The TV Guide
The TV Guide view (Ctrl+3) shows what is on, laid out against your own channel list. Each row is a channel with its logo and a number, times run across the top, and a line marks the time now. The guide opens twelve hours back, scrolled to what is on now, so the evening before is in view as well.
Getting a guide
- A playlist that names a guide in its x-tvg-url (or url-tvg) tag has one. The guide is fetched in the background as soon as the playlist is opened, whether or not you are looking at the TV Guide view.
- To give a playlist a guide, or change it, pick the playlist in the Playlist view and edit its x-tvg-url tag in the inspector. That opens Playlist TV Guide URL, where the address goes.
- When you open a playlist from an Xtream Codes address with Open M3U from URL.., the TV guide URL box fills itself in with that account's guide.
- A guide can be an address or a file on this computer, and gzipped guides (.gz) are read as they are. A .xmltv file opened from Explorer, dropped on the window or passed on the command line goes straight to the TV Guide view.
- With no playlist open, every guide the studio has kept is shown folded into one.
Keeping the guide
- Guides are kept between runs, so opening a playlist again does not fetch its guide again. A guide from the web is fetched again after the time set under Settings > TV Guide > Fetch a guide again after (an hour unless you change it). A guide file is read again when the file changes. If fetching fails, the studio waits a quarter of an hour before trying again.
- Every fetch is added to what was kept before, so the guide builds up a past you can look back over. Settings > TV Guide > Keep past programmes for sets how long, from none up to 14 days (14 unless you change it). Clear Guides.. on the same page throws the kept guides away.
- Sync Guide on the toolbar fetches the guide again now.
The status bar
The status bar counts the channels and programmes, and says how many of the playlist's channels the guide actually has data for, for example "Guide data for 212 of 240 channels in this playlist". A low number usually means the channels' tvg-id tags do not match the guide. While a guide is being fetched, the status bar shows how far it has got, and if fetching failed it says why.
Moving around
- The toolbar has A day back, Earlier, Now, Later and A day on. Earlier and Later move two hours.
- In the grid, the arrow keys step from programme to programme and from channel to channel and fill the details panel as they go. PgUp and PgDn move a screen of channels, Home and End go to the start and end of the guide, and Esc lets go of the programme picked.
- Playlist Channels Only shows just the channels your playlist carries, in playlist order and under your playlist's names. Channels the guide has nothing for still get an empty row. With it off, your playlist's channels come first and every other channel in the guide follows.
- Show in TV guide, on the Playlist view's right-click menu, opens the guide on that channel. What you pick in the Playlist, Films and Series views is picked in the guide too.
Finding a programme
- The search bar (Ctrl+F) finds programmes by title or episode title, and channels by name. F3 and F2 go to the next and previous match.
- Search Dialog.. (Ctrl+Shift+F), with the guide in front, opens Search Programmes. There you can search a time span (Now and later, Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, This week, or your own Time span), either All channels or This channel, and tick Also search the description. Case Sensitive, Whole Words, Regular Expression and Trim Spaces work as they do elsewhere.
Colours and marks
- Each kind of programme the guide names (news, sport, film and so on) gets its own colour. Guide Colors.. on the toolbar lists them all, plus All other programmes. Pick one, then Change color.. or Reset.
- A programme booked for recording carries a small mark. A programme that has finished but can still be had from the provider's catch-up carries another.
The details panel
Picking a programme opens a panel beside the grid:
- The picture the guide gives for it, and its title and episode title.
- Broadcast: the channel, date, time and duration. For a programme that has finished on a catch-up channel, it also shows until when it can still be had.
- Programme: what the film and TV databases know. That can be the season and episode, year, running time, rating, parental rating, cast and director, plus which database answered (Looked up in). The genres show as coloured tags that match the guide's colours. A database's poster replaces the guide's picture when it has a better one.
- Description: the guide's own text, or the database's when the guide has none.
What the guide knows shows at once, and a database's answer is filled in over it when it arrives. Right-click the picture to Save image as.. or Copy image.
Right-click a programme
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Watch this channel | Switches to the Player. |
| Record this programme | Records what is left of it, books it, or fetches it from catch-up (see Recording). |
| Record the whole series | Sets up a series rule. It is not offered for films. |
| Remind me when it starts | A minute before the start, the studio asks whether you want to watch it. If you are already watching something, the question shows over the picture and Y switches. |
| Record channel.. | Records the channel from now, for a length you choose. |
| Copy title, Copy description | Copies the programme's title or description. |
| Look up again | Asks the databases again about this programme. |
Right-click a channel name
- Watch this channel, Record channel.., Copy channel name and Copy stream address.
