Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] TVL Usages Don Stephens Tue, 30 Nov 1999 20:29:26 -0800

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Michael:
 Awesome!
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael David <michael@michaeldavid.com>
To: <ecs-list@netbloc.com>
Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 8:33 PM
Subject: RE: [ECS] TVL Usages


> 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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