[mythtv-users] Really hiding a channel

[Bruce Markey]

Kyle Rose wrote:
> I want a way to tag a channel in the database as "never record from
> this channel."
> 
> I have two different sources that share channel listings, but don't
> have access to some subset of the channels on one source and a
> different (overlapping) subset of the channels on the other source.
> E.g., my setup is something like:
> 
>     source 1   source 4
> 2      X          X
> 3      X           
> 4                 X
> 5                 X
> 6                  
> 7      X           
> 8                 X
> 9      X          X
> 
> where "X" indicates a channel is available.
> 
> However, even with the recording preference set to -1000 on the
> channels/sources that are not available, myth will occasionally
> schedule a recording on an unavailable channel, in which case I'll get
> 60 minutes of "Channel unavailable-please call to pay us more money
> for it".
> 
> I've tried actually deleting the channels, but mythfilldatabase just
> resurrects them during the next database fill (myth CVS internal
> DataDirect).  I also don't mind having the programming information, I
> just don't want myth ever to record from them, though removing the
> channel entirely is an acceptable alternative.
> 
> Any suggestions?

I would fully agree with James' for 0.14 and XMLTV but I noticed
you mentioned "myth CVS internal DataDirect" so this is now very
different.

First, if you want to exclude a channel from your DataDirect
downloads, go to labs.zap2it.com and modify your lineup by
unchecking the unwanted channel. Easy, right? ;-) You will
still need to follow the instructions for removing the channel
entry and old program data at:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-21.html#ss21.8

Next, if you do receive the same station from two sources and you
would prefer recording from one of the sources over the other, the
new scheduler handles this nicely. Say for example source 1 is
analog and the low channels are noisy but source 4 is a clean
satellite feed. You can go to Setup->TV Settings->Recording
Priorities->Channel Priorities and add a value of +1 for your
satellite channel 2. The scheduler will always prefer recording
from that channel input but can still record from the analog
channel 2 if source 4 is busy with something else.

You could instead/also re-run "setup" and go to Input Connections.
If you set "Input preference" to +1 for the satellite input, that
will tell the scheduler that you want shows recorded from satellite
whenever possible and only use source 1 for shows that cannot be
recorded from source 4.

--  bjm