XMLTV and IPTV EPG

EPG means electronic program guide. XMLTV is one common format for that guide data.

Tifo can display EPG when your M3U playlist, Xtream login, Stalker portal or separate XMLTV source provides usable schedule information.

How EPG matching works

An IPTV player usually needs two things:

1. stream entries from a playlist, login or portal;
2. guide entries that match those channels.

If the playlist channel ID is different from the XMLTV guide ID, the stream may play while the guide remains blank.

Common EPG problems

Problem	What it usually means
No guide anywhere	source has no guide data, XMLTV URL is down, or credentials expired
Some channels have no guide	channel IDs or names do not match the XMLTV data
Old program schedule	stale XMLTV output from the source
Guide works in one app but not another	apps may match channels differently

What Tifo can and cannot do

Tifo can read and display usable EPG data. It cannot invent schedules for a source that does not provide them, and it cannot repair stale provider data.

For practical checks, see EPG setup and EPG is not loading.