Asked, and answered in full.

A player for the IPTV subscription you already pay for. You give it your own Xtream Codes details or an M3U link, and it plays what your provider serves: live channels, films and series, with a programme guide. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux today, and the same product is built for LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, Android TV, Android and iPhone.

No, and it cannot get any for you. Playova carries no channels, no streams and no content of any kind. Without a subscription of your own there is nothing in it to watch. Every application says this on its first screen before you add anything.

A subscription from a provider, in one of two forms: an Xtream Codes account, which is a server address, a user name and a password; or an M3U link. Your provider gives you one of these. Playova is not a provider and does not sell either.

No. playova.app is the site for the application: what it does, where to download it, your account and your licences. Watching happens in the application on your own device.

Not today. Playova reads Xtream Codes accounts and M3U playlists. Portal types are on the list of things to look at, and until one is built the honest answer is no.

Three things. It spends your provider connections only on watching: the catalogue, the artwork and the guide come from a local copy, so browsing never opens a second stream. It returns you to the frame you stopped on, not to the beginning of the minute. And it measures a recording from the file rather than from a clock, so the length you see is the length you have.

Open the application, go to sources, and add one. For an Xtream account you enter the server address, the user name and the password; for a playlist you paste the M3U link. The first import reads the catalogue into a local database, which is what makes browsing free of provider connections afterwards.

An Xtream account lets the application ask your provider proper questions, so films and series arrive with their own categories, artwork and details, and the guide comes with them. An M3U playlist is a flat list; some carry only channels, and what the guide and the categories look like depends on what the file holds. Both work.

Yes. Sources sit side by side and you switch between them; the same one cannot be saved twice. Your history, favourites and list are kept per source and per profile, so switching does not mix them. On a television without the engine the number of sources is capped; on desktop and phone it is a paid feature.

No. The television shows a code, you open playova.app/tv on a computer or phone, type the code and enter the subscription there. What you type is locked on your own device before it travels and only that television can open it. It is a one-time setup, not casting and not a remote.

Sealed in the local database on your own device, along with every channel and film address, because those addresses carry your subscription identity too. The seal protects a database file that is copied, backed up or synced somewhere else; it is not protection against someone who can already run programs as you. The panel address and the user name stay readable, because that is how the application tells one subscription from another.

Browsing does not. The catalogue, the artwork and the guide are kept locally, so you can look through what you have while the line is down. Watching does need the connection, because the media itself stays with your provider.

Yes. Channels show what is on now and what follows, on every application: desktop, phone and television. Channels with no guide at all can be filtered out of the list rather than sitting there empty.

On desktop and phone, yes: an external XMLTV source can be imported and the guide edited. On television the guide surface in settings is narrower; a set that carries the engine takes the guide from it, including a single channel’s listing and the archive.

Where your provider keeps an archive, yes. Yesterday’s programme sits in the listing itself and opens from there. The times are written in the time zone your panel uses, not the one your computer is in, so what you pick is what you get. Programmes with no archive behind them are shown as unavailable rather than failing when you press play.

On desktop an open channel can write to a rolling buffer, so the goal can be taken back and then returned to live. It is off by default, and while it is off no buffer process runs at all. On television, rewinding uses the provider’s archive in minute steps, or the window the player itself reports; there is no local buffer on a set. On a phone, what you get depends on the stream.

On desktop, yes: one button while you watch, or scheduled from the guide. On a Samsung television, to a USB disk, while the application is open. On LG, on Android TV and on phones there is no recording screen today.

Playova spends that one connection on what you are watching: the catalogue, the artwork and the guide never open a second one. If you ask for a recording while you are watching, the desktop and the Samsung application say so first and let you choose — wait for the line to be free, or stop watching.

Yes. Star a channel and the list can show only the starred ones. Hide a channel and it is gone from every screen until you bring it back. Both are kept per profile and per source, and a hidden category stays hidden everywhere.

Teletext subtitles are turned into readable text rather than ignored, where the broadcast carries them.

If your provider offers the same channel in a smaller version, the player steps down to it rather than stuttering. If there is no smaller version it says so instead of pretending.

The channel you are likely to open next is warmed in advance, without opening a second viewing connection.

Films and series arrive with their artwork and year, sorted the way you ask, with your provider’s own categories down the side. Search finds films, series and channels as you type, in every language the interface speaks.

Yes, to the frame. A title you closed comes back at the minute and on the picture you left, with nothing black in between. A series opens on the next episode, and each episode keeps its own place.

Yes, and it learns. Audio and subtitles follow the profile language, and a choice you make by hand is remembered for that title. Subtitle size, playback speed and a sleep timer are all in the player. Which tracks exist depends on the file your provider serves.

On desktop, iPhone and Android, yes: queue a title, watch the percentage, pause or cancel it. On a phone the download keeps going while the application is closed. Titles your provider serves as a live-style stream cannot be downloaded. Televisions have no download screen.

You set the limit yourself, in settings, and the queue stays inside it. When the limit is reached the queue waits rather than filling the disk; raise it, or delete something you have watched, and it carries on.

A recently added row shows what arrived in the last thirty days, across every subscription you have added.

The TMDB and IMDb pages open inside the application, with a way back to where you were, so looking something up does not throw away the row you were reading.

