[mythtv-users] Fall cable reruns and mythTV

mons37318 at mypacks.net mons37318 at mypacks.net
Wed Sep 3 01:07:04 UTC 2008



-----Original Message-----
>From: Clay <nt4usb at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Sep 2, 2008 7:17 PM
>To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Fall cable reruns and mythTV
>
>--- On Tue, 9/2/08, mons37318 at mypacks.net <mons37318 at mypacks.net> wrote:
>
>> From: mons37318 at mypacks.net <mons37318 at mypacks.net>

>> written for a TV site - so replace each instance of
>> "DVR" with "mythTV" and adjust
>> accordingly (I do have a Pilot search, but it onlt catches
>> real first run pilots AFAIK)
>> 
>> ----
>> 
>> each fall (and other times during the season) not only do
>> the networks start to air their new "season" but
>> also, I've noticed, the indies and the cable nets start
>> airing "new" reruns of series they have not yet
>> rerun before.
>> 
>> Is there any rhyme or reason (or date) for this or any way
>> to figure out what's out there in rerunland, other that
>> putting random searches in your DVR and waiting...? (which
>> only works if you know what you are looking for)
>> 
>> TVLand is starting something they say caters to people in
>> the 50's and (some other decade) but the only thing that
>> remotely interests me of their new offerings is Scrubs.
>> FX restarted the Practice recently and SciFi Joan of
>> Arcadia - I found out around episode 4. (Calista
>> Flockhart's Ally crossover set off one of my searches,
>> my roommate watches SciFi a lot, but not enough for me to
>> catch on before ep 4)
>> 
>> DVRing gets rid of a lot of channel surfing, gets rid of a
>> good amount of knowing what cable networks are airing and i
>> prefer not jumping in ep 4 of something i missed (or failed
>> to keep) the first time
>> 
>> thanks for any advice or even guesses
>>
>
>Not real clear on what your question is.

I think at this point, and to this audience, my question would be
Can mythTV find first episodes of television shows which are not new.
All series have pilot episodes (many of which are not named "Pilot" although many *are*)

Currently myth will find Pilot episodes of NEW series, and toss them into upcoming recordings, but inactive - this way I can see when any new series debuts, and decide if I'm interested (by reading the series name or description)

but series are rerunning on cable (and mostly I don't know till they hit a guest star in my persistent searches)


>afaict, MythTV (for me, anyway) finds all unrecorded episodes of a scheduled program without regard for the channel/network it airs on.
>Star Trek TNG is a good example.

you are looking for unrecorded episodes of shows you *know* a. existed and b. will probably at some point reair. thus, they are in your persistant searches already.

now say a cable network starts airing... oh... St Elsewhere.. and you never thought of watching it, so you never put it in your search.
If you happened to be watching the network that was going to air it (or you were channel surfing), you would see promos. I've caught on to a lot of old shows that way, and watched their entire runs in rerun - of shows I was not interested in when they first aired, but i channel surfed into them, and decided to stay.

Having myth, I no longer surf. I've removed my last reason for surfing (I didn't want to *watch* a 6 hour video tape rewind). So when schedules change -- say Discovery Health buys Chicago Hope and starts airing in September 1st -- I'm completely unaware.

So I guess what I am looking for is (actually stated above. search for old pilots)


>This time of year, networks and syndicates will rerun episodes prior to season premiers so I'll clear the 'recorded' and let MythTV grab the whole season to enjoy again before the new ones begin. (counting the days 'til House premiers...)

and of course, since you recorded House in the past, myth knows you want House, and then either does or does not record House depending on what you've decided to do with reruns of episodes you've previously recorded on myth. 
Now, say I never watched House, but USA starts airing it (that happened sooner than any of us expected, so it's not the best example)
If i was watching USA or channel surfing thru, I might notice House, get into it, start watching it... but I'm only watching things I've recorded or have searches for (and House is almost the worst example of a search, due to its name - only ER is worse)
Do we have a way to tell myth to list (but not record, as in the new pilot search) pilot episodes of old series that we a. didn't watch at the time they were new or b. never were aware of to begin with?

the *new* pilot search is as follows

program.previouslyshown = 0 
AND program.first > 0 
AND program.programid LIKE 'EP%0001' 
AND DAYOFYEAR(program.originalairdate) = 
    DAYOFYEAR(program.starttime) 

i'm guessing that the program.previously shown (at least, and possibly something else - my SQL isn't that great) will disinclude Old pilots. at least if it = 0

--
Pam from Boston
Happily ever after means the show is really over.
Shonda Rhimes - Entertainment Weekly, May 9, 2008 issue
Scott Bakula News www.bakulanews.com


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