[mythtv-users] Switching a MythTV laptop between independent and networked operation
Simon Hobson
linux at thehobsons.co.uk
Fri Jan 27 12:46:13 UTC 2012
John Pilkington wrote:
>I'd also like to be able to switch transmitter easily, for independent
>use of the laptop in other places. That might follow naturally from
>such a script, but at present I find that importing an earlier scan in
>the mythtvsetup channel editor doesn't carry the dvb transport settings
>with it.
I think for that you'd need to work out which tables hold the
required data - tuners, transports, channels, etc, etc. Then you'd
need to make a "master" copy of each setup, dump it somewhere, repeat
for each location/transmitter. Then to switch transmitters, have a
script that will empty the relevant tables and load the previously
saved data.
It will need a lot of care to get all the data you need, and not
mangle anything that shouldn't change.
An alternative, and I think vastly inferior, option may be to :
At each location, delete all channels, then do a full scan to find
the local transports and channels. Once you've been a location once,
then you'd only need to "scan existing transports" which would save a
little time tuning to channels it's never going to find anything on.
After than run a "channel cleanup" script to set the channel numbers,
xmltv id's, visibility etc.
Why do I think it's inferior ?
Well to start with, you'll be scanning a lot of transports that won't
exist - say you have 4 locations, that's 4x5 muxes, so 20 muxes of
which 15 won't be transmitted in your area. If you have HD, then 4x6,
so 18 of 24 that won't be there.
Also, in some locations you'll pick up local repeaters (possibly
multiples) as well as a main transmitter. So you'll have to weed
those out of the transports table. On the other hand, in some
locations you may need these local repeaters - so you run the risk of
leaving them in the transports table - only to appear elsewhere when
you don't want them.
All this means you'll spend more time to get a potentially inferior
lineup - vs spending a little time up front and having nearly instant
setup swaps.
Of course, channel lineup changes by the broadcasters will be a pain
- just as they are normally, but multiplied by the number of
locations you use !
--
Simon Hobson
Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
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