tool to filter an XMLTV EPG file by specific channels. Ideal for use with TVHeadend, Plex, or any XMLTV-compatible app
XMLTV Splitter is a lightweight Python script that filters large XMLTV EPG files down to only the channels you care about — by name or from a remote source.
- Filter EPG data for specific channels by display name
- Accepts input from a local file or remote URL
- Automatically removes broken
stop="19700101..."entries - Fixes common character encoding issues (Latin-1 interpreted as UTF-8)
- Outputs clean, valid XMLTV for use with TVHeadend, Plex, etc.
- Python 3.6+
lxmllibrary
Install via pip:
pip install lxmlpython3 xmltv-splitter.py \
--input epg.xml \
--output epg_filtered.xml \
--channels RTL,ProSieben,ProSieben Maxxpython3 xmltv-splitter.py \
--url-extern https://example.com/guide.xml \
--output epg_filtered.xml \
--channels RTL,ProSiebencat epg_filtered.xml | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/etc/tvheadend/epggrab/xmltv.sock| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--input |
Path to local XMLTV input file (optional if --url-extern) |
--url-extern |
URL to download XMLTV file (optional if --input used) |
--output |
Path to save the filtered XMLTV result |
--channels |
Comma-separated list of display names to include |
Filtered XMLTV output will:
- Contain only matching
<channel>and<programme>entries - Remove broken stop-times (
1970-01-01) - Normalize character encodings (fix
Günther→Günther)
MIT License. Use at your own risk.
Feel free to submit pull requests or open issues!