[mythtv-users] Bringing old recordings back to life

[George Nassas]

On Jan 20, 2014, at 10:17 AM, Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> One possible way is to install a virtual machine or a separate
> partition with the same version of OS and MythTV that you are using.
> Then restore your old database to the new install and allow it to be
> upgraded to the correct MytTV version.  Then install MythExport and
> get it to export the recordings you want.  Install MythImport on your
> real MythTV system and use it to import the exported recordings.  Of
> course, make sure you backup your database first, just in case.

No need for a VM or anything else so complicated. Yan can create a new database called myth2009, restore the dump into it, and then point the current myth backend there. The convention of calling your myth database "mythconverg" is just that - a convention. The backend will happily connect to a DB with any name. After the DB is upgraded you might need to create a storage group to point to where the 2009 recordings are and then do the mythexport step. Then bring down the backend and point it back at the usual mythconverg database and mythimport the recordings.

There's a possible problem where the BE will refuse to upgrade a database older than some recent version. I don't recall which version but this 2009 database might be on the other side of that boundary.

It may be easiest of all to restore into a new database and examine the rows to see which file corresponds to which title and either use that information to rename the recordings to shove into mythvideo or as a basis to insert new rows into your production mythconverg. The relevant table is "recorded" and all the important columns in the current schema are compatible with what you have back then so you could do something like "insert into recorded as select a,b,c from myth2009.recorded where ...". Inserting into recorded is the nicest approach but extracurricular manipulation of core tables is discouraged.

Besides the backup mentioned by Stephen you should be careful to perform your experiments at a time you know the backend won't be starting any recordings. There's not much point taking a backup if it's going to be immediately obsoleted with new information.

- George