[mythtv] Possible bug from "setup" using tv_grab_uk

[Matthew Burnham]

> > --config-file /home/allena28/.mythtv/test.xmltv --configure 
> > --retry-limit 2 --retry-delay 30 --postalcode 02111 --list-providers
> Yes, that is what is needed.  I'd also like to add manual 
> channel configuration to the GUI, using --list-channels, once 
> there is some way to feed that information into tv_grab_na 
> non-interactively.

Hmmm, had another look at this today.

As far as I can see, currently in tv_grab_na, there's no way to choose
which channels are actually used, just the provider (as you've noted
above). A bigger problem I see, is that you can only choose one
provider, both manually in tv_grab_na (AFAIK) and in the setup GUI at
present.

For UK TV, I'd expect to be able to choose from a variety of providers
that can be used in combination (ie. Analogue, Freeview, Sky Digital,
various Cable providers). The following screen would allow selection of
channel listings to download (starting with sensible defaults, few will
want listings for shopping channels, etc.) for any/all providers.

(This is sure to get fun in terms of conflict resolution once people
have tuner 1 connected to a Freeview box, and tuner 2 connected to Sky
Digital - especially as some channels are available on both services :)

tv_grab_uk currently treats UK TV as two systems: regional analogue, and
any kind of digital (groups of channels are selected based on type) so
perhaps we should try and allow selection of (multiple) providers, then
channel types, and individual channels (showing only the 'pool' of
channels available from the selected providers).

I can't see any easy way to pick up the correct region from the postcode
as per tv_grab_na - and I get both Central and Yorkshire here, so would
prefer to choose manually, or even have the option for both. Perhaps the
'analogue' provider should simply add all the regional channels to the
'available' pool, allowing the user to select the region(s) he wants.
This would remove any UK-specificness that's currently present that
would need to be handled differently by the GUI (other than not asking
for a postcode when selecting provider).

Anyway, main point to this long-winded message: the GUI needs to allow
selection of one or more providers, and selection of the channels
provided by these providers. Does this seem reasonable? Though it would
need a bit of hacking on tv_grab_uk, there's only one perl function used
to configure, so it shouldn't be that daunting to add --list-providers
(easy to hard-code) and --list-channels (though I don't think this
should need the --provider option, unless its deemed the calling
program's responsibility to stitch the lists together). I guess some of
this would be better discussed with the XMLTV guys.

I did read a note in XMLTV CVS that they're intending to allow better
support for configuration from external applications, and try and
achieve a common interface to each tv_grab variant, which sounds good.

Oh, and it would be nice to be able to edit channels after initial setup
without having to start from scratch each time...

-- 
Mat Burnham