IPTV Meaning, How It Works & Which IPTV Are The Best To Use

Iptv Meaning, How It Works &Amp; Which Iptv Are The Best To Use 1

What is an IPTV?

How IPTV Works
Which IPTV Are The Best To Use

Read all you should know about what an IPTV is, how it works, and which IPTV is the best to use.

What is an IPTV?

Simply put, IPTV is an acronym of Internet-based Protocol Television. As its name implies, it means everything about it happens over the internet. IPTV delivers television channels through a broadband network or Local Area Network (LAN). Once subscriptions are bought, customers can receive TV shows and on-demand videos through the Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

For this to work, you must have a Broadband internet connection and, of course, a device to view content. This could be a smartphone, a laptop, and/or a smart TV. Other types of TV setups can also be connected to view IPTV.

According to Wikipedia, IPTV is in contrast to “delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite and cable television formats”. Also, IPTV works differently from downloaded media. Here, customers are given the ability to stream the source media continuously. Wiki otherwise refers to it as streaming media. It is also “used for media delivery around corporate and private networks. IPTV in the telecommunications arena is notable for its ongoing standardization process”.

IPTV also involves Live media, Live television streaming, and more. Customers can replay TV shows that were broadcast hours ago and even replay currently airing ones to start from the beginning. As stated earlier, it also involves Video On Demand (VOD), which entails “browsing or viewing items of a media catalogue”.

There have been questions about how secure an IPTV is. IPTV can also be defined as a “secure and reliable” delivery of subscribers’ services, videos, and content. According to Wikipedia, “network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers, advertisers, and customers alike”.

How IPTV Works

Now, here’s how IPTV works. You know how growing up, you switched from one TV channel to another using the remote control? IPTV does not really work that way. Instead, it is very similar to browsing the internet. Yes, you read that right. An article by MUVI describes it better as “merely using IP (Internet Protocol), a transport protocol which is a delivery mechanism to deliver the videos to the viewer.”

Rather than switch through channels, the viewer requests a video or a TV program that they want to view. Video from various sources are then divided into data packets and are sent across the internet. So, when requests are sent out, requested shows are sent back to the viewer. For this to happen, through fibre-optic cables, video servers transmit programs to existing households via internet connection.

The IPTV architecture helps describe how it works better. There are two main types of IPTV architecture (depending on the network architecture of the service provider. They include the centralized and the distributed. Both can be considered for IPTV deployment. While the centralized architecture is simple and easy to manage, the distributed to a bit more complex.

All the media content in the Centralized architecture is stored in the centralized servers. Therefore, it is best for a network that provides relatively small Video-On-Demand (VOD) service deployment. In addition, its Content Delivery Network (CDN) is efficient, and it has an adequate core and edge bandwidth.

The Distributed architecture has even more advantages, especially when it comes to Bandwith usage. It also has inherent system management features (this helps manage a larger server network). If you plan to deploy an extensive system, this should be your best choice from the onset. Distributed Architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to deliver multimedia content effectively.

Which IPTV Are The Best To Use

Before you choose an IPTV to use, you must never forget that there are hundreds of them out there. As we mentioned earlier, it would help if you also remembered that not all of them are reliable and secure. Some make a cheap promise and even promise free content. Do not fall for that. A lot of these sites are not legal and are also not licensed. They could expose up to legal action and also endangers your private information and device security.

Our advice is to still to licensed and legitimate IPTVs. You should know that these may be more expensive to subscribe for when compared to the illegal and unlicensed ones. Choosing them saves you the trouble of facing legal action, endangering your private information and the security of your device.

Some recommended legal IPTVs include; Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and more. Softwaretestinghelp published a list of 14 top-rated IPTV services for readers to choose from. They include;