Re: [TV] Hi

[Andrew Flegg <andrew@xxxxxxxx>]

In list.comp.tv, Holden wrote:
> 
[snip]
> IMHO, the use of + and - days makes the system a little more 
> complicated, as does having data from two different days in one XML file.

It depends on your point of view - listings magazines have always
gone from a "get up " to "go to bed" perspective as this is what people
(generally) consider a day. Therefore, that's what the site provides and
*therefore* that's what the backend XML stores.

> If I were making the listings (which i'm not, and thanks _very_ much for 
> providing them :-), i'd only include midnight-midnight listings in each 
> file and allow retrieval by date rather than +/- days.

At the moment, the current XML will stay as is; but as with the xmltv
issue, it's certainly possible a generic transcoding CGI could be
provided, either to get the programmes for date (rather than day) and/or
in xmltv's DTD.

>> As for the data on /tv being more complete, in what way?
> 
> OK, i'm looking right now at the listings for Channel Five on both /tv 
> and /tv2. I notice that films on /tv include the year the film is made 
> while /tv2 doesn't. Also, /tv seems to include stereo and teletext 
> information for most programmes while /tv2 does not :-(

Ahh yes. The listings are now being sourced from each channel's own
listings information: this, unfortunately, means the information is not
consistent. Things like year for film are one of the biggest losses, but
if anyone's got any suggestions for meta-data which is guessable from
the programme title/time/date/description that'd be great.

As for not including stereo/teletext information, I've yet to decide how
best to represent this in the XML: as a generic string of flags? Some
predefined attributes, eg. widescreen (either on analogue or digital);
black & white; stereo; subtitles; (and others)? Opinions on this would
be very welcome :-)

> Anyway, thanks for providing this great *free* resource. It's getting as 
> good as digiguide and, of course, you have to pay for that. Even better, 
> yours is an open solution which allows people to build their own front 
> ends around (try doing that with Digiguide!). Overall, it's a great site :-)

Awww, gee, thanks :-)

Cheers,

Andrew

-- 
Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew@xxxxxxxx  |  http://www.bleb.org/