[mythtv-users] tv guide line-up free

Daniel Kristjansson danielk at cuymedia.net
Tue Sep 4 20:54:15 UTC 2007


On Tue, 2007-09-04 at 12:42 -0700, Robert Current wrote:
> First, I found free data was available, but they refused to
> acknowledge it.  Strike one.

No one has to my knowledge pointed out a free source of data that
is legal and can be used by any large subset of MythTV users.

> Next, I found that the other FUD statement on the website about EIT
> data was a total lie.  Where they said "In the USA, EIT data is
> supposed to contain at least 12 hours of accurate data for the digital
> stations. Only a few broadcasters provide anything more than that, and
> some broadcasters don't even provide the legally required EIT data."
> I found lots of people get at least 7 days data from SatTV stuff, and
> I was getting at least 3-4 days on my OTA HDTV card.  I guess going
> 1-2 years back maybe that statement was true, but at least locally I
> get decent OTA EIT data, so the statement was pure FUD on the part of
> SchedulesDirect.

ATSC EIT can technically contain a lot of scheduling information, but
in practice around the US and Canada it does not. As for satellite TV,
the US broadcaster using DVB EIT, Dish Network, is providing enough
scheduling data for their subscribers to run MythTV. It's roughly
analogous to the data provided to MythTV users in Europe. It's not as
complete as SD data but it's perfectly adequate. It is in fact from the
same upstream source, TMS. I wrote most of the EIT parsing code used in
the US for MythTV and the now/next VBI parsing code, and I fact checked
the FAQ item that Schedules Direct posted. When it refers to 12 hours
being required by law, that is only for ATSC EIT; AFAIK the pseudo DVB
EIT used by Dish Network is not required by law and is only provided
as a convenience to their customers. Most MythTV users in the US and
Canada are not Dish Network customers so this falls into the category
of solutions which are very limited in scope and so will not satisfy
very many MythTV users (and it requires you to purchase and configure
hardware which most residential Dish Network subscribers do not already
have.)

> So, with those to things made clear to me, and the attitude on this
> list, I just avoided Schedules Direct completely.  I am more than
> happy with OTA EIT, and I don't need a 2 weeks of listing data.  As
> long as it get's the show in time to record it, what do I care?  If I
> want listing data, I can go to tvguide.com and see what shows are
> coming up, and enter a keyword search in MythTV.  So, why pay $5/month
> for something I don't need, from people who seem to be less than
> honest about why it's so desperately needed.

As writer of both the EIT parser you are using now and a Schedules
Direct board member I have no problem with what you are doing. If
you can get the listings you need with EIT more power to you. Most
MythTV users want at least a week of data and do not want to visit
tvguide.com or set up keyword search recordings for everything.

-- Daniel



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