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IPTV LEVEL UP

Basics · 6 min read

What EPG and Catch-Up Mean

How the electronic programme guide gets into your player, why it sometimes shows the wrong time or nothing at all, and how catch-up TV works.

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By IPTV LEVEL UP Support Team (Customer setup and support). Published . Written by the IPTV LEVEL UP support team from the setup questions customers ask. App menus change between versions, so we re-check steps when we update a guide.

The EPG (electronic programme guide) is the TV listings grid in your player: it shows what's on now and next on each channel. Catch-up lets you watch programmes that have already aired, for a limited time, on channels that support it. Both depend on data from your provider and on your player supporting the feature.

How the guide gets into your player

The EPG is a separate data feed, usually in a format called XMLTV. Your player downloads it and matches each programme to a channel using a channel ID.

  • With Xtream Codes, most players fetch the guide automatically.
  • With an M3U playlist, you usually paste a separate EPG link into the player's settings.
  • With a MAC portal, the box loads it from the portal.

Guide data covers a few days ahead and needs refreshing. Most players update it daily or let you set the interval.

Why the guide is empty

  1. It hasn't downloaded yet. The first download can take several minutes on large line-ups. Wait, then refresh.
  2. No EPG link added (M3U). Paste the EPG URL from your welcome email into the player.
  3. The channel has no guide data. Not every channel has listings. That doesn't affect the stream.
  4. Mismatched channel IDs. Some players let you assign guide data to a channel manually.

Why the times are wrong

If every programme is off by the same number of hours, it's a time-zone issue:

  • Check the time zone on the device itself first.
  • Then look for an EPG time shift or offset setting in the player and adjust it by the difference.

If times are off by an hour around a daylight-saving change, refresh the guide after the change.

What catch-up is

Catch-up (sometimes "archive" or "timeshift") lets you go back and play a programme that already aired. In players that support it, channels with catch-up show an icon in the guide; you select a past programme and press play.

Things to know:

  • It's only on channels that support it, not every channel.
  • The window is limited, often a few days, and varies by channel.
  • Your player must support catch-up. Some players only offer it in a paid version.

Catch-up isn't recording

Catch-up streams from the provider's archive. Recording saves a copy to your own storage. Some players and boxes can record to USB, but whether you may record a programme depends on the rules where you live.

Make the guide easier to use

  • Hide channel categories you don't watch so the grid is shorter.
  • Add your regular channels to favourites and open the guide in favourites view.
  • If your player allows it, set the guide to refresh automatically overnight.

Set up the guide on your device with our setup guides. The Formuler and Android TV pages include guide-specific tips.