[mythtv-users] EPG info to become available for Australia?

[John]

I used to used tv_grab_au, but have since moved to using Shepherd. It is 
fantstic. I uses several sources and even grabs desriptions from imdb, tv.com 
etc. 

http://svn.whuffy.com/

# Shepherd 
Shepherd provides reliable, high-quality guide data for Australian free-to-
air TV and Pay TV channels by employing a flock of independent grabbers and 
data sources.

 #Background 
Australians have traditionally had two options for acquiring TV guide data:
   1. Downloading pre-compiled data from a service like IceTV or OzTivo
   2. Using a tv_grab_au script to read data from a web site like 
ninemsn.com.au 

Each method has drawbacks. The quality of pre-compiled data varies, while 
tv_grab_au scripts tend to frequently break. Shepherd aims to solve the 
traditional problems of tv_grab_au scripts:
   1. It employs multiple TV guide grabbers and data sources, switching 
between them as necessary when one fails
   2. It auto-updates, eliminating the need for users to manually address 
problems 


Very nice.


---------- Original Message -----------
From: mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org
To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Sent: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:01:56 +0000
Subject: mythtv-users Digest, Vol 52, Issue 19

> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:10:21 +1000
> From: Alan Calvert <cal at graggrag.com>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] EPG info to become available for
> 	Australia?
> To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Message-ID: <468E696D.8050000 at graggrag.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> 
> Bill Williamson wrote:
> > On 7/6/07, *Robert Eden* <rmeden at yahoo.com <mailto:rmeden at yahoo.com>> 
> > wrote:
> > 
> >     On 7/5/2007 7:05 AM, Phill Edwards wrote:
> >      > Australian users have a look at this which was posted on the OzTiVo
> >      > forum
> >     -  http://www.freetv.com.au/media/News-Media_Release/2007-
0174_MED_FREE_TV_NETWORKS_USHER_IN_NEW_ERA_OF_DIGITAL_TV_040707.pdf
> >     <http://www.freetv.com.au/media/News-Media_Release/2007-
0174_MED_FREE_TV_NETWORKS_USHER_IN_NEW_ERA_OF_DIGITAL_TV_040707.pdf>
> >      >
> >     XMLTV already has tv_grab_au which can be used with MythTV.
> > 
> >  
> > tv_grab_au as in default xmltv hasn't worked for years.  There are three 
> > Australian grabbers out there right now that are useful.
> >  
> > The first uses "wiki style" contributed data from tvguide.org.au 
> > <http://tvguide.org.au>.  Volunteers fill in the data.
> >  
> > Another grabber (same code, different config) talks to icetv, a paid-for 
> > source of tv data, but it's expensive for what it is and has been quite 
> > bad lately.
> >  
> > The final grabber is a hybrid grabber which uses the basic free 
> > volunteer data from tvguide and then tries to fill in extra data from 
> > various sources (screen scrapes, etc).
> >  
> > REAL EPG info for australians would be a huge windfall.
> 
> And of course there's shepherd: <http://svn.whuffy.com/index.fcgi/wiki>
> Now there's a _very_ clever body of work.
> 
> > This is also why we're secretly chuckling at the 
> > "chickens-with-heads-cut-off" over the whole zap2it problem;  we've had 
> > the problem since day 1 and have survived, so you guys in the US have 
> > nothing to worry about.
> 
> Absolutely! Some of the bleating has been hilarious, not to mention 
> the sheer volume and mania of it all. Welcome to the modern world, 
> America.  Cheers!
> 
> ------------------------------