TVSquad

The folks behind MythTV pushed out a new release this weekend. As you can probably tell from the title, this is a point release, moving from version 0.20.1 to 0.20.2. But don't let those low numbers fool you. MythTV is a powerful media center application for Linux.

The update includes two major changes:

1. Support for Schedules Direct program guide updates
2. Reduced MythTV front end memory consumption by up to 75%

There's a slew of smaller updates and bugfixes as well, including faster startup of the MythTV frontend, improved default theme images with better scaling and anti-alias, and fixes for ATSC channel scanning.

Probably the main reason to update your system is the support for Schedules Direct. In a few days, Zap2it Labs will stop providing the free program guide data that earlier versions of MythTV relied on. Unlike the Zap2it Labs data, Schedules direct program guides won't be free. You'll need to shell out $15 for 3 months of data. It's not clear if MythV 0.20.2 will support CT TV guide data which is available for $30 per year.

[via Digg]

We finally have an answer to that age old (or two day old) question: how much will MythTV, GB-PVR, and Media Portal users have to pay for access to TV listing data.

Now that Zap2it Labs is set to shut off its free TV guide data service on September 1st, two groups are stepping in to provide that data. Neither can afford to provide the data for free. We don't know how much CTpvr will charge, but Schedules Direct has announced their pricing: $15 for 3 months of data.

The goal is to eventually bring that figure down to $20 per year. But until Schedules Direct has a better idea of how many subscribers they'll have, they need to set a price that will let them continue to provide the service without going into debt.

The service hasn't been rolled out yet, but you can register for the Schedules Direct mailing list to be alerted when the service goes live.

[via Slashdot]

Come September, MythTV, Media Portal, and GB-PVR users could be stuck staring at a blank screen. That's when Zap2it Labs will stop offering free program guide data in the easily parsed XML format used by those and other PC-based PVR applications.

The developers of CTpvr, another software-based personal video recorder are developing a product that will offer data that is nearly identical to that currently offered by Zap2it. TV listings will include data like genre, cast, crew, advisories, and original air dates.

CTpvr hasn't announced pricing yet, but the company will charge users a monthly or annual fee for access to the data. For that reason alone, I suspect that this system will be used by CTpvr customers, while free and open-source applications like MythTV will look elsewhere.

Several MythTV, XMLTV, and MacProgGuide developers have already come together to form Schedules Direct. The group, previously known as EasyTV Data, is looking at alternatives to the Zap2it Labs data that can be easily plugged into PVR software to provide you with that electronic program guide goodness you've come to rely on.

A few weeks back, Zap2it Labs announced that they would shut off their free XML TV listings in September, due to abuse of the service. This could spell big trouble for MythTV, GB-PVR, and other personal video recording software packages that rely on Zap2it for their electronic program guide data.

A group of developers from MythTV, XMLTV, and MacProgGuide have formed Easy TV Data in response to the announcement. The group is engaged in some super-secret behind the scenes development to provide reliable TV listings after Zap2it cuts the cord on September 1st.

The simplest alternative is to use screen scraping software that would visit TV listing web pages and grab the data. But this is not as reliable as the XML data Zap2it currently provides, since web services can and do frequently change their site design. Hopefully the Easy TV Data group have something a bit more exciting in mind.

[via Download Squad]