Qanat vs Perfect Player: a maintained alternative
Qanat is a player only. Bring your own subscription. Perfect Player is a player in the same sense: it plays the list you give it and nothing else.
The short answer
Perfect Player is the lightweight classic: M3U and XSPF playlists with an XMLTV or JTV guide and not much else. We could not find a release newer than 1.6.0.1 from 2022, and the developer's own site was not in use when we checked. The point is not that the app is bad — it is a classic lightweight player for a simple M3U list, and it still does that job well. The point is that we cannot find any update since 2022. Qanat is the maintained alternative for the same job: Xtream Codes and Stalker/MAC portals as well as M3U, movies and series with resume, profiles, a real guide grid, phones by touch and a full Arabic right-to-left interface.
Side by side
| Feature | Qanat | Perfect Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Free | Free + paid full version |
| Contains ads | ✗ | — |
| Xtream Codes | ✓ | — |
| M3U | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stalker / MAC | ✓ | — |
| EPG grid | ✓ | — |
| Catch-up | ✓ | — |
| Timeshift | ✓ | — |
| Recording (DVR) | ✗ | — |
| Multi-view | ✗ | — |
| Chromecast | ✗ | — |
| Profiles + PIN | ✓ | — |
| Phones by touch | ✓ | — |
| Full Arabic RTL | ✓ | — |
| On Google Play | Coming soon | ✗ |
Where Perfect Player is better
- It is the lightweight classic: a small, familiar player for a plain M3U list, without the weight of a larger app.
- Two formats Qanat does not read: XSPF playlists and JTV guides (Qanat reads M3U and XMLTV).
Where Qanat is different
- It is maintained. Qanat is updated regularly, and the Google Play build is on the way.
- More ways in: Xtream Codes and Stalker/MAC portals next to M3U, with several playlists at once.
- Movies and series with resume and next-episode autoplay, plus profiles with a parental PIN.
- A TV guide grid with now and next under every channel, catch-up inside your provider's archive window, timeshift to pause live TV, and programme reminders.
- An in-app mini player that keeps the channel playing in a corner while you browse, and a Qanat row on the Google TV home screen.
- Automatic ts ↔ m3u8 fallback per channel, a background channel health check, and encrypted backup and restore.
- A full Arabic right-to-left interface with 13 languages, phones by touch, and sign-in by QR code with your phone.
- Free, with no ads, no analytics, no tracking and no account.
How to try Qanat
Qanat is free and installs in about a minute. On a Fire TV, open the free Downloader app, enter code 3328259 and confirm the install. On an Android TV box or an Android phone, download the same signed APK. The Google Play build is on the way. Add a playlist from your own provider and your channels appear. The credentials stay encrypted on the device, and the interface is Arabic right-to-left as well as English.