xenial (1) tv_grab_uk_rt.1p.gz
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>.
SEE ALSO
xmltv(5), <http://wiki.xmltv.org>, <http://www.radiotimes.com/>
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>.