How to Stream IPTV
Now more than ever, IPTV is becoming more popular as users liberate themselves from the expensive, limited deals offered by cable providers. According to NBC News, the average cable bill in America is now over $100, which is an increase of 53 percent since 2007. That’s on top of the money you’re already spending on the Internet and paying for your cell phone, all for a service that will prevent certain region-locked content from being streamed to your television.
This is a pretty frustrating reality, so it’s understandable that so many Americans are ready to throw in the cable towel and find alternative ways of watching their favorite sports broadcasts and movies without paying for expensive satellite or cable. This guide will provide you with the means to research and find the best IPTV content box for your needs.
How to Stream IPTV
If you want to watch IPTV content, then you are going to require a device that can accept the streamed content, decode it, and then deliver it to a chosen source that will display your desired sports broadcast, channels, and movies. In all, there are three kinds of devices that you can purchase to get started watching streamed content without cable:
- Smart TVs
- Mobile phones
- Set-top boxes
So, we know the devices, but what are the benefits and disadvantages to them?
Smart TV
We’ll keep this one concise: They’re just not good to stream with. TVs are slow to navigate, have limited processing power, and hardly have any customization options. The point of buying a TV is to display the content you want to see, so that’s where their strength is–not IPTV.
Mobile Phones
Perhaps the biggest benefit to using a mobile phone to stream content is the fact that you probably already own one that you can use. They have much more streaming power than a smart TV does, and they’re very easy to use with a touch screen. Of course, the biggest problem is that your phone will never be as large as a television, which makes it hard to watch anything with anyone else.
Set-Top Boxes
Unlike smart TVs and mobile phones, set-top boxes are specifically designed to stream media and that’s it, so they’re good at their specialty.
There are so many different brands of boxes out there, ranging from the obscure Chinese brands nobody has ever heard of to the major flagship devices from household tech names well-known in America. Today, we’ll look at the best boxes for IPTV streaming available, examine their features, and provide a quick pros and cons list for quick consideration.
Although each of the boxes we discuss are different in their own way, they do share several features: superior performance above other brands, user-friendliness, fast streaming, quick plug-and-play setup, and a large library of content.