[mythtv-users] How to deal with moving QAM channels?

[Mark Small]

On December 16, 2007 11:25:16 pm R. G. Newbury wrote:
> Michael Rice wrote:
> > Last night I had two PBS shows set to record on my HDHR.  This morning
> > I noticed the file was missing for these recordings.  Looking in the
> > log I saw the "Program #13 not found in PAT!".  Took me awhile but I
> > realized the channel had changed locations.  I verified this by
> > checking the TV and saw that channel was no longer listed.  I think
> > Comcast moved it to space opened by removing analog channels a few
> > months ago...  so others might see this.
> >
> > Anyway I ran:
> >
> > hdhomerun_config ffffffff scan 0
> >
> > Found the new frequency... went into the channel editor and created a
> > new transport.  Didn't see how to associate the mplexid to the channel
> > in the editor so I edited the
> > channel table.  Seems to be working ok now.
> >
> > So I'd really like to know when a channel is moved as soon as possible
> > so I can fix it.  Does anyone have an automated way of checking this?
> > Something that can be run once a day in a cron job?  I think I got
> > lucky this time and only lost 2 recordings but next time I might not
> > be so lucky...
>
> I don't think that there is any particularly fast way of checking this.
> But you might want to try running a cron which does an hdhomerun scan
> once a day, and diff'ing the output of today's scan with that from
> yesterday,
> I have NO idea whether youu will see differences from day to day when
> there are no channel changes. You shouldn't, but....
>
> The real problem is then, what do you do if a change is discovered. I
> suspect the most useful route would be to e-mail yourself...
>
> Geoff
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This issue is  what has been keeping me from fully employing my QAM tuner 
(Avermedia A180) in mythtv.  I'm afraid of my WAF dropping through the 
basement after missing recordings due to moving QAM channels.  My cable 
provider seems to make a change to existing channels a couple of times a 
year.

I've been doing periodic scans with dvbtools, and the trouble is that it 
doesn't consistently give the same results.  Often instead of seeing the 
proper Audio and Video id's,I get a zeros for some channels.  Thus a daily 
diif requires human perusal, or maybe a smarter sed script than I know how to 
make.

Mark