Setting up UniPlayer on Apple TV, iPhone and iPad
UniPlayer is a media player for Apple devices. It ships with no channels of its own: you add the playlist from your subscription, exactly as VLC opens your own file. It supports the TV guide, catch-up archive and 4K.
What you will need
- Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K running tvOS 15 or later, or an iPhone or iPad.
- Your subscription details: an M3U playlist link, or Xtream credentials — server, username and password.
- A free UniPlayer account.
Step 1. Install the app
Open the App Store on your device, search for UniPlayer and install it.
Step 2. Account and the first 30 days
Launch the app and create an account or sign in. New users get 30 credits — roughly 30 days of full access. No payment details are needed for that.
Step 3. Add your playlist
- By link: choose Add Playlist, paste the M3U link from your subscription details and give it a name.
- By Xtream: enter the server, username and password.
- From the dashboard: sign in at my.uniplayer.net and add the playlist there — it appears on all your devices at once.
The media library (films and series) only comes through Xtream. A plain M3U link delivers channels but not the library — that is a property of the format itself, not of the player.
Step 4. TV guide
By default UniPlayer shows its own TV guide. To connect ours, long-press the playlist and choose Add EPG source. If the guide link is inside the playlist, the app offers to connect it in one tap.
Two sources cannot be merged: as soon as yours is connected, the UniPlayer guide is switched off.
Step 5. Start watching
Open any channel. You can add channels to Favorites, pause live TV and use the archive — it is available on the channels where we declare it in the playlist.
If a channel will not open — switch the player engine
There are three engines inside the app, and by default the engine is chosen automatically (Auto mode). You can switch it for a single channel or for the whole playlist: long-press and pick the engine from the context menu.
| Standard | VLC | Custom | |
| MPEG-TS | — | yes | yes |
| 4K H.265 | — | yes | yes |
| Audio-track selection | — | yes | yes |
| Picture-in-Picture | yes | — | — |
| HDR and Auto Frame Rate | — | — | yes |
The custom engine exists only on Apple TV: on iPhone and iPad you have the standard engine and VLC.
Keeping the channel list tidy
Categories you do not need — adult channels or channels for other regions — can be hidden on all devices at once, and so can individual channels. Anything hidden can be restored from the dashboard.
Your own sorting, favorites and hidden channels sync across your devices through the account. Set separately on each device: which playlists are visible, how often the playlist refreshes, and the PIN lock on a channel. A PIN lock applies only to that device and can be reset only from the dashboard — it is not the same thing as hiding.
If your password or playlist link changes
Do not delete the playlist — you can simply change its link, and your settings, sorting and favorites are kept. An outdated link is a common reason for channels suddenly refusing to open. A playlist added by link refreshes itself on a schedule; a playlist added as a file never refreshes.
If playback stutters or will not start
Five steps that resolve most cases:
- Restart the device and the router — switch the router off for about thirty seconds.
- Check other channels: if only one channel fails, the problem is that channel, not the player.
- Switch the engine to VLC, or set it back to Auto.
- Open the same channel on another device or on another network.
- Check that the date and time on the device are correct — the archive depends on them.
Buffering and stuttering are almost always the network. A cable is more reliable than Wi-Fi; if Wi-Fi is the only option, use the 5 GHz band and move the router closer. What matters is not the number in a speed test but stability: latency spikes and even one or two per cent of packet loss already cause stuttering. Downloads, games and video calls on other devices take bandwidth away. The buffer size can be increased in the app settings. And separately: in the evening and during major live events the load on networks is higher, so comparing an evening broadcast with a morning one is not a fair comparison.
Archive. It appears only on the channels where we declare it in the playlist. If the archive plays unevenly, the cause is the state of the archive on the broadcast side — the player cannot improve it. An empty or shifted TV guide breaks the archive as well.
Sound and picture. Audio-track selection exists in VLC and the custom engine, but not in the standard one. HDR and Auto Frame Rate are custom-engine only, which means Apple TV only. Turn deinterlacing on only when you need it: it uses noticeably more of the device's resources.
What the player itself costs
UniPlayer is paid, and this has nothing to do with paying for your subscription with us. It runs on credits: one credit is one day, up to four devices are included, and every device beyond four adds 0.25 credit a day. There is no auto-renewal — credits are bought in packs and simply spent day by day. Payment is available inside the app or in the dashboard at my.uniplayer.net.
Important. If a prompt to pay for a subscription appears on screen while you are watching, that message is from us and not from UniPlayer: it means the channel subscription has run out — check your wallet balance in your account. And the other way round: if your UniPlayer credits are fine but a channel will not play, the cause is the playlist or the network, not the player.
Detailed guides for every way of watching are available to the users of our website.