Treocentral Freebie: TV2Nite (local TV listings)

g-funkster · 11/15/2005, 10:44 AM

Update 11/29/2007: Added Disable Cache Preference to avoid Duplicate Calendar Entries that occur only when using Favorites.
Update 11/20/2007: Added FX

Update 11/19/2007

Fixed Comedy Central & SciFi
Added: HBO, Showtime, Discovery and TLC

Full Version History Below..

So,

I've been wanting to find a quick (free) way to get what's on TV tonight (Local channels) using my treo.

But that's not enough. I also want to know if the show is new, or is a repeat. Hell, I wanna know if the 'Lost' episode this coming wednesday is new. So i made this little guy.

It straight up tells you what's on tonight between 8-11pm on the following channels: CBS-NBC-FOX-ABC-My Network TV (UPN)-CW (formerly WB)

1 - It automatically loads today's lineup. But use the dropdown at the top to get information for a different day. You must press refresh to get the information once you've selected a new date. Caching will only occur for the current day's data.

2 - Next to the title you will see (N) = new ep. (R) = Repeat, or nothing (like the CMA awards, which is an event)

3 - click on the channel icon to see a description of the shows that night for that channel. Each show's synopsis is sometimes truncated, but this keeps the data downloads very snappy.

Known Issues
PIMException:
You must install pimop.prc file if you get a PIMException upon starting up the program. You can get the file here. If you installed KMaps, you might already have the file, so only install it if you get the exception upon starting it up.

Listings Not Downloading (Out of Memory Errors):
You'll need to bump up your memory settings for Java or TV2Nite specifically. Go here:

http://discuss.treocentral.com/showp...0&postcount=26

Follow that procedure to adjust the memory settings, except select TV2Nite from the dropdown or modify the global settings and set the memory to 4MB/4kb stack, and then try adjusting the date & refreshing. That worked over here.

Duplicate Calendar Entries:
When using Favorites, if you reload TV2Nite during the day, you will get duplicate Calendar Entries if you leave the Cache enabled. Go the the Preferences pane in the Favorites window and Disable Cache to avoid them. This is a Palm OS JVM issue but could also affect other JVMs with low thresholds for persistent storage.

Features

4 - Cache: it keeps the data for the current day in memory so you don't have to go online again if you've already checked today. Note: You'll want to go to Preferences and Disable Cache if you make use of Favorites, else you'll get Duplicate Calendar Entries (as noted in the Known issues section)

5 - Calendar!! You'll notice a button at the bottom of the interface called favorites. In it you set your favorites. If you enter a show into favorites, it will end up in your calendar only if it is a new episode. When you scroll down the page you'll find the preferences. The first setting "Reminder (Alarm) Enabled" will set an alarm for the calendar events. You set how many minutes before the event at the very bottom. The second setting, "No TV2Nite 8PM Calendar" will set a calendar entry at 8PM that says "No TV2Nite, Sorry!" if none of your favorites are on.

Notes in General:

- Program after a typical day's TV Listings will take up ~100k
- JAVA is required
- Install the j9secpol.prc file below so it does not prompt you for permissions when connecting to the internet or when entering data into the calendar.

Ideally, you want this to run in the morning, like 5:30 or whenever it is you sleep, so it downloads the information for you automatically. There are several ways to get this done.

- I use mobileClock for this because it can launch an application and bypass the keyguard. You need it to bypass the keyguard if it needs to connect the net to download data. It is not free

~ 9 dollars

- crazyalarms, it's 5.99, it can do many things, such as scheduling soft resets, scheduled hotsyncs and application launching such as tv2nite. Not sure, but I'm guessing this will bypass the keygaurd, if it doesn't, please let me know.

- If it is connected already, for instance if you run Chatter and it keeps the data connected, it works with Lookatme, which is free.

- gfunkMagic found that you can use profiles to disable keyguard at a specific time, then use lookatme in conjunction with that.

If you have any other suggestions, please post.

Anyway, I really love these new features. No more waiting for the listings to load, and I barely even check them, I just press the power button and keyguardtime tells me if my favs are on tonight. awesome!!
-G

Version History
Update 11/19/2007

Fixed Comedy Central & SciFi
Added: HBO, Showtime, Discovery and TLC

Update 9/23/06: Bigish Update:
Fixed CW/MYtv (both Channels were not showing up)

Added Sci-Fi Channel & Comedy Central

Added Central Time Selection to the preferences "Favorites" page. Hit Save & Restart program to activate changes.

Slight Graphics Upgrades on Most Channel Icons

No more wrapping of icons around descriptions

Update 7/05/06: TV Channel Changes (WB->CW & UPN->My Network TV)
Update 4/12/06: Calendar Eventizations & local Caching. More Below.

aprasad · 11/15/2005, 11:41 AM

Darn it!! You'll end up making me install Java. I had been resisting it for so long :-)

khaytsus · 11/15/2005, 11:45 AM

Java..

