[mythtv-users] Scraping

Billy Macdonald billymacdonald at gmail.com
Mon Jul 9 18:47:44 UTC 2007


On 7/9/07, Kevin Slater <kevin.slater at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 7/9/07, Rich West <Rich.West at wesmo.com> wrote:
> > I fear asking this after having read through the piles of email related
> > to the zap2it panic, but since the need has arisen (I can't get guide
> > data, and I expect that things will get even less stable as we approach
> > September), I was wondering if anyone has made any efforts toward
> > scraping data off of the DirecTV site for DirecTV subscribers?
> >
> >
>
> When I log on to my DirecTV account page and go to the listings, I see a
> block indicating flash is needed. (I have a flash blocker turned on by
> default.) I think screen scraping that would be a lot more difficult than if
> it were just html.
>
> I just tried it anonymously with my zip code using Lynx (ncurses command
> line browser - no flash) and while I can see some listing data I can't get
> any sort of usable details.
>
> The other problem, as have been previously noted, is that it's likely a
> violation of your contract with DirecTV to screen scrape the listings for
> use on some (any) other system.
>
> ...Kevin
>

If I were paying for DirectTV I wouldn't feel bad at all about
scraping their site.  You give them plenty of money each month for
their service.  I can see how scraping a third party site that relies
on ads could be an issue.  But a paying subscriber to directtv.....

I won't have any problems (morally, technically maybe :) ) scraping
Cox's site if it comes down to that.  (Even though it's really hosted
by zap2it.)  My $xx for cable includes the listings in my view.

Billy


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list