[mythtv-users] Time-Warner Cable/upcoming top-to-bottom channel reorg

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/29/2014 01:18 PM, Robert Kulagowski wrote:
> On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Bob Sully wrote:
>> Hi all -
>>
>> I recently received a notice from Time-Warner Cable (Los Angeles area) that
>> they are planning a complete channel line-up re-org in about four weeks.  I
>> don't think any of their hundreds of channels will retain the same numbers.
>>
>> I am running 0.26-fixes on Ubuntu 12.04, with an HD-PVR (any channel
>> recordable, of course) and an HD-HR Prime with CableCard (which I can only
>> record the local networks and a few other channels with).  I use Schedules
>> Direct.  My Myth system has been humming along nicely to this point.  I
>> haven't had to do a full channel re-scan in years.
> Are you using QAM as well, or just the Cablecard and HD-PVR? Because
> if you're not doing QAM, you don't need to "scan" at all; you'd just
> "fetch" to get the new lineup once Schedules Direct has the updates
> from TWC.

More than just "don't need to", you can't scan.  Both the HD-PVR and the 
HDHR Prime with CableCARD are "non-scannable" devices.  They tune using 
arbitrary identifiers and provide no information back to MythTV about 
what was tuned, so a) if you don't already have the identifiers, we'd 
have to submit an infinite number of IDs to tune everything (and if you 
already have the identifiers, there's no need to scan) and b) we 
wouldn't be able to tell whether there was actually something using that 
ID or whether it tuned something else "close by" and even if it did tell 
us, we wouldn't know what was tuned to label it (channel call sign and 
such).

So, really, if the same channel (meaning channel with the same Schedules 
Direct ID/xmltvid) existed before and after the reorg, all you need to 
do to successfully tune the (same) channel in its new location is change 
the frequency identifier for the channel.  You can do that in 
mythtv-setup or MythWeb Channel Editor.  You can optionally also change 
the channel number, call sign, and/or name of the channel.

However, if the before and after channel list differs, you'll need to 
also handle removed/new channels.  If a channel with a given xmltvid 
disappears, delete it.  If a channel appears with a new xmltvid, add it.

Generally, though, the easiest way to deal with large numbers of 
channels changing is to delete the entire Video Source using 
mythtv-setup, then re-create it.  With your tuners (and other 
non-scannable capture devices, such as firewire or PVR-x50), you would 
then re-create the channel list by "Fetch channels from listings 
source," as Robert mentioned.  (For QAM users, a rescan would be required.)

Note, too, that mythfilldatabase's --do-channel-updates (and every other 
option/combination of options available) will *not* "update" your 
channel list (and is not meant to).  Your existing configuration would 
prevent it from doing anything useful and allowing --do-channel-updates 
would only be giving it permission to do dangerous things.

Mike