[mythtv-users] MythArchive: what am I doing wrong?!

[Paul Harrison]

Andrew Junev wrote:
> Thursday, January 10, 2008, 9:50:24 PM, you wrote:
>
>   
>>> I want to transfer some of my recorded programs from an old backend to
>>> a new one. I tried using MythArchive the way it is described in the
>>> Wiki. Creating archive was fine, but importing the archive gave me a
>>> strange error: "You need to select a valid archive XML file!"
>>>
>>> In the mythfrontend log I see the error:
>>>
>>> Couldn't find a 'channel' element in XML file
>>> Couldn't find a 'channel' element in XML file
>>> Couldn't find a 'channel' element in XML file
>>> Couldn't find a 'channel' element in XML file
>>>
>>>       
>
> <<<skip>>>
>
>   
>> I appreciate it doesn't help, but there isn't a <channel> element in
>> that XML.
>>     
>
> Yep, I noticed that too!
>
>   
>> Are you sure both Myth and the plugins are exactly the same 
>> version on the two boxes?
>>     
>
> How do I check the version of a plugin?
> 'mythbackend --version' gives the same version numbers for both
> machines. But I think that's a 'core' version, not the plugins...
>
>   
>> Have you considered putting the recordings back in the same path 
>> [presuming they're local files] on the new backend and doing a mysql 
>> dump/restore of the relevant tables [or even the whole database, fixing
>> where necessary for changes]?
>>     
>
> The problem is that my new machine is quite different from the old
> one in terms of disk structure, tuner cards and channel settings.
> The only thing I need to transfer from the old backend is just a few
> LiveTV recordings. I'm not really sure which parts of the database I
> have to transfer and which changes I have to do for this, so I tried
> the "easy" way of using MythArchive...
>
> I would appreciate any help...
>
>   

My guess is at some point you removed the channel with id 2009 that was
used to record this recording so its details are no longer in the DB.
MythArchive should really check for this and create a default channel
element.

You can probably fake it by adding the channel element yourself to the
xml file. Something like this:-

<channel callsign="UNKNOWN" channum="0" name="UNKNOWN" chanid="2009" />

If you know the correct callsign, channum and name then use those if not
it doesn't matter MythArchive only uses them to try to locate the
correct channel to associate the recording with. You can always select
the correct channel yourself when you import it.

Paul H.