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License: GPL-2.0-or-later Build and run tests Build Status Build Status

IPTV Simple PVR

IPTV Live TV and Radio PVR client addon for Kodi with support for both Gzip and XZ compression of XMLTV. Multiple pairs of M3U/XML files are supported via Kodi PVR since Kodi 20 (Nexus). Supports catchup/archive streams if supported by the IPTV provider as well as streams from Kodi video add-ons.

To use multiple pairs of M3U/XML files simply visit the add-ons settings under Configure, and choose new Add add-on configuration.

IPTV Simple will play back videos and streams using a number of different inputstreams. The options available, such as pause/resume, seeking, timshifting etc. will depend on both the provider of the streams and the inputstream used. For video on demand stream seeking will be enabled within the duration of the video regardless of the inputstream used. The differences occur with the playback of live and catchup streams.

The most common inputstreams for live/catchup streams are:

  • Kodi's internal ffmpeg inputstream - the stream can only be played and stopped
  • inputstream.adaptive - Used for adaptive stream formats such as HLS, Dash, and Smooth Streaming. The stream can be paused/resumed and timesihfting is possible within the sliding window of the stream.
  • inputstream.ffmpegdirect - Will play any of the formats that Kodi's internal inputstream will play, and in addition provides two other playback modes: Timeshifting and Catchup.
    • Timeshifting mode will buffer the stream from the point playback began allowing seeking to any time since then. This inputstream and mode will be selected by default for any HTTP/UDP streams.
    • Catchup mode extends the default catchup functionality in IPTV Simple by allowing timeshifting to any time within the catchup/archive window allowed by the stream provider. For example, if a provider supports a 5 days catchup window the guide/channel menu can be used to jump to any point and traverse channels all while constantly playing back the channel like it's live TV.

The contents of this README.md file are as follows:

  1. Build instructions
  2. Support links
  3. Configuring the addon
  4. Customising Config Files
  5. Appendix

Build instructions

Linux

  1. git clone --branch master https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git
  2. git clone https://github.com/kodi-pvr/pvr.iptvsimple.git
  3. cd pvr.iptvsimple && mkdir build && cd build
  4. cmake -DADDONS_TO_BUILD=pvr.iptvsimple -DADDON_SRC_PREFIX=../.. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../../xbmc/addons -DPACKAGE_ZIP=1 ../../xbmc/cmake/addons
  5. make

Mac OSX

In order to build the addon on mac the steps are different to Linux and Windows as the cmake command above will not produce an addon that will run in Kodi. Instead using make directly as per the supported build steps for Kodi on mac we can build the tools and just the addon on its own. Following this we copy the addon into Kodi. Note that we checkout Kodi to a separate directory as this repo will only only be used to build the addon and nothing else.

Build tools and initial addon build

  1. Get the repos
  • cd $HOME
  • git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc xbmc-addon
  • git clone https://github.com/kodi-pvr/pvr.iptvsimple
  1. Build the Kodi tools
  • cd $HOME/xbmc-addon/tools/depends
  • ./bootstrap
  • ./configure --host=x86_64-apple-darwin --with-platform=macos
  • make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
  1. Build the addon
  • cd $HOME/xbmc-addon
  • make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons ADDONS="pvr.iptvsimple" ADDON_SRC_PREFIX=$HOME

Note that the steps in the following section need to be performed before the addon is installed and you can run it in Kodi.

To rebuild the addon and copy to Kodi after changes (after the initial addon build)

  1. cd $HOME/pvr.iptvsimple
  2. ./build-install-mac.sh ../xbmc-addon

If you would prefer to run the rebuild steps manually instead of using the above helper script check the appendix here

Support links

Configuring the addon

Settings Levels

Settings levels can be selected within the addon settings dialog. The options are: Basic, Standard, Advanced and Expert. If there are settings below that cannot be found it is most likely because they are only available at a higher settings level.

General

General settings required for the addon to function.

  • Location: Select where to find the M3U resource. The options are:
    • Local path - A path to an M3U file whether it be on the device or the local network.
    • Remote path - A URL specifying the location of the M3U file.
  • M3U play list path: If location is Local path this setting must contain a valid path for the addon to function.
  • M3U play list URL: If location is Remote path this setting must contain a valid URL for the addon to function.
  • Cache M3U at local storage: If location is Remote path select whether or not the the M3U file should be cached locally.
  • Start channel number: The number to start numbering channels from. Only used when Use backend channel numbers from PVR settings is enabled and a channel number is not supplied in the M3U file.
  • Only number by channel order in M3U: Ignore any tvg-chno tags and only number channels by the order in the M3U starting at Start channel number.
  • Auto refresh mode: Select the auto refresh mode for the M3U/XMLTV files. Note that caching is disabled if auto refresh is used. The options are:
    • Disabled - Don't auto refresh the files.
    • Repeated refresh - Refresh the files on a minute based interval.
    • Once per day - Refresh the files once per day.
  • Refresh interval: If auto refresh mode is Repeated refresh refresh the files every time this number of minutes passes. Max 120 minutes.
  • Refresh hour (24h): If auto refresh mode is Once per day refresh the files every time this hour of the day is reached.
  • M3U Check Interval: When checking for a valid M3U file, the length of time to wait between attempts. Note that a valid file will only be checked for on startup and once a valid file is found all checks stop.
  • M3U Check Timeout: When checking for a valid M3U file, the length of time to wait before timing out the attempt.
  • Default provider name: If provided this value will be used as the provider name if one was not provided in the M3U. It can be used in combination with the provider mapping file which can supply type, icon path, country code and language code fields.
  • Enable provider mapping: If enabled any provider name read from the M3U or the default provider name will be used to read further metadata from the mapping file. The metadata includes custom name, type, icon path, country code and language code.
  • Provider name mapping file: The config file to map provider names received from the M3U or the default provider name to custom name, icons etc. The default file is providerMappings.xml.

