Dear Matt,
you are damn right: TV.com sucks. They change design every other week (and they all pretty much s***). I have always asked myself why don’t you use TVrage or TheTVDB.com (which is an open source project, also used by the Plex folks).
Anyway, keep up the good job. Your software is just amazing.

Paolo

Thank you!

I vote for switching to TVRage.com. The iPhone app works great, seems like it’s be a big improvement all around.

why not move it to tvrage? what i would love is the ability to sync the list between devices.. kind of similarly to how the ‘delivery status’ widget uses email to sync with it’s iphone app.

looking forward to the next release!

plx change to tvrage – this every other week updates will drive you crazy. it might be more work now, but it will be worth it every week passing without a new update to make it work again

+1 on TVRAGE. Thanks for the great work!

Please change to TVRage.com. iPhone app works much better and more accurate. Its more work for now, but you won’t regret. Thanks..

Thanks Matt for posting.
This widget is excellent, but with the number of times it goes belly-up because of TV.com… I think switching to the source for your iPod/iPhone app would be a very good idea (assuming of course that they’re going to be a more reliable source).
I for one would be willing to pay what your are charging for your iPod/iPhone app.
Hope you can get it up soon.

Hi Matt,

I can offer my help to migrate the widget to TVRage.com or TheTVDB.com
I personally prefer the later, but if you’re already using TVRage.com on the iPhone, it might be easier to maintain for you if both use the same source.
Did you evaluate both when you started using TVRage.com for your iPhone app? (Anyone else: feel free to comment on why one would be better than the other for this use.)

Cheers.

Thanks a lot for letting us know about this.

You should move to TVRage, especially if they provide an API, but of course for a free Widget, we can’t rush you into doing all this hard work !

Anyways, I bought the iPhone app so I can still watch the upcoming shows there

Keep up the good work,
Thanks again

(And you have a little typo in the post : “since TVRage supplies and API”)

I think it would be great to switch to TVRage. Whatever you decide to do, THANK YOU for spending so much time trying to make this widget work. It’s the most useful thing on my dashboard.

One advantage of TV.com is accurate UK to US import scheduling. TVRage sometimes lists the only UK instance so things like Doctor Who, Torchwood and Secret Diary are wrong although The Office and Life on Mars are correct.

Is TV.com even aware of the app? They are pushing hard with their own advertising… and in that respect I’m not impressed.
If they know you exist and they keep doing this to you, I’d say jump to another service ASAP, as this just isn’t right, especially if they really want people to use their service.
If they don’t know about the app, you might want to see if you can actually contact someone in their programming department.

Either way, I’ll wait patiently for whatever you decide to do.

Hi Matt,

thanks for your info regarding the changes by TV.com.
I´m thinking (like the previous commenters) that a change to TVRage.com could be the solution.

Looking forward with optimism,
Torsten

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before but may i suggest a different site like http://www.tvcountdown.com I use it to keep track of my favorite shows. Here’s an example.

http://www.tvcountdown.com/?c72=1

Ditto the votes for TVRage.com or another similar database. I purchased your iPhone app, which is a great little program. I’d be willing to wait for a redesigned widget that works consistently. I know it’s easy for all of us to vote you into a lot of work, but I also know we’re all appreciative of the quality programming you’re trying to put out there. Many of us have our own little projects going. Thanks again, and keep up the good work.

K.S. may be right, TV.com could be screwing it up on purpose because they think people use your widget instead of visiting their site where they sell their ads? I’d love it if you could change to TVRage.com (makes no sense using a different service than you iPhone app). Oh and also please throw in an Auto-Update function while you are at it, will ya?

Thank you so much for all your work !

You should work on switching over to TVrage.com, and then if TV.com fixes their stuff, before your done, quick fix the tv.com version so the widget works, but continue working on the TVrage.com version….

Thanks for the update! I find myself reeling when the widget doesn’t work, as there’s no simple alternative to track all the shows I do. But I appreciate that free labour must be at the bottom of your priorities list. I hope you can take advantage of some of the offers from the user community to help you make the changes you decide upon.

Here is my vote to switch, and since i am greedy, fix this in the mean time. Really, Really use this widget and the iPhone application each day and it is by far the best widget and app I have. Thank you for providing this in the first place.

I have to agree – time to switch to TVRage and let TV.com go; it’d be worth the wait to have the sync and the reliability.

Yes please just put out the new version so that it will work again, im missing my shows and its really annoying

I would also support a move – I know this isn’t the first time that it has been down, and it is upsetting when the forecast is down.

