UK listings and XMLTV Issues

[gEd]

so why do we all still prat about downloading xml files from the web?

IIRC: last time I tried, the EPG data just wasn;t as good but I can;t remember exactly in what way. If the DVB EPG data comes from radio times, I'd switch back.

I find the reviews of the shows from RT to be spot on and have watched many good films just because they said it was a good film.

[bgowland]

I hear thoughts of a possibility of them charging for their data. :mad:

I don't have much of a problem with that as long as it was a nominal sum such as 5 or 10 quid a year. At least that way, subscribers would have legal protection against them mucking up their web source for so long.

On the other hand - we buy the Radio Times magazine every week. They have to collate the information for the magazine so it shouldn't cost me any more for them to dump the information somewhere for free download. Perhaps they could offer this as a free service for those who subscribe to have the magazine delivered directly from them.

I don't think it's unfair that people who don't buy the magazine would have to pay. Radio Times stopped being a direct publication of the BBC a long time ago so we can't necessarily expect free access to their information just because we're TV licence payers.

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

sub - I think gEd possibly hit the nail on the head...

I'm considering switching over to the DVB EPG option if the problems continue much longer but I'll switch back again once they're sorted. Even if the RT decide to charge then I don't have too much of a problem with that.

One thing about the RT download, as gEd says, is the better quality (or at least more depth) of things like programme reviews. The detail isn't always the same as in the magazine but it's usually better than the description in the DVB EPG. It's probably one of the few reasons I still buy the magazine - the journalism and the reviews are usually of a good quality.

An example for 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' on Film4 tonight...

DVB EPG

Guy Ritchie's gangster film sees Jason Flemyng and pals take on 'Hatchet Harry' after a poker game goes wrong.

XMLTVRT

Widely regarded as the best British crime movie since The Long Good Friday, the youthful exuberance of this cheerfully amoral debut feature from Guy Ritchie is truly infectious. The superb cast is spiced up with the presence of celebrities such as Sting and, especially, Vinnie Jones in a well-received henchman-with-a-heart role. The action revolves around young cardsharp Eddy (Nick Moran), who loses £500,000 he doesn't have to crime king Hatchet Harry. With a week to come up with the shortfall, he and mates Dexter Fletcher, Jason Flemyng and Jason Statham plan to hijack the proceeds of a robbery hatched by their gangster neighbours. But things go horribly wrong very quickly.

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

Yeah, I remember some posts mentioning this in past, but its at least an option for those that dont want to pay if they decide to make it a pay service (or everybody if they make it 10 quid a month )

Its probably just some server outage and it'll be back in no time.

[gEd]

A perfect example Brian, cheers... You've confirmed that my memory isn;t totally shot yet!

(and what a great film that is)

[bgowland]

...but its at least an option for those that dont want to pay if they decide to make it a pay service

Yeah - I'd rather have the DVB EPG than no listings at all.

...(or everybody if they make it 10 quid a month )

The RT magazine is only 98p/week so if they decided to charge silly money for downloads I know which way I'd go.

Its probably just some server outage and it'll be back in no time.

The main web-site is back as I type this. Haven't tested an XMLTV download yet though.

[EDIT] Nope - 404 messages on all attempts to download channel info. I'll give it some more time.

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

A perfect example Brian, cheers... You've confirmed that my memory isn;t totally shot yet!

(and what a great film that is)

Pure luck - I just went looking for an example with TS Reader and spotted that it was on. I guessed the RT would have something more in depth to say about it than the DVB guide.

Yeah - great film - totally bizarre but great!

Cheers,
Brian

[cosmocat]

Martin123 put..

I may make you an offer for your data

I'll remember to stop my scheduled task downloading an empty XML file again tonight though!

Unfortunately I didn't remember to stop the auto update so all that guide data disappeared ! DOH!!

http://www.radiotimes.com is back up now, so maybe the service will be back to normal tonight.

To compound my problems my net access from home is down due to a fault on my BT line so all my web dependent toys are dead, e-mail, TV EPG, Skype, BOINC ...You just don't realise how much you come to rely on these things 'till their gone!

[JuicyFruits]

So if they did start charging, there is no reason to not shift over to the DVB EPG? It might take a bit of tweaking to get it working smoothly with ITV and a couple of other problem channels, but at least you have the option.

I switched to DVB EPG as like many I lost the data file.
I get most channel infos except the ITV ones (and a couple of boring channels I dont care about). What kind of tweaking might I need to look at ? Quite happy to play, but dont know where to start.

I've also worked on some big website implementations. My guess (and its just a guess) is that if direct downloads of listings does not work at all following the implementation then they probably haven't decided to support them in this release to their website.
Even if they have decided to support them, I would imagine supplying data correctly to the bunch of geeks we are is a much lower priority bug than fixing the performance issues the site appears to have under load.
Just my 2p, I hope the direct download is fixed myself.

[martint123]

My problem with the DVB EPG is that I have two DVB sources on the nova-t-500, RF analogue for the PVR150 (slightly redundant now with the DVB, but occasionally used if 3 recordings/live TV needed) and all the Sky channels.

I'll experiment with DVB EPG, but last time I tried, I broke things ;(