[mythtv-users] Channel lineup change not as easy as hoped

[Michael T. Dean]

  On 01/26/2011 09:39 PM, Will Dormann wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Comcast recently drastically changed my HD channel lineup, and it seems
> like I had to go through a bit too many steps to get MythTV in sync.  A
> number of the HD channels have moved to higher channel numbers.
>
> First was to refresh the schedulesdirect listings.  This wasn't too bad.
>   I de-selected the old HD channels and selected their new homes in the
> higher channel numbers.
>
> - I ran mythfilldatabase, but the listings (in mythweb) still showed the
> old HD channels and none of the new ones.
>
> - I noticed: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Updating_Channel_Lineup so I
> added the --do-channel-updates flag.  Still no new channels.
>
> - I re-ran mythtv-setup and downloaded the channel lineup again, which
> subsequently ran mythfilldatabase.   Some new channels were in the
> listings, as were the old channels that Comcast has made defunct.
>
> - I ran mythfilldatabase again with --do-channel-updates and
> --remove-new-channels.   The latter option seems a bit oddly-named to
> me.

Because it's not removing channels from the DB, but saying to ignore 
channels that are in the lineup but not in the DB--i.e. "Ignore the new 
ones that schedules direct is sending me because I haven't configured my 
system to receive them or they're not part of my subscription."

>     but this did remove the old channels that don't exist anymore in
> my schedulesdirect lineup.  But there were still some new channels missing.
>
> - I went into the channel lineup part of mythweb and I noticed some of
> the new channels had the "visible" property un-checked.   I checked these.
>
> The result of the above steps is that the defunct channels are now gone
> and the new channels are there.  I realize that I probably have some
> redundant or unnecessary steps in there, but it seems a bit ridiculous
> to me.   Any thoughts on why it was such a hassle?

mythfilldatabase never deletes channels from a user database.  The user 
must manually delete any channels they want to remove using the channel 
editor.

What you did may or may not have cleaned up old channels through 
"conversion" to new channels, or it may have left some garbage in your DB.

What I /always/ recommend for any user whose channels change more than 
trivially (where on my system, "trivially" means "no change at all") is 
to use the Video Sources portion of:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/264034#264034

The best way of making sure there's no garbage in the DB--which can be 
caused by misunderstanding of what various processes (like 
mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates, etc.) actually do--is to start 
with an clean database and put in only valid data.  :)

Mike