------------------------------------------------------------------------- TVAGENT.TXT 8/19/96 -- Lee Bonnifield author, and TV Agent Tech Support (423) 623-5234 1. Features & Channels listed 2. How to get it 3. Get the free demo 4. How subscribers download listings ************************ TV Agent ************************ 1. Features & Channels listed TV Agent is a computerized TV guide covering 130+ satellite-delivered channels. It REMEMBERS what programs you want marked, and what channels and programs you have no interest in. The listings TV Agent displays contain many more episode details than you'll find in most printed guides, including updates for changes made just 48 hours before air time. ---- Customization: Each copy of TV Agent allows 99 users to record their individual preferences. Each member of the family can see listings displayed with her favorite programs hilited, and with many uninteresting listings deleted. There is no need to wade thru many listings for channels you don't subscribe to; those can be deleted for all the users in a household at once. Individual users can delete additional channels, and can also delete listings by program type (like "DAYTIME SOAP" or "CARTOON") or by program title (like "Sesame Street" or "Laverne and Shirley".) Each user can hilite channels, types, and titles too, so they will stand out on the screen whenever they appear in the listings, no matter where or when. Listings can be hilited or deleted based on keywords or phrases appearing anywhere in the detailed descriptions. Special display and printing modes let you display ONLY the hilited listings. You can get a schedule of your regular favorites without even looking at the listings, after TV Agent has watched you hilite for a week. You can get special purpose schedules, like all the "TEAM VS TEAM" program types, or all the programs that will be on "The Learning Channel" during the next week. Users can customize the listings so they show the channel numbers appropriate to the local cable system instead of the satellite location. That feature also allows use of nonstandard abbreviations for satellites to match satellite receivers that can't display the standard abbreviation. ---- Timeliness: You may not find any other source of listings as up to date as what is on your BBS because of the printing and mailing delays of most weekly guides. The daily update of tomorrow's listings means that a schedule change made by a network yesterday can be on your BBS this afternoon. TV Agent listings may be the only place to find listings for news specials that were planned only a couple of days earlier, or details of sports playoffs, news magazine programs, morning talk shows, etc. ---- Details: Many more listings include episode details than you will find in printed guides. The details can be displayed automatically in a full screen mode, but usually they are not shown unless you ask for them. Old series like "Star Trek" are typically identified by episode title and a brief description. Movies usually include a description, the actors, director, country and year of production, MPAA rating, and other characteristics. Details that are not settled until shortly before air time (like the topics of morning talk shows and the teams in playoffs) are more likely to be included in TV Agent listings than in printed guides. 