[mythtv-users] Schedules Direct Service for OTA Coverage

R. G. Newbury newbury at mandamus.org
Tue Jan 1 18:22:52 UTC 2013


On 01/01/2013 10:08 AM, George Nassas wrote:
> On 2012-12-31, at 12:08 AM, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>
>> On 12/23/2012 01:08 AM, Joseph Fry wrote:
>>>
>>>         I have a channel lineup for my area based on Antenna coverage. I
>>>         also
>>>         have a amplified directional antenna that picks up some
>>>         programming that
>>>         would normally be outside the normal reception scope of the average
>>>         Antenna. Is there a way to extend the channel list of schedules
>>>         direct
>>>         to include channels that would normally be just outside the
>>>         range of the
>>>         average user? Or can I setup specific channels to preform EIT
>>>         gathering
>>>         while populating the other channels using schedules direct?
>
>> The answer is: you don't. Myth presumes that all of the channels in a source can be tuned by any tuner using that source.
>
> I'm not positive about that presumption Geoff. Joseph I can think of two ways to accomplish what you want.

Well you should be positive about that. Your workarounds will work but 
not by reason of any effect on that constraint,
but by adjusting the content of the eventual lineup.
You are adding channel information to the lineup.

This is what the OP wants. It does not change the constraint that when 
you add a channel to a lineup/source, myth thinks that it can tune that 
channel with any tuner paired with that source.

If you have a directional antenna pointed northeast feeding a tuner, and 
include a distant channel to the southeast in that source, myth will 
believe that it can tune and capture recordings from that channel.
Neatly encapsulated in pseudo code as:
fail=0; If [ try_recording_important_program ] ; then WAF = "$fail"; fi

Workarounds include: 1) amendment to the lineup at SD; 2) creation of a 
lineup at a median location, which includes all desired channels; 3) 
merger of channel/lineup info to create a custom lineup; and 4) adding a 
tuner and creating/using a separate lineup.

There is a far simpler route to do #3 than parsing/playing with xml and 
it is a variant on doing #3, by way of the use of #4.
The OP has/creates a lineup at his home location containing the local 
stations. He then creates a new lineup at SD containing only the distant 
station(s), (by choosing a fake location near those transmitters). In 
mythtv-setup, he then creates a tuner, and lineup and pairs them, going 
through all the steps for each tuner/source pair before starting to 
create the other.

Assume these are source 1 and source 2 respectively. The channel table 
in mythconverg contains the pairing information in the sourceid field, 
for the tuning source that that channel uses. In this scenario, the 
locals will show sourceid=1 and the distant will show sourceid=2. (These 
will be for cardid 1 and 2 respectively in the cardinput table).
Provided lineup "2" contains only the channels which are to be added to 
lineup "1", then, in mysql:
mysql > use mythconverg; update channel set sourceid="1" where sourceid="2";
changes the sourceid to effectively  add the lineup "2" channels into 
lineup "1". There will be 2 lineups at SD, but myth will tune using the 
lineup "1" tuner.

This is a do-once-only-on setup fix, not a daily cron-job nor messy 
parsing script. (I've played with xsltproc....yuukkk!)

The only difficulty may be that mythtv-setup will not be happy with 
using the same tuner twice. I don't know. I've never tried. I don't know 
what happens to the tables when you (effectively) delete a tuner by 
changing the source to which it is paired. It may or may not drop the 
data. I think not: I think it just increments the cardid and carries on.

I think but I am not sure, offhand, that the demo or dummy tuner will 
work, as the actual tuning information which will get used is that of 
the correct tuner. (Not sure if you can use the dummy tuner against an 
actual source.) But using the same tuner again should work. On 
reflection, it might be best to create the distant tuner lineup pairing 
first, and then the local pairing setup. Change the script above to swap 
the '1' and '2'.

Geoff







Write a script or hand-poke the mythconverg tables to change the tuner 
associated with the channel





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