PIMCity's Loss Is Your Gain

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pimcity.com' target='_blank'>http://www.pimcity.com</a><br /><br /></div>A couple of years ago, PIMCity launched its Pocket TV Browser application for viewing television schedules. It essentially grabs your local TV listings from the TV Guide Online server and formats them for the Pocket PC. Throughout its several revisions, it's become a pretty cool application.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/tvbrowser.jpg" /><br /><br />Recently, though, it appeared as though TV Guide Online began blocking access to its listings server; as a result, it looked as though Pocket TV Browser would no longer work. But then just the other day, it seemed like access to the listings was once again opened up. It's been kind of confusing, and nobody's really sure if the listing data will remain free.<br /><br />Because of this uncertainty about data access, PIMCity has decided that it should no longer charge a license fee for Pocket TV Browser and now offers it as a free download! All you have to do is <a href="http://palmapps.com/forum/index.php">download it from their reader forum</a>, although you do have to register with the site to gain access to the forum.<br /><br />It's too bad that the developer ends up losing income because of this, but I have to applaud their willingness to give the software away, rather than risk making people unhappy if TV Guide Online shuts things down again.

[flatlander_48]

If TV Guide was smart, they would have incorporated PocketTV into the TV Guide.com web site...

[hindencm]

does it work with windows mobile 2003?

[PocketPC Addict]

does it work with windows mobile 2003?

Yes, it works just fine... :D

[rtrueman]

As a long-time user of this software, I can not tell you how disappointed I was to hear that PIMCity was no longer going to support the product. I find this one of my most favorite applications, especially during the new TV seasons. I hope that TVGuide will reconsider their decision to block access to programs such as this one (hell, I'd pay TVGuide for the service!). As of this posting (10:46 EST on 8/27/2003) I'm unable to retrieve my listings.

Rob

[easylife]

If anyone wants the direct link to the download, it can be found here (PPC 2002/2003 only :wink: ):
http://www.pimcity.com/ptvbrowser/downloads/v150/PTVBrowser.exe

[MultiMatt]

Same thing here with the listings - seems that they are blocked or something! Hmmmmmmm....

TVGuide is making a bad call on this one....
:bangin:

Matt

[Fzara]

Two words for you: customer satisfaction.

Giving the software away free allows the company to mantain its name should something happen again like this. If they kept charging for the application, customers would never shop again with PIMCity.

A good business decision from PIMCity in my opinion.

[dean_shan]

A good business decision from PIMCity in my opinion. That is true. Nothing brings traffic to your site like offering free software. Then people will try out the software, like it, and buy your other stuff.

[redifrogger]

Ok - this is too cool. :way to go: I had some trouble installing it though. As it turned out, the folder that the app looks for the db to be in wasn't created, so I created it and moved the db in and presto - It works like a charm. Thanks for the tip, Brad! :)

[Kaber]

This is one of the most frequently used pieces of software on my iPAQ. I really love it and it is very fast. Having it add reminders for programs to your scheduler is very nice also. I hope it keeps working. You can usually download your listings during off peak hours.

Mine's downloading listings AND reviews this morning (27-aug-2003 09:38am).

Thank you PIMCity, and I'm not even mad that it's free now. It was money well spent.

It would be awesome if they could partner with Snapstream and make it so you could make your schedule on the Pocket PC and when you sync'd it would upload the recording schedule to the PC while downloading the previously recorded shows.

[doublebit]

Glad to hear the feedback. As the author of Pocket TV Browser, it's good to know there are people who understand the situation and appreciate the decision.

Charging money for Pocket TV Browser was always a risky proposition, because of its dependence on listing feeds beyond my control, and because there were a lot of users who didn't really understand what they were buying. I tried to make it clear that all I was selling was a download manager for your PC and a viewer for your handheld, but people still got confused.

Some people thought they were buying a "subscription", even though they only paid a one-time charge. I think because the software was shareware and required a registration code, some people confused the terms registration and subscription, and didn't understand that the program and the data were from different companies.

Other people didn't understand how the program worked, which isn't too surprising, because it is more complicated than your average stand-alone program. I had to work with people on all sorts of problems (internet connectivity issues, device synchronization issues, tvguide.com or tvguidelive.com listing availability, etc.) This translated into significant support overhead, which only worsened when I added support for both Palm and Pocket PC platforms.

So, given the recent problems with tvguide.com listings, and the fact that a major change in the feed(s) was likely to happen sooner or later, I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet, refund money to anyone who was unhappy with the current situation (where possible and appropriate), and try to properly set people's expectations for the future -- by making the software free, as-is, with limited support and no guarantees.

Inevitably, there have been existing users who thought I'd abandoned them (I didn't), or who became indignant because they felt that "free updates" meant for their own lifetime rather than the lifetime of the product (it doesn't). There were also those who thought I should charge more rather than less, in order to justify a higher level of support and upkeep, but that would simply invite more users with more unrealistic expectations about the long-term viability of the listing feed(s) -- something I've never been able to guarantee. It's easy to say "Use Zap2It instead of tvguide.com", but each new web site is a lot of work to add, each is equally susceptible to changes, and each multiplies the total support overhead of the program.