Groups

Settings on customising channel groups.

  • Only load TV channels in groups: Only TV channels that belong to groups (i.e. have a group-title attribute) will be loaded from the M3U file.
  • TV group mode: Choose from one of the following three modes:
    • All groups - Load all TV groups from the M3U file.
    • Some groups - Only load the group specified in the next options
    • Custom groups - Fetch a set of groups from the M3U file whose names are loaded from an XML file.
  • Number of TV groups: The number of TV groups to load when Some groups is the selected mode. Up to 5 can be chosen. If more than 5 are required the Custom groups mode should be used instead.
  • TV group 1-5: If the previous option has been has been set to Some groups you need to specify a TV group to be loaded from the M3U file. Please not that this is the group-title attribute (i.e. "UK (TV)"). This setting is case-sensitive.
  • Custom TV Groups file: The file used to load the custom TV groups (groups). The default file is customTVGroups-example.xml. Details on how to customise can be found in the next section of the README.
  • Only load Radio channels in groups: Only Radio channels that belong to groups (i.e. have a group-title attribute) will be loaded from the M3U file.
  • Radio group fetch mode: Choose from one of the following three modes:
    • All groups - Load all Radio groups from the set-top box.
    • Some groups - Only load the group specified in the next options
    • Custom groups - Fetch a set of groups from the M3U file whose names are loaded from an XML file.
  • Number of radio groups: The number of Radio groups to load when Some groups is the selected mode. Up to 5 can be chosen. If more than 5 are required the Custom groups mode should be used instead.
  • Radio group 1-5: If the previous option has been has been set to Some groups you need to specify a Radio group to be loaded from the M3U file. Please not that this is the group-title attribute (i.e. "UK (Radio)"). This setting is case-sensitive.
  • Custom Radio Groups file: The file used to load the custom Radio groups (groups). The default file is customRadioGroups-example.xml. Details on how to customise can be found in the next section of the README.

EPG

Settings related to the EPG. Note that Kodi will only load the EPG data when it needs to. The add-on will force a load of the EPG data regardless of whether or not Kodi requests it if either catchup is enabled or XMLTV logos are required.

For settings related to genres please see the next section.

  • Location: Select where to find the XMLTV resource. The options are:
    • Local path - A path to an XMLTV file whether it be on the device or the local network.
    • Remote path - A URL specifying the location of the XMLTV file.
  • XMLTV path: If location is Local Path this setting should contain a valid path.
  • XMLTV URL: If location is Remote Path this setting should contain a valid URL.
  • Cache XMLTV at local storage: If location is Remote path select whether or not the the XMLTV file should be cached locally.
  • EPG time shift: Adjust the EPG times by this value, from -12 hours to +14 hours.
  • Apply time shift to all channels: Whether or not to override the time shift for all channels with EPG time shift. If not enabled EPG time shift plus the individual time shift per channel (if available) will be used.
  • Ignore Case for EPG Channel IDs: Ignore Case for EPG Channel IDs, also known as tvg-id's, when matching channels to EPG entries. If disabled, only case senitive matching will be used.

Genres

Settings related to genres.

The addon will read all the <category> elements of a programme and use this as the genre string. It is also possible to supply a mapping file to convert the genre string to a genre ID, allowing colour coding of the EPG. When using a mapping file each category will be checked in order until a match is found. Please see: Using a mapping file for Genres in the Appendix for details on how to set this up.

  • Use genre text from XMLTV when mapping genres: If enabled, and a genre mapping file is used to get a genre type and sub type use the EPG's genre text (i.e. 'category' text) for the genre instead of the Kodi default text. Only the genre type (and not the sub type) will be used if a mapping is found.
  • Location: Select where to find the genres XML resource. The options are:
    • Local path - A path to a gernes XML file whether it be on the device or the local network.
    • Remote path - A URL specifying the location of the genres XML file.
  • Genres path: If location is Local Path this setting should contain a valid path.
  • Genres URL: If location is Remote Path this setting should contain a valid URL.

Channel Logos

Settings related to Channel Logos.

  • Location: Select where to find the channel logos. The options are:
    • Local path - A path to a folder whether it be on the device or the local network.
    • Remote path - A base URL specifying the location of the logos.
  • Channel logos folder: If location is Local Path this setting should contain a valid folder.
  • Channel logos base URL: If location is Remote Path this setting should contain a valid base URL.
  • For local logos path ignore M3U logos: If a local path is selected for logos ignore any logos from the M3U file.
  • Channel logos from XMLTV: Preference on how to handle channel logos. The options are:
    • Ignore - Don't use channel logos from an XMLTV file.
    • Prefer M3U - Use the channel logo from the M3U if available otherwise use the XMLTV logo.
    • Prefer XMLTV - Use the channel logo from the XMLTV file if available otherwise use the M3U logo.

