[mythtv] What is an "episode" ? What is a "part" ?

[Daniel Thor Kristjansson]

On 11/16/2012 08:01 AM, Håkon Alstadheim wrote:
> I find I confuse myself more on this question the more I think about
> this. I get shows with descriptions like "(2:3)" , "(2:3/s4)" or
> "(2/s4)". I've also seen "Sesong 4. (2) ", indicating episode 2, total
> number of episodes 3, and season 4 in those examples. Other variations
> also exist. This system is fairly new in my part of the world, so I have
> never seen how "part 2 of episode2" would be marked.
>
> My question is: should I use the above strings from the description to
> fill in "syndicatedepisodenumber" AND also partnumber and parttotal ?
> Why is one a string and the others integers ?
> What would it take to change myth into storing episodes, parts, seasons
> and total episodes in a consistent way? -- That is, how is this
> information used by myth ?

I believe the syndicatedepisodenumber is only used for showing
the string in the UI. The partnumber and parttotal are the
episode number and number of episodes in a series and is
intended to inform algorithms needing to know that info.
My understanding is that the partnumber is incremented based
on the original broadcast order, but sometimes the show is
shown in a different order when it is re-aired and that is
the syndicatedepisodenumber. But the developer who came up
with this scheme isn't around any more so this is a guess.
I would think it would make more sense break up the syndicated
order into syndicatedpartnumber and syndicatedparttotal rather
than using an opaque character string.

-- Daniel