RE: [TV] basic qusetion - ireland, listings, howto?

["Paul Webster" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> As I see it (and feel free to insult me if I'm wrong!), in order to get a
> program guide (or EPG as I see some call it), you need to run a script
> (currently tv_grab_uk_rt from the xmltv package) that "talks" to a site
> (such as bleb.org) and downloads the relevant XML formatted file locally.
Correct - although ... another trick available to some is that the EPG is
broadcast over the air (in the "old" days via teletext and nowadays as part
of the DVB data stream) - so some PC cards and related software can show
that EPG on the screen and allow you to set recordings from it. Some
software can also take that data and convert it into another format so that
it can be re-used by other applications ... with the syntax defined in XMLTV
being the most common.

> So, questions that arise from there:-
>
> * XML and XMLTV - XML is a standard language, and XMLTV is a predefined
> format, written in XML?
XMLTV is 2 things. It is a definition of a data structure - in XML
Plus most preople probably think of the application called XMLTV that has a
number of grabbers that can pull data from certain sources and write out
XMLTV-syntax data.
>
> * tv_grab_uk_rt - is there an equivalent script written to fetch from
> bleb.org?
Yes - more than one. Andy Balaam has recently submitted his grabber to be
included in the standard distribution of the XMLTV application.

> * Ireland - I notice there's no mention of good old RTE and other such
> channels on bleb.org ... any plans to include them? Is it "not as simple
> as that"? Know of any relevant links?
I don't know if Andrew has any plans - but - just for your info - there is a
commercial offering called DigiGuide (less than 10GBP per year) that
provides UK and Irish channels and can import XMLTV-syntax listings. It is a
fully functional Windows application that also includes teh ability to set
markers (looking out for programmes or text in the description) and taking
actions like voice alert, launch external application (which could initiate
recording on your PC) etc.
I use it and like it a lot and have written add-ons for it.

Paul