IPTV Checker 2.0 Adds a Programme Guide and Calls Out Fake Archives

IPTV Checker 2.0 landed today, and it can now tell you whether the catch-up your provider advertises is actually there.

Isometric illustration of an IPTV programme timeline rail carrying solid teal archive blocks, one thin amber block and one empty slot, read by a desktop app window

It is the biggest update the free playlist scanner has had.

There is also a proper programme guide, and a diagnostics panel that explains why a stream keeps stalling.

All of it is still free, and there is still no paid tier.

Catch-Up That Says Seven Days and Delivers Two

Plenty of IPTV providers advertise several days of catch-up, the feature that lets you replay a programme that has already finished.

IPTV Checker 2.0 tests whether those recordings actually play, channel by channel, and gives each one a verdict.

The four results are Real, Shallower, Fake and Untested.

Shallower is the interesting one. The archive is there, it is simply thinner than the listing claims - three days advertised, one day you can actually watch.

In the developer's own words: a channel advertising three days of catch-up does not necessarily have three days of playable programmes.

Four-stage strip showing the catch-up verification results, from a full teal archive block labelled Real, through a short amber one labelled Shallower, to an empty coral frame labelled Fake and a grey unlit slot labelled Untested

A Real Programme Guide, Not Just a Channel List

Version 2.0 adds an EPG - the on-screen guide that shows what is on now and what is coming next.

Your playlist now sits on a continuous timeline with channel logos, and you can switch between a table view and a guide view depending on how you like to read it.

Where catch-up genuinely works, you can restart a programme that is already halfway through, or replay one that finished earlier.

Diagnostics for When Playback Struggles

A new panel reports time to first frame, buffer depth and dropped frames, plus a session timeline marking every buffering event and reconnect.

That turns "it keeps freezing" into something you can point at. A stream dropping frames is the provider's problem; a buffer that empties and refills is usually your connection.

Elsewhere, playback on Mac now uses the system's own HLS support with ffmpeg as a fallback, large playlists filter and sort noticeably faster, and the window finally behaves when you shrink it.

Free, Open Source, and on Every Desktop

IPTV Checker costs nothing and locks nothing behind a payment. It is released under the MIT licence, so the code is open to anyone who wants to read it.

There are builds for Mac on both Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows on x64 and ARM64, and Linux on x64 and ARM64, packaged as a DMG, an installer, a portable ZIP, an AppImage, a DEB or an RPM. You can download IPTV Checker 2.0.0 here.

It reads an M3U file or URL, an Xtream Codes login or a Stalker portal, and it can load a whole folder of playlists in one go. Results come out as CSV, M3U or JSON.

The M3U export is the part worth using. It writes a clean copy of your playlist with the dead channels stripped out, ready to load straight into IPTV Smarters Pro on your phone or TV box.

Quick questions

Is IPTV Checker 2.0 free?

Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, no account and nothing locked behind a subscription.

What does Shallower actually mean?

That the catch-up archive exists but is shorter than the channel claims. A listing promising seven days might only have two days you can really play, and Shallower is the app telling you so.

Does it work with my Xtream Codes login?

Yes. It takes an M3U file or URL, an Xtream Codes account or a Stalker portal, and it can scan a folder of playlists in one pass.

I do not want to install anything - is there another way?

Test your list in the browser with our free M3U Checker. It reports every stream as Online, Reachable, Timeout or Offline and exports a working playlist, though it cannot check catch-up.

Will it fix my dead channels?

No tool can bring a dead stream back - only your provider can. What it does is find them for you in one pass instead of you clicking through a thousand entries.