IPTV Catch-Up TV, Timeshift and Recording: How Each One Works

Catch-up TV lets you play a programme that already aired by scrolling back in the TV guide, on channels where the server keeps an archive. Timeshift is different: it pauses and rewinds what you are watching right now, using a buffer. Recording saves a programme to your own device. Which of the three you get depends on the channel, your player app and your device.

Catch-up, timeshift and recording side by side

All three features involve going back in time, so they look alike on the remote. They work in different places, though, and they fail for different reasons.

Catch-up is what most people mean when they say they missed something. Timeshift is for the phone call in the middle of a programme, and recording is for keeping something after the archive has moved on.

How catch-up works behind the scenes

On channels with catch-up, the server keeps recording the channel into a rolling archive. Older hours drop off the end as new ones are added, so the archive always covers a set stretch of the recent past. The broader delivery chain is covered in how IPTV works.

When you pick a past programme in the guide, the player sends the server three things: the channel, the start time and the length. The server plays that slice of the archive back like a video. You can pause it, rewind it and skip forward through it.

That is why the guide matters so much. The start and end times come from the listings, so if they are missing, shifted by an hour or matched to the wrong channel, the player asks for the wrong slice or has nothing to ask for. Kodi’s IPTV Simple Client even has a catch-up correction setting, from −12 to +14 hours, for archives that run on a different clock.

Why some channels have catch-up and others don’t

Catch-up is set channel by channel. On our service it is available on supported channels, and the guide shows which ones carry it. A channel without an archive has no catch-up mark, however far back you scroll.

The archive length also differs from one channel to the next. One channel may reach back several days and another only a short time, and both can change. We don’t quote a fixed number of days for that reason; the guide is the reliable answer for any given channel.

Some kinds of channel rarely have an archive at all: event channels that only go live for a single broadcast, channels that loop the same content, and some international channels. If a channel you watch often lacks catch-up, ask support. Another version of the same channel sometimes carries it.

Opening catch-up from the TV guide

The steps are much the same in every player that supports catch-up. Start from the guide, not from the channel list:

1. Open the TV guide (EPG) in your player.
2. Find a channel with a catch-up mark; players usually show a small clock, rewind or archive icon on the channel or on past programmes.
3. Move left along the channel’s row, into the past.
4. Select the programme you missed.
5. Choose Play or Watch if the player asks. Some players also offer to restart a programme that is still on air from its beginning.
6. Use pause, rewind and fast-forward as you would with a recording, then press Back or select the channel again to return to live TV.

If the guide is empty or an hour off, fix that first, because catch-up depends on it. Our guide to an empty or wrong TV guide walks through the causes.

Test catch-up in two minutes

Before you need it for something important, run a quick test on the device you use most:

1. Pick a channel with a catch-up mark and choose a programme that ended about an hour ago.
2. Play it and check that the opening matches the title in the guide.
3. Skip forward ten minutes, then back five, and watch how long each jump takes.
4. Press Back and confirm the channel returns to live TV.

If the opening belongs to the previous programme, the guide or the archive is offset in time. Fix that now, not halfway through a game you missed.

Catch-up in popular players

The idea is the same everywhere, but each player labels and places catch-up a little differently. These notes cover the apps and boxes we support most often.

TiviMate

TiviMate names catch-up among its main features in its store listing, and past programmes on channels with an archive open from the guide grid. If you use TiviMate on a Fire TV Stick, our TiviMate setup on Fire TV covers the guide and catch-up settings step by step.

IPTV Smarters Pro

In IPTV Smarters Pro, sign in with the Xtream Codes option if you want catch-up, because that login carries the archive information. Depending on the version, catch-up appears as its own section on the home screen or as a mark on past programmes in the guide.

Kodi with IPTV Simple Client

Kodi needs catch-up switched on inside the add-on. The IPTV Simple Client documentation lists a Catchup section with Enable catchup, a Catchup window in days and Play from EPG in Live TV mode (using timeshift). Once it is on, a guide entry’s information offers a Play programme option.

The same section has Catchup only available on finished programmes. With it turned on, a programme still on air can’t be opened as catch-up until it ends, so leave it off if you like restarting the current programme from the top.

