[mythtv-users] Scheduling conflict question

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Mon Jan 25 04:26:10 UTC 2010


On 01/24/2010 10:59 PM, Eloy Paris wrote:
> Hi Mike and Mike,
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 10:09:26PM -0500, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>   
>> On 01/24/2010 09:24 PM, Mike Holden wrote:
>>     
>>> Eloy Paris wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Here's what was in the database when the conflict existed:
>>>>
>>>> mysql> select title, subtitle, description from program where
>>>> programid='SH006883590000';
>>>> +-------+----------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>> | title | subtitle | description
>>>> |
>>>> +-------+----------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>> | House |          | A brilliant and acerbic diagnostician leads a team of specialists.
>>>> |
>>>> | House |          | A brilliant and acerbic diagnostician leads a team of specialists.
>>>> |
>>>> | House |          | A brilliant and acerbic diagnostician leads a team of specialists.
>>>> |
>>>> +-------+----------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>> 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
>>>>
>>>> So, for the same program ID I saw three entries in the "program" table
>>>> and the scheduler wanted to record them all. The conflict arose because
>>>> one input was not available (it was going to be recording something
>>>> else). The end result is that two of the above entries were going to be
>>>> recorded and the other one was in conflict.
>>>>
>>>> Given that the duplicate check method is "Subtittle and Description",
>>>> and that the above subtitles and description are seemlingly the same,
>>>> any ideas why the scheduler thought the above three entries were
>>>> different showings?
>>>>         
>>> I've seen the scheduler get confused with programs that have a blank description with
>>> that method. I always use "subtitle THEN description", which gets round that issue.
>>>       
>> There is no confusion involved.  MythTV is doing exactly what you asked
>> it to do.  It's recording every episode of House.
>>
>> "But," you may say, "I set it to use the duplicate check method
>> 'Subtitle and Description,' and all of those episodes have the same
>> subtitle and description.  True, but all of those episodes /also/ have a
>> programid, and when episodes have a programid, the duplicate check
>> method is irrelevant--the /only/ one used is programid comparison, since
>> the programid is /the/ definitive identifier of an episode.
>>     
> Ah, I wasn't aware that program ID overrides the other duplicate check.
>
>   
>> "But," you may say, "All three episodes have the same programid."  True,
>> but all three episodes have a SH*0000 programid--the Schedules Direct
>> programid used for generic episodes--meaning that which episode is
>> airing is unknown.  Rather than ignore this episode--just because the
>> listings provider wasn't given information on which episode was
>> airing--MythTV will record it.  You can /always/ delete an episode
>> you've seen.  You can /never/ go back in time and record an episode
>> MythTV didn't record (you can't get your hands on plutonium or a Mr
>> Fusion in these days of heightened security, and DHS gets all worked up
>> over people stringing up wires over the city clock tower).
>>     
> So the scheduler gives special treatment for programs with a program ID
> of SH*0000?
>   

Specifically, it gives special treatment to any generic episodes (always
recording them in case they're new).  Schedules Direct/TMS data uses
programid's of the form SH (for show) followed by some digits
identifying the program (title) and ending with 4 zeros (meaning unknown
episode).

> After today's mythfilldatabase run the conflict got resolved -- there
> are now 4 House showings at the exact same time in different channels.
> All of them have the same program ID, this time EP006883590127. However,
> only one will be recorded, and the other entries say "This episode will
> be recorded at an earlier time instead".

Right.  Since today's update got the real data for the episodes, they
were no longer generics, so duplicate checking actually applied.  Since
they all had the same programid, only one showing gets recorded.

Note, also, that in the case of the multiple generic episodes, it was
only trying to record all 3 copies because they appeared on different
channels--meaning that you have different callsigns on the 3 channels
that aired the episodes.  If the channels have identical content, you
can edit the callsigns to make the identical channels use the same
callsign and MythTV would only record generic episodes off one of the
identical channels.

>  It's always behaved like this
> which I why I thought it was a bit strange that all House showings at
> that exact time were going to be recorded.
>   

Yeah, all comes down to the generic episodes.

>> That said, if you want MythTV to ignore generic episodes, fix your
>> recording rule to use an "Exclude generic episodes" filter.
>>     
> Nah, it's not a big deal; I just wanted to make sure I'm understanding
> what the scheduler is doing.
>   

Generally the best bet.  I only exclude generics on the shows that
re-run frequently and that I really don't care whether I record the
first showing or a later showing (New Yankee Workshop, The Woodwright's
Shop, Nova, The Simpsons...).  For any "real" TV shows (especially
serials like LOST), I always record generics.

> Thanks for the explanation.
>   

You're welcome.  Thanks for putting up with my "dramatic" flair in the
reply.

Mike


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