[mythtv-users] Possible to manually add QAM channel information?

[Bruce Pennypacker]

bmerrill Merrill wrote:

>I would like to get QAM working with MythTV.  I am able to watch QAM HDTV from my cable provider using a combination of dvb-apps, dvbtraffic and mplayer but scanning for the channels using the latest MythTV cvs doesn't seem to work, i.e. it doesn't detect the channels on the first pass and gets "stuck" on subsequent scanning of existing transports.  My understanding from the few scant threads I've been able to find on the subject seem to indicate that my cable provider is not transmitting certain information that Myth requires.  I have tried calling them and speaking to the engineers but have not been able to make much headway through the red tape, though my limited knowledge on what exactly is missing probably doesn't help either.
>
>However, I was wondering, if I have collected all the relevant info from dvb-app such as Video PID, Audio PID, etc, would it be fairly straight forward to manually add that information directly into MySQL?  I am certainly no expert with MySQL but I think I could figure  out the relevant commands if someone could point me in the direction of the relevant table(s) that I would need to modify.  But of course if someone knows the actual command that would be very much appreciated as well.  Or is there perhaps an even easier way than modifying MySQL directly?  Or should I not waste my time trying, i.e. a fix is imminent?
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>  
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You can do this by modifying one of the tables in mysql.  Take a look at
http://www.pchdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=882 for an idea of what
you'll need to do.  You will need to know a bit about mysql commands. 
Here's a rundown of what you'll need to do:

$ mysql -u mythtv -p mythtv
(login to mysql)

mysql> use mythconverg;
(all myth data is in the mythconverg database - do this before any of
the following commands)

mysql> describe channel;
(displays the structure of the channel table - this is the one you need
to modify)

mysql> describe dtv_multiplex;
(you'll need some data from this table as well)

mysql> select mplexid,frequency from dtv_multiplex;
(you might just want to cut & paste this into a file and/or print it out
so you can refer back to it)

mysql> select chanid,channum,freqid,mplexid,serviceid from channel;
(shows all the necessary fields you'll care about in the channel table)

The above commands, along with what's posted at that pchdtv.com url,
should be enough for you to manually configure your QAM channels.  The
only really tricky part is figuring out what you should use for the
serviceid since that requires a bit of trial & error with the dvb-apps. 
It's based on the audio/video PID's but it's just a sequence #, not the
actual PID's...

-Bruce