Long time Dreamlink user here. Make your life easier by taking the time set all the channels you will watch as Favorites then turn channel numbering on in your menu settings. I have about 250 channels in my Favs with Vader. Now, go to the main box settings and set your startup app to DOL2, then set the power off setting to “Standby”.

By setting it to standby, the EPG won’t be deleted when you turn the box off. Take the time once in the morning and once in the evening to load your entire Favs EPG. Takes about 5-6 mins for my 250 channels. Saves alot of headaches and complaining from the wife, trust me.

Dreamlink is supposedly working on this issue, but a solution is not imminent.

I've heard that issue with the dreamlink. I'm not sure there's anything you can do because it's loading the epg through a MAG portal and not a regular XML link. Really curious if there's a way to fix that because otherwise it seems just about perfect.

For the groups there may be a way in the settings? If not the only way I can think of is to have your own custom portal made on xtream codes but I haven't tried it yet.