Plex IPTV Guide 2023: How to Watch IPTV on Plex

Plex is a popular media streaming tool that allows you to access live TV channels and other types of media content. It is one of the best players to stream all IPTV content using the M3U playlist URL. Apart from the player’s function, Plex offers more than 200 live TV channels and hundreds of on-demand content.

If you need to know how to do this process on Plex, then read the complete article below. In this article, we have explained all the possible ways to install and access IPTV on Plex.

Key Specs

• Supported Playlist Formats: M3U file format and XMLTV
• EPG support: Yes
• External Players: Yes
• Compatible Devices: Android, Firestick, Windows & Mac PC, and Smart TV
• Chromecast Support: Yes
• AirPlay Support: No

Plex Pass Subscription – Pricing

• Monthly – $4.99
• Yearly – $39.99
• Lifetime – $119.99

Is Plex IPTV Legal?

Yes, Plex IPTV is legal to use.

IPTV Players are completely legal and safe to use as they don’t provide any IPTV content to stream. It works as a medium to play the source media, such as the content from IPTV providers. However, when IPTV players are used for IPTV streaming, there are higher possibilities for the user to watch unverified IPTV services and their offerings resulting in copyright infringement and other legal issues. However, relying on a VPN keeps you away from such legal issues. Therefore, we recommend using the best VPNs for streaming IPTV in the market with rich features and stable connectivity, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN, while using IPTV Player. 

Supported Devices of Plex IPTV

How to Install and Stream IPTV on Plex

It involves several steps with some codes for installing IPTV on Plex. You need to install TellyTv or xTeVe, which is a proxy that is required to access IPTV service on Plex, Kodi, Jellyfin, and media server-related tools. So let’s see how to do it.

Pre-Requisites

• Plex Media Server
• Trusted IPTV account
• M3U Playlist file or URL
• XML-TV EPG source (optional)
• XML TV Guide (optional)

Install TellyTv

For xTeVe guide, visit the support page to install and access IPTV.

[1] Download and install Docker on Windows PC

[2] Set up TellyTv with the Docker Compose snippet using Docker.

# Telly Tv- IPTV proxy for Plex
  tellytv:
    image: tellytv/telly:dev-ffmpeg
    container_name: tellytv
    hostname: tellytv
    ports:
      - "1902:1900/udp" # Plex uses 1900
    environment:
      - TZ=${TZ}
    network_mode: host
    volumes:
      - ${USERDIR}/docker/telly/telly.config.toml:/etc/telly/telly.config.toml
    restart: unless-stopped

[3] Once the setup is done, save the docker file to proceed further.

[4] Create a TellyTv file telly.config.toml or make use of it from Github.

[5] Under telly.config.toml, move on to  ${USERDIR}/docker/telly/ and use the command as follows

curl -fLO https://github.com/tellytv/telly/wiki/files/examples/telly.config.toml

[6] Also, edit the telly.config.toml file with the required details as follows.

• Streams – The number of streams that the IPTV provider allows.
• Base-Address – Enter the IP address of the PC running TellyTv, replacing the 0.0.0.0.
• Name – Any name of your choice.
• Provider – Use a Custom provider unless you have some built-in provider support.
• M3U – M3U playlist URL of IPTV provider.
• EPG – Program guide from your IPTV provider.
• Filter – Apply filters to 480 channels, which is the maximum Plex filter limit.

After changing your code, it should look similar to this (Example)

########################################################################
[Discovery]                                    # most likely you won't need to change anything here
  Device-Auth = "telly123"                     # These settings are all related to how telly identifies
  Device-ID = "12345678"                       # itself to Plex.
  Device-UUID = ""
  Device-Firmware-Name = "Desktoppc"
  Device-Firmware-Version = "20180732"
  Device-Friendly-Name = "tellytv"
  Device-Manufacturer = "Intel"
  Device-Model-Number = "HDTV-54"
  SSDP = true

# THIS SECTION IS REQUIRED ########################################################################
[IPTV]
  Streams = 1               
  Starting-Channel = 100  
  XMLTV-Channels = true     
  FFMpeg = true             

# THIS SECTION IS REQUIRED ########################################################################
[Log]
  Level = "info"            
  Requests = true           

# THIS SECTION IS REQUIRED ########################################################################
[Web]
  Base-Address = "192.168.1.87:6077"   
  Listen-Address = "1.1.1.1:6077" 

[[Source]]
  Name = "IPTVplayers"             
  Provider = "Custom"       
  M3U = "Your IPTV provider M3U"  
  EPG = "IPTV provider EPG"
  Filter = "CBS Network"
  FilterKey = "group-title" 
  FilterRaw = false         
  Sort = "group-title"      
# END TELLY CONFIG  ###############################################################################

[7] Now, start TellyTv container to run the process.

