[mythtv-users] adding new channels from schedulesdirect?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 01/17/2014 11:56 AM, Josh Rosenberg wrote:
> All,
>
> I recently updated my cable package, and changed my lineup in
> SchedulesDirect accordingly.  I am now trying to get those channels to
> auto-add to my mythtv lineup. I've tried the following:
>
> mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates
> mythfilldatabase --only-update-channels
> mythfilldatabase --dd-grab-all
> mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates --do-not-filter-new-channels
> mythfilldatabase --only-update-channels --do-channel-updates
> --do-not-filter-new-channels
>
> All of them seem to run quicker than I expect, and none of them
> actually changes the list of channels available on my system.
>
> Here's the last handful of lines from the output of the last run:
>
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.590032 I  Loading en_us translation for module mythfrontend
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.592895 I  Current MythTV Schema Version (DBSchemaVer): 1317
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.597765 I  MythCoreContext: Connecting to backend
> server: 192.168.1.116:6543 (try 1 of 1)
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.600010 I  Using protocol version 77
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.600465 I  Opening blocking connection to master backend
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.841125 I  Updating source #1 (cablecard 20130304)
> with grabber schedulesdirect1
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.841577 I  Found 45 channels for source 1 which use grabber
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.841666 I  DataDirect: Grabbing channel data
> 2014-01-17 11:52:02.841746 I  Downloading DataDirect feed
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.381451 I  Downloaded 41190 bytes
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.381464 I  Uncompressing DataDirect feed
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.384335 I  Uncompressed to 269581 bytes
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.479006 I  New static DB connectionDataDirectCon
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.489236 I  DataDirect: Your subscription expires on
> Sat Jul 26 4:51 PM
> 2014-01-17 11:52:11.543811 I  DataDirect: sourceid 1 has lineup type:
> CableDigital
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.170883 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.183850 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.196790 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.211045 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.223981 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.236969 I  Cardutil: HDHomeRun Cablecard Present.
> 2014-01-17 11:53:12.249858 N  Data fetching complete.
> [end]
>
> I've also tried the "re-add all lineups" link in Schedules Direct.
>
> Can someone please help me find the magic incantation to make this
> work, or suggest other debugging techniques?  A search of this list's
> history revealed several similar problems, but no clear answer.
>

If you want to add channels to an existing database, you should do it 
the same way you added them the first time--using mythtv-setup.  So, for 
HDHR with CableCARD, that means "Fetch channels from listings provider" 
(or for digital/scannable inputs, you would do a channel scan.)  
Alternatively, since yours is an "unscannable" input, you have the 
option of manually adding the new channels and editing the changed 
channels--the appropriate approach if most of your channels are the same 
and only a few are changing/added.  Do this, also, in mythtv-setup, but 
in the Channel Editor.

However, I'd recommend that you first delete the existing Video Source 
(ideally, "Delete all video sources"), then start from scratch so that 
all the data in there is correct.  If you don't, it's possible that the 
new data may conflict/differ from the previous data, which means you'll 
eventually have a failure due to bad data that may not be apparent until 
the time of the failure.  And especially because you've told 
mythfilldatabase to do unsafe things to your existing channels, the 
state of the existing channel data is, in my mind, suspect.

Note, also, that it can take hours (or a day or?) for changes to 
Schedules Direct lineups to propagate to all the places such that you 
get the updated data.  So, even if following this approach doesn't get 
them in there, try again after (quite) a (bit of) time.

And, FWIW, mythfilldatabase wasn't designed for channel maintenance.  
It's designed to fill. the database with listings data, not channel 
data.  On the other hand, mythtv-setup is designed for setting up 
MythTV's cards, inputs, sources, and channels (among other things).

Mike