Messages

We now have a new how-to document and installer program for using the Ice XML Guide with the Topfield PVR.  Both are available for download from the support page:

http://server.icetv.info/support/

Thanks,
Russell

We now have an updated how-to document and installer program for using the Ice XML Guide with the Topfield PVR.  Both are available for download from the support page:

http://server.icetv.info/support/

Thanks,
Russell

We now have a help document explaining how to use ICEguide in Windows XP Media Center Edition, as well as a zip file containing all the various files needed to make it work.  Installation is quite easy, and loading the data into MCE works very well thanks to QuickGuide by "BJReplay".

The files are available for download on the Support page:

  http://server.icetv.info/support/

The files currently support Sydney and Melbourne.

Thanks,
Russell

We now have a help document explaining how to use ICEguide in Windows XP Media Center Edition, as well as a zip file containing all the various files needed to make it work.  Installation is quite easy, and loading the data into MCE works very well thanks to QuickGuide by "BJReplay".

The files are available for download on the Support page:

  http://server.icetv.info/support/

The files currently support Sydney and Melbourne.

Thanks,
Russell

[Changes in version 2.0:]

Hi guys,

Version 2.0 of the Ice XML Guide is now ready for beta testing.  You can find the web form (primarily for testing and manually retrieving XML data) here:

  http://server.icetv.info/cgi-bin2/xmlguide2.cgi
  Username: beta
  Password: getdata

For help in retrieving XML data programmatically, click the "View Help File" button on that same page.

Changes in version 2.0:

- All dates and times are now in UTC.  Start and end times always have the time zone "+0000".

- Removed the "broadcast-type" entity that contained flags such as BW, WS, HD, R, and CC.  Now using fields defined in the original XMLTV spec. for these items (actually the XMLTV spec didn't include a field for HD, so we created a new "quality" entity, but the others were there, just kind of oddly-named):

  <video>
     <colour>no</colour>
     <aspect>16:9</aspect>
     <quality>HDTV</quality>
  </video>
  <previously-shown/>
  <subtitles type="teletext"/>

- Added a new "ice-xml-version" entity, which shows the version of the XML format we're using.  It's set to 2.0 for this new version of xmlguide.

- Version 2 uses a new DTD, which you can view here:

   http://server.icetv.info/webguide/xmlguide2.dtd

- Added the current date and time to the "date" element of the "tv" entity at the top, to show when the data was created.  The format is "YYYYMMDDhhmmss" and it's in UTC.  For example:

   <tv date="20050208040012" source-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info" source-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info">

- Added the ability to specify a "last modified time" in the URL.  If included, only program records modified after the specified time and date are sent. The usual format is "&mod_time=YYYYMMDDhhmmss", expressed as UTC. This value can be copied from the "date" element of the "tv" entity, which shows the time and date the XML data was created. By sending this value back in a new request as the last modified time, the output can be limited to only those records modified since the last request. This includes any new programs added since the previous request, as well as programs that were sent before, but have since changed.

Please help us test out this new version by incorporating it into your programs and PVRs.  As always, feedback is welcome.

Please post comments about this new version to one of the other forums.  This one is reserved for announcements only.

Thanks,
Russell

Hi Russell, I've confirmed that I can handle the empty element previously-shown for repeats.

Excellent.  Thanks BJ.

Russell

Just an update...

I said before that all times would now be UTC.  According to the original XMLTV spec, the start and end times can either have an explicit time zone added to them (for example, "20050209130000 +1100") or the time zone can be left off, and UTC is assumed.  It seems that ShowShifter handles this ok, but WebGuide2 seems to have a problem unless there's some sort of time zone included.  But it's ok if I just add "+0000" for the time zone, so we'll go with that unless anyone knows of another problem.

Thanks,
Russell

Hi Russel, that all looks good - especially the move back towards the XMLTV DTD.  That means that I don't need attempt to handle your feed any differently to XMLTV.

It would make my life easier if previously-shown included the date originally show (or the original release date if not known) (e.g. wasn't just an empty element), simply because of the lazy method that I'm using to convert XMLTV to MCE data in QuickGuide.  On the other hand, I can understand if I just have to parse the XML  ;).

