[mythtv-users] Encouraging mythtv to use card 2 for channel 28

[Bruce Markey]

Russell Brown wrote:
> I have two Hauppauge cards, a PVR 350 and a 150.
> The PVR 350 is listed first in mythtv setup
> Both cards are hooked up to US analog cable through a splitter.
> There is one channel (Channel 28) which has fine reception
> on the PVR 150, but poor reception on the PVR 350.
> 
> Is there some way to encourage myth to schedule
> recordings for this channel on the PVR 150?
> 
> I can manually select the input when I schedule
> a recording, but would prefer an automatic solution.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions as to why a channel
> would have poor reception on one card and ways to fix it?

Yes but the solution is only in SVN or 0.21.

Channel priority would have the same effect on each input so
it can't help to say to use card two. Input priority can say
that card two is better but that would be true for all channels.
However, you just want to say that channel 20 is better on card
2 than card 1 and all other channels should prefer card 1. For
this kind of special need, 0.21 has Custom Priority. See:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6

for how priorities affect input selection and the last section
titled "Custom Priority".

For your case, you could go to TV Settings->Recording Priorities->
Custom Priority. Add "Modify priority for an input", change the
number from "1" to your input "2", add "Only a certain channel
number" and change the example "3" to your "20" (hint, press Enter
to bring up the virtual keyboard). Give it a descriptive name like
"Fix 20":

Priority Rule Name: Fix 20
Priority Value: 1

cardinput.cardinputid = 2
AND channel.channum = '20'

This says to add one point for showings of ch 20 shows on card 2.
Press "Test" and you should see the schedule changes where all the
shows on 20 will be moved to card 2. If this is correct, ESC back
to the Custom Priority page then click "Install".

The inverse would be:

Priority Rule Name: Fix 20
Priority Value: -1

cardinput.cardinputid = 1
AND channel.channum = '20'

which says that ch 20 in bad on card 1 and this may be more
correct but either should have about the same effect.

Sometimes an input can have more than one bad channel and I've
found that it is useful to have an "IN" list. This also makes
it easy to add or remove channels as signal quality changes.

Priority Rule Name: Card 1 signal
Priority Value: -1

cardinput.cardinputid = 1 AND
channel.channum IN (3, 5, 6, 39, 66)

This says to take one point away for any of these channels on
card 1. The scheduler will try any showing on any other input
at any other time before it would consider using card 1 for any
of these channels. If another channel goes bad or reseating a
cable improves things, it's easy to go back to the Custom
Priority page and update the list.

--  bjm