[mythtv-users] Usage Question

[faginbagin]

On 1/20/2026 9:04 PM, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:44:55 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> Curious how everyone deals with this.
>>
>> Using v35+fixes, driving from a remote FE only.
>> Using Myth FE, dealing with programs that have been recorded, there are
>> over 1500 of them, and driving with a clicker
>> "Media Library" -> "Watch Recordings" and bottom line, the list is too
>> huge to deal with this way.
>>
>> So, on a FileSystem, I would make sub-dirs for how I want things
>> grouped like maybe seperate dirs for "John Wayne" movies or whatever
>> and just move the files there.
>>
>> What is the recommened/suggested way of doing this ? (BTW, I do not
>> need to transcode or cut comms etc.).
>>
>> Jim
> I use the Ctrl-S search function from a keyboard.  I have a keyboard
> that is light enough to pick up and use like this.  You also used to
> be able to buy a remote that had a keyboard on its back side, but I
> have never used one of them.  There is still a problem if you forget
> the name of the programme you want to search for - I have sometimes
> had to do manual SQL searches on the database to find things.
>
> Also, as I record movies, I change their titles to "Movie" and move
> the original title to the subtitle field, which then gives me a big
> list of all my movies to search.  I wrote a little script to run as a
> Job to partially automate this.  You can also set programmes as
> Favourites and then they will be in the smaller Favourites list.
>
> There is also the ability to create recording groups - you can set the
> group in the recording rule, or change it later after the recording
> has happened.  I do this for things I record for my mother, but I am
> not going to want to watch myself.  Then the >> and << keys on the
> remote can change the group to get just a list of one group.  Or use
> M(enu) > Change Group Filter.  Also look at your settings for M(enu) >
> Change Group View to change how the list is displayed.
>
>
Personally, I use Recording Groups. You can do this before and after the 
fact. IOW, you can specify a recording group in a recording rule. Or, 
you can move recordings to different groups after they've been recorded.

Moving recordings to the video library can be tedious, especially if you 
want the meta data (like the original title and description). A tool 
like mythlink.pl might help.

As for moving existing recordings into different recording groups, you 
can easily move entire TV series at a time. Use the group menu when 
you're in the left hand column and choose to "Add this Group to 
Playlist", followed by "Playlist Options" -> "Storage Options" -> 
"Change Recording Group". You can also add one item at a time to the 
play list and then move the entire playlist using the second step to 
"Change Recording Group".

If you're comfortable with sql and/or phpmyadmin, you can move a lot of 
stuff by changing the recgroup of any recorded entry whose programid 
starts with MV. Something like:
UPDATE `recorded` SET `recgroup` = 'Movies' WHERE `recorded`.`programid` 
like 'MV%';
If you do it this way, you'll need to leave the "Watch Recording" screen 
in mythfrontend and then go back in to see the results.

Another thing I do to assist in navigating is assign a remote button to 
the keybinding, Global->PAGEMIDDLE. I use the same key that toggles 
closed captions in playback mode, T.
This lets me get to the titles in the that start with M, N, or O when 
I'm on the left hand column of "Watch Recordings", and then I can page 
up or down from there. Similarly, I've assigned the keybindings I use to 
skip commercials in playback, Z & Q, to jump to the top & bottom of 
lists outside of playback mode, the keybinding for those are, 
Global->PAGETOP and GLOBAL->PAGEBOTTOM.

I've also tweaked my frontend theme to wrap around to the bottom from 
the top when I press the UP arrow and to wrap from the bottom to the top 
when I press DOWN. That's something the MythCenter themes, as installed, 
don't do, but some other themes do.

HTH