[mythtv] DataDirect service

brian turbo at talstar.com
Tue Apr 3 00:32:54 UTC 2007


   Bruce J. Markey, where are you?   :)

   Over the past several weeks, the data feed from DataDirect is 
becoming increasingly "generic" and (for 
scheduling/dupe-checking/guide-browsing purposes) more and more useless.

   On the USA network, my MythTV is set to record previously-unseen 
episodes of "Monk".  All of the listings for this program in DataDirect 
say "A detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder cracks cases." 
There is little/no other information.  As a result, my MythTV system 
routinely records these "generic" episodes, most of which I've already 
seen/recorded (back when they were aired and DataDirect gave us data). 
Proper episode synopsis and show title/subtitle existed for each of 
these on the zap2it listings page.

   On the VERSUS channel, my MythTV is set to record "Cycling".  As of 
late, they're airing various early-season races on Sunday 
afternoon/evenings and repeating them on Wednesday afternoons.  The 
DataDirect service lists only "Cycling" with no other information, and 
shows the Sunday timeslot as 17:00-19:00, even when it isn't 
(yesterday's showing was from 17:00-18:00; next week's is really airing 
at 19:00-21:00)  Again, since these are "generic" episodes, my MythTV 
system records (all of!) these showings in the given timeslots, even 
though the zap2it online listing shows correct/complete listings and 
timeslots.

   This week (and last, at the least) the primetime listings for NBC are 
completely messed up.  All of the primetime lineup consists of "generic" 
listings with severely out-of-kilter timeslots (8:00-8:40, 8:40-9:15, 
9:15-9:50, 9:50-10:20, etc)  End result: I hope you're not trying to 
record "My Name Is Earl" (I'm not, but that's not the point...)

   Bruce, if you're listening (or still reading this)... is there any 
insight from your contact(s) at Zap2It regarding the degradation of 
service on their DataDirect feed?  If not, can you try to obtain some 
intel on what's going on?

   Failing that, do we need to resurrect the screen-scraper to get the 
(more-)accurate listings from their html service?



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