Media

Media entries can be used to access the Video-On-Demand (VOD) library provided by IPTV services. The IPTV media library can be organized either as a plain list of channels or the hierarchy tree made of folders and PVR recordings.

An M3U entry can denote that it's media by having:

  • an M3U property of EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE set to VOD,
  • or one of the M3U attributes of media, media-dir or media-size

More detail on these can be found in Supported M3U and XMLTV elements.

Note that the media item will read from the XMLTV file, where it will read just the first entry. The entry must have a start time greater than now and be within the boundaries of the Kodi PVR Guide settings.

  • Show media as recordings: If enabled, all IPTV media entries can be shown as PVR recordings. Otherwise, they appear as regular PVR channels.
  • Group entries by title: If multiple entries exist with matching titles, create a virtual folder to group them together.
  • Group entries by season: If multiple entries exist with matching titles, try additionally grouping them in sub-folders representing seasons.
  • Include season and episode number in title: Prepend the season and episode numbers to the title.
  • Use M3U Group name in path: Select how to use the M3U group title in the path. Note that it will only be used if a single group name is provided. The options are:
    • Never - Never use it.
    • Always append - Always append it.
    • When no media-dir is present - Only use the group title of the M3U when no media-dir is provided.
  • Force all M3U entries to be media: Force the full playlist to be media, regardless of what tags are present. Since the introduction of multiple instances for PVR add-ons this option can be useful.
  • Include VODs as media: Show VOD as recordings if enabled. If disabled only M3U entries with media attributes will be shown as PVR recordings.

Timeshift

Timeshift settings for pausing/rewinding and fast-forwarding live streams.

Note that if your stream does is not using a supported protocol you can still enable timeshift by adding some KODIPROP's to the M3U file. The following three properties can be added before each channel/stream you wish to enable it for.

#KODIPROP:inputstream=inputstream.ffmpegdirect
#KODIPROP:inputstream.ffmpegdirect.stream_mode=timeshift
#KODIPROP:inputstream.ffmpegdirect.is_realtime_stream=true

For any TS stream an additional property should be added to every M3U entry using timeshift. This will speed up initial load time:

#KODIPROP:mimetype=video/mp2t
  • Enable timeshift: Enable the timeshift feature.
  • Enable timeshift for all streams: Enable the timeshift feature for all streams. Will only apply to streams that do not select a specific inputstream addon for playback. The inputstream.ffmpegdirect addon will be used for timeshift."
  • Enable timeshift for HTTP based streams: Enable the timeshift feature for HTTP based streams. Will only apply to streams that do not select a specific inputstream addon for playback. The inputstream.ffmpegdirect addon will be used for timeshift."
  • Enable timeshift for UDP based streams: Enable the timeshift feature for UDP based streams. Will only apply to streams that do not select a specific inputstream addon for playback. The inputstream.ffmpegdirect addon will be used for timeshift."
  • Always enable timeshift stream mode if missing: If a stream_mode property is not specified along with an inputstream.ffmpegdirect property always add it for any supported stream types. Note that this setting has no effect on catchup VOD streams that are not live.
  • Modify inputstream.ffmpegdirect settings..: Open settings dialog for inputstream.ffmpegdirect for modification of timeshift and other settings.

Catchup

Catchup settings for viewing archived live programmes. Allows the option of 'Play programme' when viewing EPG entry info. Only works if your provider supports catchup.

Note that catchup functionality can work one of two ways. The first is where a standard inputstream is used, allowing the use of the EPG to view a programme from within the catchup window like a video. The second is where the inputstream.ffmpegdirect addon is installed which allows timeshift, either as a video or with playback as live. When playback as live is enabled it's possible to skip back/forward programme by programme and jump to other channel and programmes via the OSD menus. Also note that using inputstream.ffmpegdirect is automatic if using TS/M3U8 streams that support catchup. If this inputstream is incorrectly chosen it's possible to override this by adding a #KODIPROP:inputstream=inputstream.ffmpeg line before the channel's M3U entry (or any alternative inputstream instead).

Catchup tags can be specified in the M3U entries and these tags override any values configured in the Catchup settings. The supported M3U catchup tags are catchup, catchup-source and catchup-days. See the Supported M3U elements section below for further details. The full catchup URL or a query to be appended to the stream URL is either provided in the catchup-source tag (i.e. complete with format specifiers) or in the case this is not provided the Query format string setting is appended to stream URL. See the Catchup format specifiers section below for a more detailed explanation and further examples.

Note that some modes/providers only permit catchup streams that terminate, i.e. the stream will play for a time and then stop. If using inputstream.ffmpegdirect for timeshifting then these streams will restart when they end if they are close to live (within 4 hours). If order for this to work seeking near live is limited to not closer than 1 minute for streams with a 1 second precision and 2 minutes for streams will a 60 second precision.