[8] As a result, you will get about 73 channels from your filters in the logs.

[9] That’s it. Now, you have installed and configured TellyTv on your PC.

Configure IPTV on Plex

[10] Click on Live TV & DVR from the left tab of the Plex media player.

[11] Choose Setup Plex DVR from the screen.

[12] In the DVR setup, enter the LAN IP address and port ID of the machine running TellyTv (in most cases, the tuner will be detected automatically).

Example: 192.168.1.90:6077 in which 192.168.1.90 is the LAN IP address (found on LAN) and 6077 is the port ID of TellyTv (for xTeVe use 34400 as port ID).

[13] Click on Continue and pick up the channel filtered in your IPTV (Telly Tv – 73 channels & xTeVe – 20 channels).

[14] Tap on Next to enter the Language, XMLTV guide, and Guide title.

Note: In XMLTV Guide, enter http://LAN-IP:6077/epg.xml for Telly Tv or http://LAN-IP:34400/xmltv/xteve.xml for xTeVe.

[15] Click Continue for the available channel list and again click on Continue.

[16] Tap on Continue again and wait until your latest EPG data updates completely.

[17] Now, Plex has been configured with IPTV successfully.

Streaming on Plex

[18] Click on View Guide after EPG gets updated and start watching it on your Plex device.

[19] Restart Plex if you don’t find any channel guides.

[20] Click on Live TV & DVR from the left panel to view the channel guides.

[21] Finally, you can stream IPTV on Plex media player.

Watch IPTV on Plex through Plex Free Live TV Section

In the Live TV & DVR Section of Plex, you can stream more than 80 free channels, and to access premium channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, CW, PBS, etc., you need to avail a Plex Pass subscription in addition to some premium features.

To watch Plex TV content

[1] From your browser, go to https://app.plex.tv/desktop (Plex TV site), or you can use the Plex Media Player app.

[2] Now, you can stream all the free channels on Plex IPTV.

For Premium channels, you need to log in with a Plex pass subscribed account.

IPTV Player using M3U playlist for Plex

[1] Download and install Cigaras IPTV on Plex by following the support site instructions.

[2] Launch Cigaras IPTV and choose Channels from the online content section.

[3] Navigate to the IPTV add-on tab and hover the cursor over the IPTV tab.

[4] Click on the Settings (gear) icon that appears to view playlist settings.

[5] Enter or paste the M3U URL and XMLTV file in the View playlist Settings.

[6] Click on Save to update the playlist settings.

[7] Then, click on the IPTV plugin to open and view the list of TV under the playlist.

[8] Now, you can stream all content offered by your IPTV provider.

Preloaded IPTV from cCloud TV

[1] From the official site, download and install the cCloud TV by following the instructions.

[2] In the cCloud TV, click on the Channels tab from the home screen.

[3] Click on List view or Page view to see the available channels on cCloud TV.

Note: List view might take more time to load; use Page view for faster loading.

[4] Now watch all the available content by selecting it.

You can also add M3U URL in cCloud TV to stream your IPTV content.

Note: M3U URL on cCloud TV may cause crashing and lagging of Plex.

Alternatives

You can try the media players mentioned here as alternatives to the Plex IPTV and access the playlist files offered by different IPTV service providers.

Jellyfin

Jellyfin is the best alternative to Plex IPTV to stream media content from local files and IPTV services. It is a cloud storage platform that manages and streams IPTV media content. You can add the M3U file of various IPTV providers to load and stream your favorite content on this platform. It is completely free to use, so you can choose Jellyfin if you’re looking for a free alternative to Plex with premium features.

Emby

Emby IPTV Plugin is yet another tool that allows users to store and access media files from their IPTV service providers. It handles multiple streaming on different platforms with the help of a client-server model. Apart from the IPTV playlist, It can also stream local media files without buffering and lagging issues.

Kodi

Kodi is yet another free and open-source media player to access media content. You can install it on your streaming devices directly from the respective app stores. Additionally, it has tons of add-ons such as The Crew, SmoothStreams IPTV, Playlist Loader, and more to get the best streaming experience. Furthermore, it supports streaming media content in higher video resolution.