Before you pick up the remote
- Any Samsung Smart TV made in 2016 or after, already on the home internet
- A Samsung account signed in on the TV, which the store asks for before it installs anything
- Your SWIVTV login from the WhatsApp chat, and the M3U link as well if you go with Smart IPTV
- Your own phone or a laptop, for the one-off Smart IPTV upload
- The model number from the sticker on the back of the set, in case support needs it later
Waiting for a login? Begin with the free 24-hour trial, or look at the prices and order the real thing.
The install, in one sitting
Choose the player by the age of the set
Two players cover almost every Samsung. IPTV Smarters is free, takes the Xtream login and brings its guide, films and series with it; on a recent set it is the natural choice. Smart IPTV is leaner, which shows on a set that is several years old and slow to open menus. It has no login screen at all: the playlist is sent to the TV from a web page. It costs nothing for a week, after which its developer charges a modest one-off fee per television to keep it running. If your partner mostly flicks between a few live channels, either works; if they like the film library, pick Smarters.
Make sure the TV has a Samsung account
Open the settings and check that a Samsung account is signed in; without one, the store lets you look around and then refuses to install. If the set has never had an account, create one together and store its password somewhere you can reach from your own phone. It is not needed for daily watching, only for installing and updating apps.
Find the player in the Apps panel
Press the house button and open Apps; its search tool, drawn as a small magnifying glass, is up top. Type the player's name, open its page, and install. When the store offers to add the app to the home bar, accept, because that bar is where your partner will look for it every night.
With Smarters, type the three values
Open IPTV Smarters and choose the option for logging in with Xtream Codes. Enter the username, the password and the server address from your WhatsApp chat, keeping http:// at the front and the port after the colon. The TV keyboard is slow; type each value, then read it back against the chat before moving on. Once accepted, the channel list and the guide load, which takes a minute the first time.
With Smart IPTV, send the playlist from your phone
Open Smart IPTV and photograph the MAC address it displays. Then, on your own phone, open siptv.app/mylist in the browser: the MAC goes in its field, the M3U link from your chat goes below it, and you send. Then close the app properly on the TV and reopen it; the list arrives on the restart, not before. Keep the photo of the MAC in your WhatsApp chat next to the login. If the list ever needs re-sending, you can do it from your own home with that photo, without touching the TV.
Put the player at the start of the home bar
Samsung lets you reorder the row of apps at the foot of the home screen. Highlight the player, bring up its options and move it into the first position. Now the evening route is two presses. Many recent Samsung sets can also reopen the last app used when they are switched on; if yours offers that among its settings, turn it on and the player greets your partner without any presses at all.
Make a favorites group of the channels they know
Ask your partner to name the channels they reach for, then add each one to the player's favorites; in Smarters, open Live TV and use the favorites option on each channel. Open favorites afterwards and check the order makes sense to them, not to you. The full line-up of 25,000+ channels is still there for the day they want to explore, one step further in.
Point out which remote buttons do what
The newer Samsung remote has very few buttons, which helps. The house button opens the home bar with the player first. The curved arrow is Back, one step at a time. The ring moves and its middle selects. Volume works as always. If the set came with the older remote full of numbers, tell your partner that the number keys and Source can be ignored, and that Source is the likely culprit when the screen shows No signal.
Leave the stop-gap card by the set
A card on the TV stand with three lines. Unplug the TV, wait half a minute, plug it back in, press the house button and choose the first app. If that fails, check that the router's lights look normal, and restart it if not. Then message SWIVTV support on WhatsApp; they will reply to your partner directly. Do not write the password on it. The login lives in your WhatsApp chat, where it can be found when you need it.
Watch your partner do the whole route once
Hand over the remote with the TV switched off. Your partner turns it on, opens the player, picks a favorite, changes to a second, presses Back twice and finds the way to the first channel again. Keep quiet while they do it. Wherever they pause is the thing to fix before you consider the job done.
The snags, and how to clear them
No signal appears when the TV is switched on
The set has woken up on its antenna input or an HDMI port with nothing plugged in, instead of the home bar. Pressing the house button and choosing the player gets past it every time. If it keeps happening, look in the settings for an option to open the home screen at power-on, which many Samsung models have, or simply put that one sentence on the card.
Smart IPTV says the playlist has expired
This message belongs to the app, not to your subscription. A reinstall or a factory reset wipes the list the TV was holding. From anywhere, open siptv.app/mylist, enter the MAC address from the photo in your chat and send the M3U link again; then the TV only needs the app closing and reopening, which your partner can do while you are on the phone.
Smarters asks for the login after an app update
Updates occasionally forget the profile. The account itself is fine. Type the three values again, or if you are away, talk your partner through it on a video call while you read each value from your WhatsApp chat. If the TV refuses details you know are right, look at the renewal date, then message support.
The player cannot be found in the store
Samsung stocks different apps in different regions. IPTV Smarters is carried in nearly every market, so search for it by name before trying anything else. If neither player shows up, message support with the TV's model number; they know which players Samsung currently stocks for sets like yours.
The picture pauses in the evening, but daytime is fine
A TV on Wi-Fi at the far side of the home is the usual reason. If the set has an Ethernet port on the back, a cable from the router settles it; a set that is several years old may also cope better with the lighter Smart IPTV. If your internet company throttles video during its peak hours, a VPN pointed at a nearby server can restore the speed. Otherwise, tell support which channel froze and when.
Picking a player for the person watching
Smart IPTV (SIPTV)
Smart IPTV for a Samsung or LG TV: upload the M3U link against its MAC from your own phone, and leave them one app and the remote they already know.
IPTV Smarters Pro
One visit, one free app: IPTV Smarters Pro on a parent or partner TV, with the Xtream login, the guide on and their own channels on the first screen.
Every other guide
Each TV, stick, box and player app we cover, listed on one page.
Have the login in your WhatsApp first
It arrives under 15 minutes after you pay, so the whole install fits in one sitting. A month costs $15 and a full year $69, with all 25,000+ channels either way.
Samsung Smart TV: quick answers
Does a Samsung TV need a stick or box for IPTV?
Not if it was made in 2016 or later. Both IPTV Smarters and Smart IPTV come from the Samsung store and run on the set itself, which means nothing extra plugged in and one remote for your partner. A stick starts to make sense for an older model, or for someone set on TiViMate, which has no Samsung version.
Is Smart IPTV free on a Samsung TV?
For the first seven days. From then on, keeping it running costs a single small payment per television, which goes to the app's developer rather than to SWIVTV. IPTV Smarters has no charge of its own. Either app is an empty shell until a subscription is entered, so the fee buys the player, never the channels.
Can I get TiViMate on a Samsung?
No. TiViMate runs only on Android devices, and there is no Samsung version; apps with similar names in the store are unrelated. If your partner has used TiViMate elsewhere and misses it, a Fire TV Stick in one of the HDMI ports brings it in, at the cost of a second remote.
Our Samsung is older than 2016. What are the options?
Put a Fire TV Stick or an Android TV box in a free HDMI port and follow that device's guide. The TV then becomes a screen, and the stick's remote does the watching. Show your partner which input the stick is on and, if the TV can switch to it by itself when the stick's remote is used, turn that on.
If something breaks while I am away, who does my partner call?
Nobody needs to call. Support works on WhatsApp around the clock and will talk to your partner directly, from their own phone, in plain language. You can join in from wherever you are, since the login and the MAC photo are both in your chat. Most fixes are a restart, which the card by the set already covers.