What an EPG shows
A typical electronic programme guide gives you, for each channel:
- Now and next: the programme on air and the one after it, often in a banner when you change channel.
- A schedule grid: channels down the side, time across the top, usually covering the next several days.
- Programme details: title, start and end time, a short description, and sometimes the episode, genre, age rating or subtitles flag.
- Actions: set a reminder, record, or, on services with catch-up, play a programme that has already been shown.
Where the listings come from
| TV service | How the guide gets its data |
|---|---|
| Freeview and satellite | Broadcast alongside the channels, so the guide works from the aerial or dish |
| Pay-TV boxes | From the provider’s own system, over the broadcast or the internet |
| IPTV apps | Downloaded as a separate guide file, usually in XMLTV format, then matched to your channel list |
That last row is the important difference. On an IPTV app, the channels and the guide arrive separately and have to be matched up. When they match, you get a full guide; when they don’t, you see “No information” next to a channel that plays perfectly.
How an IPTV guide works in three steps
- The guide file exists. Your provider publishes listings, normally as an XMLTV file: a structured list of channels and programmes with start and stop times.
- Your app downloads it. With an Xtream Codes login, most apps fetch it automatically. With an M3U playlist, the address is either inside the playlist or entered as an EPG URL. See EPG URL.
- Channels are matched by ID. Each channel in your playlist carries an ID, and the app looks up the same ID in the guide file.
Community projects such as iptv-org publish tools for building guide data, but for a paid service, the guide from your own provider is the one built with matching IDs.
EPG on a Firestick and other devices
The guide you see in an IPTV player is part of that player, not of the device. TiviMate is known for a full-screen grid guide, IPTV Smarters shows listings alongside channels, and Smart TV apps vary. On Fire TV, Amazon also offers its own live TV guide for supported apps; that’s separate from your IPTV player’s guide. Our app guides show how each player displays and refreshes the EPG.
Common EPG problems
- The guide is empty: the file didn’t download, or the address is wrong. See TV guide not loading.
- Times are an hour out: usually the device’s time zone or the app’s guide offset. See EPG time offset for the calculator.
- Some channels show “No information”: their IDs don’t match the guide. See channels missing from the guide.
- The guide stops after a day or two: set the app to refresh the guide automatically, as in add an EPG.
For the full picture of setting up and fixing a guide, start at the IPTV EPG hub.