[mythtv-users] Tips for scheduling U.S. Open golf

[Bruce Markey]

This is based on a question about an odd scheduling situation
and fleshed out for a more general audience. This may have
some useful ideas for handling tough situations even if you
aren't going to watch golf this week.

Recording golf is usually a simple matter of recording "PGA Golf".
Golf is a sport well suited to DVR's (or is that the other way
around?) because you can wait until later in the afternoon then
fast forward to see just the shots by Tiger Woods (or John Daly,
Phil, Ernie, Sergio or whoever) and see all your favorite players'
shots in a fraction of the time they waste for live broadcasts.

This week's U.S. Open has the title "Golf" which is sometimes the
case for the majors but there are several other quirks this week.

- "Golf" matches other things besides men's professional live
events.

- The 'seriesid' is of no help in identifying the right showings
as is often the case when titles are ambiguous.*

- Subtitle starting with "U.S. Open" also match some early morning
hype and rebroadcasts days after the fact on "The Golf Channel".

- Network coverage is on NBC but ESPN is showing hours before and
after NBC's coverage. However, not only are the subtitles the same
but the programids match making these appear to be duplicates even
though they are different hours of play.*

- ESPN is showing edited versions of their coverage in the evenings
and again after midnight PDT.

So, to record the live broadcasts you would need to match "Golf"
and the subtitles beginning with "U.S. Open" on any station other
than The Golf Channel when the broadcasts start between 7am and
5pm PDT then record all showings with no duplicate matching.

This can be done in myth. Go to Custom Record and enter a rule
name like "U.S. Open" or whatever then cut'n'paste the following
into the text box:

program.title = "Golf"
AND program.subtitle LIKE "U.S. Open%"
AND channel.callsign != "GOLF"
AND HOUR(program.starttime) >= 7
AND HOUR(program.starttime) < 17

For EDT, change the hours 7 and 17 to 10 and 20 (9,19 Central or
8,18 Mountain). Click "Test" to see that it matches the right
stuff then ESC back to the Custom page and click "Record". Choose
"Scheduling Options" and set the dup method to "Don't match duplicates".
Set the priority, recording profile or whatever options you'd like
then select "Save these settings". This will schedule all the live
broadcasts with no extraneous cruft.

The final step would be to look up the Sunday showing on NBC, press
Enter and click "Add Override" then add an extra hour or two to catch
any sudden death holes.

--  bjm

* Listings services' databases are geared toward consolidating
descriptive info and don't care about ease of scheduling for DVRs.