4grayandClaude Fable 5
8eb0fe3261
* fix(playback): harden embedded mpv session handling and support detection - guard the session controller against late startup rejections clobbering a newer session during fast channel zapping - exclude the refresh timestamp from the session-update dedup key so idle sessions stop re-emitting IPC updates every 500 ms - macOS: reconcile async loadfile replies by request id so a rejected seek/aid/speed on a live stream no longer flips the session to error - append --ozone-platform=x11 on Linux in main.ts so direct binary and AppImage launches match the packaged .desktop launcher behavior - return a sandbox-specific unsupported reason in Flatpak/Snap instead of asking the user to install mpv inside the sandbox - update the stale "macOS only" embedded MPV claim in CLAUDE.md Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * feat(playback): populate Linux audio tracks and fix ARM Linux packaging - Linux poller now reads track-list/count each tick and walks the scalar track-list/N/* sub-properties when the count changes, so the audio-track menu is no longer empty; selection reconciles from the aid property - afterPack replaces the x64 embedded_mpv.node with an embedded-mpv-unavailable.txt marker in arm64/armv7l Linux packages, and package-layout verification rejects foreign-architecture addons while requiring the marker - extend native source invariants for the non-fatal async-reply rule (macOS) and the Linux track-list polling contract - document the Linux track-list mechanics and ARM packaging behavior in docs/architecture/embedded-mpv-native.md Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * feat(playback): embedded mpv player UX polish and full localization - click on the video toggles pause (same action as Space) with a 250 ms grace period so double-click fullscreen cancels the pending pause; no DOM overlay is drawn — the dock transport icon is the feedback - timeline scrubbing previews the drag position locally and commits a single seek on release instead of one IPC seek per drag pixel - translate all player UI strings (controls, tooltips, aria-labels, status and recording messages) via new EMBEDDED_MPV.PLAYER.* keys, synced across en + 17 locales through the i18n-fill workflow - replace the legacy @Output() EventEmitter with the signal output() API Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * fix(playback): react to language changes and respect ozone platform hint Address review feedback on #1122: - add a translationsTick signal (onLangChange/onTranslationChange/ onDefaultLangChange) read by every computed() and template helper that calls translate.instant(), so labels re-evaluate on a runtime language switch and when the translation file finishes loading after mount - suppress the Linux --ozone-platform=x11 fallback when the user set ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT, matching the existing respect for an explicit --ozone-platform switch Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
IPTVnator - IPTV Player Application
🌐 Website | Telegram channel for discussions | Buy me a coffee | GitHub Sponsors
IPTVnator is a video player application that provides support for IPTV playlist playback (m3u, m3u8). The application allows users to import playlists using remote URLs or by uploading files from the local file system. Additionally, it supports EPG information in XMLTV format which can be provided via URL.
The application is a cross-platform, open-source project built with Electron and Angular.
⚠️ Note: IPTVnator does not provide any playlists or other digital content. The channels and pictures in the screenshots are for demonstration purposes only.
Features
- M3u and M3u8 playlist support 📺
- Radio playlist support with dedicated audio player 📻
- Xtream Code (XC) and Stalker portal (STB) support
- External player support - MPV and VLC; macOS accepts
mpv.app/VLC.appbundle paths. IINA can be launched via its executable path on macOS (best-effort: controls and position polling are MPV IPC only) - Add playlists from the file system or remote URLs 📂
- Automatic playlist updates on application startup
- Channel search functionality 🔍
- EPG support (TV Guide) with detailed information
- TV archive/catchup/timeshift functionality
- Group-based channel list
- Read-only M3U channel details from channel context menus, including favorites and recently viewed
- Favorite channels management
- Global favorites aggregated from all playlists
- Recently viewed live channel removal from row actions and context menus
- HTML video player with HLS.js support or Video.js-based player
- Internationalization with support for 16 languages:
- Arabic
- Moroccan arabic
- English
- Russian
- German
- Korean
- Spanish
- Chinese
- Traditional chinese
- French
- Italian
- Turkish
- Japanese
- Dutch
- Belarusian
- Polish
- Custom "User Agent" header configuration for playlists
- Light and Dark themes
- Docker image available for self-hosting the PWA and web backend together
Keyboard shortcuts
Press ? or Shift+/ in the workspace to open the in-app shortcuts list.
