Ubuntu Manpage: tv_grab_uk_rt - Grab TV listings for United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland

NAME

       tv_grab_uk_rt - Grab TV listings for United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland

SYNOPSIS

       tv_grab_uk_rt --help

       tv_grab_uk_rt --version

       tv_grab_uk_rt --capabilities

       tv_grab_uk_rt --description

       tv_grab_uk_rt [--config-file FILE]
                     [--days N] [--offset N]
                     [--output FILE] [--quiet] [--debug]

       tv_grab_uk_rt --configure [--config-file FILE]

       tv_grab_uk_rt --configure-api [--stage NAME]
                     [--config-file FILE] [--output FILE]

       tv_grab_uk_rt --list-channels [--config-file FILE]
                     [--output FILE] [--quiet] [--debug]

       tv_grab_uk_rt --list-lineups

       tv_grab_uk_rt --get-lineup [--config-file FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       Output TV listings in XMLTV format for many channels available in the United Kingdom and
       Republic of Ireland.  Source data comes from machine-readable files made available from
       the Radio Times website.

USAGE

       First run tv_grab_uk_rt --configure to choose which channels you want to receive listings
       for.  Then run tv_grab_uk_rt (with optional arguments) to get around 14 days of listings
       for your configured channels.

OPTIONS

--help Print a help message and exit.

--version Show the versions of the XMLTV libraries, the grabber and of key modules used
for processing listings.

--capabilities Show which capabilities the grabber supports. For more information, see
<http://wiki.xmltv.org/index.php/XmltvCapabilities>

--description Show a brief description of the grabber.

--config-file FILE Specify the name of the configuration file to use. If not specified, a
default of ~/.xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt.conf is used. This is also the default file written by
--configure and read when grabbing.

--output FILE When grabbing, write output to FILE rather than to standard output.

--days N When grabbing, grab N days of data instead of all available. Supported values
are 1-15.

--offset N Start grabbing at today + N days. Supported values are 0-14.

Note that due to the format of the source data, tv_grab_uk_rt always downloads data for
all available days and then filters for days specified with --days and --offset.
Specifying --days and/or --offset in order to speed up downloads or reduce data transfer
will therefore have no effect.

--quiet Suppress all progress messages normally written to standard error.

--debug Provide detailed progress messages to standard error. Due to the volume of debug
information produced, it is not advised to use this option during normal grabber use.

--gui OPTION Use this option to enable a graphical interface to be used. OPTION may be
'Tk', or left blank for the best available choice. Additional allowed values of OPTION
are 'Term' for normal terminal output (default) and 'TermNoProgressBar' to disable the use
of Term::ProgressBar.

--configure Prompt for which channels/lineup to download listings for, where to store the
cache directory for retrieved listings, what character encoding to use for output, and
whether to enable programme title and bad character fixups.

--list-channels Outputs an XML document containing all channels available to the grabber.

--list-lineups Outputs an XML document containing all channel lineups available to the
grabber.

--get-lineup Outputs an XML document containing the configured channel lineup.

SOURCE DATA TERMS OF USE

       All data is the copyright of the Radio Times and the use of this data is restricted to
       personal use only. Commercial use of this data is forbidden.  <http://www.radiotimes.com/>

       In accessing this XML feed, you agree that you will only access its contents for your own
       personal and non-commercial use and not for any commercial or other purposes, including
       advertising or selling any goods or services, including any third-party software
       applications available to the general public.

CHANNEL LINEUPS

       A channel lineup is a list of TV and radio channels that are available in a particular
       location on a particular TV platform (e.g. Freeview).

       Whilst configurations containing individual "channel=..." entries are still supported, the
       grabber allows a user to select their location and TV platform at configuration time and
       have their channel lineup generated dynamically at runtime. This means that if a new
       channel launches or a channel ceases broadcasting, an update to the relevant lineup
       (stored on the XMLTV server) will result in listings  containing such channel changes
       without any reconfiguration by the user.

CHARACTER ENCODING

       During configuration, the software asks the user to choose the character encoding to be
       used for output. Currently supported encodings are UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1.

TITLE PROCESSING

       Over time, listings may contain inconsistent programme details, such as the programme
       title combined with episode details for some showings of a programme, but separate for
       others; or the episode title being given as the programme title, and the programme title
       given as the episode title. Some programme titles may also change slightly over time, or
       across channels.

       Enabling title processing during configuration enables this software to process programme
       titles against a list of flagged titles. The software will correct such programme titles,
       which in turn should result in better performance of PVR software which rely on consistent
       programme data.  Please be aware that enabling title processing will result in the grabber
       taking slightly longer to complete its operation due to the extra processing overhead.

