Open-source / free universal EPG / XMLTV data API or service, or how to make one? [closed]

Question

I am looking for (an open-source, aka "free") data-source for universal EPG / XMLTV services?

The project needs updated/updateable real-time TV scheduling info, in an easily parsable format. It also MUST be available at no cost or a VERY liberal license. Thanks for any advice or alternatives.

I am open to coding my own solution, if anyone has some suggestions on where to start.

Lhary

Answer 1

Annoyingly, there is apparently NOT a free provider of USA EPG data... (Unless you consider the OTA EPG signal "a provider"...) (see UPDATE solution below)

TitanTV.com has a nice, free, grid service, but I do not think they still provide a feed, although they used to....

One pretty good sounding option is.. ZAP2XML

zap2xml is a small and fast command line script for Windows/Linux/OSX/* that connects to a Zap2it.com TV Listings account, downloads the tv listings grid data and converts the .html to XMLTV formatted .xml or XTVD formatted .xml

Cannot vouch for "zap" personally, but the method/concept is sound, if not their specific implementation...

If you can rock $20 a year, the easy way is.. Schedules Direct, a non-profit organization that provides EPG for Open Source Software.

The cost of membership is currently US$20/year, with a 7 day free trial. A 2 month membership is also available for US$5 for those who do not wish to commit to an entire year.

Also, Here is a good list of scrapers / XMLTV processors.

UPDATE: YAY. I totally hunted down a FREE, and REALLY nice solution..

This is where I found out how to.. download XMLTV and this gunky little binary that end you up here....

    Loading ..... : mc2xml (c) <[email protected]> (v1.0)
Reminder .... : Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
Reminder .... : If this software is useful, please donate!
Connecting .. : microsoft.com

Select lineup: 

  0: Digital Terrestrial Lineup (TER)
  1: Fresh Meadows, Verizon Fios Queens (CAB)
  2: Fresh Meadows, Verizon Fios Queens (Digital) (CAB)
  3: New York, DIRECTV New York (SAT)
  4: New York, DISH New York (SAT)
  5: New York, NYU Campus Cable (CAB)
  6: New York, RCN Cable (CAB)
  7: New York, RCN Cable (Digital) (CAB)
  8: New York, Rainbow Satellite The Tate (CAB)
  9: New York, Time Warner Cable St. Vincent Medical (CAB)
 10: New York, Time Warner Southern Manhattan (CAB)
 11: New York, Time Warner Southern Manhattan (Cable-ready TV) (CAB)
 12: New York, Time Warner Southern Manhattan (Digital) (CAB)
 13: New York, Verizon Fios New York Plus (CAB)
 14: New York, Verizon Fios New York Plus (Digital) (CAB)
 15: USA, AFN Satellite (SAT)
 16: USA, DIRECTV (SAT)
 17: USA, DISH Network (SAT)
 18: USA, Globecast World TV (SAT)
 19: USA, Sky Angel (SAT)

[mc2xml] (0-19): 0

Downloading . : microsoft.com
Downloaded .. : 409896 bytes in 1s
Source ...... : Zap2it
Headend ..... : 28521459 (B07010-)
Version ..... : 2784784406
Start time .. : 2011-09-13T

Now THAT is how it SHOULD be. Amen. Just open up the resulting XML file in EyeTV, or what have you.. and keep that sucker updated via CRON or launchd, etc.

He says you need to put it in a web accessible directory, but I don't see why.... and also, I had to run it the first time like this...

../eyetv/mc2xml -c us -g 10011

Bustamante

your best solution's link are broken... The bulk of your answer is contained in the link only portion so now your answer is fairly useless.. thanks for gettting working at the time though. – Greenburg

Mc2xml can be found on its author's site – Dislodge

@Dislodge thanks for the new link.. updated it in answer. feel free to edit answers with other good non-opinionated, fixing-outdated, vital information, like that! – Bustamante

I don't think mc2xml is a viable solution no more as Microsoft has discontinued its EPG service. – Stood

URL unavailable 404... – Ingather

Updated URL's for mc2xml info and download. – Bustamante

This was a great solution. However it seem as of Oct 2020 mc2xml no longer functions properly. It had an expiration date and there's no new version. – Sublett

seems like someone was able to save it at github.com/BobHasNoSoul/xmltv. while i couldnt get that binary to work, the link in the README gave me the an archive.org source that worked and successfully gave me xml web.archive.org/web/20200426003902/http://… – Linnette

Answer 2

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/XMLTV has lot of sources but they are country specific. Not sure of a Universal one.

Chervonets

doesn't support USA :-\ no -1 because that's not a requirement. – Greenburg

Answer 3

How about MetaBroadcast?

http://metabroadcast.com/products

They support XMLTV and there are free APIs to my knowledge..

Lymphocyte

URL unavailable 404... – Ingather