| Area | Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+K |
Open command palette |
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+F |
Open global search in the desktop app |
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+R |
Open recently viewed in the desktop app |
| Global | Enter in workspace search |
Submit the current search |
| Navigation | Ctrl/Cmd+B |
Toggle the live sidebar |
| Navigation | 0-9 |
Select an M3U channel by number |
| Playback | Space / K |
Play or pause embedded MPV playback in the desktop app |
| Playback | F |
Toggle embedded MPV fullscreen in the desktop app |
| Playback | ArrowLeft / ArrowRight |
Seek embedded MPV playback by 5 seconds in the desktop app |
| Playback | ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Adjust volume by 5% |
| Playback | M |
Mute audio |
| Dialogs and lists | ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Move command palette selection |
| Dialogs and lists | Enter |
Run the selected command or open a focused item |
| Dialogs and lists | Escape |
Close dialogs and dismiss overlays |
Screenshots:
| Dashboard with recently watched content | Live channels with inline player and EPG |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Add playlist dialog for M3U, Xtream, and Stalker | Live category channel list |
 |
 |
| Global search across live TV, movies, and series | Manage visible live categories |
 |
 |
| Movie category grid with sorting and pagination | Recently added movies and series |
 |
 |
| VOD details with playback and download actions | Download manager |
 |
 |
| Multi-channel EPG grid | External MPV player support |
 |
 |
| Radio playback with dedicated audio player | Light theme |
 |
 |
| Application settings | |
 |
Note: First version of the application which was developed as a PWA is available in an extra git branch.
Self-hosted PWA
The Docker setup builds the Angular PWA and the monorepo web backend into one
image. The backend handles remote M3U parsing plus Xtream and Stalker proxy
requests under /api, so a separate 4gray/iptvnator-backend container is not
required for the default self-hosted flow.
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up --build -d
The application is available at http://localhost:4333. See
docker/docker-compose.yml for the ready-to-run
compose file and docker/README.md for environment
variables, reverse proxy notes, PWA limitations, and build details.
The self-hosted image runs the browser PWA rather than the Electron desktop app: EPG/XMLTV panels, Embedded MPV, managed MPV/VLC launching, the download manager, and Electron remote-control features are not available there. If browser playback fails, copy the stream URL and open it manually in an external player such as MPV, VLC, or IINA.
Download
Download the latest version of the application for macOS, Windows, and Linux from the release page.
Alternatively, you can install the application using one of the following package managers:
Homebrew
$ brew install iptvnator
Snap
$ sudo snap install iptvnator
Arch
Also available as an Arch PKG, iptvnator-bin, in the AUR (using your favourite AUR-helper, .e.g. yay)
$ yay -S iptvnator-bin
Gentoo
You can install IPTVnator from the gentoo-zh overlay
sudo eselect repository enable gentoo-zh
sudo emerge --sync gentoo-zh
sudo emerge iptvnator-bin
Linux Embedded MPV Support
Embedded MPV on Linux is experimental and currently supports x64 desktop
sessions where IPTVnator runs under X11 or Xwayland. Native Wayland embedding
is not supported yet. Linux package launchers request X11 with
--ozone-platform=x11, so Wayland desktops still need Xwayland available.
The Linux backend starts a system mpv executable with --wid, so mpv must
be installed and available on PATH. CI validates the Linux native addon and
standard packages on Ubuntu 22.04, with Flatpak packaging built on Ubuntu 24.04.
Expected user targets are Ubuntu/Debian .deb, Arch/Manjaro pacman, RPM
distributions, and AppImage on x64 systems with X11/Xwayland plus mpv
installed. Flatpak and Snap builds remain available, but embedded MPV is not
announced as supported there yet because those sandboxed formats do not expose
the host mpv executable to the embedded backend by default.
Troubleshooting
macOS: "App is damaged and can't be opened"
Older unsigned macOS builds may require removing the quarantine flag from the downloaded application:
xattr -c /Applications/IPTVnator.app
Alternatively, if the app is located in a different directory:
xattr -c ~/Downloads/IPTVnator.app
Linux: chrome-sandbox Issues
If you encounter the following error when launching IPTVnator:
The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly.
Rather than run without sandboxing I'm aborting now.
You need to make sure that chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755.
