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Pooled Provider Profiles

info

As of 1/5/2025 -- provider profiles are only available in the experimental branch

Overview​

Provider Profiles allow you to pool multiple Xtream API accounts into a single playlist, effectively raising your concurrency ceiling. This enables more simultaneous streams by combining the connection limits of individual accounts into one larger, unified pool of available functionality.

note

Provider Profiles is designed for pooling multiple accounts from the same IPTV provider. You can use different servers from that provider, but mixing completely different providers may cause issues!

📝 Requirements​

Before enabling Provider Profiles, ensure:

  • ✅ Proxy mode is enabled - Required for accurate connection tracking This will get enabled when you toggle a playlist to use provider profiles
  • ✅ M3U_PROXY_URL and M3U_PROXY_TOKEN are configured - Provider Profiles requires the m3u-proxy service
  • ✅ Playlist is Xtream API type - Profiles only work with Xtream playlists, not plain M3U files
  • ✅ Multiple accounts from the same provider - You need additional IPTV accounts to pool

Why Proxy is Required:

  • Tracks active connections in real-time via Redis
  • Enables stream pooling (multiple viewers sharing one connection)
  • Manages automatic profile selection based on capacity
  • Handles credential transformation for different accounts

💡 How It Works​

The Basics​

Provider Profiles pools multiple IPTV accounts into a single playlist:

  1. Primary Profile - Automatically created from your playlist's Xtream credentials
  2. Additional Profiles - Extra accounts you add manually
  3. Automatic Selection - System picks an account with available capacity
  4. Priority Order - Profiles tried in order (priority 0 first, then 1, 2, etc.)

What Each Profile Includes​

  • Username & Password - Xtream account credentials
  • Provider URL (optional) - Different server from same provider (leave blank to use playlist URL)
  • Max Streams - Connection limit (auto-detected or manually set)
  • Priority - Selection order (lower = tried first)
  • Enabled/Disabled - Toggle to activate/deactivate

Stream Pooling (Bonus Feature!)​

When multiple people watch the same channel with transcoding enabled, they can share a single provider connection:

Scenario: 5 family members watching the same football game with different devices

Result:

  • ✅ Only 1 provider connection used
  • ✅ All 5 viewers share the same transcoded stream
  • ✅ Maximum efficiency achieved!

Instead of 5 separate connections consuming bandwidth and provider resources, everyone shares a single optimized stream. This leaves more connections available for watching different channels.

🛠️ Setting Up Provider Profiles​

Step 1: Enable Provider Profiles​

  1. Edit your playlist
  2. Scroll to "Provider Profiles" section
  3. Toggle "Enable Provider Profiles" to ON
  4. Click Save
warning

If proxy mode isn't already enabled on your playlist, it will automatically be enabled when you turn on Provider Profiles. This is required for accurate connection tracking.

Your primary account is automatically created as the first profile.

Step 2: Add Additional Accounts​

Click Add Profile and fill in:

Profile Name (optional)
Friendly name like "Backup Account" or "US Server"

Provider URL (optional)

  • Leave blank = uses same URL as playlist
  • Enter URL = uses different server from same provider

Username (required)
Your IPTV account username

Password (required)
Your IPTV account password

Max Streams (optional)
Leave blank to auto-detect, or set a manual limit

Priority (default: auto-assigned)
Lower numbers tried first (0, 1, 2...)

Enabled (default: ON)
Toggle to activate this profile

Step 3: Test the Profile​

Always test before saving!

  1. Click Test button next to the profile
  2. System verifies credentials and detects max connections
  3. Review the results
  4. Click Save when ready

Step 4: Verify Pool Status​

After adding profiles, check the "Pool Status" display:

Example

Total: 3/10 active | 7 available

✓ ⭐ Primary Account: 2/5 streams

✓ Account 2: 1/5 streams

✗ Account 3: 0/5 streams (Disabled)

Using Multiple Server URLs

When to Use Different URLs​

Use Cases​

Important: Provider Profiles is designed for the same provider with multiple accounts. The url field allows different servers/endpoints from that same provider, not different providers entirely.

💼 Managing Your Profiles​

Testing Profiles​

Always test a profile after adding it:

  1. Click the Test button next to the profile
  2. The system will:
    • Verify the username and password
    • Check connectivity to the provider URL
    • Auto-detect the maximum connections allowed
  3. Review the test results
  4. The Max Streams field will update automatically if successful

Enabling/Disabling Profiles​

You can temporarily disable profiles without deleting them:

  • Disabled profiles are skipped during selection
  • Useful for troubleshooting or rotating accounts
  • Toggle the "Enabled" switch on/off

Setting Priorities​

Control which profiles are used first:

  • Priority 0 = Try this profile first (usually your primary account)
  • Priority 1 = Try this profile second (backup)
  • Priority 2 = Try this profile third (second backup)

Lower priority numbers = higher priority for selection.

Adjusting Connection Limits​

You can manually override the connection limit:

Why override?

  • Reserve connections for specific devices
  • Prevent one playlist from using all connections
  • Account for connections used by other apps

How to set:

  1. Enter a number in the "Max Streams" field
  2. System will use the lower of:
    • Your manual limit
    • Provider's actual limit

🔍 Troubleshooting​

Profile Test Failed​

Possible Causes:

  • Incorrect username or password
  • Wrong provider URL
  • Provider server is down
  • Network connectivity issue

How to Fix:

  1. Double-check the username and password
  2. Verify the provider URL is correct (check for typos)
  3. Try accessing the provider's website to confirm it's online
  4. Test with a different URL if your provider has backup servers

No Profiles Have Capacity​

Symptoms:
Unable to start new streams even though profiles are enabled

Possible Causes:

  • All profiles are at their connection limit
  • All profiles are disabled
  • Provider information needs refreshing

How to Fix:

  1. Check the Pool Status to see current usage
  2. Wait for active streams to end
  3. Click Test on the primary profile to refresh connection limits
  4. Enable any disabled profiles
  5. Add a new profile if needed

Streams Not Sharing Connections​

Symptoms:
Multiple people watching the same channel but using separate connections

This is normal if:

  • Transcoding is disabled
  • People started watching at very different times
  • Different transcoding quality settings are selected

To enable connection sharing:

  1. Make sure transcoding is enabled on the playlist
  2. All viewers should use the same transcoding profile
  3. Connection pooling happens automatically for the same channel + quality

💬 Frequently Asked Questions​

Q: Can I use accounts from completely different IPTV providers?​

**AWhile technically possible by setting different URLs, it's not recommended. Provider Profiles is designed for the same provider with multiple accounts. Different providers may have:

  • Incompatible URL structures
  • Different API implementations
  • Varying authentication methods
  • Different channel naming/IDs

For different providers, create separate playlists instead.

Q: Why can't I just set any URL I want?​

A: The URL transformation system uses pattern matching to replace credentials and server URLs. It expects a consistent Xtream API URL format:

http://provider.com/live/username/password/stream123.ts

If Provider B uses a different structure, the transformation will fail:

http://different.com/stream/username/password/123.ts  ← Won't match pattern

Proxy Not Enabled Error

Symptoms:
"Provider Profiles require proxy to be enabled"