OpenTivi on This Device: What It Needs
- An LG webOS television from 2016 or later
- An LG account signed in on the set
- Either your Xtream login or your M3U link
No credentials yet? A 24-hour trial costs nothing and proves this hardware works before you commit, or go straight to the plans.
The steps, in order
Check the webOS version
Settings, All Settings, General, About This TV. webOS 3.0 and later, which means 2016 onward, runs these players. Below that there is no usable store and the answer is a stick in an HDMI port. Establishing this first saves a frustrating twenty minutes.
Open the LG Content Store
Press Home, open the Content Store, move to Apps and use the search field. On older webOS versions the store itself is slow to respond, so give it a moment before deciding it has frozen.
Install a player, and avoid the impostors
Search IPTV Smarters Player, iPlayTV or GSE Smart IPTV. Smarters is free; the other two carry a one-off price and better interfaces. Anything named TiviMato or Tivimax is not TiViMate, has no connection to it, and exists to catch people who half-remember the name.
Fix the remote before you do anything else
LG Magic Remotes default to pointer control, which suits web browsing and suits a television guide extremely badly. Press the scroll wheel to switch to directional control, or simply use the arrow keys. Nobody mentions this and it is the difference between the guide being pleasant and being infuriating.
Enter the account
Smarters wants Login with Xtream Codes API and the three values. Smart IPTV instead wants the M3U link sent to the MAC address it displays, done from siptv.app/mylist on another device rather than on the television itself.
Turn TruMotion off
LG enables it by default and it gives live broadcast an odd, glassy quality that viewers routinely blame on the stream. Picture, Advanced Settings, TruMotion off, mode Standard. Do this before forming any judgement about picture quality.
Establish whether the panel is genuinely 4K
Settings, All Settings, General, About This TV will name the model, and the model number tells you the resolution. This matters more than people expect: a 1080p LG will accept every Ultra HD feed in the list and display an HD picture, so paying attention to which channels are 4K is wasted effort on that hardware. Knowing which category your set falls into shapes every other decision on this page, including whether the extra bandwidth of the Ultra HD feeds is worth using at all.
What usually goes wrong on this device
The picture is black but the sound continues
A decoder mismatch rather than a dead channel, and worth knowing because people cancel over it. Switch the player to native or hardware decoding in its settings, or take the lower-bitrate copy of the channel, which exists for most busy channels and sits directly beside it.
The store refuses to install anything
LG sometimes blocks installs when the set is signed into an account whose region does not match the store being browsed. Sign out, sign back in with an account for the country you are actually in, and try again.
Everything is slow
Older webOS panels have limited memory and a long channel list is genuinely hard work for them. Hide the categories you never open, restart the set at the wall rather than with standby, and consider Smart IPTV over Smarters, which is the lighter of the two.
The app was working and has disappeared
LG occasionally clears sideloaded or regionally-restricted apps during a system update, and a factory reset removes everything. Neither affects the account. Reinstall from the Content Store and sign in again, or if you were using Smart IPTV, upload the playlist against the same MAC address.
Deciding between fixing it and adding a stick
On webOS the honest fork comes early. If the set is 2018 or later, it will run IPTV Smarters comfortably and the fixes on this page are worth working through. If it is 2016 or 2017, expect the app to open slowly and the guide to redraw in visible steps, and understand that this is the hardware rather than anything you have configured wrongly. Two free things help: switch to Smart IPTV, which is markedly lighter, and hide every category you never open so the list the panel has to draw is a fraction of the size. If it still labours, a $40 stick in a spare HDMI port ends the problem permanently and gives you TiViMate as well, which LG cannot run at all. We would rather tell you that than have you spend three evenings tuning a set that has reached its ceiling.
The player to run on this hardware
Smart IPTV (SIPTV)
Setting up Smart IPTV on a Samsung or LG set: find the MAC, upload your playlist at siptv.app, restart, activate. Why the app has no login screen at all.
IPTV Smarters Pro
Installing IPTV Smarters Pro on Firestick, Android, Samsung, LG, Apple and desktop, the decoder setting that matters, and why it opens completely empty.
Every device we cover
Thirteen walkthroughs, one per piece of hardware or player.
Put 25,000+ channels on that LG Smart TV
From $15 a month, no extra hardware, and the credentials back on WhatsApp within under 15 minutes.
Asked about the LG Smart TV
Can I run TiViMate on an LG?
No, and nothing in the LG store claiming to be TiViMate is genuine. The only route is an Android device in an HDMI port, which for a Firestick means $30 to $50. On a main television used every day that is usually money well spent; on a spare set it is not.
Which player is best here?
Start with IPTV Smarters: free, takes the Xtream login, brings a full guide. Move to Smart IPTV if the set struggles, since it is markedly lighter, at the cost of a small one-time fee. Both run on webOS 3.0 and later.
Will an app survive a system update?
Normally yes; LG updates do not clear installed apps. A full factory reset does. If you are using Smart IPTV and the set gets reset, upload the playlist again against the same MAC address, which takes two minutes.
Is an older LG worth persevering with?
A 2016 or 2017 set runs these players, just not quickly. If it is the television you actually watch, a $40 stick transforms it for less than three months of subscription and is the better use of the money. On a spare bedroom set, leave it as it is and use the lighter app.
Does the Magic Remote work properly with these apps?
Once you switch it out of pointer mode, yes. Press the scroll wheel to change to directional control. In pointer mode a channel grid is genuinely difficult to use, and that single setting accounts for most of the complaints about these players on LG hardware.
Does the LG store version get updates?
Yes, through the Content Store like any other app, and updates arrive without you doing anything. If a player stops working after a system update rather than an app one, reinstalling it from the store resolves it in almost every case. Your credentials are unaffected either way, so nothing needs re-entering except the login itself.