[mythtv-users] Need advice on how to undo a database hack

[John Biundo]

Hi,

Zap2it has finally gotten around to providing listing data for my cable 
tv provider.

When I first installed MythTV 5 weeks ago, I found that I had to hack 
something together in order to get listings.  I looked around but 
couldn't find much help, so I basically groped my way through a rather 
ugly workaround.

Basically, I downloaded a superset of the listings from a neighboring 
city cable company, then updated the channel table to reflect my actual 
channels.  I found that the easiest way to do things was to save my 
channel table updates to a file, then run a daily script that:

- deleted everything from the program and channel tables
- ran mythfilldatabase
- restored my modified channel data

Later, I found that some process was coming along behind me and updating 
my channel table in odd ways.  Clearly there's some process that does 
this, and there are some relationships between the channel, program and 
some other tables that I don't understand.

Anyway, that's the lead-in.  Now that zap2it is providing the correct 
data, I no longer have to figure out how to make this hack more 
effective.  I simply want to revert to a normal nightly mythfilldatabase 
run.

Problem is, I've somehow screwed up my database.  When I run 
mythfilldatabase with the (new, correct) zap2it profile, my channel and 
program tables are NOT updated with that data.

Note that on a virgin installation, I can initiate a database with the 
new zap2it profile and everything looks great.  So the new data is 
available and correct, but of course I need to make these changes on my 
*existing* database so I don't lose all the other information I've 
stored in it (recordings, games, music, etc.).

Does anyone have any insights into either:
1) Is there some way to "reset" my 
program/channel/whatever-else-is-related tables so that I can run a new 
mythfilldatabase and use the correct zap2it data?

Or, much less desireable

2) How can I transfer all my OTHER data to a brand new database, 
effectively merging all my other data with the correct lineup data?

Thanks in advance for ANY suggestions.

Cheers,
john