will zap2it remain free in future?

[tunanugget]

is zap2it an opensource project? seems like it has no ads compared to titantv. i couldn't find an article about it on wikipedia. wonder how long it will continue to offer free service.

[sub]

is zap2it an opensource project?

No its not.

will zap2it remain free in future?

Hopefully - it has for the last couple of years. I'm sure if they started charging for it some free alternative will popup, so I dont think there is anything you need to worry about.

[Braklet]

is zap2it an opensource project? seems like it has no ads compared to titantv. i couldn't find an article about it on wikipedia. wonder how long it will continue to offer free service.

There are only two sources for North American programming information:

TV Guide and Tribune Media Services

zap2it is TMSs web presence; TVG has their own corresponding site but I am not aware of any non-HTTP access methods to their data.

TitanTV is a consumer-oriented (and ad-supported) service provided by a newer corporate entity:

Decisionmark, who use TVG (used to be TMS) for base data, then claim to add value on top of that base data. They have a pretty good case for extra value; TitanTV often has more complete episode information than zap2it, for instance.

Titan inserts ads in their data, zap2it doesn't. Sub is right about "free" services, we'll always have access to something. The real question is whether zap2it will start embedding advertising in their "free" data.

[Braklet]

Speaking of which...

Sub, do you know what it would take to integrate GB-PVR with TitanTV? I noticed that they claim compatibility with some dedicated tuner card applications. I found no analog to labs.zap2it.com, however.

It is clear that TitanTV wants you to web-browse their listings (as opposed to supplying data for display within GB-PVR) but it would be neat if there were some way for Titan's "watch now" and "record" buttons to manifest as GB-PVR recordings.

I'm generally OK with zap2it as an EPG source and just curious about alternate data uses.

[Ted the Penguin]

I believe the titantv buttons access the wintv programs, or they use a protocol like an aim goim link, I think you could make gbpvr respond to a link like that, I dont know if you could make it recognise the show name etc. or if its beyond the epg that gbpvr has, or if the chanels are mapped strangely... sub can probably answer this

[sub]

Sub, do you know what it would take to integrate GB-PVR with TitanTV? I noticed that they claim compatibility with some dedicated tuner card applications. I found no analog to labs.zap2it.com, however.

Assuming they just run a command line giving the recording times and name, it'd be relatively easy to create a command line recording scheduler for GB-PVR. Its not something I'd use, so not something I'll be adding, but would be pretty easy for any of the plugin/utility developers to knock up (just a single call to the ScheduleHelper.ScheduleRecording() API).

[Braklet]

(just a single call to the ScheduleHelper.ScheduleRecording() API).

Huh, nifty. If I ever get really irritated at zap2it I might eyeball that myself. Thanks.