What is an EPG, and why is yours half empty?

EPG stands for Electronic Programme Guide. It's the TV guide. Channels down one side, time along the top, programme names in the boxes. If you've ever pressed the Guide button on a Sky or Freeview box, you've used one. In IPTV it does the same job; it's just delivered differently, and that difference explains almost every EPG complaint ever posted online.

How the guide gets to your screen

Your channel list and your programme guide are two separate things, and they travel separately.

The channel list comes from your provider as an M3U playlist or through an Xtream Codes login. It says: here are the channels, and here's where each stream lives.

The guide data is a schedule file, usually in a format called XMLTV, that says: on this channel, at this time, this programme is on. Your player downloads it once or twice a day and lays it over the channel list.

For the grid to fill in, the player has to match each channel in your list to the right schedule in the guide file. Each channel carries an ID tag and the guide file uses the same IDs. When the IDs line up, you get a full guide. When they don't, you get the dreaded "No information".

Why some channels show nothing

This is the most-asked EPG question, and the answer is nearly always one of three things.

1. The IDs don't match. The channel is tagged bbc-one in your playlist but the guide file calls it BBC1.uk. The player can't be sure they're the same channel, so it shows nothing rather than guess wrong. This is a provider-side data problem; the fix is theirs to make, though good players try to bridge the gap automatically.

2. The provider has no guide data for that channel. Smaller, regional, or international channels often aren't covered by the provider's guide source at all. No amount of refreshing conjures data that was never published.

3. The guide hasn't loaded yet. Guide files for big channel line-ups are large. On first setup, give it a few minutes. The channels appear quickly; the guide catches up behind them.

A rough rule: if most channels have guide data and a few don't, it's mismatched or missing IDs on those channels. If no channels have data, the guide source itself hasn't loaded. Check the EPG address, or just refresh.

Xtream vs M3U makes a difference here

Log in with Xtream Codes and guide data comes from the same server as your channels, matched by your provider. It mostly just works.

Use an M3U playlist and the guide usually comes as a separate XMLTV link you add in the player's settings. Matching then depends on how carefully the provider tagged both files. This is why M3U setups have noticeably more guide problems than Xtream ones, and it's one reason we suggest Xtream when your provider offers both. Full comparison in our M3U vs Xtream Codes post.

What seefax does about it

A guide is only useful if you trust it, so seefax puts effort into the unglamorous matching work. It reads the ID tags your provider supplies, and where a channel has no usable guide data it says so rather than showing stale or wrong listings. There's also a setting to hide channels with no guide data at all, handy for cutting a 10,000-channel line-up down to the ones you can browse by programme. And if the guide ever looks out of date, Settings has a manual refresh that re-fetches everything.