You can not sit all day long watching a channel waiting for your favorite program to pop on. TV broadcasters use a Teletext service called EPG so their viewers know what is coming next after the current program or even in the next few days.
Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is what you know and seen mostly while using satellite boxes, letting you know what program coming next. It is also very handy when you're trying to schedule a recoding. It usually shows up when you click the INFO button on the remote controller and more detailed when the EPG button is pressed, but that how it looks on satellite boxes.
In IPTV it could be a bit different. Depending on the device and the application you are using, the look and functionality of EPG may vary. You might not have EPG button on your IPTV device remote controller or the application you are using does not outline EPG properly. So choosing the right application and device is key, especially if you are into scheduled recoding.
in IPTV, EPG feed comes in 4 ways:
-Built-in inside the IPTV app
-Application detects the EPG from provider
-Imported manually using IPTV Provider's built-in EPG
-Imported from 3rd part sources
-Built-in inside the IPTV app
The best example would be Smart IPTV app. You just pair your playlist with the application and it auto-detects channel names, pairing the corresponding EPG feed to each stream. Your IPTV Provider plays a big role in this using correct names on their streams. It's the best user-friendly method of sorting the EPG although Smart IPTV is not the best IPTV application :)
-Application detects the EPG from provider
IPTV Smarters Pro is a good example. When you add the M3U into the application, if your IPTV provider has a built-in EPG feed in their service, this application automatically generates an EPG url out of your M3U url and feeds itself. Another example would be devices like MAG or any stalker devices/apps. The EPG is automatically detected and pulled from provider's server(s) if they have it applied built-in. This process of making an EPG url from a M3U streaming line is explained below.
-Imported manually using IPTV Provider's built-in EPG
It's exactly what an app like IPTV Smarters Pro does, detecting EPG url from the M3U streaming line, but I want to show you how it is done is few easy steps.
Let's see how you can manually create an EPG url from an M3U url.
Let's say the M3U line you got from your IPTV provider is the one below:
http://fastip.tv.com:80/get.php?username=user1&password=pass1&type=m3u&output=tsThats the M3U url, but with 2 simple edits we can turn it into an EPG url IF the IPTV provider has the EPG built-in.
First, change "get.php" into "xmltv.php". Then remove the ending part of "&type=m3u&output=ts". The outcome should look like this
http://fastip.tv.com:80/xmltv.php?username=user1&password=pass1And thats your EPG url, so if you ever need to create an EPG url to add it manually on an IPTV app, this is how it's done.
-Imported from 3rd part sources
There are other 3rd party EPG providers too. Companies who are speciliazed in providing EPG. They offer EPG feeds in different formats which is useful to both IPTV providers and single users. A simple search on google or any other search engine should guide you find them.