Addon settings for catchup:

  • Enable catchup: Should be enabled if there are channels supporting catchup in your M3U list.
  • Query format string: A format string (provider dependent) allowing timestamp information to be appended to a URL to denote when to catchup from. E.g. &cutv={Y}-{m}-{d}T{H}:{M}:{S}, which allows year, month, day, hour minute and second to be inserted to give: &cutv=2019-11-26T22:00:32. If the M3U entry using has a catchup mode of default or append and a catchup-source tag is provided in the M3U entry this setting will be ignored.
  • Catchup window: The number of days into the past in which it is possible to catchup on a show. Can be overidden in an M3U entry using a 'catchup-days' tag.
  • Channels support catchup using mode: If enabled it is assumed that channels support catchup using the selected catchup mode while also obeying the override mode. If required the 'Query format string' and 'Catchup window' number of days will come from the addon settings. If this option is disabled then an M3U entry must have at least a catchup= tag to enable catchup. The options for how to build the catch URL are:
    • Disabled - Do not assume all channel support catchup.
    • Default - Use catchup source as the full catchup URL, if there is no catchup source use Append mode.
    • Append - Append the catchup source to the channel URL, if there is no catchup source append the Query format string instead.
    • Shift (SIPTV) - Append the standard SIPTV catchup string to the channel URL.
    • Flussonic - Build a flussonic URL from the channel URL.
    • Xtream codes - Build an Xtream codes URL from the channel URL.
  • Override catchup for channels: Set the scope for overriding the catchup mode. Options are:
    • without catchup mode - Only include channels with no catchup mode set (except legacy SIP timeshift catchup mode).
    • with catchup mode - Only include channels with catchup mode set (ignore those without a catchup mode).
    • with and without catchup mode (all channels) - Include all channels ignoring any catchup mode from the M3U.
  • Catchup correction: Adjust the time used for catchup stream URL generation by this value, from -12 hours to +14 hours. Useful for catchup streams which are geo mis-matched to the wrong time. Note that this value can be overridden by values in the M3U file, see Supported M3U and XMLTV elements.
  • Play from EPG in Live TV mode (using timeshift): When disabled any catchup show from the past will be played like a video (bounded by start and end times). If enabled, it will instead act like a live stream with timeshift, also allowing the ability to skip back and forward programmes. Note that the only effect this option has on streams that do not support timeshifting is whether or not to apply the before/after buffer.
  • Buffer before programme start: The amount of buffer to give before the playback start point of an EPG entry that will be watched as a video.
  • Buffer after programme end: The amount of buffer to give after the playback end point of an EPG entry that will be watched as a video.
  • Catchup only available on finished programmes: When selected from the EPG the current live programme cannot be watched as catchup until finished.

Advanced

Advanced settings such as multicast relays.

  • Transform multicast stream URLs: Multicast (UDP/RTP) streams do not work well on Wifi networks. A multicast relay can convert the stream from UDP/RTP multicast to HTTP. Enabling this option will transform multicast stream URLs from the M3U file to HTTP addresses so they can be accesssed via a 'udpxy' relay on the local network. E.g. a UDP multicast stream URL like udp://@239.239.3.38:5239 would get transformed to something like http://192.168.1.1:4000/udp/239.239.3.38:5239.
  • Relay hostname or IP address: The hostname or ip address of the multicast relay (udpxy) on the local network.
  • Relay port: The port of the multicast relay (udpxy) on the local network.
  • Use FFMpeg http reconnect options if possible: Note this can only apply to http/https streams that are processed by libavformat (e.g. M3u8/HLS). Using libavformat can be specified in an M3U file by setting the property inputstream as inputstream.ffmpeg. I.e. adding the line: #KODIPROP:inputstream=inputstream.ffmpeg. If this opton is not enabled it can still be enabled per stream/channel by adding a Kodi property, i.e.: #KODIPROP:http-reconnect=true.
  • Use inputstream.adaptive for m3u8 (HLS) streams: Use inputstream.adaptive instead of ffmpeg's libavformat for m3u8 (HLS) streams.
  • User-Agent: Select which User-Agent to use if there is not one supplied as a property or as part of the channel stream URL.
  • Inputstream name: Use this inputsream as the default if there is not one supplied as a property (KODIPROP) of the channel. Use with care as this will disable any use of the addon's default stream inspection behaviour. Note that for inputstream.ffmpegdirect if both mimetype and inputstream.ffmpegdirect.manifest_type are unset stream inspection will still occur if required.
  • MIME type: Use this MIME type as the default if there is not one supplied as a property (KODIPROP) of the channel. Use with care as this will disable any use of the addon's default stream inspection behaviour.

Customising Config files

The various config files have examples allowing users to create their own, making it possible to support custom config, currently regarding genres. The best way to learn about them is to read the config files themselves. Each contains details of how the config file works.

All of the files listed below are overwritten each time the addon starts (excluding genres.xml). Therefore if you are customising files please create new copies with different file names. Note: that only the files below are overwritten any new files you create will not be touched.

After adding and selecting new config files you will need to clear the EPG cache Settings->PVR & Live TV->Guide->Clear cache for it to take effect in the case of EPG relatd config and for channel related config will need to clear the full cache Settings->PVR & Live TV->General->Clear cache.

If you would like to support other formats/languages please raise an issue at the github project https://github.com/kodi-pvr/pvr.iptvsimple, where you can either create a PR or request your new configs be shipped with the addon.