MAG and Formuler boxes

On MAG and Formuler boxes, catch-up appears in the portal’s or MYTVOnline’s own guide, marked on channels that have an archive. The exact icons and buttons depend on the box software version, so check the on-screen hints along the bottom of the guide.

Fire TV: Fire OS and Vega OS sticks are different

Player apps such as TiviMate are Android apps, installed on Fire TV from outside Amazon’s store. That works on Fire TV models running Fire OS, such as the Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Max (2nd Gen, 2023) and the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus (2025).

Amazon’s device specifications list a newer system, Vega OS, on the Fire TV Stick 4K (3rd Gen, 2026), the Fire TV Stick 4K Select (2025) and the Fire TV Stick HD (2026). Vega OS is not Android, so Android player apps can’t be installed on those models from outside Amazon’s store. Every Fire TV catch-up, timeshift and recording step in this article assumes a Fire OS model.

If you are about to buy a stick for live TV, check the model before you pay. Our streaming device buying guide compares the options, including Google TV boxes that run the same player apps.

Your login type changes what you see

With an Xtream Codes login, the server tells the player which channels have an archive and how long it is. Players that support catch-up use that to mark the guide for you, with nothing to set up.

With an M3U playlist link, catch-up only works if the playlist carries catch-up tags such as catchup and catchup-days, and the player reads them. Kodi does; many simpler apps don’t. If catch-up vanished after you switched to M3U, that is the reason, and our explainer on Xtream Codes vs M3U shows how to switch back.

Portal logins on MAG and Formuler boxes handle catch-up inside the portal. There is nothing to add on your side beyond the portal address.

Timeshift: pausing and rewinding live TV

In broadcasting, time shifting means recording a programme to watch after it aired, the job VCRs and later DVRs did. In IPTV players the word usually means something narrower: pause and rewind on the channel you are watching right now.

Most players do it with a buffer. When you start watching a channel, the player keeps the last stretch of video in memory or on storage, so you can pause and carry on where you left off. Kodi’s documentation describes its timeshift mode the same way: it buffers the stream from the point playback began and lets you seek anywhere since then.

Three limits follow from that design:

• You can only rewind to the moment you tuned in, not before it.
• Changing channel usually empties the buffer and starts a new one.
• On a device with little free storage, the buffer is short or the feature is switched off.

Some players blend timeshift with catch-up. On channels with an archive, they let you rewind past the moment you tuned in by switching to the archive behind the scenes; Kodi calls this its catch-up mode. Pausing for a long time leaves you further behind the live picture, so press Live or reselect the channel to jump back to the present.

Timeshift is not the same as the playback buffer that smooths out network hiccups. That one is a separate setting, explained in IPTV buffer size settings.

Recording to your own device

Recording, often called PVR, saves a programme as a file on your device. Unlike catch-up, the file stays until you delete it, which makes recording the way to keep something past the end of the archive.

Recording is a player feature, not something the server adds. TiviMate lists recording among its features in its store listing; other players vary, so look for a record button during playback or a record option when you select a programme in the guide.

A recording is a live stream being saved, so it takes one of your screens while it runs. On a one-screen plan, recording one channel while watching another needs two screens; plans with more screens cover that.

Where recordings are saved

On Android TV and Google TV devices, players save to internal storage or to a USB drive. Google’s help page on adding a USB drive to Android TV says Android TV only supports drives with FAT formats, and offers to format other drives as internal or removable storage.

Formatting erases the drive, so copy anything you want to keep before you start. To unplug it safely, use Settings → Storage and reset, select the USB drive, then Eject. Apps or recordings kept on the drive aren’t available while it is out.

The FAT32 format has a maximum file size of 4 GB. Depending on the player, a long recording may be split into several files or stop at that size, so test a two-hour recording before you rely on it.

Fire TV Sticks have little storage to begin with. If yours is nearly full, recordings and even the guide can fail; our guide to a slow Fire TV Stick with full storage shows what to clear.

How much space a recording needs

A recording’s size depends on the stream’s bit rate, not on the channel or your screen size. Every 1 Mbps of stream fills about 0.45 GB per hour: 1 megabit per second, times 3,600 seconds, divided by 8 bits per byte, is 450 megabytes.

