[mythtv-users] Getting local-access stations into Schedules Direct

[Robert Eden]

On 11/1/2009 1:56 AM, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
> Ah, I missed that the first time though.  Thanks.  But I was more
> thinking about how the station -exports- its data to XML, not how
> I inhale it; obviously it depends on where there data comes from,
> but I presume there are also some tools to take common formats and
> produce something reasonable.
You would think.... but when Zap2IT Labs shut down and we were looking 
into how to recover (before SD) we contacted a number of stations 
looking for a direct feed.  Basically it's a mess. There is no standard 
format!  Some have it in word, some excel, some proprietary formats.  
XMLTV actually seemed to be the closest thing to a "standard" format! We 
were shocked to find that within a TV station, it's often easier/cheaper 
for them to buy a Tribune feed than to transfer the data internally!

So Tribune (and presumably the other US source Rovi/Macrovision/Gemstar) 
has to retype a lot of the data.   You would think the stations would 
want to standardize on something (even CSV!) at least for internal use, 
but that's not the case.  I can think of a few logical reasons for this, 
but still find it crazy.  The mess is probably one reason why the data 
costs so much.

Robert
Schedules Direct
XMLTV