Would this be explaining the “Nothing to Display” message I have been getting for the last couple of days?

I will be waiting patiently for a fix, I use this program every single day.

+1 on moving to a new source for the data. Even if it means paying for it, I think this is the way to go. This is one of three widgets I actually use and I have been using it for a long time, so I would be happy to pay a reasonable fee, especially if you made it a bundle for both apps.

Thank you for your very useful app.

I love your widget. I’m settling for another in the meantime which give all the same info as your, but not as compact and stylish. I agree with someone above in that if you want to market this widget, I would totally pay a yearly subscription, based on current updates as needed.

I’d also suggest a mailing list that all your loyal followers can get on for simple updates – ‘working again’ ‘down at the moment’ etc. We love your widget and want to stay informed…and best of all, notice how no one posting on here is angry …. just patient and appreciate the good work you do.

Cheers
zroc

I’m all for moving to a more stable API. Though, is there a reason why you don’t pull the information from the episode listing page instead of the summary page? By default it gives you info for the latest season.

OHHHH NOOOOEEEESSS!!! ME TV WIDGET IS DOA!!!!
Please excuse me while I wail like a wounded animal

Perhaps you could add a “donate” button, so that those of us who are very interested in seeing a switch to the dependability of TVRage or something similar could provide you with some pecuniary motivation?

I say do whatever works best for you … just so long as you keep the widget working. [g] TV Forecast is brilliantly helpful, and it’d be a shame to lose it.

I agree. TV.com seems to be giving you nothing but problems. I know its more work to switch to TVRage.com but in the end I see more benefits then problems. We can be patient with it. Thanks for such an amazing app!

I think we can all appreciate your work with the constant TV.com redesigns, but while we wait for them to find a site design that actually works we get screwed over.

I think while TVRage isn’t the only answer (see problems with international shows and time differences), it is one that probably has the best prospects.

I use this program fairly often and i appreciate all the work you are putting into it. Unfortunately I am not one of those that can pay for this convenience in this economy. Shareware/donateware is the way to go.

Love the Iphone app! Great work! I was wondering though, while tvrage is nice, I use tv.com to fill in tvrage’s missing content. If tv.com can get their act together, wouldn’t it make more sense to use tv.com since it seems to be more up to date? (assuming they have a larger staff that is able to monitor more shows) tvrage works, provided you, or someone else, is willing to update the information (hence many TBAs on shows that are airing new episodes — no one’s gotten around to them yet) Also any ideas why some pictures of shows (on the Iphone) don’t appear? Your Iphone app competition shows them, but their app is not as nicely laid out & seems to be much more memory intensive (sluggish) so no worries about a switch Which ever site you decide I know you’ll endeavor to make tv forecast the best it can be.

I appreciate your update. This is truly the only useful widget there is. I knew what had happened and was waiting for the fix (again). I, too, vote for a large donation of your time to convert this widget over to TVRage.com. At least you wouldn’t have to go through this over and over.

To those who appreciate good programming and have an iPhone, head on over to the iTunes Store and buy the app. It’s only $2.99 and is well worth it.

Keep up the good work, Matt.

Just make the switch to TVRage. You’re going to find yourself doing it sooner or later. Might as well get your hands dirty and begin converting the widget to utilize the same background services that your iPhone app uses. Think of it this way: By doing work on widget in the short term, you save yourself lots of work in the long term.

thankz man… its good to know… i was curious why to why it wasn’t working

i think that we should just wait a few days

I started working to migrate the widget’s source from TV.com to TheTVDB.com myself.
Still have work to do on the caching, but otherwise, it looks fine:
http://www.pommepause.com/TV_Forecast_TheTVDB.png

TheTVDB.com doesn’t provide air times (only air dates), but for my need, dates are just fine.
Once I’m done, implementing TVRage.com as a source would be easy. Maybe the widget could then ask you what source you want to use…

Send my current work to Matt, to see if he’d like to distribute it, once complete.

Cheers.

Thanks for letting us know what was going on. Happy to wait on whatever decision you finally make, whether you switch from tv.com or not, I have no real preference for whatever site you use as long as it’s accurate.

Can you add episode numbers? That would be really helpful.

Make the switch to TV Rage. I stopped viewing TV.com because their site is heavy in bloat and slow … TV Rage serves the purpose — give me the details of the show and let me move on.

the episode thing is up now… so why isnt it working

Posted my changes on my website: http://www.pommepause.com/online_files/tv_forecast_thetvdb.html
This explains how to change the widget’s code to use TheTVDB.com as the data source.

