Subject: From: Date:

RE: [ECS] TVL Usages Carl Keyes Tue, 30 Nov 1999 12:44:58 PST

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Michael,

Thanks for all the info!

I'm curious about how you have ECS
search for a particular listing
and copy or make use of that info
somewhere else.
Is that something an admittedly
intermidiate user could do?

Thanks again,

Carl


>From: "Michael David" <michael@michaeldavid.com>
>Reply-To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
>To: <ecs-list@netbloc.com>
>Subject: RE: [ECS] TVL Usages
>Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:33:44 -0500
>
>Hi Carl!
>
>Early on, I had ECS really close to doing some way cool stuff with the TVL
>info.  I never found the time work out all the bugs, but it was 90%
>functional.  Since then, Mark has improved and streamlined the TVL stuff
>quite a bit - and still - I can't find the time to go rewrite my events to
>take advantage of his improvements.  So, I can only tell what it was close
>to doing, and what I hope to have it do again soon.  :)
>
>1) Download DSS and 4DTV listings from the web each day.  Cable modem - 
>what
>the heck.
>
>2) At 20, 28, 50, and 58 minutes past the hour, announce our favorite
>upcoming shows (up to 20 total) that may be coming on, based on the info in
>the tvlfavs.txt file.
>
>3) Display the titles of those upcoming shows on ACE buttons, which allowed
>us to pick (by button press) which of the upcoming shows we wanted to 
>watch.
>
>4) When the time came, ECS would switch the appropriate satellite receiver
>to the proper satellite and transponder, and make the necessary routing to
>switch the TV's in the house to source from that same receiver.
>
>5) Then the titles of the upcoming shows would transfer to a different set
>of ACE buttons that display the current shows.  Using these buttons, we
>could select an alternate program, if the one we chose happened to be a
>rerun, or was preempted.
>
>6) If we didn't initially hit a button to pick an upcoming show, ECS just
>tuned to the first one in the list,  If we weren't home, ECS would record
>the first title.  I had planned to ask Mark if there was a way to designate
>a priority level (separate for watching and recording) to each of the 
>titles
>the shows listed in the TVLFAVS file.  Using this priority level, ECS could
>then make the best likely choice when automatically selecting a program to
>watch or record.  Just never got around to asking him about that either.
>Hey Mark, what do you think?
>
>7) My hope was to eventually get this system working on a multi-user basis,
>so each of us could have our own list of favorites, and each of our
>televisions would be routed to the receiver displaying our personal choice.
>Never had time to get there either.  :)
>
>So, what's TVL good for?  For us, it did a great job of helping us to not
>miss our favorite shows.  With two separate satellite systems, there's a 
>lot
>of program guide to go through just to spot something we want to watch.
>That ritual used to take me at least five minutes each half hour, which
>invariably meant I'd miss the first few minutes of something.  In recent
>times, it just got to the point where it was too much effort to go through
>the guides and make a choice, so the TV would just sit on one channel most
>of the night (often the Sci-Fi channel).
>
>So, my personal opinion is that TVL is darn handy, and an awesome addition
>to ECS!
>
>Cheers!
>
>Michael David
>michael@michaeldavid.com
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ckeyes [mailto:ckeyes@california.com]
>Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 9:18 PM
>To: ECS-List
>Subject: [ECS] TVL Usages
>
>
>Hi,
>
>Anyone care to share how they make
>use of TVL downloads?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Carl
>

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