Live TV and the guide

The current-time line is off by default. Turn Show current time line on under Settings → TV guide to draw a vertical line in the current theme’s accent colour from the time labels down through the programmes at the current time, so every channel can be compared at a glance. Whenever the visible hours no longer contain the present, a marker appears next to the date telling you which way it is: ◂ Now when you are looking ahead, Now ▸ when you have scrolled back into what has already aired. The Now button in the row above returns the guide to the current time from either direction, and the guide then follows the clock again by itself. If you would rather do it from a button, assign any spare key to Jump to now under Settings → Remote & buttons (how-to 51) — useful when you are deep in the channel list rather than up on the buttons. Leaving Live TV and coming back also returns you to now. An accent play arrow beside a channel name marks the channel currently playing, even while you scroll elsewhere. The information panel follows the programme you focus and keeps a short synopsis visible once the full details arrive. Choose its ⓘ Info action, or press a remote’s Info button, to open the complete scrollable synopsis and programme metadata. A red record icon marks a programme scheduled to record, and a chain icon marks programmes covered by a Series Link. To look at what has already aired, use Rewind instead — that is the catch-up direction. The preview keeps playing while you keep browsing. For a TiviMate-style flow, turn on Preview focused channels while browsing under Settings → Channels & guide → Guide playback; rapid scrolling is allowed to settle before the preview changes. Open focused preview fullscreen after can then promote that channel after 5, 10 or 15 idle seconds. Both controls are available in the free version. If you’d rather skip the preview step entirely, turn on Open channel fullscreen on first Select in the same group.

To open Live TV on Favourites, All Playlists, Recently added or one of your own custom folders instead of All channels, choose Live TV opens to under Settings → Menu & sections → Default screens. Custom-folder choices are labelled Custom folder · Name, and the stable folder identity means renaming one does not lose the choice. Anything you pick here other than All channels also makes TiviGlass open straight into Live TV, on that screen, after a cold start — so choosing Favourites is how you get the app to start on your favourites. Turn on last channel on app start remains the higher-priority option: switch that off under Settings → This device if you want to see your chosen screen instead of immediately resuming playback.

Recently Added uses the catalogue dates supplied by your TV source. If an older saved catalogue has no dates yet, the empty screen offers Refresh channels. A source that supplies no date metadata cannot build that list.

Every channel change brings up a short channel banner — the channel name and logo with what’s on now and next — so you always know where you have landed. It clears itself after a few seconds and does not take over the remote: Up/Down keep moving through channels while it is showing, so you can keep surfing. Press OK to turn the banner into the full playback controls (how long those stay up is Settings → Streaming & reliability → OSD auto-hide timeout).

If you like to surf quickly, set Delay before switching (Settings → Streaming & reliability). With a delay, the on-screen selection moves instantly but only the channel you settle on is actually tuned — much faster, and much kinder to your provider.

The programme and channel stay visible at the top while you choose. Close is always pinned at the bottom, and the first focused choice is never a delete or reset action. This single menu covers favourites, watchlist, recording, reminders, multi-view, groups, renaming the channel, channel numbers, guide matching and per-channel corrections.

The menu shows what this programme is already set to do. Once you have set a reminder the same tile becomes Cancel reminder; once a recording is scheduled it becomes Cancel recording; a linked series offers Remove series link. Removing something always asks once before it happens, and you never have to leave the guide to undo what you just set. The full lists stay where they always were — Recordings, Reminders and Settings → Recordings → Series Links.

Actions your TV service or your box cannot do are simply not shown. Watch from start and Watch this programme appear only when your provider actually carries catch-up for that channel and the programme is still inside the days it keeps; Add to Multi-view appears only on a box that can decode more than one channel at once. An action your plan does not include is shown greyed with the plan it needs, because that is the one limit you can lift.

A guide programme has no on-demand ID of its own, so TiviGlass asks you to confirm a matching title from your provider’s Movies or Shows catalogue. If the provider does not carry it there, nothing is saved and the app tells you.

