ananias

The monthly schedule comes up blank.

That gives me an idea. Has anyone tinkered around with Javascript to see if it's possible to download their programming schedule and save it in some sort of local database?

I have been unable to find software that converts the TCM online schedule into something that can be imported into a calendar program. Does anyone know of any? I'm interested because viewing it in a calendar program makes it easier to avoid failures in recording. (In a calendar program, for example, if the area a movie occupies in the schedule overlaps the show following it, you would know to adjust the recording time manually. Similarly, a movie with more than 15 minutes remaining after it is likely to be followed by a short film--why else would they have delayed starting the next program? This information is difficult to see any other way.

I was looking for material to put on an iPod for my son-in-law serving in Iraq. The stuff that does the most for his morale are the old movies he's never seen. So I stumbled onto the TCM via EyeTV to iTunes video method to fill up a 60gb iPod with about 150 hours of TV programming that looks pretty good when played on an ordinary TV set with Apple's cable. Every few months we swap iPods. I really think TCM ought to look into developing a service of this kind, sort of like netflix, but with video iPods that could hold some mix of HD versions of a dozen or so movies (or SD versions of many more.) I'd pay $25/month for a service like that.

What happened to all the outtakes from those old movies? Does TCM ever show any of that stuff?

Shouldn't "Swept Away" be in that list?

Does this ever show up on TCM? Anyone remember it?

I'm pretty sure sending him my iPod isn't copyright violation. I'm not even sure making copies for some of his friends is illegal since they wouldn't be paying for them. But I'm not so sure about that. I don't see why you believe TCM will be unwilling to either sell or give me a license to distribute their movies on some small number of iPods to soldiers in Iraq. Perhaps I'm just unreasonably optimistic. BTW, have you actually seen a movie compressed onto an iPod and played back on a TV set via a cable? It's pretty close to live TV in quality.

Thanks, I just did. I'll let you know what they say. By the way, is there an episode list for Cartoon Alley anywhere?

I sent a small flat panel TV and a video iPod stuffed with about 170 shorts, movies, and TCM featurettes to my son-in-law in Iraq and he claims the theraputic value is astounding. He likes the movies from the 30s and 40s most. I capture them using an EyeTV and compress them using the default export to iPod option. The average movie is about 600Mb (1% of a 60GB ipod.) In any event, I'm wondering if making a few more of these systems and giving them away to some of the troops there could get me into trouble legally for distributing copies of TCMs programming. I'd really much rather see TCM do this themselves. I greatly appreciate the station and don't want to do anything they'd rather I didn't. Ideally, they would add an area to their website that allowed anyone to donate money to be used to buy a display and iPod, load it up with selected programming, and ship it off to a soldier in Iraq. TCM could no doubt get a better price on the iPods, TVs, and probably a great tax deduction for the overhead costs of administering the program. Anyone have any suggestions for how I should proceed?