Load two local files

For the richest results, load both an XMLTV file and an M3U playlist. XMLTV supplies guide channels and programmes; M3U supplies the stream names, URLs and metadata used for matching. You can load either file first.

How channel matching works

EPG Lab uses a conservative hierarchy. Strong matches are preferred, while weaker results are shown for review rather than silently treated as exact.

Matched exports apply only accepted high-confidence mappings (90% or above) that are not flagged for review. Always review alias and fuzzy results before relying on them.

Read the coverage dashboard

Coverage is calculated as matched M3U entries divided by the total number of parsed M3U entries. Duplicate entries are not silently removed, so the denominator reflects the playlist you loaded.

The dashboard separates Exact, Normalized, Fuzzy and No Match counts so you can see not only how many channels matched, but how trustworthy those matches are.

Explore your guide data

EPG Explorer lets you inspect channel IDs, logos, programme counts, first and last programme times, categories and languages. Use Load more channels to progressively render large XMLTV files without creating thousands of DOM nodes at once. Search and filtering still operate over the complete parsed dataset.

Preview timezone behavior safely

The Timezone tab is explicitly a Preview. It reads the source offset when it is present and formats a sample programme using the browser's native date and internationalization APIs. It does not rewrite the original in memory. Use Export converted XMLTV when you explicitly want a separate converted copy.

Working with very large EPG files

For large files, keep only one working tab open, use an uncompressed UTF-8 XMLTV file, and allow the browser a moment to parse before switching tabs. EPG Lab indexes channel IDs and normalized names for matching, uses progressive Explorer rendering, limits visible result rows, and avoids server uploads or proxy requests. Closing other memory-heavy browser tabs can help with very large guides.

For extremely large XMLTV datasets, splitting the guide by provider or date before upload can improve responsiveness while preserving the same analysis workflow.

What stays local

Your XMLTV and M3U files are processed in the visitor's browser and are not uploaded to our server. EPG Lab does not create a server-side stream proxy. External icons or stream URLs may still be requested by the browser if the loaded data references them; browser security and CORS policies can affect those requests.

HTTP reachability, where applicable, is not the same as verified media playback. A CORS or browser-blocked result does not prove that a stream is offline.

Frequently asked questions