TV Explorer
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 38 music players by recommenders
Free web player for IPTV channels from around the world, with no signups or apps needed. Some users report casting and loading problems on Safari and iOS.
Free web player for IPTV channels from around the world, with no signups or apps needed. Some users report casting and loading problems on Safari and iOS.
42 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 37
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 37 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good for language learning
“I've been wanting a nice way to put on various TV shows to practice a different language”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV” “Good for language learning, especially the option to rewind.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV” “I would have killed for this when I was learning languages.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV” Free channels, no signups
“another angle for IPTV is just watching for free directly from your browser”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Best IPTV Apps for 2026 – Tested on Fire TV, Android, and iOS” “my TV Explorer has more than 10K free channels with no signups”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Best IPTV Services in 2026: Top Providers Reviewed” “making IPTV easy to browse privately, without apps or ads”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Global IPTV in the Browser” Fast and light in browser
“It loaded so fast on my mobile and I’m able to watch channels from all over.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 on Hacker News “It feels very light-weight, it's approximately instantly-responsive.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 on Hacker News Browse channels from many countries
“It loaded so fast on my mobile and I’m able to watch channels from all over.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 on Hacker News “I was still able to “waste” the last hour browsing different countries.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fails to load or cast on Safari
“Very cool. What does the browser/device need to enable Casting? ... the app (iPhone/Safari) does not find them.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV” “Just stays on the loading screen for me (Safari, iOS 26).”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 on Hacker News
Other music players people recommend
The four most recommended other music players, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | 172 | 83 | 67% | 12 | 20 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| mpv media player | 82 | 12 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Infuse video player | 78 | 11 | 88% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Kodi | 64 | 38 | 63% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | — |
| TV ExplorerThis page | 37 | 5 | 88% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
39 of the 49 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“tuning in there to see what they cover unfavorably has been useful for me”
“my TV Explorer has more than 10K free channels with no signups”
“It's great and I use it daily.”
“Really great site though!”
“that's INCREDIBLE! thanks so much for creating and sharing this!”
“This is probably the nicest IPTV site I’ve ever seen”
“Just stays on the loading screen for me (Safari, iOS 26).”
“This as a Jellyfin plugin would be awesome!”
“This is such a high quality TV viewing experience, I really love it!”
“This is fantastic, as others have said.”
“It loaded so fast on my mobile and I’m able to watch channels from all over.”
“It feels very light-weight, it's approximately instantly-responsive.”
“It puts the channel's published HLS stream into your browser with no interim steps.”
“another angle for IPTV is just watching for free directly from your browser”
“I was still able to “waste” the last hour browsing different countries.”
“everything blocked in my region”
“it's a UI for all of the channels, which is great!”
“Very cool. What does the browser/device need to enable Casting? ... the app (iPhone/Safari) does not find them.”
“every page including the home page, all list blocks are a mass of [data-noir...]”
“This is very cool. Has potential to be an OTT platform standalone.”
“It's great ! I am just missing the ability to explore TV channels on a world map”
“Good for language learning, especially the option to rewind.”
“I've been wanting a nice way to put on various TV shows to practice a different language”
“One of the coolest things about this is that there’s no commercials.”
“It should be great on any desktop machine!”
“Many include commericals, and I love that part!”
“I would have killed for this when I was learning languages.”
“I was looking for something like this just yesterday.”
“This gives me that same feeling without the travel and hotel room!”
“I think probably the best iteration of these I´ve seen so far.”
“Really nice, great project, thanks!”
“this is lovely I can use it as sort of something in the background while i work”
“Currently the player takes up most of the screen and I can only see like 2 channels in the table and it's hard to scroll.”
“This is great! I like it a lot better than tv.garden”
“having a legitimately cool digital experience”
“I built this app for myself after being disappointed with the options for viewing IPTV online.”
“About 500 MAU. Not one of them complained.”
“happy to see web-first alternatives!”
“making IPTV easy to browse privately, without apps or ads”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.