Let me clear some some issues.
Schedules Direct's license for the data is for non-commercial applications only. Gracenote's business is selling data to businesses, they don't want SD to compete with their core business, but are willing to allow a place for hobbyist applications to get data. Zap2IT labs (the predecessor to SD) was shut down partially due to commercial use, we don't want that to happen to our applications, so please respect the copyright holder's rules. What matters is how the data is used, not the tool used to get/convert the data.
PERCDATA.COM is a spin-off of Schedules Direct. Gracenote was willing to allow a place for small commercial applications to get data while growing (and potentially switch to Gracenote direct later), but wanted it separate from SD. PERC Data does not send requests to SD, they are totally separate (since the code was forked). PERC does not have the non-commercial restriction, but does normally need applications approved. JRiver was approved. The direct XMLTV feed doesn't need pre-approval, not sure why, but I'm not complaining!
PERC uses the same Gracenote data feed (and code) as SD's legacy Data Direct service. It does not use that service. It does have not have season/episode data because it's not in the data (it is in SD's SD-JSON service). PERC does offer a direct HTTP/HTTPS XMLTV feed, no conversion needed.
It's really not that complicated, if you understand the reasoning for the restrictions. We (SD) aren't thrilled with the restrictions, but the copyright holder makes the rules.
Robert Eden
President, Schedules Direct
and yes, PERC Data too...
