ATVGuide is a TV schedule software that employs XMLTV files for easy access and organization of TV programs.
If you're looking for a TV Guide program, look no further: this software reads an XMLTV file and presents it in an elegant easy-to-use interface. To use this software, you'll need GTK+ 1.2 or above, Glib 1.2 or above, and libxml2 2.6.0 or above. Don't worry about installation though: simply unpack the source archive, run ./configure, run make, and run make install.
The only catch is obtaining the XMLTV files that contain TV listings is not an easy task. This job falls to the XMLTV program, and unfortunately, the reviewer has no control over it. For complete documentation, you can visit their website. To use XMLTV, you'll need Perl and several Perl modules. If you have a recent major Linux distro, you can likely install an appropriate XMLTV package, and your distro will take care of the modules. However, if you don't have a recent major distro, you'll have to download the source and compile yourself. When installing, it may complain about missing Perl modules, but you can find and install those modules using CPAN Search.
Once XMLTV is installed, you'll have to configure your grabber program. To do this, type 'tv_grab_code --configure' where code is the usually two-letter code of your grabber. Once again, see the XMLTV site. A text-based wizard will walk you through the configuration. If you live in North America, XMLTV will prompt you during configuration to register with Zap2it. Note though that Zap2it only provides a three-month subscription and will spam you with surveys. After the subscription expires, you must re-configure your grabber program.
Finally, to view the listings, run 'tv_grab_code --days 3 --output tvguide.xml,' changing code to the same grabber code you used above. This command downloads three days worth of listings and sticks them in tvguide.xml. You can change these values as desired. To update your listings, simply repeat the above step, or add it to your crontab for automatic updates.
The only catch is obtaining the XMLTV files that contain TV listings is not an easy task. This job falls to the XMLTV program, and unfortunately, the reviewer has no control over it. For complete documentation, you can visit their website. To use XMLTV, you'll need Perl and several Perl modules. If you have a recent major Linux distro, you can likely install an appropriate XMLTV package, and your distro will take care of the modules. However, if you don't have a recent major distro, you'll have to download the source and compile yourself. When installing, it may complain about missing Perl modules, but you can find and install those modules using CPAN Search.
Once XMLTV is installed, you'll have to configure your grabber program. To do this, type 'tv_grab_code --configure' where code is the usually two-letter code of your grabber. Once again, see the XMLTV site. A text-based wizard will walk you through the configuration. If you live in North America, XMLTV will prompt you during configuration to register with Zap2it. Note though that Zap2it only provides a three-month subscription and will spam you with surveys. After the subscription expires, you must re-configure your grabber program.
Finally, to view the listings, run 'tv_grab_code --days 3 --output tvguide.xml,' changing code to the same grabber code you used above. This command downloads three days worth of listings and sticks them in tvguide.xml. You can change these values as desired. To update your listings, simply repeat the above step, or add it to your crontab for automatic updates.
What's New
Version 0.1: N/A