I've recently had both email and telephone conversations with tvguide.com about Pocket TV Browser, but their resources are apparently too tight and their perception of the handheld market too weak for them to do anything near-term. I think they also suffer from a lack of passion for a project like this.

There's probably more bad news in store for folks too, because tvguide.com has told me that they're planning some significant changes to their online listings that will, in all likelihood, break Pocket TV Browser (along with its competition). They say the breakage is incidental, not intentional, and although it was nice of them to mention it to me, they didn't give me any details, so it's impossible for me to plan for them, let alone predict whether or not I'll be able to eventually release an update to deal with them.

Anyway, that's why Pocket TV Browser is free now. Enjoy the listings while they last, and perhaps a "Version 2" will appear someday, with a spiffier interface and a dedicated listing feed. I wouldn't hold my breath, but we'll see.

Thanks,
Jeff

[disconnected]

That's too bad. I use PTVL, which also uses the TVGuide data, so that will end up broken as well.

[Steven Cedrone]

That's too bad. I use PTVL, which also uses the TVGuide data, so that will end up broken as well.

Well, I registered PTVL as well (a long time ago)...

If TV Guide should break it now and the author can't fix it, it was still money well spent.

I guess we'll see what happens...

Steve

[ctmagnus]

Woohoo! It has our listings!

Except it says that we're one province over from where we in fact are. ;)

[ctmagnus]

8O Tap on any word in the show descriptions and it automatically finds all other shows with that word in the description!

:rock on dude!:

[Sparky]

You know, we could help the cause here. As Jeff (the author) points out, the folks over at TVGuide don't seem to appreciate the fact that there are a lot of people out here that utilize TVGuide's product, albiet through a second party software. That's allowing TVGuide's info to get out into our hand for free, with no investment on their part. Pretty good setup for TVGuide, IMHO.

Here's were we may be able to help. Here is a Contact Us link at TVGuide.com [http://www.tvguide.com/about/contact.asp]. Please use it to convey your thoughts. I will be letting them know that I frequent their site for more detailed information that isn't available with PVTBrowser. I use them hand-in-hand with each other. I will ask them to consider working with the developer of PVTBrowser to allow him to continue providing a conduit for TVGuide's content.

If we can impress upon TVGuide the value we see in this product, and how it can only increase the value of the TVGuide site, maybe we can help them open their eyes. Maybe their only problem is seeing the size of this market, between PDA and PDA phone combo's.

Just my 2 cents.

[ctmagnus]

Da*n... TV Guide dropped our listings... :evil:

[upplepop]

Da*n... TV Guide dropped our listings... :evil:

Listings are going down all over the place. Keep trying. The availability of listings goes up and down. Hopefully it will work again in a couple of days. You can check their forums (http://palmapps.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4) for updates.

I suggest you download 14 days at a time (if it starts working again). That way, you will have listings during these downtimes.

0X Please don't be permanent 0X

[Kaber]

I'm getting a 404 from Pimcity (http://pimcity.com/) today. Anyone else?

[ctmagnus]

I'm getting a 404 from Pimcity (http://pimcity.com/) today. Anyone else?

Me too!

[Kaber]

I hope everything is alright.

[JustinGTP]

How did they get those icons and the start menu like that on the ppc2003 picture with the mobile tv guide?

That is amazing! I want to do that, how tho folks?

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/tvbrowser.jpg

-justin

[Jeff Rutledge]

How did they get those icons and the start menu like that on the ppc2003 picture with the mobile tv guide?

That is amazing! I want to do that, how tho folks?

&lt;snipped image>

-justin

It looks like they're running one of the WISBar apps. The three most popular are WISBar (http://www.pelmarinc.com/), Icbar (http://icbar.ictinus.com/)and Wisbar Advanced (http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/index.html).

[ctmagnus]

Darn... Pimcity still gives a four-oh-four and redirects to http://ivaluehost2.net/suspended.page/, as does palmapps. :(

[ctmagnus]

...And Google's caches for both sites are missing. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser...

[ctmagnus]

According to this (http://www.ppczone.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=3886), the site is merely switching servers at the moment, due to excessive load. It's still alive! :clap:

[Kaber]

Page seems to be back up. The forums aren't yet.

[Sparky]

Looks like it's dead again. Seems like TV Guide put the final kebosh on PTV Browser.

It was a good software while it lasted.

I hope the developer has success in finding another tv listings provider.

[Steven Cedrone]

Honestly, I don't blame them for not updating their Scraper...

PTVL is still out there, but it seems as if there is a new update every other day to try to deal with TVG and changes on their web site...

It looks like TVG is trying to kill these programs once and for all... :(

Steve

[squiggs1982]

hello all! Is there any update on this, or is thera replacement for this software? :D

[Brad Adrian]

PTVL is still available and doing well. There was some difficulty in getting things stabalized once they switched to the XML format, but it's done fine for me for months now.

[Kaber]

As an alternative to using the XML data with the viewer you can also get a subscription to GuideRemote.com (http://www.guideremote.com/NonMembers/ptvb/ptvb.cfm?Sess=1s0420050938420948) and use it with that for $10 a year. I use this app daily.