Sources
A Source is an IPTV stream group that Teamarr matches to real-world sporting events. Event channels are dynamic: unlike a persistent linear channel, an event channel appears when a game is about to start and disappears after it ends.
Sources were called Event Groups before v2.7.0. The app route is now
/sources. Settings that used to live under Settings → Event Groups are split across the Source editor, the Matching page (EPG-matching tuning, Event Lookahead), and Channels (numbering, groups, profiles).
How It Works
- Your IPTV provider delivers streams organized into groups (e.g., “NFL”, “ESPN+”, “DAZN”)
- You import these stream groups into Teamarr as Sources
- Teamarr parses each stream name, matches it to a real sporting event, and creates a channel with rich EPG data
- Channels are created in Dispatcharr with proper names, logos, EPG data, and group/profile assignments
Which leagues a source scans is governed by your global Subscription — configured on the Subscriptions page, not here. A source can override the subscription with its own league set when needed (e.g., a hockey-only source that shouldn’t scan for football events).
The Sources Table
The Sources page header shows an overall X% matched summary and the Add Stream Source button. The table lists every configured source:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| (drag handle) | Drag rows to reorder — the order sets each source’s processing order and auto channel allocation |
| (checkbox) | Multi-select for the bulk action bar |
| Name | Source name, M3U account, and a color-coded badge per active matching type (plus a Regex badge when custom regex is configured — team-vs-team extraction patterns or include/exclude stream filters) |
| Matched | Stream coverage — how many of the source’s eligible streams matched at least one event, as a 0–100% bar. Hover for total matches produced and the last-run timestamp |
| Status | Enable/disable toggle |
| Actions | Preview matches, clear cache, edit, delete |
Column headers sort, and a filter row narrows the list by name and status. Selecting rows raises a bulk action bar: Enable, Disable, Clear Cache, Edit (bulk-edit shared settings), and Delete. Bulk Edit covers the stream timezone, the team filter, the three matching toggles, the subscription (league) override, the built-in-filter skip, the stream include/exclude regexes and every custom regex — only the fields you check are changed, and setting a pattern in bulk also switches it on while clearing it switches it off. When stale sources exist, a Delete all stale action appears.
To see which streams matched or failed (and fix failures manually), use the Matched/Failed drill-downs in the Dashboard’s run history — the Sources table shows rates, not per-stream detail. The per-source preview button shows current stream matches without running a full generation.
Preview lists each unmatched stream with what the classifier actually read out of its name — the two team names it parsed, and the date, time and timezone it extracted — plus the detected league as a dashed badge in the League column and the same failure reason the run-history Failed drill-down shows. When a stream fails, that line usually says why: a team name that swallowed the provider prefix, a date read in the wrong format, or a league hint pointing somewhere unexpected.
The percentage is stream coverage: distinct streams matched ÷ eligible streams (always 0–100%). The hover tooltip shows matches produced — the total number of stream→event matches. With EPG matching, one linear stream (ESPN, FS1…) is time-shared across many events, so matches produced can far exceed the stream count. These are tracked separately so coverage stays a true health signal.
Importing Sources
Click Add Stream Source to open the import screen. It lists your Dispatcharr M3U accounts in a sidebar; selecting one shows its stream groups with stream counts.
From there:
- Preview (eye icon) shows a group’s streams before importing.
- Single import (+ icon) opens the full source editor for that group.
- Import N Groups imports your selection in bulk, via a modal that sets the shared settings up front: Stream Timezone, Enabled, and the three matching types (Stream name matching, Team stream source, EPG program matching).
Binding by Name Pattern
Some IPTV providers rotate group names — EPL (MW1) becomes EPL (MW2), dated tournament groups come and go. Dispatcharr matches M3U groups by exact name, so a provider rename always creates a new group and a source pinned to the old one silently stops finding streams.
Bind by name pattern (in the source’s Basic Settings) makes the source rename-proof: instead of the pinned group, the source binds to a regular expression over live M3U group names, re-resolved on every generation run. A pattern like EPL \(MW\d+\) keeps matching no matter which matchweek the provider is on. If the pattern matches several groups at once, the source scans all of them (scoped to its M3U account), and while a renamed group’s old and new versions briefly coexist, stale streams from the old one are filtered out automatically.
