Zap2it Closing Down

[martint123]

I just got this from the xmltv-announce list

On 6/19 Tribune Media announced that they will be discontinuing their
Zap2IT Labs service on September 1, 2007.

XMLTV/tv_grab_na_dd uses this for U.S./Canada guide data.

I'd like to start by publicly saying Tribune and Zap2IT for their guide
data all these years. It was very much appreciated.

Tribune has said they have no interest in converting Z2L to a paid
service even though many people have expressed a willingness to pay.

This doesn't only effect XMLTV, it effects MythTV, GBPVR, and many more
applications that use U.S./Canada listings. I'm confident the Open
Source Community will work out a solution, there is no need to panic.

I've had conversations with developers on other projects and we are all
trying to solicit another source of data without resorting to web
scraping. I can't guarantee the data will be free (or surveyware), but
I do hope it will be reasonably priced.

I've set up a private mailing list for leaders of open source projects
to work together on this issue. If you are a leader of a Open Source
project that uses TV listings, drop me an email to be added to the
list. (include your project name for verification please). Working
together we can come up with a solution.

If you have TV data with redistribution rights and are willing to work
with XMLTV or other Open Source projects, please drop me an email so we
can discuss it. I'll pass it on.

Robert Eden
XMLTV

[HTPCGB]

Whurlston, I'm getting a new error with your listings scraper. (See below) I also see that you've found a new, more convenient listings source. How good is it?

[Ted the Penguin]

Good to see over 8,000 users decided to pop-out from behind their monitors to talk about this here. I guess it's very important topic. So what will Sub decide to use Titan TV or Yahoo TV. Will the XMLTV Grabbers really work this time as I had it work then it would fail to pull from the Zap2it account. In a few months that will be gone so again what will be used in the next GBPVR as this would delay the release to change the code for EPG. Will EPGExtra be redone to work with these changes?

Should we all pay to have Zap2it pay side like Sub mention with SAGETV and BeyondTV uses Zap2it but they pay for it for it's users. Is there a way for us all to give Sub the money so he doesn't have to shell it out to Zap2it continuous server with GBPVR? Just a thought. I know it's hard for all of us here to go and withdrawall money out of our Savings or Checking. But this is just an idea..

Is there a better way... I see a lot of problems to get this corrected.. Time is running out...Can this be fixed?

yes this does appear to be a rather popular and important issue, however I dont think sub will have much to do with the solution, since someone should be able to make something that will get US and canada listings in XMLTV format... which is already supported. so I guess in a way, sub already chose the solution:p

and the time isnt all that critical, we have a little over 2 months to get it going

[Smoker]

titantv.com has soap services:

http://data.titantv.com/dataservice.asmx?WSDL
and
http://data.titantv.com/dataservice.asmx

-ioan

This worked for me

UUID: EGU7TZLA1JA94H679Z9WVV5ETEEG17
ProviderID: A_74566
DaysRequested: 1

[flyswatta]

whurlston,
I'm getting the same exact error as HTPCGB when I run the Yahoo tv grabber test.

[flyswatta]

This worked for me

UUID: EGU7TZLA1JA94H679Z9WVV5ETEEG17
ProviderID: A_74566
DaysRequested: 1

Wow! That was pretty fast! How did you get your UUID and ProviderId? I sifted through the headers of a normal web session and could quite find them.

[bdgbill]

This is all very depressing. If a reliable epg source cannot be found by Sep 1st I will be plunking down $600.00 for my cable company's PVR which does not have half the functionality of GBPVR and has reputation for eating hard drives.

I use GBPVR because it works not because it is free. It seems like the program is mature enough to offer a commercial version for sale that would include listings. I would be the first one in line to pay $100.00 for a commercial version of GBPVR plus a monthly fee for listings.

I can't go back to watching TV the old way! :eek:

[Smoker]

Wow! That was pretty fast! How did you get your UUID and ProviderId? I sifted through the headers of a normal web session and could quite find them.

google is your friend

[flyswatta]

I found some other UUID & provider id's but was unable to find how to determine an individual UUID and determine your providerid. I'm assuming UUID is tied to your account, and providerid is the tv provider (ie. OTA, DishNetwork, Cable, etc).

[flyswatta]

Okay, I got it. Just had to do a little reading between the lines.