Disclaimer: This documentation is provided for convenience and may contain errors. Always verify information against the official Kodi and provider documentation. Report issues.
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Usage

First launch

  1. Open Settings → Add-ons → EasyPlayTV → Configure
  2. Enable Do you have a TV license? to unlock BBC content
  3. Optionally enter your ITVX credentials (required for VOD), or Channel 4 / My5 credentials (for premium content only)
  4. If this box is a client of a PVR server, enable PVR integration and set PVR server URL (e.g. http://server-ip:8899)
  5. If you installed the Service addon (Variant B server), configure it under Settings → My add-ons → EasyPlayTV Service → Configure — PVR enabled, region, VOD sync hours (Service addon is always the server; there is no device-role setting)
  6. Restart Kodi — the Service addon / standalone service starts automatically

On first launch, the sync service will begin populating your library. This takes several hours for the full catalogue (6,000+ shows, 120,000+ episodes). Content appears progressively as each provider completes its first sync.

Playback-only installs (Variant A)

Without the Service addon or standalone service there is no sync on this box. You can still browse and play the live channel grid (and any VOD already in the shared library, if a server exists elsewhere). If a server exists, enable PVR integration in the video addon settings to get Live TV via PVR too.

Browsing content

Live TV

Open the addon from Kodi → Add-ons → EasyPlayTV → Live TV. You'll see a grid of channel icons. Radio channels appear in Kodi's Radio section. Click any channel to start playing.

Live TV via PVR (Variant B / C)

With a Service runtime installed on a server box, live channels appear in Kodi's native TV and Radio sections with a full EPG guide. TV EPG comes from Freely; radio EPG for the 44 BBC stations comes from BBC Sounds schedules (5 Global stations — Heart, Capital, Classic FM, LBC, Smooth Radio — have no BBC schedule and stay EPG-less). The server's Service addon configures its own pvr.iptvsimple automatically; the standalone service serves the channels.m3u + epg.xml over HTTP. Client boxes configure their pvr.iptvsimple by enabling PVR integration in the video addon settings and pointing PVR server URL at the server.

Movies & TV Shows

After the first sync completes, movies and TV shows appear in Kodi's native Movies and TV Shows library windows — no need to browse through the addon's menu. They have full metadata: posters, fanart, plots, ratings, and genre tags.

Provider badges

All synced titles are prefixed with a provider badge: [ITVX], [C4], [My5], [STV], or [BLAZE]. This makes it easy to see which service each show comes from.

Account sign-in

ITVX

  1. Open Settings → Add-ons → EasyPlayTV → Configure → ITVX
  2. Enter your ITVX email and password
  3. Click Sign In

Sign-in is required for ITVX VOD content. ITVX live channels work without sign-in.

Channel 4

  1. Open Settings → Add-ons → EasyPlayTV → Configure → Channel 4
  2. Enter your Channel 4 email and password
  3. Click Sign In

Free-to-air Channel 4 content plays without sign-in. Sign-in is only needed for premium content.

My5

  1. Open Settings → Add-ons → EasyPlayTV → Configure → My5
  2. Enter your Channel 5 email and password
  3. Click Sign In

Free-to-air My5 content plays without sign-in. Sign-in is only needed for premium content that requires a My5 account.

Sync schedule

The Service runtime (server) runs a sequential batch: providers sync one-after-another (never overlapping), then the PVR channel list + EPG refresh, then the pass repeats. The whole pass runs at most once per configurable interval (default 6 hours; 1 = hourly).

StepWhat runs
1BBC iPlayer
2ITVX
3Channel 4
4My5
5STV Player
6Blaze
7Great!
8UKTV
9PVR refresh (channels.m3u + epg.xml)

The interval is configurable: VOD sync hours in the Service addon settings, or vod_sync.interval_hours in config.yaml for the standalone service. Set it to 1 for an hourly pass.

Stale VOD is removed on two cadences. Every sync pass removes whole movies and TV shows whose upstream entry is gone (a show is only removed after being missing from the catalogue for several consecutive passes, so a transient index gap can't wipe it). A separate, slower pass removes expired episodes/seasons inside still-present shows: each sweep fetches the provider's full current episode/movie catalogue and deletes any library row whose upstream id is no longer present. It runs on its own cadence — Stale VOD sweep hours in the Service addon settings or vod_sync.stale_sweep_hours in config.yaml (default 24 h). If a provider's catalogue fetch comes back empty (provider down), nothing is deleted that pass.

There is no manual/forced sync — the scheduled batch is the only way content syncs. Use --once-pvr to regenerate the PVR files without syncing VOD.

Troubleshooting

See Troubleshooting for common issues and fixes.