[mythtv-users] Duplicate matching methods - make program ID an explicit choice

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/19/2016 03:20 PM, John Veness wrote:
>
> On May 19, 2016 8:09:58 PM GMT+01:00, "Michael T. Dean" <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>> On 05/19/2016 02:45 PM, John Veness wrote:
>>> And the following in sd_json:
>>>
>>> <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">0.8.</episode-num>
>>> <episode-num system="dd_progid">EP023864610009</episode-num>
>>>
>>> I.e. it has both systems listed, and is missing the total number in
>>> the xmltv_ns case. Would Myth use the dd_progid in this case, or an
>>> autogenerated ID from the xmltv_ns text?
>> It would use the dd_progid first since that's meant to be the
>> definitive
>> identifier.
>>
>>> I'd prefer it to use xmltv_ns, to make it more likely that duplicates
>>> would be matched with my old recordings correctly.
>>>
>>> On the other hand, apparently some series in sd_json only output the
>>> dd_progid, with no xmltv_ns (I.e. no season/episode numbering) which
>>> is a shame. Those for sure will not be matched as duplicates with my
>>> old uk_rt recordings.
>> You could always post-process your XMLTV data (but before
>> mythfilldatabase uses the data) to remove some/all <episode-num
>> system="dd_progid"> elements.
> Thanks. I'll have a think about it. It might be best to bite the bullet and just let it store (and match on) the dd_progid and deal with duplicates when they come up.
>
> Out of interest, how is dd_progid generated, I mean, at the Schedules Direct end, does anyone know?

It's a proprietary identifier created by the listings service from which 
Schedules Direct buys listings data (originally Tribune Media Services 
(TMS), who once operated Zap2It Labs DataDirect, then sold data to 
Schedules Direct after DataDirect was killed, but I think Tribune sold 
that business and I don't remember who owns it now).

>   It looks very similar (well, it starts with "EP" then a load of numbers) to the auto-generated IDs that mythfilldatabase generates from xmltv_ns.

The mythfilldatabase xmltv parser algorithm was created to use a similar 
construct--in terms of the category_type portion, especially--to make it 
easier to figure out some of what the show is based on the ID.

Mike