Which bit rate a channel uses depends on its quality version, from SD up to 4K. Our page on internet speed and data use per quality gives the ranges, and the same numbers tell you roughly how fast a drive fills.

Limits worth knowing before you rely on it

Catch-up and recording are reliable once set up, but each has edges. These are the ones that catch people out:

• Catch-up exists only on channels with an archive, and the archive length varies by channel.
• A programme can be missing from an archive even on a catch-up channel, for example when that channel’s feed was interrupted.
• Skipping around in catch-up is slower than in a file on your device, because every jump asks the server for a new piece of video.
• Catch-up playback and recordings each use a screen while they run, just like live TV.
• Timeshift only reaches back to when you tuned in, unless the player switches to the archive.
• A recording needs the device on, online and with free space at the scheduled time. If it sleeps or loses Wi-Fi, the recording stops or has gaps.
• Daylight saving changes and wrong time zones can shift catch-up by an hour until the guide or the player’s time offset is corrected.

Troubleshooting catch-up, timeshift and recordings

Find the symptom closest to yours, then try the fixes in order. Most of them take less than a minute.

If catch-up stalls while live TV plays fine, run our IPTV speed test on the same device. Archive playback needs the same steady connection as live TV, and every skip forward starts a fresh download.

Time zones, daylight saving and catch-up

Catch-up asks the server for a slice of time, so the clock on your device has to agree with the clock behind the guide. A device set to the wrong time zone shows the guide in the wrong place and requests the wrong part of the archive. The fix is the same as for the guide: automatic date and time, with your real time zone selected.

Daylight saving is the usual trigger for a one-hour error. If catch-up was right last week and is now exactly an hour off, check the device clock first, then the player’s EPG or catch-up time offset. Change one setting at a time and test with a programme you know.

Half-hour zones need a player that accepts fractional offsets. Kodi’s IPTV Simple Client documents shift values such as −4.5 hours, and other players vary, so test the offset field before relying on it.

Travelling changes things too. If you watch from a cottage or a hotel in another province, the guide follows the device’s time zone, so set the device to local time where you are.

Catch-up compared with the movie and series library

Catch-up and the movie and series library both play things on demand, but they come from different places. Catch-up is the channel’s own broadcast, recorded as it aired, with the same breaks and the same picture quality as the live channel. The library holds separate files with their own menus, posters and episode lists, and they stay available instead of rolling off an archive.

That difference explains a few surprises. A series in the library may have more episodes than catch-up, while catch-up has last night’s news, which the library never will. If you are weighing live channels against on-demand apps in general, our comparison of IPTV and streaming apps covers it.

Practical ways to use catch-up

Once you know catch-up is there, a few habits make it far more useful than a recorder you have to remember to set:

• Missed the start of a game: open it from the guide, watch from the opening minutes, then skip ahead to rejoin the live action. Our game night guide covers live delay and avoiding spoilers.
• Two programmes at the same time: watch one live and the other from catch-up afterwards. Because they don’t play at the same moment, you don’t need a second screen.
• Late news or talk shows: watch them the next morning instead of staying up.
• Something you want to keep: record it, because the catch-up copy rolls off the end of the archive.
• Several versions of a channel: if a channel comes in 4K, FHD and HD, check which one shows the catch-up mark before you count on it.

Favourites help too. Put your catch-up channels in a favourites group, and the guide opens on the rows you are most likely to scroll back through.

Still stuck? What to tell support

If catch-up fails on one channel only, try another catch-up channel in the same app. When others work, the issue is that channel’s archive, which we can check. When none work, look at the login type, the player and the guide first.

• the channel name, and which version (4K, FHD, HD or SD);
• the programme, its air time and your time zone;
• the player app and the device;
• the login type: Xtream Codes, M3U or portal;
• a photo of the guide showing the programme and any catch-up mark.

Send them through Online Support and we’ll check the archive for that channel. A complete guide and catch-up are two of the features to expect from the best IPTV Canada plans, and ours include both on supported channels; the setup guide covers each device.

Questions people ask