On desktop there is a recommendation shelf built from what is in your own catalogue; it is a paid feature and depends on an optional index. There is no chat, and no wizard that asks questions. Anything more than that is a plan, not a feature.

macOS, Windows and Linux are available today from this site. The applications for LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, Android TV and Google TV, Android phones and iPhone are built and tested, but are not published in the stores yet. The download page shows what can be installed right now.

They are with the stores, not with you yet: the LG package is uploaded to its seller portal, the Samsung listing is filled in, the first iPhone and Mac builds are in Apple’s beta review, and the Android package is built but not uploaded. Nothing is published, so no date is promised here. The download page changes the day one is.

No. There is no tvOS application and none is part of this launch. The televisions that have an application today are LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, Android TV and Google TV.

Plus covers supported platforms with one verified account as they become available. Basic covers the scope of the platform you bought it for: a web Basic covers one assigned television or computer, an App Store Basic covers the iPhone and iPad applications of that purchase, and a Google Play Basic covers Android and Android TV.

With Plus, or during a trial once a second device joins the account, the position and your scores travel through your account. On a single device nothing is sent at all — there is nothing to carry it to. One switch in settings stops both, in every application.

On desktop and phone, yes: the picture carries on in a small window while you do something else. On television it is not a product feature, because a set has one screen and one focus.

Yes, on every application. On television it runs from fifteen to ninety minutes, in both the live and the film player.

Neither. There is no in-application Chromecast or AirPlay flow, and no multiview. Sending a subscription to a television is a one-time setup, not casting.

Each profile gets its own language, history, list and scores. A second profile is part of the paid household feature.

Adult categories sit behind a PIN, and deleting a PIN-locked profile asks for the PIN too. A child profile sees only what it should and cannot lift the rule by itself.

Television mode gives larger type, a focus ring and a remote-control path through every screen.

English and Turkish are complete, and the interface supports more, including right-to-left writing. Audio and subtitle choices follow the profile language rather than the interface.

When you add your first source of your own. Downloading the application, opening an account or watching the demonstration does not start it. The end date is shown when it begins, and the days left are on screen while it runs.

Everything that is sold: every supported paid feature, playback included, for fourteen days, on desktop, phone, television and Android TV.

Playing something new needs an active Basic or Plus licence. Your sources, lists, favourites and history are not deleted. Basic and Plus are not on sale yet, so if your trial ends before sales open, write to [email protected] and it will be sorted.

Not yet. The pricing page is a preview of what the plans will be: the prices there are reference prices, not an offer, and no checkout will open. Existing purchases keep the terms they were bought under.

Basic is bought for one platform scope and lasts twelve months without renewing itself; it carries the local player features that platform supports, and no sync between devices. Plus uses one verified Playova account across supported platforms as they become available, carries watch position and score sync, renews yearly, and needs no second purchase when you add a supported platform.

A web Basic licence can be moved to another device once without waiting; after that, thirty days must pass since the last move. Moving does not extend the end date. Restoring an App Store or Google Play purchase is a different thing and does not count as a web transfer.

Not each time. Offline use lasts up to seven days from the last successful check, and never past the real end of the licence.

To watch on a single device with Basic, no. A web purchase needs a recovery email address so the licence can be found again. Plus needs a verified account, because that is what carries it across platforms.

If it does not give the features described when you bought it, and we cannot fix it, your money comes back. Write to [email protected] within fourteen days of the purchase, from the address you bought with, with the order reference. Store purchases are refunded through the store that took the payment.

Your email address, the devices on your account, the state of your subscription, and — only while cross-device resume is on — how far you watched and the scores you gave. Your sources, lists, recordings, downloads, guide and viewing history stay on the machine. Everything that does leave is listed on the privacy page, and you can switch it off.

No Playova application sends the install count today. The service could receive it and the switch is ready in settings, so the decision is yours before anything ever sends it. A television sends none of it and has no such switch, because there is no engine on a set.

On the account and data page, after confirming who you are, you can download your account data and delete the account. Deleting removes your sign-in, devices, watch history, scores and sessions. Payment records and the customer identifier that ties them to you are kept on purpose, because a payment has to be accounted for. Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription taken through a store.

A plain description — Mac, Windows PC, iPhone, LG TV — or the model name where the system gives one. It is sent only when you connect the device to your account, and you can rename it.

Because something else spent your connection. How many simultaneous streams you get is set by your provider. A player that opens a second connection to fetch a poster, probe a channel or refresh a guide spends one of them on housekeeping, and if that was the one you were watching on, the picture stops.

The player tries the cheapest route first and only re-encodes as a last resort; when nothing works it tells you the reason rather than showing a black screen. Check the channel in another of your own applications: if it fails there too, the problem is upstream at your provider.

Then your provider publishes none for it. You can filter those channels out of the list, or on desktop and phone bring your own XMLTV source.

The Mac build is not notarised yet, and that is what macOS says when it is not. Four steps: open Playova.dmg and drag Playova to Applications; try to open it from Applications; when it refuses, open Terminal and run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Playova.app; then open it normally. This goes away when notarisation is in place.

The Windows build carries no code signature yet, so SmartScreen shows its warning for an installer it has not seen before. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Every download from updates.playova.app is the official build; the installer that the command line fetches is checked against the checksum the update feed publishes.

The computer was asleep when the programme ran. A recording starts thirty seconds early and ends two minutes late, and when the machine was not awake the schedule is marked missed rather than pretending a file exists.

Write to [email protected]. If it is about a purchase, include the order reference; never send a password, card details or a recovery code.