Solution 1: Fix chrome-sandbox permissions (Recommended for .deb/.rpm installations)
Navigate to the IPTVnator installation directory and run:
sudo chown root:root chrome-sandbox
sudo chmod 4755 chrome-sandbox
Solution 2: Launch with --no-sandbox flag
Edit the desktop launcher file to add the --no-sandbox flag:
-
Find your desktop file location:
- Ubuntu/Debian:
~/.local/share/applications/iptvnator.desktop - System-wide:
/usr/share/applications/iptvnator.desktop
- Ubuntu/Debian:
-
Edit the file and modify the
Execline:Exec=iptvnator --no-sandbox %U -
Save the file and relaunch the application from your application menu.
Alternatively, you can launch IPTVnator from the terminal with the flag:
iptvnator --no-sandbox
GNU/Linux: Wayland startup failure
If IPTVnator exits on GNU/Linux with errors about failing to connect to Wayland or initialize the Ozone platform, force X11/XWayland instead:
iptvnator --ozone-platform=x11
This workaround is mainly for older or problematic Linux graphics stacks. The Snap package already includes this X11 override by default. For AppImage, direct binaries, and other Linux package formats, pass the flag manually when needed.
How to Build and Develop
Requirements:
- Node.js with pnpm (via Corepack)
-
Clone this repository and install project dependencies:
$ corepack enable $ pnpm install -
Start the application:
$ pnpm run serve:backend
This will open the Electron app in a separate window, while the Angular dev server will run at http://localhost:4200.
The equivalent Nx command is:
$ nx serve electron-backend
To start Electron with an empty, isolated data directory instead of your normal
~/.iptvnator folder, set IPTVNATOR_E2E_DATA_DIR for that run:
$ rm -rf .tmp/iptvnator-empty && mkdir -p .tmp/iptvnator-empty
$ IPTVNATOR_E2E_DATA_DIR="$PWD/.tmp/iptvnator-empty" pnpm run serve:backend
This redirects the SQLite database, Electron user data, and local config under the given directory. Delete that directory whenever you want a fresh empty state.
If you need to debug renderer freezes or GPU/compositor issues in Electron, you can disable hardware acceleration for a run:
$ IPTVNATOR_DISABLE_HARDWARE_ACCELERATION=1 pnpm run serve:backend
If you need startup diagnostics for a white screen or a frozen route, you can also turn on opt-in Electron tracing. These logs are written to the Electron terminal output so they still help when the renderer DevTools never open:
$ IPTVNATOR_TRACE_STARTUP=1 pnpm run serve:backend
Nx equivalent:
$ IPTVNATOR_TRACE_STARTUP=1 nx serve electron-backend
Useful narrower flags:
IPTVNATOR_TRACE_IPC=1logs rendererwindow.electron.*calls reaching the Electron bridgeIPTVNATOR_TRACE_DB=1logs DB worker requests and request-scoped DB eventsIPTVNATOR_TRACE_SQL=1logs SQLite statements in both the main connection and DB worker connectionIPTVNATOR_TRACE_WINDOW=1logs BrowserWindow load, navigation, and unresponsive eventsIPTVNATOR_TRACE_RENDERER_CONSOLE=1mirrors renderer console messages into the Electron terminal output
Security-sensitive network compatibility flags are opt-in:
IPTVNATOR_ALLOW_PRIVATE_NETWORK_URLS=1permits strict EPG fetches from playlist metadata (x-tvg-url,url-tvg, ortvg-url) to resolve to localhost, LAN, or other private addresses. Directly configured Xtream/Stalker portals and private playlist servers remain supported without this flag. Prefer the in-app source-scoped “Allow source” action for a trusted EPG URL.IPTVNATOR_ALLOW_INSECURE_TLS=1disables certificate validation for remote playlist imports and refreshes for the whole Electron process. Prefer the in-app host-scoped trust action for a trusted provider with a self-signed or otherwise invalid certificate.
If the local Nx daemon gets into a bad state before rerunning Electron, reset it:
$ pnpm nx reset
To run only the Angular app without Electron, use:
$ pnpm run serve:frontend
Disclaimer
IPTVnator doesn't provide any playlists or other digital content.
Trademark
The name "IPTVnator" and the IPTVnator logo are unregistered trademarks of the project owner. The MIT license covers the source code only — it does not grant rights to the name or logo. Forks and redistributions (including app-store submissions) must use a different name and their own icon. See TRADEMARK.md for details.
