M3U urls not working

[jgonz878 4]

I asked my provider and they dont seem to know.  Need to figure it out or perhaps I can share my m3u with a Admin or Dev and they can try it.

[Luke 42077]

16 minutes ago, jgonz878 said:

I asked my provider and they dont seem to know. 

If I had to guess it's probably because there's some back end software that a lot of them are using and that's why more than one of them are throwing this same error now.

[jgonz878 4]

later tonight I will try a new Emby account to see if it throws the same error code.  Keep you posted.

[emveepee 132]

It doesn't seem to be an Emby issue using your log info  with my guess at the get.php page  I get 884 too from cloudfare

curl -v 'http://cf.business-cdn.me/get.php?username=x_secret3_x&password=x_secret4_x&type=m3u '_plus&output=ts'

Quote

* Request completely sent off
< HTTP/1.1 884
< Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:42:37 GMT
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
< Transfer-Encoding: chunked
< Connection: keep-alive
< CF-RAY: 988447dcc8a1a392-YYZ
< cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
< Server: cloudflare

Martin

Edited October 2, 2025 by emveepee

[jgonz878 4]

Thank you I will try this also.

[emveepee 132]

My test URL has an extra quote in it and I can't edit it.  You might need double quotes if you test on Windows.

[jgonz878 4]

If you’d like i can PM you my url and see what you come up with?

[emveepee 132]

Sure if you want.  Also if you agree let me know and get.php works from the command line, I can add it to NextPVR to test too.  lI that fails, I can confirm if the other API works.

Martin

[jgonz878 4]

sure i’ll send you my url

 

[emveepee 132]

I get an  884 with your URL and curl  but I can't test on Emby because my subscription has expired and I haven't bothered to ask to renew it.  Are you sure your other apps's aren't using the player_api.php URL that Emby doesn't support.  That is working.

Martin

[jgonz878 4]

i pm you another url and xml see what you get

[emveepee 132]

Still 884.  Maybe your other app is smart and can switch to the player_api.php on failure, it uses the same username and password.  I noticed an option in your screen grab to force m3u enable that and see if it work.

 

Edited October 3, 2025 by emveepee

[jgonz878 4]

that’s very odd. I’m gonna have to circle back on this tomorrow as I gotta run. I totally appreciate you looking into this.

[emveepee 132]

I got your PM but I don't answer PM's.  Seeing your screen capture where you turned on "force m3u" in your app and the playlist failed to load confirms that your URL doesn't work with your provider.  Search out proxies and other tools or ask your provider for a working m3u URL, I am done here.

[jgonz878 4]

thanks for your help.  Ill try that.

[sake8881 2]

Just a heads-up, if you have Strong as an IPTV provider, they disabled getting access to the m3u file directly via a link.  It has been like that for me since over a month or so when it was disabled without notice.  I would suggest getting an application like Dispatcharr or m3u-editor.  They are both fairly easy to use and setup if you are familiar with docker.  

[jgonz878 4]

that is exactly who I have and you’re right it happened about a month ago. I’m not familiar with those applications. I will have to learn how to use it. Were you able to use that application to edit it and still use strong?

[sake8881 2]

6 minutes ago, jgonz878 said:

that is exactly who I have and you’re right it happened about a month ago. I’m not familiar with those applications. I will have to learn how to use it. Were you able to use that application to edit it and still use strong?

Yes, and it they both actually work very well.   You'll get access to the channels via the xstream api.  I would suggest trying out both and seeing which one works best for you.  I settled with m3u-editor because the UI is a bit more polished and mobile friendly.  

Edited October 4, 2025 by sake8881

[jgonz878 4]

That’s the best news I’ve heard since I’ve been struggling with this. I was losing hope about creating a new server. What’s funny is that I manage one of the Stong panels, but they don’t provide me with that kind of information. I’ll investigate the editor to see how it works. I’m not familiar with it yet. any additional pointers and how to work it would be wonderful.

[sake8881 2]

5 hours ago, jgonz878 said:

That’s the best news I’ve heard since I’ve been struggling with this. I was losing hope about creating a new server. What’s funny is that I manage one of the Stong panels, but they don’t provide me with that kind of information. I’ll investigate the editor to see how it works. I’m not familiar with it yet. any additional pointers and how to work it would be wonderful.

Yeah, it was pretty frustrating when it stopped out of the blue because now you have to add another piece to the stack.  In terms of additional pointers, I cannot think of any general pointers.  If you have any questions after you have it up and running, I would be happy to help!

[jgonz878 4]

So i’m learning the editor, now the issue is Strong will only give you locked m3u where they can’t be edited. So what i’m noticing is maybe having to go through xtream editor and create an unlocked m3u, just to allow emby to use it. Work in progress 

[jgonz878 4]

Okay, I’ve found the reason why Emby won’t accept my M3U URL. Strong, Dino, and other IPTV providers lock their M3U URLs, preventing any editing. Therefore, when attempting to load a locked M3U, Emby throws an 884 error code. Additionally, when trying to use m3u-editor, it won’t allow editing, resulting in an error code. Regular IPTV apps allow the M3U because it’s solely for playback purposes. To resolve this, go to xtream-editor.com or a similar platform and allow it to create and modify your Extreme playlist using your Extreme credentials. Once done, Extreme generates a new M3U URL and XMLTV URL, which you can then paste back into Emby, and you’ll be back online.

[bigmedia 0]

i was getting same issue now ive done the xtream thing thats let me install the m3u8 but when trying play i get forbidden can anybody see anything 

embyserver new.txt

[jgonz878 4]

When you say you’ve done the xtream thing, could you explain the process so i can better help you.

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, bigmedia said:

i was getting same issue now ive done the xtream thing thats let me install the m3u8 but when trying play i get forbidden can anybody see anything 

embyserver new.txt 589.71 kB · 0 downloads

Can you find out why your provider is sending back forbidden? Once you know that then you can adjust the m3u options to try and get around it.