[linux-dvb] Making useful info shareable... with an eye on autoconfiguration

[Philip Prindeville]

I was wondering if we could set up an XML server that provides the following
information: mapping of city/state/country locations into latitude and 
longitude...

As well as maybe satellite information along the lines of what 
lyngsat.com, such
as the satellite name, its offset (in degrees, of course), bands, 
transponder info
(number/id, frequency, polarization, FEC, inversion, etc)... as well as 
the channel
information grouping within each transponder (channel name, encryption type,
format, SR, SID, VPID, NID, TID, AID, etc).

It should be possible, for instance, to write a short program that 
queries for
the user's city, state, and country, and get a terrestrial fix... from 
the fix,
figure out the visible satellites horizon-to-horizon, ask the user which
satellites to put into the bouquet, filter the channel selection, and then
write out a channels.conf (and satpos.conf, etc).

In fact, from this information, a positioner could do a slow scan of the
sky, figuring out the optimal positions for satellites, programming the
position numbers into the rotor, or else saving the angular positions
into a configuration file, etc.

Does that seem reasonable?

Thanks,

-Philip