BJ

Hmm, well, I don't think we have either of those dates at the moment, so I'm afraid it'll have to stay empty for the time being -- sorry about that.  But that entity is the same as in the XMLTV spec.  Is the problem because there's not an explicit closing tag, or because there's no data between the opening and closing tags?

Russell

Hi guys,

We've been working on some changes for version 2 of the XML guide, and thought we'd run them by you to see if you had any comments or suggestions.  Here are the changes we've made so far:

- All dates and times are now in UTC.

- Removed the "broadcast-type" entity that contained flags such as BW, WS, HD, R, and CC.  Now using fields defined in the original XMLTV spec. for these items (actually the XMLTV spec didn't include a field for HD, so we created a new "quality" entity, but the others were there, just kind of oddly-named):

   <video>
       <colour>yes</colour>
       <aspect>16:9</aspect>
       <quality>HDTV</quality>
   </video>
   <previously-shown/>
   <subtitles type="teletext"/>

- Added a new "ice-xml-version" entity, which shows the version of the XML format we're using.  It's set to 2.0 for this new version of xmlguide.

- Version 2 uses a new DTD, which you can view here:

   http://server.icetv.info/webguide/webguide2.dtd

- Added the current date and time to the "date" element of the "tv" entity at the top, to show when the data was created.  The format is "YYYYMMDDhhmmss" and it's in UTC.  For example:

   <tv date="20050208040012" source-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info" source-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info">

- Added the ability to specify a "last modified time" in the URL.  If included, only program records modified after the specified time and date are sent. The usual format is "&mod_time=YYYYMMDDhhmmss", expressed as UTC. This value can be copied from the "date" element of the "tv" entity, which shows the time and date the XML data was created. By sending this value back in a new request as the last modified time, the output can be limited to only those records modified since the last request. This includes any new programs added since the previous request, as well as programs that were sent before, but have since changed.

Comments welcome.

When it's ready for beta testing (soon), we'll post a msg to the Announcements forum.

Thanks,
Russell

It'd be great if you included the "repeat" description as well so we know if it's a first run or not.

Yep, we have that one already actually, take a look at the "broadcast-type" entity.  It can have values for BW, CC, HD, WS, and R.  However, we're in the middle of changing the XML format to be more like the XMLTV format for those types of fields, so it'll soon be changing.  More details in the Announcements forum as soon as it's ready for testing.

Russell

Oops, looks like it got encoded, and then just to be safe, it was encoded a second time ;-)

Thanks for pointing it out, we'll get it fixed.

Russell

Wow, strange.  Can you look at the headers of the emails, and see if they all have the same Date: string?  I'm wondering if the forum sent 34 emails or if the server's mail system queued up 34 copies of the same email.

Russell

So, to the request - is there a definitive (even if evolving) set of categories or category hierachy behind the categories in the iceTV XMLTV guide?  If so, can this be published?

Hi BJ,

Sure, here's the current list of categories we're using -- although as you said, it's evolving as we need new ones, but we don't add new ones very often lately:

Action
Adventure
Animation
Arts & Culture
Biography
Business & Finance
Cartoon
Children
Comedy
Cooking
Crime
Cult
Current Affairs
Documentary
Drama
Education
Entertainment
Family
Fantasy
Game Show
Horror
Infotainment
Lifestyle
Murder
Music
Mystery
Nature
News
Real Life
Religion
Romance
Sci-Fi
Science & Tech
Shopping
Sitcom
Soap Opera
Sport
Talk Show
Thriller
Travel
Variety
War
Weather
Western

We're not currently using multiple category levels, so everything's flat.  But a particular program can have more than one category associated with it.  For example:

<programme start="20050202150000 +1100" stop="20050202153000 +1100" channel="5">
  <title lang="en">Huey's Cooking Adventures</title>
  <category lang="en">Cooking</category>
  <category lang="en">Lifestyle</category>
  [...]
</programme>

Secondly, is it possible to utilise the fact that the schema supports multiple categories to have a major and minor category included in the XMLTV data - say Movie, Adventure, for example?  This would also allow MOVIE: to be removed from the programme title.

We don't currently support that, but we can look into it and see what the possibilities are.

Are you able to convert our category list as it is today to something that can work with MCE?

Thanks,
Russell