Hey all, please don't even think of replying here with suggestions for actual IPTV providers, just DM me if you're willing to make a suggestion. Otherwise, let me know if the below situation is normal.
Long story short, I'm new to IPTV and looking for one that does US sports. I just got semi-scammed (at least, misrepresented) by a provider I found on one of the forums.
I spent most of my trial period struggling to get a VPN to work (and thought I did). Then I paid for six months, which was dumb as shit.
I picked up PIA to replace Mullvad, since that one has an Apple TV client and I'm Mac/iOS/tvOS. That broke IPTV on all devices. And why? Because these guys block VPNs due to "other IPTV provider want to steal our streams from their servers" broken English BS excuse that I can't even make sense of. What does one thing have to do with the other?
They want me to use their VPN, which is based on either Outline or Surfboard (the second doesn't even have a website). On Mac, that would mean using Tunnelblick to run their custom config file. The best part is:
In the chat, I asked what I should do on Apple TV. That's when they ghosted, since they have my money now. And then came back to say "Oh, actually we DO allow VPNs, it's your ISP that's blocking them."
So how come I can go anywhere and do anything on PIA, except use IPTV?
I'd love to know if that situation is abnormal. Am I right that streaming a bunch of IPTV using some rando's config file (or in the clear) is batshit? This is all on the high seas so I gotta use a VPN, right? Am I just misunderstanding the technical issue due to the language barrier?
Experienced IPTV sailor perspectives welcome 🏴☠️
You came here asking if a vpn config is outrageous. And it may be for you, but it's also probably the only option for that specific provider as they can't get their own client onto the locked down apple store.
You can continue using your devices, but don't expect people to give you solutions left and right as you are not using an open "ecosystem", so sometimes there is no (easy) solution. All people did was suggesting a better approach that will give you a lot less headaches and you took it personally...
That's not what I asked. Read it again. I asked if my IPTV provider blocking VPNs from all major VPN companies and requiring their own config was normal for IPTV.
I'm not sure if you didn't know this or if you just ignored it to make your post seem factual, but all the major VPNs have iOS clients. Every single one. Less so on Apple TV, but that's only been allowed on tvOS since iOS17. And obviously, Mac has a billion VPNs.
What I took personally was the brigading on Apple that had nothing to do with understanding the technical issue. Niggas just want to shitpost, since that's what niggas do when they don't know shit. They see "Apple" and "iOS," and hey! Doesn't matter what the thread is about, let's just say shit about Apple. And that's boring as hell. Give real info, or if you don't know, don't post.
Last night, I made a "support ticket" in my provider's dashboard asking them point blank if they block commercial VPNs, and if they recommend me watching their streams in the clear. I also made this post lol, but nobody reads Lemmy, so that won't be it.
This morning, I woke up and every single PIA endpoint I tried in every country on all my devices worked perfectly. I can't explain that and I bet nobody here can explain it either, since nobody posting so far has any knowledge of how IPTV providers or IPTV tech works.
Just to say it again, thanks for showing me this sub is not for real. Not a good source of info, not a good community for sailing the seas, strictly for entertainment value. Unless the people who do know stuff happen to be on vacation.