And open source is open source; however, the channel is producer centric. What this means, if the channel is all by itself (producing and writing the programs and what their production is provided on; all by itself selling its own ads or receiving monies to broadcast; a channel is in full control of every bit of anybody "that wants to carry it"; and competes with like channels, listings, and contractual basis of their channel. Channels unlike themselves; that are owned and operated by Cable/Producer/Corporate styling (Times Mirror has cable and channel concerns) may be acting like they do not want to pay as much to carry the channel that does not broadcast using their requirements in signal definitions (guide here; guide their).
Amiko A3 - FTA 7 Day EPG Now Available for North America
- Thread starter Titanium
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 92
- Views 11K
- Status
Is this just a program scraping the data off the internet that will mess up and have to be fiddled with whenever a site changes something and within a year or two not work because no one updates it, or is it something more substantial than that?
Not a scraper and the same exact system is designed to work with our future Android satellite STB's. A3 will still have EPG whenever the next STB comes along since it will be identical system. We don't have to drop or minimally support it to focus on something completely different. This is one of the many advantages of using Android and how Spark does it. Most things are forward/backwards compatible.
Yeah! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear! looking to pick up a A3 come summer-time and EPG is definitely a great addition to everything it already does!
T, can you say (or has it been said) where the guide data is populated from? Is it a DL from titan or some other service?
Any idea when the EPG will come to fruition on existing A3s? Is it going to be part of a future update or stand alone as an APP?
Any idea when the EPG will come to fruition on existing A3s? Is it going to be part of a future update or stand alone as an APP?
Guide data comes from the Amiko Americas server. There are a couple different data providers neither of which is Titan. They have crazy mad pricing for EPG data!
Not sure when EPG is coming to pre 2/26 A3's. I might have something for my VIPs to test next week. Getting it to work will either involve a patch update like Eurotrash or installation of a file then configuring the options by hand. I need to test each method and figure out what one is easiest for people to do with the least chance of people screwing it up and then of course make a step by step guide showing what to do. It is quite a bit more involved than having it auto install when the A3's are tested/programmed here.
Who would have the best price right now for the Amiko A3 and maybe a rebate?
I think all the USA Authorized Retailers are around the same price give or take a little. Gotcband .com, Michael Electronics, Titanium and of course our FridgeFTA retail store are all participating in the rebate program. All the A3's in stock from those Retailers have the EPG installed. Look around and pick your favorite from the list.
It may be unintentional, but you seem to be rather evasive about the source of the data. Where is the original source? For instance, WMC data comes from Akamai servers but the original source is Zap2It (Tribune). Is Amiko entering the data by hand?
The EPG feature is no better than the data provided. Many people found that out when ROVI shut down its OTA TV guide.
DRCars
Not speaking for Joe and I don't know the source of the EPG data, but seriously????
It is free, no subscription, no monthly fees, no upgrade fee, no surcharge added to the equipment cost. It is a great Free bonus to have EPG data on a receiver when all other STBs have none.
Kudos to Amiko Americas to offer a cool freebie! Why ask them to give the source to competitors and enable the cheap Chinese clone STBs?
Someone is investing in something innovative and outside the box for us hobbyist. We don't need to reward this by busting their chops.
It is free, no subscription, no monthly fees, no upgrade fee, no surcharge added to the equipment cost. It is a great Free bonus to have EPG data on a receiver when all other STBs have none.
Kudos to Amiko Americas to offer a cool freebie! Why ask them to give the source to competitors and enable the cheap Chinese clone STBs?
Someone is investing in something innovative and outside the box for us hobbyist. We don't need to reward this by busting their chops.
The data sources and how it is compiled together to make a True FTA guide feed for NA is a trade secret. I can say that it isn't scraped or done by hand. That would take forever and be unreliable.
The EPG data itself is decent. It isn't as detailed as TitanTV listings but it shows you what is on for 7 days and I think most programs have detailed information.
