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Here is something for linux that provides tv listings in a variety of formats. Unfotunately XML is not one of them. Looks like the software costs $29 but can give text info and html. Seems that it gets the data from TVNow.
http://unihedron.com/projects/tvnow/tvnow.php
http://www.tv-now.com//index.html

That's a bit too large to fit on my poster! http://www.unihedron.com/projects/primes/index.php

See how close those frequencies are on this chart: http://unihedron.com/projects/spectrum/

See the whole EMR spectrum on this poster: http://www.unihedron.com/projects/spectrum/

Check out how small the 800MHz band is in comparison to everything else we currently know about: Spectrum

TV Listings are available for do it yourself PVRs.

If you're willing to screenscrape, you can use XMLTV to get your listings. The only potential problem is that if lots of people start screenscraping the free web sources are likely to try and stop people from doing so.

If you're willing to pay for the service, you can use TVNow and pay $30 per year (about $2.50 per month, a fraction of what Tivo charges).

no season passes (doh!), no suggestions (doh!), needs a athlon 1800 all to itself (DOH!). Thanks, I think I'll stick with Tivo.

Actually, MythTV does support season passes. In fact, it gives you more options than a Tivo. check it out. "Record this program whenever it's shown on this channel" is the equivalent of Tivo's Season Pass.

It does lack suggestions. That's a shame, but it's still a work in progress. I can live without them.

It does want an athlon 1800, but you can easily get such a processor for $100. If you're willing to put some work into it you can put together a suitable system for about the same price as a Tivo with lifetime subscription. The resulting system will be more generally capable than a Tivo (web browser, game player, MP3/OGG player, record to CD or DVD, simple video editor (suitable for editing out commercials for personal archival use).

Yes MythTV lags behind Tivo. It looks like the listing information is being screen scraped off a web site. If it gets popular that's going to get shut off. (Fortunately there are pay services they'll be able to switch to.) MythTV is relatively new and under heavy development, so you'll either live with reduced functionality or spend time upgrading. As it matures that will change. To put together a machine to run it on cheaply you'll need to invest alot of your own time. Right now, if you're looking for something that just works out of the box, Tivo is probably the right answer. But MythTV is showing alot of promise for the future. Personally I love my Tivo. However, Tivo is showing signs of becoming consumer hostile. They recently decided to change the terms of the lifetime subscription I already paid for from "paying for guide service" to "paying to use the Tivo at all" and declaring that I'm prohibited from modifying my Tivo (with say the popular extra hard drive). I'm not filled with trust for Tivo's future at this point. I'm glad to know that if Tivo's terms become too onerous, I'll have a Free option to try. If I decide I'd just be interested in hacking on a PVR for the fun of it, a project exists I can start with.

(On an unrelated note, it was a moderately big deal when Tivo made the change to the service agreement, but I haven't been able to turn up any good web summaries of the changes. I was certainly ticked off because I specifically researched the service agreement before deciding to purchase a Tivo and a lifetime subscription. Silly me, I foolishly assumed that the "We can revise this agreement at will" clause would never be used to screw me so hard. I made the mistake that the previous pro-customer attitude and unofficial support for modifications would last. I was clearly wrong. On the up side, it reinforced my belief: any company which has a "we can screw you at will" clause, but promises to never use it will eventually break that promise. The only way to protect yourself is to assume that any contract will be abused to harm you, the consumer, as much as possible. I'm so freaking happy that we get to live in a world were we have to assume everyone is out to get us. Hopefully as more citizens get screwed they'll start demanding fair license agreements. Anyway.... back to the original digression...

Can someone offer a good reference beyond the actual agreement? Ideally a site comparing the original and revised agreements with a little analysis of why the changes are bad for customers.)

This TV-Now thing looks to be a better bet. It's not free but that (to me) is not a bad thing--you'll have somebody to complain to if it doesn't work or the listings are incorrect.