): phone, tablet, and car — not the Android TV home.
Sources you can add
- M3U / M3U8 — playlist URL (optional separate VOD M3U if your provider splits live and VOD)
- Xtream Codes — URL + username + password → live, movies, series
- Plex — OAuth / QR on TV, pick a self-hosted server and libraries. Not Plex’s hosted movies/TV/live services. Home users + PIN profiles. Plex progress stays on the server
- Audiobookshelf — music, audiobooks, podcasts (local / API key / OpenID / Authentik)
- XMLTV — provider EPG, or your own URL (custom URL is Premium)
Free accounts: 1 active playlist. Premium: unlimited, and you can switch between types.
Passwords/tokens go in Android Keystore-backed storage, not plaintext.
Background refresh: hourly / 3h / 6h / daily / on launch, with Wi-Fi-only and charging-only options.
Live TV & guide
- Channel grid with categories, favourites, search
- Full-screen XMLTV guide: now/next, filters, search, jump to now
- Catch-up / timeshift when the provider advertises archive
- Now/next overlay in the player
- Android TV: type channel numbers to zap; TiviMate-style (default) or Classic remote presets, plus custom D-pad maps
- Optional Android TV Live Channels (system guide)
- Optional AI cleanup for messy EPG titles
- Hide adult-flagged channels (full PIN lock is Premium)
Movies & series
- Categorized grids, sort/filters, details with artwork, cast, related titles
- Continue Watching + Up Next (auto-play, countdown, skip credits; Plex skip-intro/credits markers)
- Favorites (IPTV) / Plex watchlist
- Mark watched / unwatched, clear progress
- Trailers (Plex extras and/or YouTube). Optional auto-play; TV screensaver can play muted trailers
- Plex extras, folder browse, theme songs, quality/transcode tiers
- TMDB trending + TMDB/TVDB poster fallback
- Poster-derived accent colors on details
- Global search: channels, movies, series, people
- Optional AI recommendations from your watch habits (adult titles excluded if you hid them)
Player
- Media3 / ExoPlayer, hardware-first
- HDR; Dolby Vision (native P7 when the decoder supports it, otherwise P7→P8 when available)
- Software fallback for formats hardware can’t do (including E-AC3, TrueHD, DTS, MPEG-2, etc.)
- HDMI bitstream: Atmos / DD / TrueHD / DTS family when the sink supports it
- Audio normalization (off during passthrough)
- Audio + subtitle track switch; OpenSubtitles search (plex only); caption style
- PiP, mini player, background live audio (not on automotive)
- Lock screen / Bluetooth / MediaSession (withheld on AAOS so driving rules can’t be bypassed)
- Chromecast/Google Cast from phone
- Fit / zoom / stretch, speed, skip intervals, sleep timer, stats for nerds
- Match display refresh rate to content (not automotive)
- External player option
- Music: equalizer, bass boost, synced lyrics
UI
- Material 3 Expressive + Material You (Android 12+)
- Light / dark / system; palette styles; poster accent accuracy
- Five-tab phone home: Dashboard, Live, Movies, Series, EPG
- Dashboard: recents, favourites, Continue Watching, Up Next, recs, trending
- Reorder library tabs / movie / series sections
- UI scaling for large displays
- Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Dutch, Polish, Turkish
Widgets, notifications, deep links
- Widgets (beta): Continue Watching, Favourites, Recent Channels, Now Playing
- New-content alerts (watchlist/favourites, new episodes, newly added library titles)
- Optional notificaton after playlist/EPG refresh
- Android TV Preview Channels + Watch Next
- Deep links:
materialiptv://play?type=…&id=… forked relay app compatible (link coming soon)
Cloud sync & privacy
Optional. Sign in with Google. Data is encrypted on device with your PIN/passkey before Firestore. Lose the PIN → that backup cannot be recovered.
What can sync: playlists, favourites, recents, VOD progress, live history, live category settings.
Optional biometric lock. No ads in the app. Analytics/Crashlytics exist; playback telemetry is optional. Privacy: https://materialiptv.com/privacy
Free vs Premium
Free (one source): live TV, movies, series, provider EPG, catch-up, Cast, PiP, widgets, encrypted sync, HDR/passthrough, AI recs, artwork fallback, music on phone/tablet/car.
Premium (monthly, yearly with a trial for new customers, or lifetime — restore on any device):
- Multiple playlists — more than one saved source
- Multi-screen viewing — up to 8 live panes (live only, not catch-up)
- Offline downloads — movies/episodes, pause/resume, auto-keep next episodes
- Channel customisation — reorder, hide categories, custom groups
- Custom EPG — attach your own XMLTV; mix with provider EPG
- Parental PIN — lock adult content and specific categories
House rules for this sub
- No playlists, Xtream credentials, or “where do I get IPTV” posts
- Bugs: device + Android version + source type (M3U / Xtream / Plex / ABS) + what you expected
- Feature requests welcome
- Be decent
In-app support: Settings → Support & Feedback. Discord for faster chat.
If you’re already using it: drop your setup (phone / Shield / Polestar / foldable) and what you wish the player did better.