[mythtv-users] Mass channel deletes

[Bruce Markey]

Dave Sherohman wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 10:27:13AM -0700, Bruce Markey wrote:
> 
>>Dave Sherohman wrote:
>>
>>>Section 22.9 of the howto states that I now should go into the
>>>database directly and run a couple SQL statements to get rid of "the"
>>>channel I deleted... but that seems a bit labor-intensive when you're
>>>doing more than a couple channels all at once.  Is there a quicker
>>>way to do a bulk channel removal?  Would I break my existing
>>>recordings or upcoming recording schedule if I just deleted all
>>>records from the channel table, then ran mythfilldatabase manually to
>>>reconstruct it?
>>
>>That would work but would leave behind program information that
>>might be found in searches so you may want to remove all the
>>program information also.
> 
> 
> My impression from the howto is that the program information, etc.
> would still be deleted as it expires, even though the channels may
> have been removed.  ("Old program data will be removed over the
> course of a week. However, you may want to immediately delete any
> current program listings for the channel that has been removed...")
> Is this no longer accurate?

Notice that I wrote "may want to" both in the docs and in the
replay to you =). I would. Mfdb will refill all the program data
for the channels you now receive with no cruft. IOW, if you removed
the channel entries for QVC and CSPAN the program table will still
have all of their shows through a week from Saturday. Mfdb won't
grab any new data for those channels from now on but you might as
well get rid of the useless data now while you're cleaning up.

> Thanks for the confirmation that my recording schedule would survive
> such a housecleaning.  I'd hate to have to go back through the lists
> of shows to find all the stuff that looks worthwhile...

The rules are stored in the 'record' table and will still apply
after you've repopulated the program information. There is one
caveat that I don't expect will be a problem in your case but
is more likely if the channel numbers or video source changed.
That is, for rules that are associated with a channel (Single,
Timeslot, Weekslot and Channel) and the "chanid" has changed, the
the rule may not match the new chanid. I don't think this will
be a problem for you because you're using the same video source
and the channel numbers are the same, there are just fewer channels.

Go to the Set Priorities page and look for things that are white
and say "(Recording 0 of 0)" where you would expect it should have
something to record. Press "O" to see the upcoming showings. If
the channel info has changed you can create a new rule and remove
the old one. Even if you have to fix some things, at least the Set
Priorities page shows all of your rules so you don't have to remember
each of the titles you wanted to record.

--  bjm