This might help so of you while Matt has time to published a working version.

Cheers.

@Guillaume:
I tried your method and it still will not show up, they still show TBA

@Guillaume Boudreau:

It works like a charm!

Thank you

My vote is to switch to TVRage as well. One other welcome change would be the ability to keep the list on the Dashboard Widget in sync with the list on the iPhone/iPod Touch application…perhaps through WiFi or a user account. Also being able to see not just the next episode of a show, but all the scheduled episodes would be a welcome addition.

@Chris: Try again. I updated my instructions on my website. I wasn’t very clear… Many people reported it worked fine for them now.

@Chris: Re-check my site. I posted updated instructions. You might have broken your widget, so you should re-download the original from here before you try to re-apply my patch.

Cheers.

Thanks Guillaume, it seems to work like a charm. Only problem is that it says that Battlestar Galactica ended, when in fact it’s not and Lost is due to march 18 and not 11.

Of course it’s not your fault. Nice job

@Guillaume
Thanks, finally got it to work with your new directions.

@Tyltyl: You can fix such errors when you see them by creating an account on TheTVDB.com
Fixed Lost myself for now.

As for Battlestar Galactica, you need to select the “Battlestar Galactica (2003)” search result, because if you chose the “Battlestar Galactica” one, you’ve selected the 1978 version, which has indeed ended…

@Guillaume
Right, I choose the first BSG, but it wasn’t the 2003 series.
Thanks for your suggestions and your great work

I have been using this for years now. I don’t think I could live with out it. I would have to put my vote in for switching over to tvrage.com. It seems whenever tv.com does a redesign, you have to go back and make some somewhat major changes to the widget.
You could just put in the effort now and switch if over to tvrage.com, and only have to update it when you want to change ui.
thats my 2 cents. But other then that, I love what you have created here, simple design, easy to use both on the desktop and the iphone. brilliant.
-jake

Matt,

I’m all for the switch. I have had no problem on my iPhone. But the app on the Mac seldom works of late.

I’m slowing losing my will to live without this widget. It kept me sane. Please fix it.

Thank you, Guillaume. Works perfectly.

Guillaume’s patch works great!. I had to remove the widget and re-add it (tried cmd-R) and everything came up. Thanks a lot!

you guys are AMAZIN

i mean seriously talented – doin all this work for free and then helpin each other out when things dont work – imamazed

i know nothing about programmin or writing code, i just like to watch us shows in the uk, and its a lot easier with your help guys

Thanks

and keep up the GREAT WORK!!

And they wonder why they keep losing viewers of network television. Here’s a free clue, TV programming people. If you keep moving your programs around and show new episodes seemingly at random (not being an advertiser, I neither know nor care when “sweeps” are — how about scheduling for viewer convenience?) and cancel most of your new shows after only a few episodes, people are just going to find something else to watch or do. Without applications like this and TiVo, I would have just given up on network television long ago so how about getting together and producing a web service so applications like this can more easily let people know when new episodes of TV shows are actually on?

definitely switch to tvrage.com. the iphone app looks and performs way better than the widget. if you make the switch…i will donate again this year -andre

Any updates on the fix?

when will it be back up???

I really do miss my TV Forecast. I’ve been using tvrage.com, but it’s just not the same. Any word on when the widget might be fixed?

i would love to see this back soon too. i’ve tried the ‘hack/update’ listed above, but i just get a spinning cursor so…

Please update the widget soon. The world awaits your creations.

Thanks Guillaume!

Gee… all my shows say “TBA” on the widget (I’ve downloaded the newest version). That’s not a lot of help! The widget used to work like a charm…

I want you to know that you are are wonderful for making this widget. Thank you so much! I know it is down for now, but you have many loyal followers who will patiently wait for its return. Thank you!

I got the fix to work but its not the same… i miss the convenience of going to tv.com and finding out all the facts about the show. one thing i like tho is that the fix is much much faster and doesn’t hog my internet, which is good when all I have is like slow DSL speed.

[...] is a markup change. That’s a huge relief. Thanks for all the words of encouragement in the comments of the previous post. [...]

I love this widget! I use it on my Macbook Pro and on my iphone. One question. My show list is so long it scrolls on the iPhone. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to scroll in the desktop widget, and my list runs off the screen. Your thoughts, thanks for all the effort.