[mythtv] chanid confusion

Nick Morrott knowledgejunkie at gmail.com
Mon Feb 23 16:24:50 UTC 2009


On 23/02/2009, pslists <pslists at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have always been a little confused about the meaning and uses of chanid,
> channum, callsign and name in the channels table, but now I am very
> confused.

chanid = unique identifier for each channel - if you delete and rescan
for channels you will likely get a different chanid for the same
channel, so do not assume this will stay the same over time for a
particular channel

channum = user specified 'nice' number for the channel - this is what
you see in the guide or enter on the remote to change channel in
LiveTV.

callsign = this is what the scheduler uses to determine whether
stations available on different inputs carry the same programming.
When you rescan you should get (or manually set) the same callsign for
scheduling to continue working correctly, even if the chanid chages.

name = user specified 'nice' name for a particular channel

>  I am building a MySQL only web interface to MythTV (see below for the
> reason) and I cannot tie up the chanid in the record table with the chanid
> in channels or programs. In  record I get numbers like 1001 1002 1004 and in
> the other places they are like 2001 2002 10384.

mythconverg.record stores the callsign of the channel in the 'station'
field - this should not change even if the chanid does (see above).

>  Is there some structure the numbers or is there a cross reference I am
> missing?

There can be some structure to the numbers, depending on what type of
TV service you are using, but I (others may disagree) would suggest
ignoring any meaning behind chanid and instead use the 'callsign'
field which is intended to be stable.

Nick

-- 
Nick Morrott

MythTV Official wiki:
http://mythtv.org/wiki/
MythTV users list archive:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin


More information about the mythtv-dev mailing list