How logos work
Every live channel has a logo address. Your provider sends one with most channels, but often it is missing, small or out of date. M3UTool can replace it with a clean logo from its logo library, for one channel or for your whole playlist.
Where logos live
The Logos tab of Live TV is where you work on logos. It shows your channels as a picture grid: the ones Missing a logo first, then the ones that Have a logo, so you see at once what still needs one. List at the top switches to the table with its Logo URL column, where you see where each logo comes from. The Match logos button in the top bar matches logos for many channels at once. Click a channel to search a logo for it alone.
Movies and series have posters instead of logos. More in Posters & info.
The logo library
Match logos picks the same logo Looks like shows for a channel. It looks in this order:
- The guide id: A channel whose guide id is a channel of the M3UTool channel list gets that channel's logo.
- The M3UTool channel list: The channel with the same name in the same country, the one Looks like marks as the sure match.
- The logo library: Only for channels the list does not have: logos collected from public logo sets, from the same country only.
How matching works
- By name: M3UTool compares the channel name with the names in the library. Quality words such as HD, 4K, UHD and VIP are ignored, so "Matchday Main Event UHD" finds the Matchday Main Event logo.
- By country: The country of the group decides which version is used. A channel in "DE | SPORT" gets the German logo, never a same-named channel from another country. Set the country of a group on the Groups tab when M3UTool cannot read it from the name.
- Rather none than wrong: When M3UTool is not sure, it leaves the channel alone. You can fix those by hand.
What happens by itself and what you decide
| Way | What happens |
|---|---|
| Match logos on the Logos tab or under Tools | M3UTool shows every match first. You can pick another logo per channel, then you click Use N logos. |
| Match logos for selected channels or a group | The best match is used straight away, without a list to check. |
| Match logos step in Playlist automation | New channels get a logo after every update from your provider. |
| Find logo in a channel's details | You pick the logo yourself. |
What your customers see
Your customers' players get each logo as a full address on your own domain. The logos show in the M3UTool apps and in other players such as TiviMate and Smarters.
Good to know
- Clean names match better. When many channels stay without a logo, fix the names first and match again. More in Fix names.
- The Looks like card in the Channel editor sets the logo together with the proper name and the guide id. More in Pick a logo.