SUB please read RE: Zap2It

[capone]

I left a suggestion there that they could (as a long or short term bandwidth fix) limit the days to 3 during peak hours, and the normal amount off peak.

That way, you either get what you can get when you need it, or get what you want when they can best handle it.

[Tiger11]

I like this idea better than limiting # of total days.
Allow 13 day total, but only update every 4 days, same amount of traffic as 3 days done daily, and you would have between 10-13 days of info.

I would not mind a SMALL contribution to zap2it, as long as it was
1) Small (I'd have to think to put a $$ amount on it. Not much though, cable TV costs 50¢ per channel per month, and one is the guide, so maybe $5 a year...)
2) One Time! (I refuse to do subscriptions, they irk me)
3) Reasonable expectation it will not be cancelled overnight.

I think Zap2it should start sending advertisements in their grids to make money. I don't mind seing a SMALL text advertisement for pepsi or coca-cola in the program description field or separately. I mean, afterall Tivo is planning to do this, and we all know they charge an arm and a leg, why shouldn't zap2it do it?

[sub]

because titantv doesnt provide free listings that can be used for this purpose.

[capone]

Will that be an issue if (and presumably when) zap2it goes into some pay mode (even if it's optional for >3 days)?

[sub]

Not for me, I've still got free listing here

I'm sure if they start charging, someone from one of the PVR projects will develop a new XMLTV screen scraper to extract the info from the titan tv or zap2it website, giving you a free source for this info again. You'd be able to use this with GB-PVR's XMLTV EPG source to get your listings.

In the early days of GB-PVR, this current zap2it interface didnt exist, and everyone used these XMLTV screen scrapers. It required a little more setup for users, but didnt seem to stop anyone.

[capone]

13 days are here again...

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...#post91839

[groover km]

This is good news... but I would still advocate everyone who uses this serves to do so responsibly and do everything they can to lessen the load.

[kookyman]

I love a lot of the ideas here, and I think there are a few that are worth some definate inclusion into the software, that I think would be a major benefit to the userbase & Zap2It. I don't think would be that difficult of a coding job. (I'll admit it, its been a few years since I wrote any.) Also, while I'm not sure how it would be set up on Zap2It's end, I'm assuming they have our certificate ID tied to our accounts, and as a userbase, if they recognize (either by log auditing, or someone dropping them a line) that this particular userbase is attempting to offset some of the issues, if they make the decision to begin a set daily limit, a pay-for-use setup, or any other number of negative (in our eyes) adjustments to the service, we may be able to argue a case to let us continue in the manner in which we have become accustomed, as we are trying to do our part to be responsible users.

1a: Daily Random Download Times. Coding Requirements: a Checkbox Object, and a time flag. Just download the listings at a random time every day.
1b: Set Random Time. Coding requirements: Button Object. When you click the button, it just sets a "Random" time into the Update Time field.

2: Multi-Day Skips. Coding Requirements: A Text Box Object. A suggestion I posted a week or two ago, basically to perform updates less than daily. Simple way to put it is: Update Every ___ Days. Combining this with above option 1a I believe should give a lower and more even load spread across the days.

3a: A "Last Updated @" display. One thing I have not come across, I don't think-show me the way to find it-is a "EPG Last Updated at: __:__". Even though right now the EPG is set to update on its own, it doesn't always succeed, and if we go to a random time, it would be handy to know if it was just updated, or if it hasn't updated if you need to force a manual refresh.
3b: Don't Auto-Update if updated within the last 12-20 hours. In keeping track of when the database was last updated, prevent the auto-update feature from running if the last update happened a few hours ago. I mean, how often does the EPG actually update? The option for a manual update would still be available if you HAD to update it again a couple hours later, but if you manually request an update at noon, what sense does it make for GB to update itself again at 6p.

4: Combined Guides. A common feature request, mentioned alot in the forums, is a "Community Guide." For those of us with Multiple Tuners who utilize the same programming guide, let us quit downloading the guide over and over again. This would probably be a substantial reduction in load. I think the simplest way to do this would be to add in the EPG dropdown is "Use guide from another source..." Under the "Settings" button for this option, simply have a drop down list that contains the source names for the other devices. This should allow you to have say 2 guides on 3 tuners OK, not duplicate the EPG database, and only download what you need once per update.

Sub, I know this is your baby, and you only put in items that you can use, but as your loyal followers and lovers of this marvel you've made, can we ask nicely, please help us out here.

[sub]

I've already made a several zap2it changes for the next release to ensure we're as friendly to their service as we can be.

[nitrogen_widget]

The directv website has a guide also, but it is just web based.
Too bad I couldn't dial up to the tivo server's with my subscription.