[mythtv-users] Question for Australian DVB-T users

[Leighton Brough]

>> ii) If you want the most flexibility, add the HD channels to your
>> existing SD channels, and use a combination of channel priorities,
>> custom rules, and any HDTV-specific listings flags to ensure *true* HD
>> material is recorded from the HD channels, and SD material is recorded
>> from your existing standard definition channels.
>>     
>
>
> The Shepherd xmltv grabber actually handles this exact situation.  You
> tell it what the HD-equivilant channels are (ABC vs ABC-HD).  It pulls
> the listings for the ABC, and then copies (by default, you can change
> this) the data ONLY when the australian HDTV listings website says the
> show is in HD.
>
> It lets you ensure that you only record true HD broadcasts, not simply
> upscaled ones.
>   
Hearing this finally motivated me to move to Shepherd this arvo, so I 
thought I'd share my experience for the benefit of other Aussies. It 
turned out to be fairly painless, although I did have to spend a couple 
of hours at the cspan prompt sorting out the Perl module dependencies. I 
also found it helpful to (carefully) clear the 'program' table in MySQL 
to clear out the old guide data - dunno if there is an easier way to do 
this.

I had the reverse situation from Phill - I was previously recording all 
shows in HD. With Shepherd making it clear which ones are just upscaled, 
I can see that for the majority of my recordings SD is fine. So now I 
expect I'll get a lot more recordings onto my existing disk (and 
therefore postpone upgrading this) as well as have commercial flagging, 
mytharchive etc run substantially faster. Also, less work for the CPU is 
always a good thing, since it means less heat, less noise and a lower 
power bill.

Just bumping up the priority on the HD channels was enough for my 
existing (simple) recording rules to do exactly what I want 
automatically, except the few where I'd specified a channel specific rule.

Leighton