Hi all I know some of you will find this question dull, but it's something that I would be interested in knowing the answer to (though a suspect there is no definitive answer the discussion would help with making informed design decisions).
I am writing what was originally intended to be a small desktop application (in Java), though it's looking not so small any more. It hopes to provide both listings for traditional T.V. channels and more importantly allow people to download content from T.V. channels created by other users (quite how much of this I can achieve at this time is questionable, but it's more a proof of concept and learning experience to be honest). Obviously the actual data transfer will be using open standards such as HTTP and Bittorrent, mainly so I can avoid having to write much server code. However I have got to the point where it is necessary to store data about programmes. This is where I hit a snag. As far as I can tell there are 2 competing formats: XMLTV <http://xmltv.org> TV-Anytime (aka TS 102 822) <http://www.tv-anytime.org/> As part of the application will be based on user defined programming it provides more freedom to choose a format based on the formats qualities and not what format the data providers choose. XMLTV is a much simpler format, which means I can code a parser for it, and more importantly understand how all the elements link together much easier. Unfortunately XMLTV doesn't seem to provide much provision for fetching a program, although there is a URL element within the programme element. On the other hand TV-Anytime appears to provides much greater depth of data and appears designed to handle "Download T.V.". Unfortunately the specification is much harder to understand (hundreds of pages, compared with < 10 for XMLTV), but more importantly the standard uses other standards which I can not seem to find available for less somewhere in the region of £250, which is a lot to pay when developing a free application. Although the TV-Anytime specification says the references should be found in a certain location on the ETSI site, they are missing. What is iPlayer using to hold it's Meta data? Another question I have is about where to find TV listings. Radio Times provide data (though I can't seem to find the link on their site) (and it's for personal use only) The BBC provide TV-Anytime listings but only for BBC channels. How detailed is the data from the BBC? Does it utilise all the features in the TV-Anytime format or is it just the basics? This leads me onto the question: Do we need a good provider of TV Meta Data? According to the TV-Anytime documents it is possible to list things like whether a TV show has been nominated form or won awards. Is there anyone who actually provides such data or does it go unused? Do we need a Wikipedia for TV Meta Data (is there one already that I don't know about?) According to the standard you can also provide "grouping" of channels, are there people who provide custom groupings of channels? Maybe having a "My Favourite Programmes" link on your website that points to you XMLTV group definition. The only problem with it is what do you do with it? The state of British Download TV is horrific. You can't setup a handler for such a file because it would need to invoke iPlayer* for the BBC channels, 4OD* for channels 4's channels and maybe another program that provides live TV listings or the ability to record from TV-cards. *This assumes iPlayer and 4OD would even be willing to handle such user submitted information, I do not know if they are capable of this. Of course the easiest way to fix this is a unified standard and then you can use any application you want to get all the channels, which should make it possible for people to provide a list of there favourite shows and other people could add them for downloading. (Was TS 102 822 meant to do just that?) No one seems at all interested in that kind of thing though I am sad to say. Quick thought popped into me head just now. On Facebook it is possible to list your favourite TV programmes, is there any way to leverage this information? Could you add a button that would invoke iPlayer (or 4OD, of your TV Recording Software, or a TV Listings application) and tell it to search for those programmes and add the ones it has for downloading (it should be possible with TV-Anytime if I understood all those flow charts about where data goes and comes from), does iPlayer use TV-Anytime or could it be altered to accept input in that format? We are missing out on some interesting usage right here, it's a pity the only people who can fix this won't. (Maybe we need the IETF to do something, they seem much more helpful people, they allow free bulk download of their standards without any registration, so kind of them). Discuss. As an after thought, any idea if it's possible to buy printed versions of TS 102 822 for a *small* fee, my printer my not be able to cope with all the pages and Alt-Tab'ing between the standard and my IDE is going to be a pain and interrupt work flow. (Is this more the kind of thing you would like on this list?) Andy -- Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows. -- Adam Heath - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
