[mythtv-users] Recovering when zap2it screws the pooch---a warning & some questions

[R. G. Newbury]

OK, Now I understand what you are trying to do (at least I think I do)....

Try this:

Use mysqldump to back up your database!

Make 2 listings on zap2it, actually using the "#3" listing setup for 
both (different names however and you will probably need to do the '2 
zip code thing' to get 2 'cable digital' listings.

Assign one source to one input
Assign the other source to a different input.
Go into the channel editor, select an input (to show the channels 
available to the input) and delete the unwanted/unavailable.
Ditto, mutatis mutandis.

Cross fingers...
Try some live TV...

This should work... you should see 2 listings of each channel, if 'All' 
sources are shown, and 1 of each when only one source is shown... I think...

This free advice is worth what you are paying for it... Tax free however!

Geoff




f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
>     > Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:53:52 -0400
>     > From: "R. G. Newbury" <newbury at mandamus.org>
> 
>     > Sounds like you misunderstood things.
> 
>     > You need a separate zap2it lineup for each type of feed.
>     > So it appears you want:
>     > 1)	An analog OTA (off the air) lineup;
>     > 2)	An analog channel cable lineup.
>     > 3)	An analog channel STB lineup.
> 
>     > These will likely have the same actual channels appearing at different 
>     > numbers. So you saw your 2,4,5,7 moved to the 30's.
> 
> No, no, no.  I never should have said "OTA" in the first place,
> because it only muddied the water.  Wherever I said "OTA", read:
> "channels that my local cable provider carries on its cable, which
> happen to be the same as channels that -would- be available if I
> used an antenna (which I don't), and which also by not-so-remarkable
> coincidence were allocated by the cable provider to be the same cable
> channel numbers as they would be if they were broadcast channels,
> presumably so as not to confuse people who were used to broadcast."
> (I wish there was a compact term for this. :)
> 
> Thus, true RF broadcast local PBS is channel 2, and my cable provider
> puts that on -its- channel 2 as well (which I know might not actually
> be exactly the same frequency, because cable and broadcast frequencies
> are different).
> 
> I -do- want your #2 & #3, however, and that's what I have, except
> that DD's version of your #2 is totally broken at the moment.
> 
> What's going on in -my- case is that the analog cable lineup and the
> analog STB lineup from my provider are virtually identical---the
> -only- difference (in reality, not in Zap2It's idea of the world) is
> that some of the channels on the cable feed are encrypted and need an
> STB to decode.  So Zap2It's listings -should- be identical for these
> two, except that half a dozen channels should be missing from the
> analog cable lineup.  This used to be the case, except for a long
> period when they got a pair of the analog cable channels in the wrong
> place because the provider moved 'em---DD got it right in their #3
> listing (to use your terminology) but took 7 months of nagging to get
> it right in their #2 listing.
> 
> Unfortunately, sometime around the time when they fixed -that-, they
> stirred the rest of the channel assignments with a spoon.  Their view
> of the world is just wrong.  It doesn't match what's on the cable, it
> doesn't even match their #3 listing, and it doesn't match the listing
> my TiVo has for the very same provider.  It's just broken.  Their #3
> listing seems to track reality quite well, but since that's the one
> that's got the encrypted channels, it's the one that I've turned -off-
> most of the channels on because I don't want to have my cable box
> tuning plaintext channels.
> 
> (For example, what my TiVo and DD's #3 claim is my local PBS affiliate
> is on channel 2, but their #2 listing randomly moved it to channel 27!
> That's actually where ESPN or one of its ilk is current living.  Etc.)
> 
> I fixed it for the moment by going into the channel editor in mythtv-setup
> and manually changing both the channel number (for my use) and the freqid
> (for myth's use) for my PBS station to "2", not "27", for the #2 listing.
> I did the same for 20-odd other channels, which is about 1/3 of all channels.
> 
> What I'd -like-, though, is the ability to use the #3 lineup as -two-
> lineups, e.g., use half a dozen channels (the encrypted ones) as a
> "lineup" that's assigned -only- to the composite-in of one particular
> tuner (the one that's connected to the STB), and use all the rest of
> the channels as a "lineup" that's assigned to the RF input on every
> tuner card.  As far as I know, I can't do that, so I have to download
> two lineups from DD instead of one (which are identical, except that
> one has only half a dozen channels selected and the other has
> everything -but- those half a dozen channels selected---at least when
> DD has their head screwed on straight, that is), which was annoying
> and error-prone to set up, might be a waste of their servers (because
> I'm downloading two sets of listings, which requires two sets of
> computations---though the bandwidth is probably the same), and is
> currently problematic because one of those two listings is
> unaccountably screwed up.
> 
> (And since DD tries to keep you from having "too many" lineups at once
> [I don't recall the rules], I remember people complaining about having
> to sign up for multiple listings in adjacent zipcodes & other such
> weird dodges to get things properly mapped to Myth inputs.  Some
> easier way of picking & choosing that depended less on what DD put in
> each lineup, and just allowed arbitrary assignment of -some- XMLTV ID
> to -some- input (via a custom lineup that maybe only your Myth and not
> DD knew about) would be great.  Perhaps that's already possible by
> poking around in the channel editor as I mentioned near the end of my
> last mail; I haven't actually tried that yet, since I've currently got
> things working again and don't really want to tear it all apart to
> experiment.)
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