PabloTX · 11/15/2005, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khaytsus

Java..

Agree. I see no reason why this type of app would require java.

And it would be nice to be able to expand the times and channels.

But regardless, thanks for putting out a free product.

jamespaulritter · 11/15/2005, 01:18 PM

You write programs in your spare time, share our Treo obsession (I mean utilize this convienient device), have a job I'm sure and have time to watch TV???

Quote:

Originally Posted by PabloTX

Agree. I see no reason why this type of app would require java.

Because it was written by a java developer. There is a huge difference between creating palm software and creating java software.

g-funkster · 11/15/2005, 01:42 PM

heh java developer. I'm definately not that, i'm an anything developer... anything that I don't have to read a book to understand and get started in. As was the case with java...pretty simple stuff, lots of code available on-line to get you almost there, unlike palm os programming.

I really wish i didn't have to require java, but it took me like a day to get this TV thing done, and it works to my liking and most importantly on my treo!

Cuz you're right tem, i do have a job, a girlfriend, a treo (which almost demands as much of my time as the former two lol), and I love to make time for TV in the evenings.

Besides, American Idol starts soon, gotta be prepared!

wernst · 11/15/2005, 02:23 PM

WOW. Most impressive.

What a good idea.

And though I am not wild about having to use Java (though I don't know why, I already have it installed for Kmaps and Opera), since you're able to thump these out so fast, it must be a good system for you.

Thanks for offering it for free.

-Warr

frankthetoad · 11/15/2005, 02:58 PM

I don't mind Java. I also think this is a very useful little app. A nice complement to the Hourly4cast app I use every morning! Thinks for making this stuff!!!

rctoyguy · 11/15/2005, 05:07 PM

Why is Java bad? I mean, what are the arguments AGAINST using it?

jamespaulritter · 11/15/2005, 05:23 PM

Well most just dont want to give up one and a half megs of RAM. Maybe some dont like the way it creates 20 little java files to go along with it. Some have bad bad bad memories of:

java error exception in thread
java error file not found
java error not a valid path
java error mail lang blah blah blah blah blah

I have no problems with java. I use many great java apps.

wernst · 11/15/2005, 05:42 PM

Really the only problems I have with Java are:

1. The HUGE memory footprint. 2 megs or so. Can't be moved to SD card.

2. Having to deal with a whole new set of configuration options for Java apps.

That said, it seems to work well, at least for Kmaps. Opera Mini seems to have troubles of its own.

-Warr

jamespaulritter · 11/15/2005, 05:58 PM

Our Mod Gfunkmajic moves java from the card to internal when needed.

I've never tried it.

rctoyguy · 11/15/2005, 06:03 PM

I recognize screen names from some of my other posts, so I'm sure yall recognize mine, meaning that you probably know that I don't have my Treo yet - (Fedex says it's at the door when I get home though

) - so I am speaking from no experience with it....

My brother does have one, and he uses an app (forgot what he said it's called) that he says moves any app and all of it's pieces from the sd card to memory to run it, then moves it back when you close the program. I'm assuming none of these "mover" apps work on java stuff?

The hourly forecast thing, and this tv guide app look like awesome ideas - that is why I asked about the down side of java...

jamespaulritter · 11/15/2005, 06:11 PM

Zlauncher does this but powerrun does it better. I dont mess with either. Applications can reside on the card unless you want them to reside on RAM because you want it to interface with the desktop, or they need to talk to the palm clock for alarm reasons, or they need to work in the background or they need to be connected to a hard button or the command bar. Otherwise most applications and their read only or semi unchanging databases can reside on the card.

I have a but load of apps and still have 10 megs of free RAM without using power run or zlauncher. I use chatter which stores email on the card and I made my own ROM which freed up 4 megs of RAM.

chenling · 11/16/2005, 10:47 PM

This is so very useful!

Is there a way to add more channels in there? I can't believe there isn't an app of this kind already? Who needs to hotsync just to get tv listings?

I've never hotsynced my 650 since about 4 months ago!

jamespaulritter · 11/17/2005, 01:38 AM

We'll ya got me G. I wasn't going to install this one since I don't watch much TV.

But while at the gym today flipping channels with Novii Remote Blaster I was wishing I knew what was on.

DarkEye · 11/17/2005, 11:51 AM

I use TitanTV? Just browse to it using Blazer. It's fully customizable and it works great with the T650 browser.

ww2.titantv.com

jamespaulritter · 11/17/2005, 12:36 PM

Wow Xinno does a bad job with titan

jamespaulritter · 11/17/2005, 12:39 PM

It looks better in Blazer but how can you tell what show starts at what time? I have listed 6 times at the top then below it lists shows but how can you tell what show starts at what time?

DarkEye · 11/17/2005, 03:38 PM

I would setup TitanTV using a regular PC browser (IE, FF, NS) and then go to it with Treo. Mine looks great using Blazer but alittle slow in loading because all of the graphics.

I wonder TitanTV has a PDA web site. I'll have to look around.