The EPG data itself is decent. It isn't as detailed as TitanTV listings but it shows you what is on for 7 days and I think most programs have detailed information.
Seems like I recall some chops busting concerning licensing fees and STBs in the past. You made some good points concerning that then. Are you not concerned about that sort of thing now?
Anyway, T134 has apparently said all he is going to about this so, never mind, I'll crawl back under my rock now.
DRCars
Yes, I recognize that there are licensed processes, functions and processes that make up the experience that we enjoy. If we use a licensed technology, we must follow the usage agreements.
EPG is only data that typically is only licensed when aggregated and packaged by specific data service providers. Individual and multi-service EPG data is freely available in RSS feeds or files directly from broadcasters. Many of us have referenced many data feeds to provide EPG on our HTPC systems. We don't steal or get this data from gray market sources. It is usually available via the broadcasters website or via email list.
My only point is... If Amiko Americas was scraping or otherwise inappropriately acquiring EPG data, I would agree that this would be an issue. As this is not the case, why should we care the sources and how the data is compiled or distributed?
EPG is only data that typically is only licensed when aggregated and packaged by specific data service providers. Individual and multi-service EPG data is freely available in RSS feeds or files directly from broadcasters. Many of us have referenced many data feeds to provide EPG on our HTPC systems. We don't steal or get this data from gray market sources. It is usually available via the broadcasters website or via email list.
My only point is... If Amiko Americas was scraping or otherwise inappropriately acquiring EPG data, I would agree that this would be an issue. As this is not the case, why should we care the sources and how the data is compiled or distributed?
Who cares were it comes from, my main concern is when it will be available for my A3!
Speaking of MeTV, Decades, ETC on SES 1. When will the A3 be able to record these channels properly? I have the latest updates and it still does not record properly.
I've been watching this receiver but, while my dish is sitting on its side at the moment and has been through the winter months I haven't wanted to invest in it yet. This makes it even more interesting. Any word on what might be coming next? Can I put a request in for the PBS feeds on 125W?
- Trip
I haven't wanted to invest in it yet. This makes it even more interesting. Any word on what might be coming next? Can I put a request in for the PBS feeds on 125W?- Trip
Monday (Sunday USA time) was the first day that our engineers are back to work thanks to China New Year. I'm waiting on something from them before I activate more channels.
For 125W I think we have PBS HD East, OETA, Montana PBS and VMe data but they are not yet active. Some other feeds on the PBS mux don't feed on a regular public schedule so we won't be able to do EPG for them. It would be the same limiting factor as something like the GDMX channels on 99W. There just isn't guide data for them since they aren't any sort or "regular" channel.
We're not going to take requests for EPG channels. Everything we can add will eventually be added so there is no need to request anything. When done I think we're looking at a fairly complete package. Anything that doesn't end up with EPG either cannot be done for tech or legal reasons or there just isn't EPG available.
I would expect that these feeds should all have 24/7 schedules on 125W:
PBS HD East
PBS HD West
Create
World
V-Me
First Nations Experience
Montana PBS
OETA
OETA OKLA
OETA Kids
OETA Create
Leaving several others which are just feeds and I wouldn't expect scheduling information to be available for.
- Trip
PBS HD East
PBS HD West
Create
World
V-Me
First Nations Experience
Montana PBS
OETA
OETA OKLA
OETA Kids
OETA Create
Leaving several others which are just feeds and I wouldn't expect scheduling information to be available for.
- Trip
Any word yet on the really cool thing us Amiko Mini HD SE owners have coming or is it stillI designed the NA EPG deployment to work specifically with Amiko A3 and any future Android based FTA STB's from us. The system is not compatible with ALi based STB's like Mini HD SE. Mini's are excellent STB's especially for under $100 but they do have limitations on the programming and hardware end that you don't have with higher end boxes. They can often be much harder to do things for than something built on an opensource platform like Android.
Mini does have something else really cool coming that the A3 won't have but that is another story for a future time.
yet? - Status
Similar threads
