You won't upset me (but nor should you be promoting anything unpaid on the forum), there are lot's of systems & service out there - and as a statement of fact, the cheaper a system is, means it is usually re-shared more, leading to less stability overall and has fewer channels. Hosting costs, so you find companies over the web, offering a bargain - though the majority do not live up to long term expectations and have issues.
Ultimately it is down to expectations - if a secondary or back up service not so important, if main service, more to take into consideration.
I've made this statement many times and it always seems to bear out true - if a company puts double the clients on a server, they can reduce costs, but this does reduce stability by half (in this example), many online companies work on 'high turnover' model, as primarily online and uncontactable, so when it falls over, c'est la vie;-) and you move on (again) with another provider. Depends on how cheap you want to go - due to my work, I've spent more time than most studying & testing this both hardware, apps and many services & not had what
I would call a decent level of stability from far too many providers tested.
The more people who share, the more you reduce service - which is why Kodi is often so poor/unstable. So, even in this game, you do get what you pay for. Ultimately about half the people I speak to have problems with their IPTV services, which tells me 2 things, there are a lot of unstable providers out there and locally some of the ISP's are not too hot either.
I've tried the apps & still do (including the one I am testing now on a Samsung TV) - if you believe these are even close to the easiest of use and stability/functionality of a decent set-top box (not android/kodi) which the hardware is designed to do the job properly, apps don't work as well - buggy. The latest one I tried spotted straight away that there was an issue with the catch-up, there's always something.
They are usually 'emulators' copying other software.
Like anything, you pay for what you get, the apps I think are generally are best kept for travelling or as a secondary option, but that does depend on your overall level of expectation. Some services offer both options - apps and decent set-top box.
Paul
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