[mythtv-users] how to set xmltvid to unknown and keep it there?

[Eric Sharkey]

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Robert McNamara
<robert.mcnamara at gmail.com> wrote:
> The scanner putting values in the freqid should have *no effect* if
> you had followed the correct practice of setting up your channels.

So you assume that the user will assign a correct xmltvid for each and
every channel, and must do so before the next run of mythfilldatabase?
 I just can't work that fast.

> You changed way too much, and it sounds like much of it was manual.  I
> have no idea the provenance of the information in your database, or
> how it has gotten there, and it sounds like there have been so many
> steps that you're not all that sure any more either.

I know exactly what I've done.

> The correct way
> to go about this is:
>
> 1.  Scan
> 2.  Set xmltvids for each channel.
> 3.  Run mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates.

How's that even supposed to work?  According to Schedules Direct's
lineup report, most of the time when I get both a standard def and an
HD version of a channel, they both get the same xmltvid.  How is this
procedure supposed to tell mythtv which channel is Fox 5 (virtual
channel #5) and which is Fox 5 HD (virtual channel #505) if all I'm
doing is setting the same xmltvid for both?

And what do I do for channels where I don't know the xmltvid?  That's
what I've been asking since the beginning of this thread.  If I've
done step 1, and I'm on step 2, and I just don't have a clue what the
xmltvid for a channel is, what am I supposed to do?  I want to just
put the channel on hold and figure it out later, but there's no clear
way.

Have you actually tried to do this procedure yourself?  It's not easy.
 I've got one channel which I can tune which is quite obviously NBC
Nonstop out of New York in HD.  Both Verizon's web site and Schedules
Direct say I don't get this channel, but it's right there.  What do I
do with a channel like this?  Where do I go to get the xmltvid for a
channel that isn't officially in my lineup?  I have the list of
channels from Verizon, the list of channels from Schedules Direct, the
list of channels expected from the Silicon Dust web site, the list of
channels coming up in the HDHR scan, and the list of channels I can
write down by actually attempting to tune them with the Verizon STBs
and there doesn't seem to be complete agreement on any two pairs of
these lists.

(BTW, I do appreciate the help.  If I sound at all exasperated, please
don't take that as frustration directed at you (or Mike) personally.)

Eric