133 C-band Channels listed: This is the list used mid-July 1996. The list changes as new channels become available and old ones disappear or move to a new location. You can customize TV Agent displays and printout so they use a different ID (like your local cable system channel number) instead of the satellite and channel number shown here. ACTION ACTN G7-3 "-" means subscription service AMERICA ONE TV A1TV S3/24 "/" means In The Clear AMERICA'S TALKING AT G1-10 AMERICAN INDEPENDENT NETWK AIN T3/7 AMERICAN MOVIE CLASSICS AMC F4-1 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT A & E G5-23 BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TV BET G5-20 BRAVO BRAVO F4-7 CABLE NEWS INTERNATIONAL CNNI G1-15 CABLE NEWS NETWORK CNN G5-5 CABLE VIDEO STORE CVS T4-7 CANADIAN BRDCAST ATLANTIC CBC-A A2/9 CANADIAN BRDCAST MONTREAL CBC-E A2/1 CANADIAN BROADCAST PACIFIC CBC-P A2/13 CARTOON NETWORK CART G1-8 CBS EAST CBS-E G7/19 CBS WEST CBS-W G4-16 CHANNEL AMERICA CHAM T4/19 CINEMAX 2 CIN2 G3-17 CINEMAX EAST CIN-E G1-19 CINEMAX WEST CIN-W G5-16 COMEDY CENTRAL EAST COM-E F3-21 COMEDY CENTRAL WEST COM-W G1-1 CONSUMER NEWS & BUSINESS CNBC G5-13 CSPAN HOUSE CSPAN F3/7 DISCOVERY CHANNEL EAST DISCE F4-21 DISCOVERY CHANNEL WEST DISCW G5-12 DISNEY EAST DIS-E G5-1 DISNEY WEST DIS-W G1-7 E! ENTERTAINMENT TV E! F3-23 ENCORE ENCR G1-3 ESPN ESPN G5-9 ESPN 2 ESPN2 G5-14 FAITH AND VALUES NETWORK F&V F3/5 FAMILY CHANNEL EAST FAM-E G5-11 FAMILY CHANNEL WEST FAM-W F3-1 FLIX FLIX G3-24 FOX EAST FOX-E T1/13 FOX MOVIES FXM G7-23 FOX NATIONAL FOX-N S4-10 FOX WEST FOX-W T4/13 FX EAST FX-E G7/4 FX WEST FX-W G7/5 GAME SHOW NETWORK GAME G7-6 HBO 2 EAST HBO2E G3-16 HBO 2 WEST HBO2W G3-20 HBO 3 HBO3 G3-19 HBO EAST HBO-E G5-15 HBO WEST HBO-W G5-8 HOME & GARDEN TELEVISION HGTV G1-20 HOME TEAM SPORTS HTS S3-23 INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL IFC G7-14 INTERNATIONAL TV INTL G7-24 KCNC (CBS DENVER) KCNC C1-6 KDVR (FOX DENVER) KDVR C1-5 KMGH (ABC DENVER) KMGH C1-2 KNBC (NBC LOS ANGELES) KNBC S4-6 KOMO (ABC SEATTLE) KOMO S4-8 KPIX (CBS SAN FRANCISCO) KPIX S4-24 KRMA (PBS DENVER) KRMA C1-3 KTLA (WB LOS ANGELES) KTLA S3-15 KUSA (NBC DENVER) KUSA C1-14 KWGN (WB DENVER) KWGN C1-23 LIFETIME EAST LIF-E F4-4 LIFETIME WEST LIF-W F3-4 MADISON SQUARE GARDEN MSG F4-6 MICROSOFT - NBC MSNBC G1/10 MIDWEST SPORTS CHANNEL MWSC G6-15 MIND EXTENSION UNIVERSITY MEU G5/21 MUCH MUSIC MUCH G6-9 MUSIC TELEVISION EAST MTV-E F4-17 MUSIC TELEVISION WEST MTV-W G9-19 NBC NBC C1/8 NEW ENGLAND SPORTS NESN F3-14 NEWFOUNDLAND TV NTV A2/16 NEWSPORT NSPRT F3-11 NICK AT NITE TV LAND LAND T4/14 NICKELODEON EAST NIK-E F4-3 NICKELODEON WEST NIK-W G9-17 PLAYBOY PLAY G5-2 POLITICAL NEWSTALK NETWORK NET G6/7 PRIME NETWORK SPORTS PRIME C1-1 PRIME SPORTS WEST PSW C1-7 PUBLIC BROADCASTING SVC 8 PBS-8 T1/8K *Ku-band PUBLIC BROADCASTING SVC X PBS-X T1/8 REQUEST TV 1 REQ1 F4-16 SCIENCE FICTION CHANNEL SCIFI G5-4 SHEPHERD'S CHAPEL SHEP G4/6 SHOWTIME 2 SHO2 G3-10 SHOWTIME EAST SHO-E F3-15 SHOWTIME WEST SHO-W G9-15 SPICE PPV SPCE T4-15 SPORTS CHANNEL CHICAGO SCCH C1-13 SPORTS CHANNEL NEW ENGLAND SCNE S2-21 SPORTS CHANNEL NEW YORK SCNY S2-1 SPORTS CHANNEL PACIFIC SCPA C1-4 SPORTS CHANNEL PHILADELPH SCPH S2-11 STARZ! STARZ S4-11 STARZ! WEST STRZW S4-18 STARZ!2 MOVIES STRZ2 S4-2 SUNSHINE NETWORK SUN C1-24 THE GOLF CHANNEL GOLF G7-7 THE HISTORY CHANNEL HIST F3-12 THE LEARNING CHANNEL TLC F3/2 THE MOVIE CHANNEL EAST TMC-E F3-17 THE MOVIE CHANNEL WEST TMC-W G9-18 THE NASHVILLE NETWORK TNN G5-18 THE NOSTALGIA CHANNEL NOST G1/22 THE OUTDOOR CHANNEL OUTDR T4/11 THE SUNDANCE CHANNEL SUNDN G9-14 THE TRAVEL CHANNEL TRAV F4-13 TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES TCM G1-16 TURNER NETWORK TELEVISION TNT G5-17 TVN PPV THEATER 1 TVN1 G3-1 TVN PPV THEATER 2 TVN2 G3-2 TVN PPV THEATER 3 TVN3 G3-3 TVN PPV THEATER 4 TVN4 G3-4 TVN PPV THEATER 5 TVN5 G3-5 UNITED PARAMOUNT NETWORK UPN T1/19 UNIVISION UNIV S3-5 USA EAST USA-E G5-19 USA WEST USA-W G1-21 VIDEO HITS 1 VH1 F4-23 VIEWERS CHOICE VIEW F3-3 WESTERNS ENCORE 3 WSTRN S4-4 WGN (WB CHICAGO) WGN G5-7 WJLA (ABC WASHINGTON) WJLA G4-10 WNBC (NBC NEW YORK) WNBC G4-22 WPIX (WB NEW YORK) WPIX S3-9 WRAL (CBS RALEIGH) WRAL G4-14 WSBK (UPN BOSTON) WSBK S3-3 WTBS (IND ATLANTA) WTBS G5-6 WWOR NATIONAL WWOR F4-15 2. How to get it You get the listings from your BBS, but you get the TV Agent program