How to Use IPTV Sleuth
1. Submit a Provider
Go to the Submit & Compare tab on the home page. Fill in the provider name and as many stream/category counts as you can. These numbers are typically visible in your IPTV app's dashboard or playlist info screen.
2. Review Matches
After submission, IPTV Sleuth compares your provider against every public provider in the database. Matches above 75% similarity are shown. If a match scores 95% or higher, it is flagged as a likely reseller of the same source panel.
3. Check Grouped Matches
The Grouped Matches tab shows clusters of providers that share 95%+ similarity. Each group represents providers that likely share the same underlying source panel.
What Signals Are Compared
When Xtream API credentials are provided, IPTV Sleuth builds a multi-signal fingerprint using 22 weighted signals across content, infrastructure, and metadata dimensions. No credentials are stored — only the resulting fingerprint data.
Content Signals
These compare what the provider actually serves. They carry the most weight because resellers share the same content catalog.
| Signal | Method | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Stream IDs | MinHash Jaccard over all live stream IDs | 15% |
| Channel Names | MinHash Jaccard over normalised channel names | 12% |
| EPG IDs | MinHash Jaccard over EPG channel IDs | 8% |
| VOD Stream IDs | MinHash Jaccard over VOD stream IDs | 8% |
| Category IDs | Exact Jaccard across live, series, and VOD category IDs | 8% |
| Series IDs | MinHash Jaccard over series IDs | 4% |
| Category Names | Exact Jaccard across all category names | 3% |
| Channel Numbers | Jaccard over channel number assignments | 2% |
Infrastructure Signals
These identify the underlying server and delivery network. Matching infrastructure strongly indicates a shared source panel.
| Signal | Method | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Backend Stream IPs | Jaccard over resolved content delivery IPs | 7% |
| Server URL / IP | IP match (100%), hostname match (90%), or domain match (50%) | 5% |
| SSL Certificate | Certificate serial hash match or SAN overlap | 5% |
| Port Tuple | Exact match of HTTP, HTTPS, and RTMP port numbers | 4% |
| EPG Source | Exact match of EPG/XMLTV source domain | 2% |
| HTTP Headers | Exact match of server software and cache headers | 2% |
| Detected Backend | Panel software match (XtreamCodes, Stalker, etc.) | 2% |
| Stream Token Format | Exact match of authentication token type (JWT, MD5, etc.) | 1% |
Temporal & Metadata Signals
| Signal | Method | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Timestamps | Jaccard over sampled "added" timestamps | 4% |
| Icon Domains | Jaccard over stream icon/cover image domains | 3% |
| User Message | Exact match of server broadcast message | 2% |
| Allowed Formats | Jaccard over allowed output formats | 1% |
Derived Signals
Computed from the raw data to capture structural patterns.
| Signal | Method | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Content Age | Cosine similarity of weekly content-age histograms | 1% |
| Category Distribution | Cosine similarity of streams-per-category counts | 1% |
When content signals strongly agree (≥90% average), infrastructure mismatches are automatically discounted — different servers are expected for resellers sharing the same source panel.
Fallback: Count-Based Comparison
If no Xtream credentials are provided, the system falls back to a simpler comparison using content counts only:
| Metric | Weight |
|---|---|
| Live Streams | 30% |
| Live Categories | 20% |
| Series | 20% |
| Series Categories | 15% |
| VOD Categories | 5% |
If none of these are provided, the system falls back to legacy metrics: Channels (60%) and Groups (40%). Count-based comparison is far less accurate than fingerprint comparison.
How Similarity Scoring Works
Fingerprint mode computes a weighted average across all 22 signals. Each signal produces a similarity score between 0 and 1. Signals where both providers have data are included; missing signals are excluded and their weight is redistributed proportionally.
Count-based fallback uses a simpler formula per field:
The overall score in both modes is a weighted average expressed as a percentage:
- 95%+ — Very likely the same panel/source (flagged as match)
- 75-94% — Possible reseller or similar provider
- Below 75% — Likely different providers
Privacy
We do not store credentials, login details, or any personal information. Only aggregate metrics (stream counts, category counts) are saved. Your IP address is recorded with submissions solely to prevent abuse and is not shared.