       N.B. Please note that title updates can clearly alter programme titles near to
       transmission time, and it is therefore quite possible for PVR schedules to fail if they
       have been configured using an old title. Whilst care is taken to ensure title updates are
       made as far ahead of transmission as possible, be aware that last minute updates can be
       made.

MIS-ENCODED UTF-8 SOURCE DATA

       Prior to the transition of the XMLTV service to metabroadcast.com in December 2011, there
       was an ongoing issue with source data containing mis-encoded UTF-8 characters. Since the
       transition, the source data should be UTF-8 safe and automatic processing of the data may
       not be required.  A configuration option is provided to permit detection and correction of
       such character encoding errors and users are recommended to enable this option during
       configuration.

PERFORMANCE

       Improvements to date and time handling in the grabber have increased performance 6-7X.
       Grabbing 14 days of listings with utf-8 and title fixups enabled should take about 2
       seconds per configured channel on a typical machine.

ERROR HANDLING

       tv_grab_uk_rt will only terminate early if it is impossible to continue with grabbing
       data. This can be due to a lack of channel configuration data, a bad/missing configuration
       file, or filesystem permission problems. Running the grabber in non-quiet mode should
       report why the grabber failed.

       Non-fatal errors are reported during a grabber run, and can result in listings for a
       channel being skipped either in part, or entirely. Progress messages will state why data
       is missing when it is possible to do so. A non-zero exit status will normally be given
       when the grabber has encountered problems during listings retrieval.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The environment variable HOME can be set to change where the configuration file is stored.
       All configuration is stored in $HOME/.xmltv/ by default. On Windows it might be necessary
       to set HOME to a pathname containing no spaces.

       The environment variable XMLTV_SUPPLEMENT can be set to change where the supplemental
       XMLTV files are retrieved from. By default, the file is retrieved from the XMLTV
       supplement server. See XMLTV::Supplement for more information.

       If you want the grabber to use customised local copies of the supplemental files, you
       should set XMLTV_SUPPLEMENT to the path of the directory containing a tv_grab_uk_rt/
       directory containing the supplement files. For example, if your local supplement files are
       stored in /usr/local/share/xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt/ you should `export
       XMLTV_SUPPLEMENT="/usr/local/share/xmltv/"` before running the grabber.

RADIO LISTINGS

       Ironically, the Radio Times feed does not offer listings for radio. They have been asked
       about the possibility of adding radio listings, but stated that this would require
       significant development effort. It has not been ruled out entirely, but is unlikely to be
       added soon.

       Users who would like to obtain BBC radio listings in XMLTV format are advised to
       investigate a new grabber that obtains listings from the BBC Backstage service. See
       <http://wiki.xmltv.org/index.php/BBC_Backstage> for more information.

MAILING LIST

       You can subscribe to and read the XMLTV users mailing list by visiting
       <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xmltv-users>. This is a source of help and
       advice for new users. A searchable archive of the list is available at
       <http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tv.xmltv.general>.

BUGS

       If you encounter a reproducible bug, please report it on the XMLTV bug tracker at
       <http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=39046&atid=424135>, making sure you assign the
       bug to the tv_grab_uk_rt category. Please check that the bug has not already been
       reported.

       The source data on the Radio Times website is generated daily before 0600.  Occasionally
       the source data may not get recreated, leaving the source files for some (or all) channels
       empty. Users are encouraged to wait at least 1 day before reporting an issue with missing
       listings, as they frequently reappear in the next update or later the same day. If
       listings continue to be missing from the Radio Times website, please report the fact on
       the XMLTV users mailing list.

       There have been several occasions in the past when the Radio Times channel index has been
       missing from the Radio Times website. This file is essential to being able to run the
       grabber, as it contains the list of channels having available listings data. If this file
       is missing or empty, and there is no locally-cached copy of the file, it will not be
       possible to run the grabber. The file usually regenerates automatically over the course of
       the next day, at which point it will be possible to run the grabber successfully.

       There are no other reported ongoing issues.

AUTHOR

       Since 2007 the maintainer has been Nick Morrott (knowledgejunkie at gmail dot com).

       The original author was Ed Avis (ed at membled dot com). Parts of this code were copied
       from tv_grab_se_swedb by Mattias Holmlund, and from the XMLTV wiki
       <http://wiki.xmltv.org/>. Regional postcode information was kindly made available from
       <http://www.ukfree.tv>.