Streaming guides
How to test a stream and read what comes back — the manifest, the playlist, the guide and the delivery in front of them. Every guide ends at the tool that does the job.
Fetching and delivery
- How to Test a Stream URL (HLS, DASH, or IPTV)Testing a stream URL means confirming it fetches, identifying its format, then running format-specific checks on the manifest or playlist before verifying it actually plays.
- Stream Testing Checklist Before LaunchA pre-launch checklist for HLS, DASH, and IPTV streams: confirm delivery, manifest correctness, live-edge behaviour, and player compatibility before sending traffic to a stream.
HLS
- How to test an HLS stream (free HLS stream tester)Test an HLS stream by fetching its .m3u8 manifest, checking it resolves and parses, then confirming segments load and playback starts within a few seconds.
- How to read an M3U8 playlist file line by lineAn M3U8 playlist is a plain-text list of tags and URIs: header tags describe the stream, EXTINF lines give each segment a duration, and ENDLIST marks VOD.
- How to test low-latency HLS (LL-HLS) deliveryTest low-latency HLS by checking for EXT-X-PART and PART-HOLD-BACK in the media playlist, then measuring actual glass-to-glass delay against the target.
- What causes live edge drift in HLS and how to test for itLive edge drift is the gap between the true live moment and where a player sits in the stream; test it by comparing PROGRAM-DATE-TIME to wall clock over time.
DASH
- How to Validate a DASH MPD ManifestValidate a DASH MPD by checking well-formed XML, required attributes, segment addressing, and ContentProtection, then confirm every referenced URL actually resolves.
- Live DASH UTCTiming and Clock Drift ExplainedLive DASH players compute the live edge from availabilityStartTime and wall-clock time, so a client clock offset without a working UTCTiming element causes segments to miss the edge entirely.
IPTV playlists
- M3U test playlist: how to check an IPTV playlist worksHow to test an M3U playlist before loading it into an IPTV app: validate the header, check every #EXTINF line, and confirm each stream URL actually plays.
- How to test an IPTV stream before going liveA pre-broadcast checklist for testing an IPTV or live stream before an audience sees it: manifest validity, segment delivery, bitrate ladder, and playback across players.
Programme guides
- tvg-id EPG matching: why channels show no guide dataHow tvg-id links an M3U channel to its XMLTV programme data, why matching silently fails, and how to check whether the mismatch is in the playlist or the guide.
- EPG shifted by hours: fixing XMLTV timezone offsetsWhy an IPTV programme guide shows times off by a fixed number of hours, how XMLTV timestamp offsets work, and how to check whether the fault is in the file or the player.