[mythtv] Guide service API "Group By" usage

[Michael T. Dean]

On 09/27/2020 12:58 PM, Peter Bennett wrote:
>
> On 9/25/20 2:56 PM, Peter Bennett wrote:
>>
>> The Guide API uses "Group by Callsign" with the result that if you 
>> have two channels with the same callsign, one gets dropped off the 
>> list. Is there any reason for this? I plan to fix it with the other 
>> bugs I am fixing, if nobody knows of a reason for grouping that way.
>>
>> Comcast have a setup where many channels appears at least twice in HD 
>> and once in SD. The two HD versions have the same callsign. The 
>> second HD version is in the 1000+ range and grouped in ranges in some 
>> way they think is helpful for channel surfing.
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
> On reconsidering this, I realized that if you have more than 1 "Input 
> Connection" you could have the same channels repeated, for example on 
> cable and over-the-air, and in that case will not want your channels 
> duplicated. So I think I should rather leave this as is.

Also, in MythTV, the call sign has been used to indicate a channel's 
uniqueness.  Two channels with the same call sign are treated as the 
same for the purposes of scheduling (therefore, no 2 channels should be 
given the same call sign unless the content they broadcast is 
substantially identical).

The channel number is used to indicate that channels are to be treated 
the same for Live TV .  If you tune a channel in Live TV by typing 
channel number 13, you don't care which channel number 13 it 
tunes--regardless of source or input.  If you have a preference which is 
tuned in Live TV, the channels should be given different channel numbers 
to allow differentiation when tuning Live TV by channel number.

Both call sign and channel number are user-editable so that users can 
change either or both of them.  So a user can have channels using WGBH 
and WGBH-HD for call signs to differentiate a standard definition and 
high definition version (or whatever indicator the user chooses) for the 
purposes of recording scheduling with the "this channel" filter.  Or a 
user could have a  channel 13 for the channel the user prefers to tune 
in Live TV and channel 1013 for one that's less desirable--for example 
if 13 is usable from multiple inputs but 1013 is only usable from a 
single input using, for example, a cable STB.

In theory, the guide should only condense multiple channels to a single 
listing if both the call sign and channel number are identical for the 
channels.  If you're saying that's not the case in the services API or 
something (it condenses if the call sign is identical regardless of the 
channel number), that may be a bug.

Mike