Guides
Video guides step by step
Clear explanations to get the most out of your videos and lists: formats, streaming, the TV guide, your TV and how to fix the most common problems.
Basics
- Parental controls at home: protect lists and the browser with a PINHow to turn on Whatplay’s parental controls, what they protect and what they don’t, how to restrict lists, folders and the browser, and practical tips for families.4 min read
- Syncing with Google Drive and backups: what’s saved and whereHow to keep your lists and favorites the same on all your devices with your Google Drive, what gets saved and who can see it, and how to create and restore a backup.4 min read
- How to save mobile data when watching videoThe math for working out how much data a video uses, Whatplay’s warnings before using mobile data, what downloads in the background and the Android settings that help.5 min read
- Where to find legal content to watch in WhatplayYour own videos, works under Creative Commons licenses or in the public domain, what broadcasters offer openly on their websites, and your TV provider under your contract.5 min read
- The Whatplay browser: how it detects videos and why DRM won’t playHow the browser finds the videos on a website, what each notice means, what DRM is and why protected content from paid platforms only plays on their own website.4 min read
- Video glossary: bitrate, codec, HDR, latency and other termsThe words that come up when talking about video and streaming, explained in a sentence or two: from resolution and fps to manifests, buffers, latency and DRM.4 min read
Lists
- How to make your own M3U list with your videosThe M3U format line by line, with covers and groups, where to host the list and your videos, and how to add it to Whatplay to watch it on all your devices.5 min read
- M3U, M3U8 and W3U: what each one is and when to use whichThe three extensions you’ll come across when organizing your videos: how they’re alike, what W3U adds over M3U and which one suits what you want to do.4 min read
- The XMLTV TV guide: what it is, how it’s matched and how to import itWhat an XMLTV file looks like inside, how it links to your channels by tvg-id or by name, how to import it into Whatplay and what to do if it’s missing or the times are off.5 min read
Playback
- Video and audio formats: containers, codecs and decodingMP4, MKV and TS; H.264, HEVC, VP9 and AV1; AAC, AC-3, DTS and Opus. What each one is, why a video plays on one device but not on another, and how to choose the engine.5 min read
- HLS and DASH: how adaptive streaming worksWhy a video starts out blurry and then turns sharp: manifests, segments and quality levels, the difference between HLS and DASH, and how it all relates to DRM.4 min read
- Dropouts, stuttering and slow loading: how to find the cause and fix itHow to tell whether the problem is your Wi-Fi, your device or the server, and what you can do about it: the 5 GHz band, cable, VPN, buffer, playback engine and quality.5 min read
- Subtitles and audio tracks: formats, how to choose them and why they sometimes don’t showSRT, VTT and ASS, text and image-based subtitles, audio tracks in several languages: how to choose them in Whatplay and what to check when subtitles don’t appear.4 min read
On your TV
- Watching on your TV: Chromecast, WebCast, TV Link or the Android TV appWhatplay’s four ways to watch on your TV, how each one works under the hood, what you need and which one suits your TV model.5 min read
- How to watch videos from your computer or a NAS on your phone and TVShare a folder over HTTP on your home network, create an M3U list for it and open it in Whatplay to watch your videos on your phone or cast them to the TV, without copying them one by one.5 min read
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