[mythtv-users] Automatic channel scans

[John Pilkington]

On 10/08/17 20:13, Mike Bibbings wrote:
> On 10/08/17 17:41, John Pilkington wrote:
>> On 10/08/17 14:46, Mike Bibbings wrote:
>>> On 10/08/17 13:13, John Pilkington wrote:
>>>> On 10/08/17 12:19, Mike Bibbings wrote:
>>>>> On 08/08/17 19:01, Jeff wrote:
>>>>>> It seems to me that there are changes to the channel line-up on Astra
>>>>>> something every couple of weeks. Mostly I don't notice until 
>>>>>> recordings
>>>>>> start failing, and then I don't have the necessary block of couple of
>>>>>> hours to do anything about it, and so I end up running mythtv-setup
>>>>>> perhaps every 18 months.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would it not be possible to achieve something like automatic channel
>>>>>> updates by having a job run, say once a week or once a month, which
>>>>>> performs a scan when the backend is not being used (e.g. in my case,
>>>>>> before it is shutdown), compares the results to the previous scan, 
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> then presents the differences to the user?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> e.g. 'New channel "XYZ" found on Input 1. Add/Ignore?'
>>>>>>       'Channel "XYZ" moved to frequency/sid/... Update?'
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is this feasible?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Does anyone else think this is a good idea?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, it is a good idea and is probably feasible with some changes 
>>>>> to mythtv.
>>>>>
>>>>> mythtv-setup already has the capability to perform an automated 
>>>>> scan and either apply immediately  or save it for later use, see 
>>>>> https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Command_Line_Channel_Scanner
>>>>> However, as far as I can tell this automated scan does not work for 
>>>>> DVB-S/S2, hence changes to mythtv.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was thinking of something along the lines of comparing current 
>>>>> channel setup with automated last scan and just identify something 
>>>>> has changed, the user would then use mythtv-setup manually, to 
>>>>> either rescan existing transports (with search for new transports 
>>>>> selected) or import the automated scan results.
>>>>>
>>>>> Mike
>>>>
>>>> That wiki page lists a lot of DB tables which don't appear here
>>>>
>>>> https://code.mythtv.org/doxygen/group__db__schema.html
>>>>
>>>> I tried  [mythconverg]> describe dvbt-ofdm-uk ;
>>>>
>>>> and got an SQL syntax error.  mythtvsetup --help doesn't show 
>>>> anything I can identify with it.  Does it exist?   I did try to use 
>>>> a saved scan once, with DVB-T, but got nothing useful. The scan 
>>>> hadn't been made with this tool, though.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>
>>> Those are not mythconverg DB tables, they are just instructions , 
>>> within mythtv_setup code and associated libs they get split (at the 
>>> -) and processed so the command line channel scanner knows what to do.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>
>> OK, I found some related code in libs/libmythtv/frequencytables.cpp, 
>> but attempts to run it just show me
>>
>> $ mythtv-setup --scan dvbt-ofdm-uk 1 DVBInput --scan-save-only
>> Received '1' but unassociated arguments have not been enabled
>>
>> mythtv-setup version: master [v30-Pre-v30-Pre-3-g538f99e] www.mythtv.org
>> (and yes, the version number is eccentric)
>> followed by the usual result of
>> mythtvsetup --help
>>
>> I have tried:
>> mythtv-setup --scan
>> mythtvsetup --scan
>> mythtv-setup --scan dvbt-ofdm-uk 1 DVBInput --scan-save-only
>> mythtv-setup --scan dvbt-ofdm-gb 1 DVBInput --scan-save-only
>> and various others
>> but
>>
>> mythtv-setup --scan-list
>>
>> did print a plausible-looking list of past scans.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> John
> 
> 
> I have looked a little deeper into the code in mythtv-setup (main.cpp 
> and commandlineparser.cpp) it seems the wiki page has some information 
> missing.
> 
>  From the quick look I am seeing command line options  related to --scan :
> 
> --frequency-table
> --input-name
> --FTAonly
> --service-type
> 
> 
> I will run some tests, but first I have to setup a test system with dvbt 
> tuners.
> 
> Mike

I just found that too.  Usually I can get what I want with the DVB-T 
scanner and I think I shall opt out.  You didn't mention --expert mode, 
but I do see how (but not why) the CL scanner gets no mention in the 
--help message. :-)

John