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M3U or Xtream Codes: what is the difference

Updated in August 20261 min read

Both lead to the same streams. What changes is everything the player can show around them.

What Xtream Codes adds

An API returns a structured catalogue: live channels, films, series, categories, the programme guide and account information — including the expiry date and how many simultaneous streams are allowed. An M3U returns a flat list.

What you have to enter

A host, a username and a password. The host is accepted with or without a scheme, with or without a port, with or without a trailing slash: normalisation happens on the server.

What happens to your password

It is encrypted before it is written to the database, with a key that is not in that database. It is returned by no API response, and appears in no log.