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Aug 24, 2026
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IPTV Checker is a free, open-source desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux that scans an M3U playlist or Xtream Codes login and reports which channels are alive, dead, geoblocked or DRM-protected, with no paid tier at all.
A playlist with two thousand channels in it usually has a few hundred that no longer play, and scrolling through them one at a time is not a plan.
IPTV Checker opens the list, tries every channel in turn, and hands back a report of what is alive and what is not.
It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, it is free under the MIT license, and there is no paid tier waiting further in.
What IPTV Checker Actually Does
The app tests every entry against the real stream rather than just checking that the URL is spelled correctly. Each channel comes back tagged as alive, dead, geoblocked, DRM-protected or audio-only.
It uses FFmpeg to pull a thumbnail from each working stream and read its codec, resolution, frame rate and bitrate. That is the part that turns a column of green ticks into something you can actually judge.
Duplicates and mislabeled channels get flagged on their own. If your provider lists the same feed four times under four different names, you will see it.
Loading Your Playlist
There are four ways in: an M3U file from disk, an M3U URL, an Xtream Codes login, or a Stalker portal account. You can also point it at a folder and let it batch-load everything inside.
If you are not sure which of those you have, our explainer on how Xtream Codes logins differ from a plain M3U link sorts it out in a couple of minutes.
A sample playlist ships with the app, so you can watch a scan behave before pointing it at your own list. No playlist yet? The IPTV Channel Finder builds one from publicly available channels, and our free IPTV playlist guide covers where the trustworthy sources are.
Reading the Results
Results stream in live with an ETA and a throughput counter, so you know early whether a big list will take two minutes or twenty. Pause and resume whenever you like.
When the scan finishes, a health report scores each channel group. That is the fastest way to spot that one supplier feed is entirely dead while everything else is fine.
Scan history is kept, so you can compare today's run against last month's and see whether a provider is quietly rotting. Click any channel for its thumbnail, or preview it in the built-in player.
Double-click opens the channel in the external player you nominate - VLC or anything else - and since 1.9.0 the app launches that application directly rather than handing the playlist to Windows and hoping.
Filtering is by group, by status, or by regex search if that is your sort of thing. HTTP and HLS streams are supported alongside RTSP and RTMP, and checks can be routed through a proxy when your connection is the thing being blocked.
Exporting a Playlist That Works
This is the payoff. Export alive channels only, split the output by group, or write out a renamed list, as M3U, CSV or a full JSON scan log.
If the cleaned list then needs to be a different format, or its paths need repairing, X M3U Converter handles that side and keeps the IPTV tags intact.
Otherwise the M3U goes straight to wherever you actually watch.
- TiviMate on Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV, where the remote-friendly channel guide is the whole point.
- IPTV Smarters Pro on a phone or tablet - it takes an Xtream login directly as well as an M3U.
- OTT Navigator if you want the guide laid out your way rather than the developer's.
- Kodi when live TV is only one part of a full media center setup.
The full IPTV Players category has the rest, and our device-by-device player comparison is worth a read if you are still choosing.
What Changed in 1.9.0
Version 1.9.0 landed on 23 August 2026, and most of it is about what happens when you hand a channel to another application.
- A real external player setting. Pick the application yourself and the app launches it directly, instead of relying on the file association that could send your playlist somewhere unrelated.
- One connection, one player. On playlists limited to a single connection, in-app playback now stops before the external player opens, so the two are not fighting over the provider's only slot.
- Xtream streams start faster. The HLS route is tried first now rather than after two MPEG-TS attempts, so startup no longer burns through both of those timeouts before finding the one that works.
- Linux crash on first play fixed. The Arch and Fedora packages now require the GStreamer plugins outright - when they were missing, the first play attempt took down the whole web process.
- Tiling window manager support. Window decorations are hidden automatically on Hyprland, sway and i3, with a Title bar setting to override the detection either way.
- Logs you can actually read. Release builds no longer swallow routine log entries, scans and exports get lifecycle summaries, and anything logged before you open the log window is replayed into it rather than lost.
There is also a fix for sorted or filtered results occasionally attaching the wrong channel to a row, which was a genuinely confusing one to hit.
Coming from further back, 1.8.1 is where the app learned to update itself, with signed updates applied to match how you installed it - installer, portable folder, package manager, AppImage or disk image.
That release also put both Windows builds behind a Microsoft Defender scan covering the app, the archive and the bundled FFmpeg binaries. Playlist tools get flagged constantly, usually because they bundle FFmpeg and contact a few hundred unfamiliar addresses in quick succession, which is roughly what malware looks like from outside.
Why that matters. Gating the release on a current scan will not stop every false positive, but it does mean a warning is worth reporting rather than shrugging at.
What You Need to Run It
- Windows on x64 or ARM, as an installer or a portable zip.
- macOS on Apple Silicon or Intel, as a .dmg or through Homebrew.
- Linux on x64 or ARM, as an AppImage, .deb or .rpm, plus the AUR package on Arch.
- FFmpeg comes bundled and accounts for most of the download - only the Arch package expects your system copy instead.
- On Arch and Fedora the packages now pull the required GStreamer plugins in as hard dependencies, so playback works on a fresh install.
Nothing else. There is no account to create, no server component, and no subscription hiding behind a feature you will want later.
More Apple software sits in our Mac downloads section, and general playback tools live under Media Players.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
The tell is simple. If you only ever watch a dozen favorite channels, a validator is overkill, and our browser-based Web Player will tell you whether a list works without installing anything at all.
It is also desktop only. If your playlist lives on a Fire Stick and never touches a computer, this is not the tool for you.
And it reports, it does not repair. A dead channel stays dead - what you get is the ability to stop looking at it.
Worth saying. IPTV Checker tests whatever list you hand it and takes no view on where that list came from. Whether a given stream is legal to watch depends on the source and on where you live.
Two Jobs That Sit Next to This One
The Stream Extractor pulls a playable URL out of a web page, and the Playlist Builder assembles an M3U from links you have already collected.
If your source is YouTube rather than a provider, the YouTube playlist to M3U converter does that conversion in the browser.
Our guide to opening a stream URL in VLC covers the manual version of this check, one channel at a time.
The note on TiviMate disappearing from the Play Store explains why so many people end up sideloading their player in the first place.
Quick questions
Is IPTV Checker really free?
Yes, completely. It is released under the MIT license with the source on GitHub, and there is no premium tier, trial period or locked feature.
Which systems does it run on?
Windows, macOS and Linux, on both Intel and ARM hardware. There is no Android or iOS version, so playlists have to come to a computer to be checked.
Can I make it open channels in VLC?
Yes, from 1.9.0 onwards. Set the player you want in Settings using its full path, and the app launches it directly rather than leaving the choice to your file associations.
Do I need to install FFmpeg separately?
No. FFmpeg is bundled with the standard builds and used for thumbnails and codec detection. The Arch Linux AUR package is the one exception, as it uses the system ffmpeg package instead.
Will it update itself?
Yes, from 1.8.1 onwards. Updates are cryptographically signed and handled differently depending on how you installed it, so a portable copy or a package-manager install is not broken by one.
Can it fix channels that come back dead?
No, and nothing can. A dead channel means the stream itself is gone, moved or blocked at the source - what IPTV Checker does is let you export a playlist with those entries removed.
Download IPTV Checker 1.9.0 and see what it makes of your playlist, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.
