Catch-Up and Recording: Watching Things You Missed
The short answer
Catch-up lets you play a programme that already aired by selecting it from the guide, typically going back seven days on supported channels. It depends entirely on the EPG — no guide data means no catch-up. Recording is separate: TiviMate Premium and Formuler boxes can save streams to local storage.
Catch-up is the most under-used feature in IPTV. People pay for a service with seven days of rewind on the main channels and never touch it, usually because the EPG was never set up properly and they assumed the feature did not exist.
This guide covers how it works, how to fix it when it does not, and how recording differs.
Key takeaways
- Catch-up needs a working EPG; fixing the guide is what unlocks it
- Not every channel supports catch-up — the sports and main UK channels usually do
- TiviMate Premium adds scheduled recording to a USB drive or network share
- An hour of HD recording is roughly 2GB; 4K is nearer 7GB
- Check your provider's terms and the copyright position before recording anything
How catch-up actually works
The server keeps a rolling archive of each supported channel — usually the last seven days. Your app requests a specific past programme by its start time, taken from the EPG, and the server plays that segment back.
This is why catch-up and the guide are inseparable. The EPG is not just a listing, it is the index the app uses to ask for the right piece of the archive. No guide, no catch-up.
If your guide is empty, our EPG guide fixes that first. Catch-up will start working as a side effect.
Using catch-up
- 1
Open the TV guide
In TiviMate press the guide button; in IPTV Smarters open the EPG view for the channel.
- 2
Scroll backwards in time
Move left through the guide into yesterday and the days before. Channels with catch-up show past programmes as selectable rather than greyed out.
- 3
Select the programme
Press OK on a past programme and it plays from the archive. You can pause, rewind and fast-forward as normal.
- 4
Check the archive depth
Most supported channels hold seven days. Some hold two or three. If a channel shows nothing selectable in the past, it does not support catch-up.
Recording, and how it differs
Recording saves a stream to storage you control, rather than playing back from the provider's archive. It survives beyond the seven-day window and works on channels that have no catch-up support.
TiviMate Premium supports scheduled recording to a USB drive or a network share. Formuler boxes record to USB through MYTVOnline. On a computer, VLC can record a stream to a file.
| Quality | Per hour | 10 hours |
|---|---|---|
| SD | ~0.7 GB | 7 GB |
| HD 720p | ~1.5 GB | 15 GB |
| Full HD 1080p | ~2.5 GB | 25 GB |
| 4K | ~7 GB | 70 GB |
Setting up recording in TiviMate
- 1
Upgrade to TiviMate Premium
Recording is a Premium feature. It is a small annual fee paid to the app developer, unrelated to your subscription with us.
- 2
Attach storage
Plug in a USB drive, or add a network share under Settings → Recordings → Storage. Format the drive as exFAT for the widest compatibility.
- 3
Schedule from the guide
Find the programme in the EPG, press and hold, and choose Record. TiviMate will start and stop automatically.
- 4
Allow padding
Add a few minutes either side. Live sport regularly overruns and a recording that stops at full time misses the penalties.
Recording competes for bandwidth and device resources while it runs. On a Firestick, do not record one channel while watching another in 4K.
The legal position on recording
Recording broadcast content for later personal viewing has a long history in the UK, but the copyright position depends on the underlying content and how it was obtained — it is not a blanket permission.
Our terms require customers to ensure they hold the necessary rights for the content they access, and that applies to recording as much as to live viewing. If you need certainty about your own position, take independent legal advice rather than relying on any provider's website.
Frequently asked
Why is catch-up greyed out on my channels?
How far back does catch-up go?
Do I need TiviMate Premium to record?
Can I record two channels at once?
Where are recordings stored?
Broadcast rights, fixtures and prices change. This page was last checked on 10 August 2026 — tell us on WhatsApp if you spot something out of date and we will correct it.