[mythtv-users] How to properly use the new svn channels.conf import?

[Andrew Gallatin]

Brian Merrill [bmerrill at sfcn.org] wrote:
> Nick wrote:
> 
> >On 15/09/05, Brian Merrill <bmerrill at sfcn.org> wrote:
> ><snip>
> >

Mine works, and looks just like the snipped version (with localization
differences):

mysql> select chanid,channum,freqid,mplexid,serviceid from channel;
+--------+---------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   1000 | 13      | NULL   |       1 |        10 |
|   1001 | 3       | NULL   |       1 |        11 |
<...>


Have you tried live tv to verify that it really isn't working?
How about saving a stream with the dvb utils and playing with
with mplayer to make sure the card is OK?

> channels.conf?  Well, in either case, I manually added the transports 
> via the advanced button and then ran a mythfilldatabase against my 
> source end then imported the channels.conf but noticed that I got an 
> error "Unknown column 'qam_256' in 'where clause'" and the query string 
> was "Select mplexid FROM dtv_multiplex WHERE sourceid=1 AND 
> frequency=765000000 AND inversion='a' AND modulation=qam_256;  So maybe 
> I'm not correcctly matinch up the channel name, i.e. KUTVDT vs KUTV-DT 
> as reported by zap2it so my sourceid doesn't match up?  Anyway I'll keep 
> chasing after it.

What I did was this:

- fuzted around for a while, confused like you.
- Printed out xmltvid's for all channels:
    select channum,callsign,name,xmltvid from channel;

- clear channels/cards
- hook dvb card up with datadirect info, etc
- import  edited channels.conf
- edit via channel editor channum to match what data direct has for my
  area
- *manually add xmltvids for channels from printout made earlier*

- exit, start mythbackend, and do a mythfilldatabase --max-days=1
  (used --max-days=1 so as to reduce wait time & data direct load
  while tinkering)

While working on this I iterated a few times, clearing the channels /
cards after each step, cursing loudly as I went.  I noticed that when
I only edited the channel numbers (channum) to match data direct, then
the stations which had the same name (or maybe callsign -- they are
the same for me) as what data direct has would end up getting
xmltvids.  However, having a correct channum and an incorrect callsign
was not enough to match up with datadirect, and mythfilldatabase would
create duplicate channels.  I had a real "WRAL DT" which I could tune
to live, but which had no guide info, and I had a "WRAL-HD" (or
similar) which had guide info, but no frequency.

I think that another (perhaps better) option for me would have
been to just setup a sed script to transform the scanned channel
callsigns/names into what datadirect expected.

However, I have no clue how to get the channel number to get imported
along with the freq, etc, when doing an import.  

Good luck,

Drew