[mythtv-users] Schedule Direct/Channel DB problems

[Michael T. Dean]

On 11/29/2007 08:29 PM, Travis Jensen wrote:
> I honestly have no idea where to begin with this problem.  I am using
> Schedule Direct (SD) for my listings and have my lineup setup properly
> there.  However, somewhere between the UI there and my myth system, things
> are going wrong.  Here are some examples:
>
> 1. I have around a dozen channels < 100 from my DSS (DishNetwork).  These
> are all set at SD to return.  However, when I check my channels database,
> I've only got 3 channels < 100.
>   

What's a "channel < 100"?  Are you talking about channel number
(channum--which means nothing in Myth) or a channel ID (chanid--which is
not a "to be seen by the user" value; it's used only internally) or
frequency ID (freqid--which is the number given to your channel change
script to specify the channel to which to change)

> 2. I am seeing channels show up with a chanid in the 10xx range instead of
> the xx range.

That's because of the algorithm for computing the (not to be seen by
users/internal) channel ID.  If you have any chanid's less than 1000,
they're likely the wrong ones (as they were not created automatically,
so are likely to have suspect data).

>   For instance, channel 5 shows up with a chanid of 1005.
> Perhaps that is correct behavior

Yep

> , but...
>
> 3. A local channel here is KSL (the above mentioned channel 5).  It has
> listing in SD as channel 5 and channel 8532, which corresponds to the actual
> DishNetwork channels.  This is what is in the channel database:
>
> +--------+---------+---------+----------+----------+
> | chanid | channum | xmltvid | sourceid | callsign |
> +--------+---------+---------+----------+----------+
> |   1005 | 8532    | 10691   |        1 | KSL      |
> |   9532 | 8532    | 10691   |        1 | KSL      |
> +--------+---------+---------+----------+----------+
>
> I'm guessing I've lost my real channum 5 because channum 8532 has the same
> xmltvid as channum 5.
>   

In theory, mythfilldatabase shouldn't put a channel in twice (i.e. it
will notice the channel is already in there because of the xmltvid and
skip it when it sees the dup).  This behavior could be broken by passing
the right combination of (wrong) command-line arguments.

> 4. In general, I'm seeing weird behavior with programs and channels not
> corresponding properly to their real channels.  I get about 50% hit rate on
> recording on the Discovery channel.
>   

That might be related (i.e. you shouldn't expect proper behavior with
bad data), but may also be a problem with the channel change script.

> Questions:
>
> 1. Should SD really be giving me the same xmltvid for channel 5 and channel
> 8532?
>   

Yes.  They are the exact same channel.  DISH just provides the
low-channel number as an alias because it's the OTA channel number
people in you're area "are used to seeing" (though, if my area is any
indication, people are used to seeing the channel numbers from the cable
company as my friends can't figure out why I call Fox 35 channel 35
instead of channel 3).

> 2. Would I be better removing the 8xxx versions of my local channels from my
> channel line-up?
>   

Generally, you'll only want one of the two.  Either is fine (especially
since the channel number is irrelevant to Myth and is only used in
LiveTV to specify which channel you want to view).  Delete the extra
channel with d in mythtv-setup's channel editor.

> 3. In general, how do I go about debugging this?
> 4. What is the procedure for nuking all of my channel data and starting over
> with it?

The video source part of
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/264034#264034 . 
Sounds like you should do it, too.

>   I restrained myself from doing a 'delete from channel;' and then
> running mythfilldatabase. :-D
Good.

Mike