[mythtv] DVB-T UK xmltv ids

[Mattias Holmlund]

On 10/26/05, John Pullan <john.pullan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ahem so it it took me a bit longer than I thought. Anyway this is a
> very basic app which matches the callsign from a list of ids found in
> a file and applies an xmltvid to the DB.
>

I think this is a very good initiative. It is a first step towards
getting rid of all xmltv-configuration at least for the DVB-case. In
my mind, the full solution consists of three main components:

1. A way to map DVB callsign to xmltvid (your program or similar).
2. A way to find a grabber that can deliver data for a specific xmltvid.
3. A way to instruct the grabber to provide data for a specific
xmltvid without forcing the user into the shell and run --configure.

Ideally, I think steps 1 and 2 should be provided as webservices that
MythTV can utilize. The reason is that this information tends to
change quite often. For tv_grab_se_swedb for example, channels are
added and removed at least on a monthly bases. Most of the time we add
new channels, but the TV companies also like to rename their old
channels. Another reason for doing it as a webservice is that other
projects than MythTV can utilize the same service.

The problem is how to gather data and keep it updated. I have an idea
how to do this for component 2, but I don't know about component 1.
One idea is to keep ids.txt in MythTV svn and check it out
automatically from the webserver each night. Another idea is to do it
Wiki-style and allow anyone to update it via the web, but this takes
some effort to implement.

If someone else than me thinks that the above is a good idea, I'm
willing to setup the webservices for 1 and 2, but someone else needs
to write the MythTV parts to access the webservices and keep ids.txt
updated. I will also try to talk to the xmltv grabber authors about
adding infrastructure to gather data for 2 and to implement an API for
3 in all grabbers, but I can't make any promises for anything except
tv_grab_se_swedb.

/Mattias