- Guide offset: for when this one channel's guide is out on its own. Choose -3 hours to +3 hours in steps, None, or Other.. to type any number of minutes, negative or positive. The offset is kept with the playlist.
When the whole guide is out
If every time in the guide is an hour out, set Settings > Guide alignment > Guide time offset (minutes, may be negative). Guide alignment is an expert page: tick Show expert settings under Settings > Common to see it. A channel's tvg-shift tag, if it has one, is added on top, and so is its own Guide offset. The player's "now" and "next" follow the same corrected times, and recordings are booked for them too.
Frequently asked questions
What does ERD-Playlist Studio do?
ERD-Playlist Studio builds and looks after IPTV playlists. Open a playlist from a file or from your provider, tidy it up, check which channels still work, match it to a TV guide, and watch, record and download what is on it.
What do I need to run ERD-Playlist Studio?
- Windows 10 or later.
- A 64-bit PC (x64), a Windows on Arm PC (arm64) or a 32-bit PC (x86).
- Administrator rights to install.
- Windows' own media support.
The player says "Windows cannot decode this". What can I do?
The player uses the decoders built into Windows. The "N" editions of Windows ship without Windows' own media support: there the studio starts and works, but the player says "Windows cannot decode this" until you add the Media Feature Pack from Windows' Optional features. When Windows has no decoder for a single track, the player names it (for example "HEVC: no decoder on this computer") and plays the rest of the stream.
Where can a playlist come from?
A file you have (M3U, Smart IPTV, Enigma/Dreambox bouquets, XSPF, ASX, WPL or PLS), an address from your provider, an Xtream Codes account, a Stalker (Ministra) portal, the free channels of iptv-org or radio stations from radio-browser.info.
Which formats can I save and export to?
Save and Save As write M3U (.m3u or .m3u8), Smart IPTV, Enigma/Dreambox, ASX, WPL, PLS or XSPF. Export also writes the ticked groups as an HTML, CSV, JSON, Markdown or XML report. Files are written as UTF-8 text.
Can I undo changes to a playlist?
Yes. Every change to a playlist can be undone with Undo (Ctrl+Z) and done again with Redo (Ctrl+Y), each playlist keeping its own history. Bigger jobs, such as an import, a find and replace or a sort, are one step each. Locking is not an undo step.
How do I find out which channels still work?
Run Stream > Stream Checker... It tries every stream of All Groups or one group and marks each with a green star (online) or a red one (offline). It then reads up to 50 of the streams that answered, and a stream that is not what it says gets a violet star. Delete offline streams removes what was found offline, and can be undone.
What do the coloured stars mean?
Grey: not changed. Blue: changed. Green: online. Red: offline. Violet: not what it says it is. An orange star before a name marks a favourite; a red star after a name marks a locked stream.
How do I merge my provider's new playlist into my own?
Use Tools > Playlist Health Center.. and choose Compare with a provider playlist and apply selected changes. You see every stream the other playlist Added, Removed or Modified, all ticked; untick what you want to keep as it is and press Next to apply the rest. Tick Save as provider profile to keep comparing with that source on a schedule.
How do I keep a playlist up to date with my provider automatically?
Set up a provider profile with Tools > Provider Profiles... While the studio is open it looks every minute for enabled profiles that are due, and brings them up to date in the background. Profiles can also be brought up to date with the studio closed, with M3UEditorCLI sync_all --due-only in Task Scheduler.
Can a provider profile empty my playlist by mistake?
No. When the provider sends back an empty playlist while your target has streams in it, the run stops rather than emptying your playlist. Before any change is made, a snapshot of the target is kept, and the new playlist is only put in place once it has been read back and found sound.
How do I restore an earlier version of a playlist?
Before the Playlist Health Center or a provider profile changes a playlist, the studio saves a copy of it as it was. The last ten are kept for each playlist. Tools > Restore snapshot.. lists them, newest first; the one you pick opens as a separate playlist called Restored- followed by the name.
How do I match my channels to a TV guide?
A guide finds a channel by its tvg-id. Choose an EPG code set (SmartIPTV, BaZnGa or DiamondTV) under Settings > TV guide, then use Tools > Assign EPG Codes.. to write the best match into tvg-id for all groups or one group. The TV Guide ID editor (the "..." beside tvg-id) does the same for one stream.
The TV Guide shows data for only a few of my channels. Why?
The status bar says how many of the playlist's channels the guide actually has data for. A low number usually means the channels' tvg-id tags do not match the guide.
All the times in the guide are an hour out. How do I fix that?
