[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] Ticket #2678: Duplicate checking of "unidentified episode"s is broken

[Michael T. Dean]

On 11/13/2006 11:23 AM, Mark Buechler wrote:
>  On 11/13/06, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 11/12/2006 10:28 PM, MythTV wrote:
> >>
> >> This is probably a dupe of 2677.
> >>
> >> Setting up a search rule which happens to match "Unidentified
> >> Episode"s, records duplicates.  It acts like it does not bother
> >> to compare the title and descriptions when then programid ends
> >> with "0000".
> >>
> > By design.  If a programid exists, duplicate matching type is
> > ignored.
> >
> > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/67377#67377
> > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/180855#180855
> >
> >> For example, I have a search rule to record shows begining with
> >> "Fast Flights:".  Under this rule it has already recorded "Fast
> >> Flights: British Isles".  Even so, the scheduler is recording
> >> every single instance of "Fast Flights: British Isles".  All of
> >> the episodes it is repeately recording have the same description:
> >> "A 500-mile aerial excursion over the UK."  They also all have
> >> the same programid: SH8505190000.
> >
> > I'm sure Bruce could explain how to set up your rule for this
> > show... :)  Sorry, I don't know how.
>
>  This is very interesting and may explain many of my problems. I have
>  several cases where one of my sources has programid's and the other
>  (EIT) does not. In a given schedule, is duplicate checking disabled
>  if ANY matching program has a programid or if ALL matching programs
>  have programid's?

OK, let me give a bit more detail.  AIUI, if duplicate matching is on, 
the program's title is compared against records in oldrecorded.  Then, 
if the program's programid is empty and the program is not a generic 
episode, the program's programid is compared against records in 
oldrecorded.  Otherwise, if the program is not a generic program and the 
program's or the oldrecorded program's programid is blank, it checks for 
duplicates based on dupmethod.  The same checks are done against 
recorded programs (i.e. those that haven't been deleted) that are not 
LiveTV recordings.

In John's case, the program is a generic program (based on one possible 
definition of generic, where the program is a series and programid ends 
with '0000'), so it is excluded from duplicate matching.  Myth /always/ 
records generic episodes (and will do so over and over again--even if an 
"identical" generic episode was recorded and never deleted) since they 
may be episodes the user hasn't seen, but about which TMS was not 
provided episode information.  While you can create a custom record rule 
to exclude generic episodes, it sounds like, since all the episodes of 
"Fast Flights" are given generic id's, doing so would effectively 
disable the recording rule.

Note that programs may also be marked as generic if programid, subtitle, 
and description are blank.  Both of these definitions of generic come 
from mythfilldatabase.  I have no idea whether/when EIT grabbers mark 
episodes as generic.

So, to me, it sounds like a listings error, but I don't know the series, 
so I can't say for sure.

And, given the details above, you may have noticed that running:

UPDATE program SET generic = 0
 WHERE title like 'Fast Flights:%';

followed by:

UPDATE oldrecorded SET programid = ''
 WHERE title like 'Fast Flights:%';

should fix the issue for this particular rule, but that hack is /not/ 
the recommended solution.  The update to program would have to be made 
after every update of the program listings.  The update to oldrecorded 
would have to be made after every episode of Fast Flights is recorded.  
All this to work around "broken" data.

In your case, Mark, if you have a program in your listings that matches 
a recording rule and it doesn't have a programid (i.e. it's from EIT as 
opposed to DataDirect), duplicate checking, based on the specified 
dupmethod, will be performed as long as the episode is not marked as 
generic (i.e. generic=0).  And, if they are doing so, the EIT grabbers 
probably shouldn't mark episodes as generic if they have valid subtitles 
and descriptions--or possibly if they have valid subtitles or descriptions.

Hope this helps.  And, I hope Bruce doesn't have to correct too much of 
my description.  :)

Mike