Some remotes report a held button as lots of very fast presses instead of one long one. TiviGlass detects this and adapts, but on a third-party remote the first hold may register as a normal press — back out and hold again and it will work from then on.

Your TV’s own remote is the common case. When you control the box with the TV remote rather than the one it came with, the buttons travel over the HDMI cable, which has no way to say “still holding” and repeats the press instead. TiviGlass recognises that immediately, with no first-hold cost, so holding OK opens this menu and holding Back counts as one Back rather than several. If you want two Backs there, leave a short beat between them.

If your remote still won’t hold, assign any spare button to Options for the focused item under Settings → Remote & buttons (how-to 51); one press of it opens this menu.

Holding OK on a group opens three short tabs: Group for its name, position and lock; Channels for members and visibility; and Cleanup for duplicates and provider-name clutter. Bulk Hide and Reset always ask before changing everything.

A group can hold channels from several playlists at once — open any playlist and add to the same group, and rows from elsewhere carry a source badge and play using their own provider’s details. Groups exist separately for Live, Movies and Shows. Deleting a playlist thins the groups it fed rather than removing them. Groups you already made keep working even if your plan lapses — only creating new ones needs Premium.

You can send channels straight into a group your provider already gave you: to merge “UK Regionals” into “UK Entertainment”, select them and pick UK Entertainment as the destination — no need to invent a group you already have. Copy leaves the channels where they are as well as adding them. Move also takes them out of the group you are standing in — they stay in Favourites, Search and All channels. To undo a move, select the channels in their new home and move them back to the original group. The group you are currently viewing is not offered as a destination. Custom groups are Premium, but copying and moving between your provider’s groups is free. Switch playlists and keep selecting: one custom group can be filled from all of them (provider groups belong to a single playlist, so channels from another one are skipped). Back leaves selection mode without changing anything.

Your active playlist does not change when you play something from another one, so your guide, favourites and resume points stay where they were. Playlists a profile isn’t allowed to see never appear in the merged view.

All of these are overlays on top of your provider’s data. Refreshing the catalogue never wipes them, and clearing an override always brings the original name, logo or number straight back.

Renaming is free. Typing a name yourself is included on every plan; on a paid plan the same dialog first offers tidied-up suggestions built from the provider’s own name, so you can clear a country prefix or a quality tag in one press instead of retyping the line. Restore original is always there, and a rename follows the channel everywhere — the guide, search, favourites, your groups and the player.

If the guide looks too small or too crowded, these are the two controls for it. They are free, they are per profile, and they only affect the guide — so you can enlarge the guide without enlarging every other screen. To make the whole app bigger instead, use Interface density under Settings → Appearance; the two combine, so it is worth changing one at a time.

A guide source that came from your provider is shown but can’t be deleted — it disappears with the playlist. Sources you add yourself, including their order and On/Off state, travel with cloud sync and Cloud Backup; the feed address is encrypted in the cloud copy. Provider-supplied sources are rediscovered when that playlist updates. EPG coverage tells you how many of your channels currently have programme data, which is the quickest way to spot a bad source.

Opening the TV guide pulls the schedule in by itself the first time each session if there isn’t one yet. Routine manual and timed updates live under Playlists, so there is only one update process to remember.

Background updates run on any connection, including a 4G router or phone hotspot. If data use matters, lengthen the Update interval or turn Automatic playlist updates off under Playlists.

Programme times come from your guide source, not from TiviGlass, and the app shows them in your TV’s own time zone. If everything is out by a whole number of hours, the source is stamping its times against a different zone — that is what Guide time offset is for. Check your TV’s date, time and time zone first, then set the offset to the difference you can see. If it is one or two channels rather than the whole guide, use Channel corrections on those channels instead. Whichever you use, the direction is the same: the guide running behind the real broadcast needs a plus correction to move it forward.