M3U link works but takes 10 minutes to load network stream

[ITAdmin2019]

Hello,
I use VLC to watch IPTV on Windows 10 with a .m3u link. The link takes 10 minutes to load and another 10 minutes to load a specific channel, VLC will simply freeze during this time. Once the channel is loaded, VLC and the stream work flawlessly, but getting there can take 20-30 minutes. I believe this is because the channel listing may be too large (i.e. 1000+). It's only the initial load time that takes a long time, post-load, the stream works fine for hours.

Is there a way to:
- load a specific channel or channel shortlist from a .m3u link
- improve performance

Thanks in advance

[Hitchhiker]

Without knowing where the m3u link leads to it's a bit difficult to form an opinion. But I tried a few sites which provide m3u links to sports programmes and they all loaded immediately without any delay.

I suggest you reset prefs by hitting Ctrl + P in vlc and then click the big Reset Preferences button at the bottom as an initial troubleshooting step. Save, exit and restart vlc.

[Bader]

I'm suffering from the same problem.. I'm trying to use IPTV via vlc and it freezes for almost 10 mins before working. any advice on how to fix that?

Thanks.