[mythtv-users] Changing recordings from "any channel" to "this channel" help

[Bruce Markey]

Matt wrote:
>    I have a recording rule to record a show for my wife.  New episodes
> are currently not show, but another network frequently shows marathons
> of the show.  The problem is that the other network doesn't show any
> description of the show and so I'll get dozens of recordings showing
> up.
> 
> What I want to accomplish is to actually change the recording rule to
> only record on a particular channel/network and NOT on any channel.
> Because the channel that would show new episodes is currently not
> airing any episodes it's not on the program guide to select from.  I

You are correct that when you save changes to the rule it stores
the info of the showing that you are referencing so this would
only allow you to make it a channel rule for the wrong channel.

> want to be able to keep my episode history and just make the switch to
> record from one particular channel instead of all.  How can I
> accomplish this?

Either I'm mis-understanding or you may have made a bad assumption
here. You do not lose your history as a result of adding, deleting
or changing a rule. Once you've recorded an episode, it doesn;t
matter which rule matches that episode, it's still a dup. If I
had a rule to record new episodes only for Letterman and a search
rule Lance Armstrong then they repeated Lance on Dave's show, it
would still be marked as previously recorded regardless of which
rule matched.

If you are using the Watch List in SVN and your wife has a backlog
of a few episodes, you do want to keep the same rule (recordid)
so that the Watch List knows that these episodes are associated
with each other.

I'd say your best move is to go into Scheduling Options and use
the "Record new episodes only" dup option. Unidentified episodes
normally have an air date from the beginning of the series and
should mark them as Repeat. It won't record re-runs from the
primary station either. If you are using SVN you could choose
"Exclude old episodes" instead which is a little more efficient
as it doesn't even match the repeats.

Once there are new episodes, you can change the type to a channel
rule for the primary station.

Another thing you could do now (but I don't think you have to do
this) is to create a new custom rule to limit to the target station
even though it doesn't have showing right now. Go to the list of
upcoming episodes and even though they are all on the wrong channel,
press "E"dit to get to the custom editor. This is pre-loaded with
"Top Clerk" or what ever the title is. Press the right arrow about
a dozen times until you see "Only on a specific station", click
"Add..." then change the callsign to BRAVO:

Rule Name: Top Clerk

program.title = 'Top Clerk'
AND channel.callsign = 'BRAVO'

You might want to Add "New episodes only" while you're at it:

Rule Name: Top Clerk

program.title = 'Top Clerk'
AND channel.callsign = 'BRAVO'
AND program.previouslyshown = 0

Click "Record" to save this rule and remember to remove your
old rule.

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.5


Lastly, you could manually edit the database's 'record' table.
This the most direct but if you screw this up, you could find
yourself in the doghouse.

mysql> select recordid,type,chanid,station,title from record;

'All' is type 4. 'Channel' is type 3 but you need to set the
correct chanid and station (callsign) for the target channel.
If these are already correct then just:

mysql> update record set type=3 where title='Top Clerk';

Otherwise:

mysql> update record set type=3, chanid=1053, station='BRAVO' where title='Top Clerk'; 


Anyway, set "Record new episodes only" for the current rule,
ignore the other stuff and get on with the rest of your life.

--  bjm