[mythtv-users] How does scraped listings data compare with DataDirect's?
Yeechang Lee
ylee at pobox.com
Wed Jun 20 16:45:53 UTC 2007
I hope, as we all do, that some kind of solution--likely one involving
fees--will emerge between now and 1 September for the end of the free
Zap2It service. However, we should also start planning as if
DataDirect will go away and no comparable direct feed will appear to
take its place.
I built my MythTV setup after DataDirect's debut and so have never
known anything else. Compared to DataDirect.com, scraped data from
tvlistings.com would lack the following:
* Original air dates for TV shows
* Episode numbers
* Category
* The Credits list is less detailed. For example, the _Arrested
Development_ episode "The Sword of Destiny" lists nine actors under
"Cast" on Datadirect but only five under "Credits" on
tvlistings.com.
* Miscellaneous data like "Guest Stars," "Executive Producer," ratings
stars, and "Directed by" is completely missing.
While distressing, none of these to my untrained eye is a truly
serious loss. Lack of proper air dates is a pity given that I sort by
it in Recorded Programs, but sorting by Program ID (which, thankfully,
*is* available, in the URL) would, I suspect, be a mostly-acceptable
substitute (not always, because program ID doesn't necessarily
coincide with air order). As I recently learned here, MythTV doesn't
actually use episode numbers.Searches, including Power Searches, would
suffer from the lack of ancillary program data, of course. Perhaps
IMDb's user-contributed ratings can substitute for the ratings stars.
I suggest that we all start testing scrapers now, and am happy to
volunteer once one is available to try.
--
Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> | +1 650 776 7763 | San Francisco CA US
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