IPTV on iPhone and iPad: getting set up

Your first playlist

The first time Kanema opens, it asks for a playlist. Pick the kind your provider gave you:

• An M3U or M3U8 link, which brings live channels.
• An Xtream Codes login (server, username and password), which brings live channels, your provider’s films and series, and catch-up where the provider keeps it.
• Your own Plex, Jellyfin or Emby server, for the films and series on it.
• An HDHomeRun tuner or a Tvheadend server on your home network, for their live channels.

There’s a field for a guide address too. Leave it empty if your provider sends its own guide. If you want to combine guides, put more than one address in it with a space between them, and Kanema Pro reads them as one; without Pro, Kanema reads the first.

Your login is stored on the device, in the Keychain, and sent only to your provider.

Adding more playlists later

Tap your playlist’s name, then Add. Kanema asks only what your kind of playlist needs, one step at a time, and shows each part loading. You can also start the same steps from Settings.

If a playlist takes longer than usual, Continue to Home takes you there while the rest loads. If it fails, Kanema says so and offers Try again and Edit details on the same screen.

Manage playlists from a browser

Typing a long address on a phone is fiddly. In Settings › Playlists, choose Manage from your phone or computer. Kanema shows a QR code, an address and a four-digit code. Open it in a browser on the same Wi-Fi and you can add, edit, remove and reorder playlists from a full keyboard.

The page is served by the iPhone or iPad itself, only while that screen is open, and it closes after five wrong codes. It shows in your browser’s language when Kanema has it.

In the player

• Swipe up the picture for the channel above, and down for the one below.
• Channels shows the whole list, and its heading leads back to your categories, so you can pick a channel from another one without leaving the picture.
• Previous channel, beside Reload, goes back to the channel you watched before.
• Kanema keeps up to an hour of the channel you’re watching, so you can pause and drag back along the live scrubber.

Keep watching in picture in picture while you use other apps, or send what’s playing to an Apple TV, an AirPlay television or a Chromecast.

With a keyboard on your iPad, Up and Down or Page Up and Page Down change channel, and Command-1 to Command-4 choose whose sound you hear in Multi-view.

Make it yours

Choose which rows Home shows and drag them into order. Choose what Kanema opens on, too: Home, Live TV, the TV guide, Films or Series, a category or channel you pick, the page you were last on, or whatever you watched last. Each device keeps its own choice, and when the choice plays something, it can start muted.

iPhone Duo

Closed, the folding iPhone gets the iPhone layout. Open, it becomes the iPad layout with the sidebar, and you stay where you were as you fold and unfold. Stand it half open while something plays and the picture goes on one side of the fold, with the controls on the other. Watching live TV on iPhone Duo goes through it in more detail.

Questions

Where does my login go?

It’s stored on your device, in the Keychain, and Kanema sends it only to your provider. With iCloud sync on, the playlist also reaches your other devices through your own iCloud account, with the password in an encrypted field.

Can I add a playlist from my computer?

Yes. In Settings › Playlists, choose Manage from your phone or computer, then open the address it shows in a browser on the same Wi-Fi and enter the four-digit code.

Does it work on iPad?

Yes. On iPad, Kanema uses a sidebar instead of tabs, and it supports a keyboard for changing channel.