There is one config file located here: userdata/addon_data/pvr.iptvsimple/genres/kodiDvbGenres.xml. This simply contains the DVB genre IDs that Kodi supports and uses hex for the IDs. Can be a useful reference if creating your own configs. There is also userdata/addon_data/pvr.iptvsimple/genres/kodiDvbGenresTypeSubtype.xml, which uses two decimal values instead of hex. This file is also overwritten each time the addon restarts.

Using a mapping file for Genres

Users can create there own genre mapping files to map their genre strings to genre IDs. This allows the EPG UI to be colour coded per genre.

Kodi uses the following standard for its genre IDs: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/300400_300499/300468/01.11.01_60/en_300468v011101p.pdf

By default the addon will try to load a file called genres.xml and expect it to be here: userdata/addon_data/pvr.iptvsimple/genres/genreTextMappings/. However any genres file can be chosen in the addon settings.

The following files are currently available with the addon (this file uses hexadeciaml genreId attributes): - Rytec-UK-Ireland.xml

The file can specify either a hexadecimal genreId attribute (recommended) or separate integer values for type and subType. Mathematically genreId is equals to the logical OR or type and subType, i.e. genreId = type | subType.

Note: Once mapped to genre IDs the text displayed can either be the DVB standard text or the genre string text supplied in the XML. If using the text supplied in the XML only the genre type will be passed and each value will correspond to a category and colour (depedning on skin) on the UI. Here are the categories (all examples have 0 for the sub type). It's important you map correctly as genres can be used for search.

- 0x10: General Movie / Drama
- 0x20: News / Current Affairs
- 0x30: Show / Game Show
- 0x40: Sports
- 0x50: Children's / Youth Programmes
- 0x60: Music / Ballet / Dance
- 0x70: Arts / Culture
- 0x80: Social / Political / Economics
- 0x90: Education / Science / Factual
- 0xA0: Leisure / Hobbies
- 0xB0: Special Characteristics
  • <name>: There should be a single <name> element. The value should denote the purpose of this genre mapping file.
  • The value of the <genre> element is what is used to map from in order to get the genre IDs. Many mapping values are allowed to map to the same IDs.

Example using hexadecimal genreId attributes (recommended):

<genres>
  <name>My Streams Genres Mappings</name>
  <genre genreId="0x10">Movie</genre>               <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0x10">Movie - Comedy</genre>      <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0x10">Movie - Romance</genre>     <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0x30">TV Show</genre>             <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0x30">Game Show</genre>           <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0x30">Talk Show</genre>           <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre genreId="0xA0">Leisure</genre>             <!-- Leisure/Hobbies - 0xA0 in DVB hex-->
</genres>
  • The genreId attribute is a single hex value ranging from 0x10 to 0xFF.

Example using integer type and subtype attributes:

<genres>
  <name>My Streams Genres Mappings</name>
  <genre type="16" subtype="0">Movie</genre>               <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="16" subtype="0">Movie - Comedy</genre>      <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="16" subtype="0">Movie - Romance</genre>     <!-- General Movie/Drama - 0x10 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="54" subtype="0">TV Show</genre>             <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="54" subtype="0">Game Show</genre>           <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="54" subtype="0">Talk Show</genre>           <!-- Show/Game Show - 0x30 in DVB hex-->
  <genre type="160" subtype="0">Leisure</genre>            <!-- Leisure/Hobbies - 0xA0 in DVB hex-->
</genres>
  • The type attribute can contain a values ranging from 16 to 240 in multiples of 16 (would be 0x10 to 0xF0 if in hex) and the subtype attributes can contain a value from 0 to 15 (would be 0x00 to 0x0F if in hex). subtype is optional.

Custom Channel Groups (Channels)

Config files are located in the userdata/addon_data/pvr.iptvsimple/channelGroups folder.

The following files are currently available with the addon: - customTVGroups-example.xml - customRadioGroups-example.xml

Note that both these files are provided as examples and are overwritten each time the addon starts. Therefore you should make copies and use those for your custom config.

The format is quite simple, containing a number of channel group names.

Provider Name Mappings (Channels)

Config files are located in the userdata/addon_data/pvr.iptvsimple/providers folder.

The following file is currently available with the addon: - providerMappings.xml

Note that the provided file is a working example but it is overwritten each time the addon starts. Therefore you should make copies and use those for your custom config.

The format is quite simple, containing a number of elements. Each one of those elements can map to name, type, icon path, country codes and language codes.

Appendix

Catchup format specifiers

The format specifiers are substitution based and work as follows:

  • {utc}: The start time of the programme in UTC format.
  • ${start}: Same as {utc}.
  • {lutc}: Current time in UTC format.
  • ${now}: Same as {lutc}.
  • ${timestamp}: Same as {lutc}.
  • {utcend}: The start time of the programme in UTC format + {duration}.
  • ${end}: Same as {utcend}.
  • {Y}: The 4-digit year (YYYY) of the start date\time.
  • {m}: The month (01-12) of the start date\time.
  • {d}: The day (01-31) of the start date\time.
  • {H}: The hour (00-23) of the start date\time.
  • {M}: The minute (00-59) of the start date\time.
  • {S}: The second (00-59) of the start date\time.
  • {duration}: The programme duration + any start and end buffer (if set).
  • ${duration}: Same as {duration}.
  • {duration:X}: The programme duration (as above) divided by X seconds. Allows conversion to minutes and other time units. The minimum divider is 1, it must be an integer (not 1.5 or 2.25 etc.) and it must be a positive value. E.g. If you have a duration of 7200 seconds and you need 2 hours (2 hours is 7200 seconds), it means your divider is 3600: {duration:3600}. If you need minutes for the same duration you could use: {duration:60} which would result in a value of 120.
  • {offset:X}: The current offset (now - start time) divided by X seconds. Allows conversion to minutes and other time units. The minimum divider is 1, it must be an integer (not 1.5 or 2.25 etc.) and it must be a positive value. E.g. If you need an offset of 720 for a start time of 2 hours ago (2 hours is 7200 seconds), it means your divider is 10: {offset:10}. If you need minutes for the same offset you could use: {offset:60} which would result in a value of 120.
  • {catchup-id}: A programme specific identifier required in the catchup URL, value loaded from XMLTV programme entries.

Note that all timestamp specifiers ({utc}, ${start}, ${end} etc.) also support an optional extra argument which is a format string. The format string can contain Y, m, d, H, M, S which will represent that numeric value in the curent locale. Examples are provided below.

There are 3 specifiers that are also valid for use in the channel URL as there are some providers that require a now timestamp even for the live stream. These are {lutc}, ${now} and ${timestamp}. Their variants that also allow a format string are also permitted.

Here’s some examples of how the different formats would look:

  • ?utc={utc}&lutc={lutc}
  • &t={Y}-{m}-{d}-{H}-{M}-{S}
  • ?offset={offset:60}
  • ?start={utc:YmdHM}&end=${end:YmdHM}
  • ?start={utc:Ymd-H-M}&end=${end:Ymd-H-M}

Supported M3U and XMLTV elements

M3U format elements:

#EXTM3U tvg-shift="-4.5" x-tvg-url="http://path-to-xmltv/guide.xml" catchup-correction="-2.5"
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-x" tvg-name="Channel_X" group-title="Entertainment" tvg-chno="10" tvg-logo="http://path-to-icons/channel-x.png" radio="true" tvg-shift="-3.5",Channel X
#EXTVLCOPT:program=745
#KODIPROP:key=val
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-x.ts
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-x" tvg-name="Channel-X-HD" group-title="Entertainment;HD Channels",Channel X HD
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-x-hd.ts
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-y" tvg-name="Channel_Y",Channel Y
#EXTGRP:Entertainment
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-y.ts
#EXTINF:0,Channel Z
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-z.ts
#EXTINF:0 catchup="default",Channel A
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-a.ts
#EXTINF:0 catchup="default" catchup-source="http://path-to-stream/live/catchup-b.ts&cutv={Y}-{m}-{d}T{H}:{M}:{S}" catchup-days="3",Channel B
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-b.ts
#EXTINF:0 catchup="append" catchup-source="&cutv={Y}-{m}-{d}T{H}:{M}:{S}" catchup-days="3" catchup-correction="-4.0",Channel C
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-c.ts
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-d" tvg-name="Channel-D" catchup="shift" catchup-days="3",Channel D
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-d.ts
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-e" tvg-name="Channel-E" timeshift="3",Channel E
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-e.ts
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="channel-f" tvg-name="Channel-F" catchup="default" catchup-days="1" catchup-source="http://yoururl/channeld/video-{utc}-{duration}.m3u8",Channel F
http://yoururl/channeld/video.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1 catchup="fs",Channel G
http://list.tv:8888/325/mono.m3u8?token=secret
#EXTINF:-1 catchup="xc",Channel H
http://list.tv:8080/[email protected]/my_password/1477
#EXTINF:-1 catchup="xc",Channel I
http://list.tv:8080/live/[email protected]/my_password/1477.m3u8
#EXTINF:-1 catchup="vod" catchup-source="http://path-to-stream/live/catchup-j.ts&cutv={Y}-{m}-{d}T{H}:{M}:{S}" catchup-days="3",Channel J
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-j.ts
#EXTINF:-1 catchup="vod",Channel K
plugin://plugin.video.my-vod-addon/play/catalog/channels/d8659669-b964-414c-aa9c-e31d8d15696b
#EXTINF:-1,Channel L
#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-l.mkv
#EXTINF:-1 media="true",Channel M
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-m.mkv
#EXTINF:-1 radio="true" media="true" media-size="102400000",Channel N
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-n.mkv
#EXTINF:-1 media-dir="/movies/scifi",Channel O
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-o.mkv