Set Settings > Guide alignment > Guide time offset (minutes, may be negative). Guide alignment is an expert page: tick Show expert settings under Settings > Common to see it. For a single channel, right-click its name in the guide and choose Guide offset.
Can I pause live TV?
Yes. Press Space to pause a live channel; the player keeps recording it into a buffer on disk, so you can carry on where you paused. The size of the buffer is "Live TV kept for pausing (MB, 0 is off)" on the Playback settings page, 512 MB unless you change it.
Can I watch a programme that has already been on?
When your provider keeps catch-up for a channel and the TV Guide knows what is on, Backspace offers the programme on now from its start, and going back past the pause buffer offers the programme at that moment. Press Y to switch.
Which streams can the player not play?
rtsp, rtmp, srt and mms addresses cannot be opened, and the player says so. Neither can streams protected with DRM.
Can I play a stream on my television?
Yes, with Send to TV. It finds Chromecasts, Google TVs and televisions with Google Cast built in, AirPlay receivers such as an Apple TV, and DLNA televisions and players on your network. To put a whole playlist on a television running the Smart IPTV app, use Tools > Send to Smart IPTV...
Can I record while the studio is closed?
Yes. With "RecordingCLI run" going in the background, bookings are recorded and downloads carry on while the studio is closed, and the two hand the work back and forth by themselves. Series rules need the studio, because it reads the guide.
Will my computer wake up for a recording?
While recordings are booked or running, the studio keeps the computer from going to sleep, and sets it to wake up a minute before the next booking. If Windows will not allow either, you are told when you book, so you can leave the computer on or turn on wake timers in the Windows power plan.
What happens when my provider only allows a few connections?
The studio asks the provider (Xtream Codes accounts say) and holds a recording or download back until a connection is free rather than having it refused. When more recordings are due than there are connections, the one with the higher Priority goes first.
Can Kodi, Plex, Emby or Jellyfin use my playlist's films and series?
Yes. Tools > STRM Library.. writes the playlist's films and series as a library of small .strm files that Kodi, Plex, Emby or Jellyfin can list and play without anything being downloaded, with .nfo files if you like. Downloads can also carry an .nfo file beside them.
Do I need accounts for film details and subtitles?
TMDB and TVDB both need a free account of your own; put the keys under Settings > Databases. No key ships with the studio, and a database with no key is simply not asked. Keys are stored encrypted for your Windows account. Subtitles come from OpenSubtitles.com with your own OpenSubtitles API key under Settings > Subtitle search; with no key nothing is fetched, and a user name and password are optional. CDDB and MusicBrainz need no account.
Is my Trakt password stored in the studio?
No. Connect.. under Settings > Trakt shows a code to type on Trakt's website; your Trakt password is never asked for.
How can I lock channels from children?
Right-click a group or streams and choose Lock, and set a code under Settings > Parental lock. From then on, watching a locked stream, sending it to a TV, or recording or downloading it asks for the code first. The lock is written into the playlist file; the code is kept on this computer only and never written into a playlist.
Which languages does ERD-Playlist Studio speak?
Fifteen: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Polish, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Romanian and Swedish. Choose one under Settings > Common > Language and press OK; the whole program changes at once, without restarting.
Can I open two playlists in separate windows?
Yes. Untick "Allow only one instance" under Settings > Instances (an expert page). With more than one window open, the first one looks after the recording schedule, the unattended refresh of your provider profiles, the download queue and the AI assistant connection. Only that window records and downloads, so nothing is done twice.
Can I use ERD-Playlist Studio from scripts?
Yes. M3UEditorCLI works on playlists and RecordingCLI on recordings and downloads. Both answer in JSON on standard output, and several commands can go on one line. "help" after either tool's name lists everything it can do.
Can an AI assistant work with my playlists?
An AI assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) can read and edit your playlists, book recordings and look after your downloads: either on the playlist open in the studio (Settings > AI assistants, off by default, only programs on this computer can connect), or on any playlist file with M3UEditorCLI mcp.
Is a licence key needed?
Yes. ERD-Playlist Studio needs a valid licence key to run. Enter it with Help > Activate License..; the command line tools use the same key. Please do not share your key: a key that is shared can be revoked.
Are updates checked to be genuine?
Yes. Before anything is offered, the answer from the update server is checked to be genuine, and the downloaded installer is checked against it before it runs. An update can never take you back to an older version, and your settings are kept.
What does uninstalling leave behind?
The uninstaller leaves your own things where they are: your settings, caches and kept guides, recording schedule and download queue, logs, earlier versions of your playlists, and every recording and download. To start completely afresh, delete the program's folder in your local application data folder and in your Documents folder.