Hey All,

Wanted to share this free program to all who need tv listings in their palm. It's fully documented and the author worked out all of the bugs associated with it's use. I was able to register it for free today which removes the user only being able to see prime time listings. Very good program. Works with all palms even high res!!! You can find it here http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&sid=04114766-8F22-4E24-860A51B8F46F7798&prodID=52041 ... Enjoy!!!

Update 06-29-2004: What is WhatsOn?
WhatsOn for the Palm Computing Platform is a tool that allows you to display TV listing data in an easy-to-use grid format. Carry your TV Listings schedule with you everywhere you bring your Palm. WhatsOn comes with a utility, XMLTV, to download TV listing data from the world wide web. Using this tool, you can regularly and automatically update your Palm Organizer with current TV listing information. WhatsOn also comes with a conduit that allows you to effortlessly hotsync your TV listing data to your Palm Organizer. And best of all, WhatsOn is FREE.

I have been using whaton for about a year and I have to say it is sweet. I only had a small problem with it. Sometimes it does not download the update to xmltv and gives an error message but still works. All you need to do is download the latest version of xmltv from sourceforge. The cool thing is is that the xmltv file is updated quite often. Which makes changes to the channels frequently. At present there is support for the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Denmark. The main advantage of this program is that during setup you are able to pick your cable company or if not broadcast and choose which channels you want listed or not. This feature reduces the size of the database that is transferred during your palm.

I had some trouble with the way xmltv.exe grabs data at the moment and there were some configuration issues. Usually when you download the new version of xmltv from sourceforge all you have to do is put the new version of xmltv.exe in the whaton folder in your palm user folder. Yesterday I did this and got errors saying that the format is right but it could not grab any data. This is because the file tv_grab_na is not valid anymore, tv_grab_na_dd replaced it. Also you need to sign up with zap2it labs at http://labs.zap2it.com/ztvws/ztvws_login/1,1059,TMS01-1-0,00.html and set up a profile in order for xmltv.exe to be able to download tv data to your computer. To add you also need to edit configure.bat and grab.bat by opening it with notepad change any reference of tv_grab_na to tv_grab_na_dd. One more thing I promise :) You have to copy the folder called share from the xmltv folder into whatson. You then should be ready to go. Run configure.bat go throught the prompts and that's it. If you are not worried about security after the configuration you can edit tv_grab_na_dd.conf to include your password so you won't have to input it in each time you grab data to go to your palm.

This is one of the best programs for the palm. I highly recommend it. Find it at www.zookware.com

It works only for American TV and cable provider, right?

Alexander,

From the author...Back from several months with no data source, WhatsOn now works with XMLTV. Because of this great open source project, there is now wide international support including data for USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Denmark.

Hope this answers your question. The software gets a list of providers from the web when you submit your zip code into it.

Another Tid Bit. The program has universal find capabilities. You use the palm find function and what's on is included in the output. I find that cool.

cool! I will download it now and try it out tonight.

Hey Alexander,

What country were you looking for?

Specifically Switzerland, but we have 99% TV from Germany here, so support for Germany sounds nice :)

Cool. Also note, another cool feature is what's on being included in palm's global find function.

I was disapointed that I couldn't figure out how to make it work with a proxy server. If someone could figure that out, I may try it again.

I was disapointed that I couldn't figure out how to make it work with a proxy server. If someone could figure that out, I may try it again.

Hey I would say to email the author. Maybe there's a way to modify one of the scripts. Did you also check my thread on zap2it? There is a website that does the tv listings but it is not as good as what's on. Check out my thread here. (http://www.turcic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1115)

Hey All,

Here is a free alternative to other tv listing browsers whatson 4.0 from the site:

What is WhatsOn?
WhatsOn for the Palm Computing Platform is a tool that allows you to display TV listing data in an easy-to-use grid format. Carry your TV Listings schedule with you everywhere you bring your Palm. WhatsOn comes with a utility, XMLTV, to download TV listing data from the world wide web. Using this tool, you can regularly and automatically update your Palm Organizer with current TV listing information. WhatsOn also comes with a conduit that allows you to effortlessly hotsync your TV listing data to your Palm Organizer. And best of all, WhatsOn is FREE.

I have been using whaton for about a year and I have to say it is sweet. I only had a small problem with it. Sometimes it does not download the update to xmltv and gives an error message but still works. All you need to do is download the latest version of xmltv from sourceforge. The cool thing is is that the xmltv file is updated quite often. Which makes changes to the channels frequently. At present there is support for the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Denmark. The main advantage of this program is that during setup you are able to pick your cable company or if not broadcast and choose which channels you want listed or not. This feature reduces the size of the database that is transferred during your palm.

I had some trouble with the way xmltv.exe grabs data at the moment and there were some configuration issues. Usually when you download the new version of xmltv from sourceforge all you have to do is put the new version of xmltv.exe in the whaton folder in your palm user folder. Yesterday I did this and got errors saying that the format is right but it could not grab any data. This is because the file tv_grab_na is not valid anymore, tv_grab_na_dd replaced it. Also you need to sign up with zap2it labs at http://labs.zap2it.com/ztvws/ztvws_login/1,1059,TMS01-1-0,00.html and set up a profile in order for xmltv.exe to be able to download tv data to your computer. To add you also need to edit configure.bat and grab.bat by opening it with notepad change any reference of tv_grab_na to tv_grab_na_dd. One more thing I promise :) You have to copy the folder called share from the xmltv folder into whatson. You then should be ready to go. Run configure.bat go throught the prompts and that's it. If you are not worried about security after the configuration you can edit tv_grab_na_dd.conf to include your password so you won't have to input it in each time you grab data to go to your palm.

This is one of the best programs for the palm. I highly recommend it. Find it at www.zookware.com

This seems to be a bit outdated. Anyone know if theres anything that works with the newer palms.. like my Treo650?

I miss Pocket TV Listings (which is only for Pocket PC) and would love to get a replacement program. Preferably free... my software bill is really adding up. :)

This seems to be a bit outdated. Anyone know if theres anything that works with the newer palms.. like my Treo650?

I miss Pocket TV Listings (which is only for Pocket PC) and would love to get a replacement program. Preferably free... my software bill is really adding up. :)
I think you might want to check out Pocket TV Browser (http://www.doublebit.com/ptvb/) which has JUST become available for Palm OS as well ;)

Excellent tip! I'll give it a try. Didn't even think to look for a Palm download because of the name...

Thanks.

I would love to be able to figure out how to get this working on a Mac. If anyone can point me to a list or forum where I can get some Mac-specific help, I'd appreciate it.