Explanation for Catchup entries

  • For Channel A the stream URL will be used and the Query format string from the addon settings will be appended to construct the catchup URL.
  • For Channel B the stream URL will not be used, instead using catchup-source as the catchup URL.
  • For Channel C the stream URL will be used and catchup-source will be appended to form the catchup URL. The time used for the URL generation will corrected by -4.0 hours.
  • For Channel D this is an example of a siptv style entry which auto generates the catchup-source by appending ?utc={utc}&lutc={lutc} or &utc={utc}&lutc={lutc} to the channel URL.
  • For Channel E this is an example of the old siptv style entry which uses a timeshift tag to combine shift and days into one field. The catchup-source output will be the same as channel D.
  • For Channel F this is an example of a flussonic style entry manually specifying the catcup-source. Note that the mode is still default.
  • For Channel G this is an example of a flussonic style entry which auto generates the catchup-source.
  • For Channel H this is an example of a xtream codes style entry which auto generates the catchup-source for ts streams.
  • For Channel I this is an example of a xtream codes style entry which auto generates the catchup-source for m3u8 streams.
  • For Channel J this is an example of a VOD style entry which will only populated and play the catchup-source using a value of 3 catchup-days.
  • For Channel K this is an example of a VOD style entry which uses a default catchup-source of {catchup-id} and will allow playback of any EPG entry with a catchup-id past, present or future via a Kodi plugin URL.
  • For Channel L this is a tv media entry specified by the M3U EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE property.
  • For Channel M this is a tv media entry specified by the media attribute on the M3U entry.
  • For Channel N this is a radio media entry of size 102400000 bytes.
  • For Channel O this is a tv media entry specifying a directory path.

Channel k Plugin example:

-m3u

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-chno="131" tvg-id="131@footv" tvg-name="FooBar" tvg-logo="https://images.provider.iptv/channels/foobar/logo.png" group-title="Drama" radio="false" catchup="vod",FooBar TV
https://service.provider.iptv/hls/channel/foobar/master.m3u8

-programme

<programme start="20201021230000" channel="131@footv" catchup-id="plugin://plugin.video.footv/?mode=vod&amp;&amp;catchupid=episode1" stop="20201022010000">
    <title lang="en">All Aboard: Foo Bar</title>
</programme>

Note: The minimum required for a channel/stream is an #EXTINF line with a channel name and the URL line. E.g. a minimal version of the example file above would be:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,Channel X
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-x.ts
#EXTINF:0,Channel X HD
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-x-hd.ts
#EXTINF:0,Channel Y
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-y.ts
#EXTINF:0,Channel Z
http://path-to-stream/live/channel-z.ts
  • #EXTM3U: Marker for the start of an M3U file.
    • tvg-shift: Value that will be used for all channels if a tvg-shift value is not supplied per channel.
    • x-tvg-url: URL for the XMLTV data. Only used if the addon settings do not contain an EPG location for XMLTV data.
    • catchup-correction: Value that will be used for all channels if a catchup-correction value is not supplied per channel.
  • #EXTINF: Contains a set of values, ending with a comma followed by the channel name.
    • tvg-id: A unique identifier for this channel used to map to the EPG XMLTV data.
    • tvg-name: A name for this channel in the EPG XMLTV data.
    • group-title: A semi-colon separted list of channel groups that this channel belongs to.
    • tvg-chno: The number to be used for this channel.
    • tvg-logo: A URL pointing to the logo for this channel. For relative URLs .png will be appended if not provided, absolute URLs will not be modified.
    • radio: If the value matches "true" (case insensitive) this is a radio channel.
    • tvg-shift: Channel specific timezone shift value in hours for epg entries.
    • catchup: Which mode of catchup to use. Supported modes of default and append. Required unless the setting All channels support catchup is enabled.
    • catchup-source: Can contain the full catchup URL (complete with format specifiers) if in default mode. Or if the mode is append just the query string with format specifiers which will be appended to the channel URL. If omitted the Query format string from settings will be appended.
    • catchup-days: The number of days in the past catchup is available for.
    • catchup-correction: A correction to the time used for catchup stream URL generation. Useful for catchup streams which are geo mis-matched to the wrong time.
    • provider: The name that idenitifes this provider and can be used for any provider mappings if required. No other provider tags are valid if this tag is omitted.
    • provider-type: A type which must match one of addon, satellite, cable, aerial, iptv or unknown.
    • provider-logo: A path to the location where the icon for this provider is available.
    • provider-countries: The country for this provider. Should be passed using an ISO-3166 country codes, comma separated (e.g. 'IE,GB'). Leave empty or omit for unspecified.
    • provider-languages: The languages for this provider. Should be passed using RFC-5646 language codes, comma separated (e.g. 'en_GB,en_IE,fr_FR'). Leave empty or omit for unspecified.
    • media: Specifies that this entry is a media entry by setting the values true true. Same as setting #EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE to VOD.
    • media-dir: An optional directory path which should specifiy where in the hierarchy this media entry should be represented. The path separator is /.
    • media-size: An optional size of the media entry in bytes. Note: this is not usually available for VOD libraries.
    • realtime: Live streams in PVR disable features such as passthrough by default. Set this item to "false" to bypass this behaviour if the stream should not be treated like VOD/Media in the UI.
  • #EXTGRP: A semi-colon separted list of channel groups. Note that this is a begin directive, i.e. all channels following this directive will have these groups until an empty #EXTGRP directive is reached. These groupings wil also be reset by any group-title tag for an #EXTINF channel directive.
  • #KODIPROP: A single property in the format key=value that can be passed to Kodi. Multiple can be passed each on a separate line.
  • #EXTVLCOPT: A single property in the format key=value that can be passed to Kodi. Multiple can be passed each on a separate line. Note that if either a http-user-agent or a http-referrer property is found it will added to the URL as a HTTP header as user-agent or referrer respectively if not already provided in the URL. These two fields specifically will be dropped as properties whether or not they are added as header values. They will be added in the same format as the URL below.
  • #EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE: If this element is present with a value of VOD (Video on Demand) the stream is marked as not being live.
  • URL: The final line in each channel stanza is the URL used for the stream. Appending |user-agent=<agent-name> will change the user agent. Other HTTP header fields can be set in the same fashion: |name1=val1&name2=val2 etc. The header fields supported in this way by Kodi can be found here. If you want to pass custom headers that are not supported by Kodi you need to prefix them with an !, for example: : |!name1=val1&!name2=val2.

When processing an XMLTV file the addon will attempt to find a channel loaded from the M3U that matches the EPG channel. It will cycle through the full set of M3U channels checking for one condition on each pass. The first channel found to match is the channel chosen for this EPG channel data.

  • 1st pass: Does theid attribute of the <channel> element from the XMLTV match the tvg-id from the M3U channel. If yes we have a match, don't continue.
  • Before the second pass: Was a value provided, if not skip this channels EPG data.
  • 2nd pass: Does the as it is or with spaces replaced with '_''s match tvg-name from the M3U channel. If yes we have a match, don't continue.
  • 3rd pass: Does the match the M3U channel name. If yes we have a match, phew, eventually found a match.

XMLTV format elemnents:

General information on the XMLTV format can be found here. There is also the DTD.

Channel elements

<channel id="channel-x">
  <display-name>Channel X</display-name>
  <display-name>Channel X HD</display-name>
  <icon src="http://path-to-icons/channel-x.png"/>
</channel>
  • When matching against M3U channels the id attribute will be used first, followed by each display-name.
  • If multiple icon elements are provided only the first will be used.

Programme elements

  <programme start="20080715003000 -0600" stop="20080715010000 -0600" channel="channel-x" catchup-id="34534590">
    <title>My Show</title>
    <desc>Description of My Show</desc>
    <category>Drama</category>
    <category>Mystery</category>
    <sub-title>Episode name for My Show</sub-title>
    <date>20080711</date>
    <star-rating>
      <value>6/10</value>
    </star-rating>
    <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">0.1.0/1</episode-num>
    <episode-num system="onscreen">S01E02</episode-num>
    <credits>
      <director>Director One</director>
      <writer>Writer One</writer>
      <actor>Actor One</actor>
    </credits>
    <icon src="http://path-to-icons/my-show.png"/>
  </programme>

The programme element supports the attributes start/stop in the format YYYmmddHHMMSS +/-HHMM and the attribute channel which needs to match the channel element's attribute id. There is an extra attribute which is not part of the XMLTV specification called catchup-id. Some providers require a programme specific id, this value can be used as part of the catchup query format string specifiers.

  • title: The title of the prgramme.
  • desc: A descption of the programme.
  • category: If multiple elements are provided only the first will be used to populate the genre.
  • sub-title: Used to populate episode name.
  • date: Used to populate year and first aired date.
  • star-rating: If multiple elements are provided only the first will be used. The value will be converted to a scale of 10 if required.
  • episode-num: Thexmltv_nssystem will be preferred over onscreen and the first successfully parsed element will be used.
    • For episode-num elements using the xmltv_ns system at least season and episode must be supplied, i.e. 0.1 (season 1, episode 2). If the 3rd element episode part number is supplied it must contain both the part number and the total number of parts, i.e. 0.1.0/2 (season 1, episode 2, part 1 of 2).
    • For episode-num elements using the onscreen system only the S01E02 format is supported.
  • credits: Only director, writer and actor are supported (multiple of each can be supplied).
  • icon: If multiple elements are provided only the first will be used.

Online M3U and XMLTV Editors

XEEV

If using the XEEV online editor for your playlist storage you should set the Use XC2 API Protocol flag.

HTTP header fields supported by Kodi

HTTP header fields can be sent by appending the following format to the URL: |name1=val1&name2=val2. Note that Kodi does not support sending not standard header fields.

Special fields

cookie, cookies, seekable, user-agent

Standard fields

accept, accept-language, accept-datetime, authorization, cache-control, connection, content-md5, date, expect, forwarded, from, if-match, if-modified-since, if-none-match, if-range, if-unmodified-since, max-forwards, origin, pragma, range, referer, te, upgrade, via, warning, x-requested-with, dnt, x-forwarded-for, x-forwarded-host, x-forwarded-proto, front-end-https, x-http-method-override, x-att-deviceid, x-wap-profile, x-uidh, x-csrf-token, x-request-id, x-correlation-id

Other fields supported by ffmpeg

reconnect_at_eof, reconnect_streamed, reconnect_delay_max, icy, icy_metadata_headers, icy_metadata_packet

Manual Steps to rebuild the addon on MacOSX

The following steps can be followed manually instead of using the build-install-mac.sh in the root of the addon repo after the initial addon build has been completed.

To rebuild the addon after changes

  1. rm tools/depends/target/binary-addons/.installed-macosx*
  2. make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons ADDONS="pvr.iptvsimple" ADDON_SRC_PREFIX=$HOME

or

  1. cd tools/depends/target/binary-addons/macosx*
  2. make

Copy the addon to the Kodi addon directory on Mac

  1. rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Kodi/addons/pvr.iptvsimple"
  2. cp -rf $HOME/xbmc-addon/addons/pvr.iptvsimple "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Kodi/addons"