The editor shows a live “Matches N groups” preview as you type. A pattern that matches nothing means the source is treated as stale — same as a missing pinned group.
A stale pattern never deletes your channels: when it matches nothing, the source simply skips the run and existing channels stay until their normal post-event expiry. If the pattern still matches some groups but misses one (say a rename escaped your regex), streams from the missed group are treated like streams removed from the M3U — they’re detached on the next run, and a channel is removed only once no streams are left on it.
Re-imported M3U Accounts
Deleting and re-adding an M3U account in Dispatcharr gives it a new account ID, which leaves every source that was bound to it pointing at an ID that no longer exists — the source looks configured but resolves to zero streams. Teamarr repairs this on its own: each generation run re-resolves a source’s stored account ID against the live M3U accounts and, when the account name still matches, updates the source to the new ID. The Streams view also falls back to showing the group’s streams unfiltered while the stored ID is stale, so a re-imported account never leaves the source looking empty.
Re-bind Suggestions
When a source goes stale, Teamarr scans the live M3U groups for a likely rename — an unused group whose name closely matches the old one — and offers it right in the stale-sources banner:
- Re-bind — one click pins the source to the new group (and turns pattern binding off, so the pin is what’s actually used).
- Re-bind + pattern — also derives a pattern from the old/new name difference (
EPL (MW1)→EPL (MW2)suggests^EPL \(MW\d+\)$) and enables pattern binding with it, so the next rename re-binds automatically.
Suggestions are never applied silently — the suggested pattern is shown before you click, and you can always fine-tune it later in the source editor with the live match preview. Re-binding only updates the source’s binding; existing channels are untouched.
Stream Matching Pipeline
When EPG generation runs, each stream goes through:
- Filtering — include/exclude regex, built-in filters for non-sport content
- Classification — parse stream name to extract teams, league, date, time
- Matching — find the corresponding real-world event from provider data
- Channel creation — create/update the Dispatcharr channel with EPG data
Streams that can’t be matched appear in the Failed count of the Dashboard’s run history. Click it to see each stream’s failure reason and use Fix to manually link a stream to an event.
Matching Types
Each Source declares which matching pipeline(s) it runs. The three types are independent — enable any combination, and each stream is routed to whichever applies. Every Source must have at least one enabled. The Sources table shows a color-coded badge per active type.
| Type | Badge | Matches | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stream Name | sky | Streams whose name identifies a specific event | Bills vs Dolphins, DAZN: Man City vs Arsenal |
| Team | emerald | A team’s branded stream → that team’s games in the window (one stream → many events) | NHL \| Toronto Maple Leafs |
| EPG | violet | Static linear channels → events via Dispatcharr’s program guide, time-sharing one stream across events | ESPN, NBA1 |
A separate blue Regex badge marks sources with custom extraction patterns configured.
A Source that does only Team or EPG (Stream Name off) shows a raw stream count in the Matched column instead of a coverage percentage — those types fan one stream out to many events, so a
matched ÷ totalpercentage isn’t a meaningful health signal.
Set the types in the source editor — the toggles are labeled Stream name matching, Team matching, and EPG matching — or at bulk import / bulk edit (labeled Stream name matching / Team stream source / EPG program matching there).
EPG Program Matching
Linear channels (ESPN, FS1) carry many games a day under one static name, so they can’t be matched by name. EPG matching reads Dispatcharr’s program guide instead and time-shares one linear stream across many event channels near game time. Enable it per source; the global tuning (attach/detach buffers, provider-EPG backup, Dispatcharr-as-a-source) lives on the Matching page under EPG Matching. Full guide: EPG Program Matching.
Event Matching Window
The Event Lookahead (on the Matching page) controls how far ahead Teamarr matches streams to sporting events — streams are matched only to events within this window. Default is 3 days; options are 1, 3, 7, 14, or 30 days.
Tennis: majors only (Subscriptions → Teams, next to the playoff bypass; shown when subscribed to ATP/WTA) restricts tennis matching to the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open). Smaller ATP/WTA tournaments are ignored entirely — no channels are created for them. Off by default.
Exception Keywords
Streams matching configured exception keywords (e.g. a “Spanish” feed of the same game) can be sub-consolidated, separated, or ignored instead of following the default consolidation behavior. These are configured globally on Channels → Consolidation.
See Adding a Source for the full source editor reference.