[mythtv-users] EPG missing 9pm-midnight 3day+ data

[chris at cpr.homelinux.net]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2005 at 01:17:18PM -0500, Steve Malenfant wrote:
> I'm not sure if my zap2it source for my zip code, but it seems that
> I'm always missing the 9pm-midnight guide data on the 3rd day and on.

Myth tries to get 14 days worth of data.  The 14th day is often 
incomplete because stations provide listings up to midnight in their 
own timezone.  For example, I'm in the PST zone but many of the 
stations I watch are in the EST zone so the listings stop at 9PM.  
Other stations don't provide even that much and may run out on day 13 
or early on day 14.

Each time Myth gets new listings, it looks at the database to determine 
what it already has and skips any day for which the listings are at 
least 80% (?) full, on the assumption that the remaining gaps are 
station "off-air" times or "TBA" slots.  It also automatically gets the 
next day or two so that it can catch any late schedule changes, which 
is why the problem only shows up three days away.

The easiest solution is to force mythfilldatabase to only grab 12 or 13 
days instead of 14 by changing the mythfilldatabase command in 
/etc/crond.daily/mythtv-backend from:
    su mythtv -c "mythfilldatabase --quiet"
to:
    su mythtv -c "mythfilldatabase --quiet --graboptions \"--days 13\""
That way you are guaranteed to only get days for which a complete 
schedule exists.

Someone else on this list patched mythfilldatabase to use a higher 
cut-off percentage, but that is only practical if you track the fill 
ratios of the 13th and 14th days over a period of time, and would break 
if the lineup was changed.

Another possible solution (which I haven't tried) would be to add 
non-existing channels to your lineup to lower the percentage of 
coverage in the schedule below the threshold value.  You would want to 
only add them one at a time until the problem went away so that you 
don't end up grabbing all 14 days worth of schedule every night.

I think editing the cron task is the safest and easiest solution.

-- 
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stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability.