Schedules Direct is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization that provides a low-cost

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

program listing service for

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

and

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...

s. Developers from several different projects including

MythTV MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified " 10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital ...

XMLTV XMLTV is an XML based file format for describing TV listings, which has been introduced in 2002. IPTV providers use XMLTV as the base reference template in their systems, and extend it internally according to their business needs.SearchSOA.com XML t ...

, and

GB-PVR GB-PVR was a PVR (personal video recorder aka digital video recorder) application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function was scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. GB-PVR is no longer under active development and has bee ...

founded Schedules Direct in response to

Tribune Media Services Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Se ...

's (TMS's) decision to shut down its free Data Direct program listing service as of September 1, 2007. MythTV and other such software use the data to display an

on-screen An on-screen display (OSD) is an image superimposed on a screen picture, commonly used by modern television sets, video cassette recorder, VCRs, and DVD players to display information such as volume, channel, and time. History In the past, mos ...

electronic program guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...

(EPG), and to schedule upcoming recordings. Schedules Direct contracts with TMS to purchase a license to redistribute its data—which

TiVo TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...

and other commercial digital video recorders also use—to Schedules Direct members. Individuals may become Schedules Direct members for $25 a year, and members may use the listings service with approved open source and freeware applications.

References

External links

Schedules Direct website
Television technology {{tv-tech-stub