[mythtv] Use callsign for scheduling

[Bruce Markey]

J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
> Bruce Markey wrote:
...
>> Whether or not anyone realized it, CVS has been using callsigns
>> rather chanid to match record rules to listings for the past two
>> months. Not only will what everyone already has in there callsign
>> column work just fine but, if you use CVS, it already has been
>> working just fine for some time now.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes I did, in fact I've tried to take advantage of it to identify each

I hadn't actually tried it myself but inferred based on the
logic what might happen. It wasn't until a comment from Derek
and the example of a part time station on one source and full
time on another that I realized that channel matching could
work, and may be useful, even if the listings aren't identical.
This works because the scheduler can only what is what is
actually in the listings as you've seen. One thought is that
HBO has several channels and repeated per timezone but they
repeat the same movies and series' across these channels. It
might be useful to set a record rule for "HBO".
 
> of my networks by their network (i.e. NBC, CBS etc) since I have 3 of 
> each network (national EST, national PST and local) this lets "any time 
> on this channel" take advantage of the west channels (Any time on any 
> channel pulls in too many with syndicated shows).

Got it, that's where an All would be a problem.

>   This has the side 
> effect though of showing CBS for all my CBS stations in my OSD and EPG 
> as well as others. A separate network ID would be nice so that I could 
> differentiate between my networks by more than just channel number.

So, like, Survivor could be a Channel record for "CBS" but
"11 O'Clock News" could be a Channel record for "KCBS". That
could work but it may not be useful to too many people but
could be confusing to most ;-). There would either have to
be something in the interface to choose between station or
network (for Timeslot, Weekslot, or Channel) or an additional
type for a kNetworkRecord similar to Channel then not bother
with the more specific *slot rules. 

Continuing to think out loud, you could add a channel.network
that defaults to ''. The user could fill these in from the
setup Channel Editor if they wanted to use this feature.
They would only need to do this for stations that actually
have matching networks.

On the advopts page for any show, if the network field isn't
empty, include "Record at anytime on this network" for type 7,
kNetworkRecord. This way users who don't need or want
this feature wouldn't be exposed to having to fret about it.

> Sorry I should have been using "network ID".

My misunderstanding from the flow of the thread and that networks
provide feeds that affiliates broadcast. I hadn't gathered that
you meant a second layer for networks.


In the meantime, you can kind of solve the syndicated show
problem by setting multiple Channel record rules for the CBS
affiliates. Duplicate matching still works even if there are
multiple rules so it will still grab the first showing that
doesn't cause a conflict. A popular DVR only has Channel for
their recurring rule and this is a common idiom. However, their
system requires each rule to be at a different priority so
it will always try to record the higher rule even if it is
a later showing.

You can do the same thing with myth by setting different priorities
for each rule if you'd prefer recording from one if the channels
whenever possible. However, in myth you could have the same
priority for both rules in which case it will record the first
possible showing of an episode from either channel.

--  bjm