[mythtv-users] HD Homerun Prime Scripting

Gary Buhrmaster gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
Wed Oct 19 17:02:07 UTC 2011


On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 06:37, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
...
> You could separate this out by splitting the channel table in two.
> Have chanid, callsign, xmltvid, virtual channel number, etc. in one
> table, and make the video sources table be just the sourceid, chanid,
> and tuning information for that that channel on that source.  That
> would simplify maintenance of the qam channel list considerably.

Does your proposed redesign handle the cases
where you have multiple providers and slightly
differing content from each?  Extreme US example:
One is Comcast, where they rebroadcast the OTA
NBC channel as channel 2, but your outside antenna
receives it as channel 3.1, and your AT&T U-verse
box makes it available as channel 4.  Your Dish
receiver gets that local channel on 1003, but needs
a different content source identifier xmltvid because
they occasionally preempt that channel to broadcast
something of more importance.  Your satellite
gets NBC from the national feed, so when you
watch the Today show, you do not get the local
weather (but you did get more of Willard Scott).

For individuals with one provider and one tuner
type, and all the tuners are equal in their
ability to receive the same channels, things can
be simple, but MythTV provides the flexibility
for more options.  With that flexibility, comes
complexity.  And then the solution must also
deal with other countries differences.  I presume
you do not want to disenfranchise those in
other parts of the world.  More complexity.

It is absolutely true that US cable providers do
not make it easy for people with clear QAM
tuners (either in their TV or their computer).
AFAIK, there is no formal source of frequency
and service id to channel information, and
programs such as scte65scan that try to
extract that information sent in-band can only
make available what the provider sends,
which does not always match other sources
of information (your call sign example with
schedules direct).

I too wish it was easier, but simplifying the
channel tables to not provide the necessary
flexibility is not the way to go.  Hiding that
complexity with a better user interface may
be.

Gary


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