which reads them by subscribing from: Planet Systems (423) 623-8300 $24.95/year 1065 Cosby Hwy Visa - MasterCard - etc OK Newport TN 37821 Planet Systems will mail you a copy-protected diskette. You install it on your hard drive and it works for a year. When you subscribe, tell Planet Systems where you plan to get the listings so that source can be encouraged with a credit. Besides BBSs, you can also get the listings from Internet via anonymous FTP from ftp.tznet.com/pub/tvagent/days . Or, you can FTP from Planet Systems, but not anonymously; ask Boyd Goodin at Planet Systems for details. 3. Get the free demo There is a fully functional demonstration version of TV Agent TVADEMO.ZIP 226k 2/3/96 which you can copy and distribute freely. You also need to download at least two consecutive days of listings to see all the TV Agent features. The demo can be used with TVLIST01 thru TVLIST08.*, that is, the first 8 days of any month. You can still use it with those listings after the 8th; then the demo will pretend the current date is the first day of the listings that it finds in its directory. (It does NOT change the computer's clock.) The set up and customization work you do with the demo can be preserved and used with the subscription version. TVADEMO.ZIP includes a copy of WHERE.LST, the list of Planet Connect sites that have said they make the TVLIST*.* files available. 4. How subscribers download listings Subscribers to TV Agent need to get the listings by calling a Planet Connect, Skylink, or other BBS that posts the compressed TVLIST??.* files. Or, via Internet, the listings are available by anonymous ftp to ftp.tznet.com/pub/tvagent/days . Each TVLIST??.* file is for one day and is currently about 290,000 bytes. TV Agent needs PKUNZIP 2.04g to decompress them, even tho the file extension is ".ARC" on many systems. Don't try to unzip them; just put them in the directory with TVAGENT.EXE and it will unzip and delete them. Callers can collect 8 files once a week, downloading one TVLIST??.* file for today and one for each of the next 7 days; or they can call more often and download fewer files. The best strategy for daily callers is to download just the fresh listings for tomorrow. Imagine today is October 9th. The fresh listings for tomorrow (Oct 10) and the advance listings for 6 days later (Oct 16) are usually distributed to BBSs about 8 AM Eastern today (Oct 9). The ?? number in the file name is the day of the month. If today is the 9th of the month, TVLIST09.ARC contains listings for today, and TVLIST10.ARC contains listings for tomorrow. You might also want to download TVLIST11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and TVLIST16.* . There are never more than 8 days of current listings available. If you see TVLIST17.ARC on the 9th, don't bother to download it, because it contains listings for the 17th of LAST month. Listings that are for yesterday or earlier are automatically deleted by TV Agent. Two files are new on the 9th: TVLIST09.ARC 291652 10-08-95 6:55a TVLIST10.ARC 288178 10-09-95 6:55a <- FRESH listings for tomorrow TVLIST11.ARC 293458 10-04-95 6:53a TVLIST12.ARC 290099 10-05-95 6:55a TVLIST13.ARC 287111 10-06-95 6:57a TVLIST14.ARC 281467 10-07-95 8:50a TVLIST15.ARC 283667 10-08-95 7:12a TVLIST16.ARC 279481 10-09-95 6:54a <- ADVANCE listings for the day one week from now If you see listings for tomorrow with today as the filedate, (like TVLIST10.ARC above) that file contains "fresh" listings, including updates the programmers made two days before air date. Most of the file dates are 7 days older than the day of the listings. They contain "advance" listings, updated by the programmers just one week earlier than air date. -- Lee Bonnifield author, and TV Agent Tech Support (423) 623-5234 -------------------------------------------------------------------------