Glossary

The words used in M3UTool and in this guide, in alphabetical order. Each one links to the page where it is explained.

A to C

• Activation code: A short code a customer types into the M3UTool app instead of a server address, username and password. New codes are 8 letters, for example RMSX-ZGJB. More in Activation codes.
• API key: A key that lets a script or an AI assistant work with your playlists. It can be read only or read and write, and it can be limited to certain playlists. More in API.
• App: One of the M3UTool apps your customers watch on, branded with your name and logo. More in The M3UTool apps.
• Auto refresh: Fetching new and removed channels, movies and series from your provider on a schedule, while your own edits stay. More in Auto refresh.
• Automatic checks: Checks that M3UTool runs on its own, so you see which channels work without starting a check yourself. More in Automatic checks.
• Backup: A snapshot of a whole playlist: channels, groups and customers. M3UTool takes them on its own, and you can take one with Back up now. More in Backups and restore.
• Bin: Where deleted channels, movies and series go. Nothing is destroyed at once, so you can restore them. More in The bin.
• Branding: Your name, logo and colour on everything your customers see, so the product looks like yours. More in Branding and custom domain.
• Catch-up: Watching a programme that already aired, on channels whose provider keeps an archive. More in Catch-up.
• Category: What many players and providers call a group. See Group.
• Channel: A live TV stream in your playlist. More in How the editor works.
• Channel link: The link a channel plays from. The editor shows it as Channel link in the detail panel, the column and the filter. More in Edit a channel.
• Check: A test that opens a stream the way a real player does and records whether it plays, and in what quality. More in How checking works.
• Connections: How many streams your provider line may have open at once. It limits how fast checks run and how many customers can watch on that line. Set it in Playlist settings, under Provider accounts. More in How checking works.
• Custom domain: Your own web address for your customers' links, so they never see an M3UTool address. More in Branding and custom domain.
• Customer: Someone who watches your playlist. Each customer has a username and password, an expiry date and a device limit. More in How customers work.
• Customer link: A link you give a customer: the Xtream login, the M3U link or the TV guide link. More in Customer links.

D to M

• Device limit: How many M3UTool apps of one customer may watch at the same time, set in Max devices. Other player apps never count. The next device is refused until one stops. More in Devices and connections.
• M3UTool key: The key of the type M3UTool Gateway that activates a self-host install. More in Requirements.
• EPG: Short for electronic programme guide. In M3UTool and in this guide it is called the TV guide. More in How the TV guide works.
• guide id: The id that ties a channel to its programmes in a guide, also called tvg-id. The channel's detail panel shows it as Guide id. More in Map the guide.
• Episode: One part of a series. More in Posters and info.
• Event group: A live group marked for Live sports. Every channel in it counts as a PPV / event channel, also new ones your provider adds later. More in Move events into a group.
• Fallback: A copy of a channel that waits behind it. Your customers see one channel. When its first source dies, the player is sent to the next one that works. Failover, backup and spare source are older words for the same thing. More in Fallbacks.
• Group: A folder of channels, movies or series inside a playlist, for example "UK Sports". The editor shows the groups in the column on the left and on the Groups tab. Groups are picked like channels, and one panel on the right works on one group or on several ticked ones. More in Groups.
• Guide time shift: Moving a channel's programmes by whole hours when the guide runs early or late for that channel. More in Guide time shift.
• Live sports: M3UTool reads the names of your sports and event channels, works out which match or fight is on and writes it into the TV guide. More in How auto event detection works.
• Live viewers: The customers who are watching right now. The editor shows them under Who's watching. More in Who is watching.
• M3U: A playlist format: one link that lists the channels, read by almost any player. More in Use other players.
• MCP: The way an AI assistant connects to M3UTool. It uses an API key and can only do what that key allows. More in AI assistants.
• Movie: A single film in your playlist, also called video on demand. More in How playlists work.

N to Z

• New: The button in the top bar of the editor that adds something: a channel, movie or episode, a group, a linked group from another playlist, or a provider source. More in How the tools work.
• Player: Any app your customers watch with, for example TiviMate or Smarters. The M3UTool apps are called apps in this guide. More in Use other players.
• Playlist: Your own copy of a provider's catalogue: what you import, edit and resell. More in How playlists work.
• Playlist automation: Steps M3UTool runs after each refresh, such as fixing names, matching logos, mapping the guide and checking streams, so new channels arrive finished. More in Playlist automation.
• Playlist settings: The page in the bar on the left of the editor with everything a playlist does on its own: automatic checks and the steps after each update, re-checking not working channels, fallbacks, connections, the guide file, and the matching and posters preferences. More in Playlist automation.
• Posters & info: Posters, descriptions and titles for movies and series, taken from TMDB. More in How posters and info work.
• PPV: Pay-per-view: event channels that carry one match or fight at a set time. More in Live sports.
• Provider: The company that sells you the line your playlist comes from. A playlist can have more than one. More in Add another provider.
• Provider login: The login you got from your provider for one customer. M3UTool puts it into that customer's channels, so they play on that customer's own line. More in Provider logins.
• Quick check: A check of one channel, started from its row. More in Quick check.
• Refresh: Fetching your provider's current catalogue into your playlist. New channels come in, gone ones go to the bin, and your edits stay. More in Refresh a playlist.
• Reliability: The share of checks a stream passed over time, not only the last one. The editor shows it in the Reliability column. Green is 95% and up, orange 70–94%, red below 70%. More in Read the results.
• Self-host: The M3UTool editor running on your own computer or server instead of on editor.dontv.shop. More in How self-host works.
• Series: A show with seasons and episodes. More in How playlists work.
• Stream: Any item in a playlist: a channel, a movie or an episode. This guide says stream when it means all three.
• TMDB: The Movie Database, where M3UTool takes posters and details for movies and series from. More in How posters and info work.
• Tools: The button in the top bar of the editor with every job that works on many channels at once: checking, fixing names, matching logos, mapping the guide, bulk renaming, changing the provider, sorting, folding copies into one channel and copying to another playlist. More in How the tools work.
• TV guide: What is on now and next on each channel. More in How the TV guide works.
• Undo: Takes back your last change on a playlist, and again for the change before it, up to 20 changes of the last 7 days. Redo brings back what you took back. More in Undo.
• XMLTV: The standard format TV guide data comes in, from M3UTool's country guides or your own guide file. More in Guide file settings.
• Xtream: The common player login: a server address, a username and a password, with live channels, movies and series together. More in Use other players.