[mythtv-users] EIT fails in some channels

[Roger Siddons]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 21:14:36 -0000, A. F. Cano <afc at shibaya.lonestar.org>  
wrote:

> I did set the verbosity level and watched the logs for a few days.
>
> For a long time I saw only messages pertaining to the channels that
> are in fact being populated with EIT data. For those that remained
> empty, there was nothing in the logs, no error messages, not even
> messages of the sort of "starting to deal with channel x.x", which
> leads me to believe that the part of the system that deals with eit
> is not even looking for/at those channels.
>

1. Are you sure those channels have their individual "useonairguide" boxes  
checked (mythtv-setup/Channel Editor/<edit channel> or MythWeb channel  
editor) ? I believe it's on by default but ....

2. Are you sure EPG data is broadcast ? Apparently some US channels don't  
broadcast their schedules, only the Now/Next Showing.
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/EIT also mentions 'hidden guides'.
Circumventing the 'active scan' issue, if you watch a problem channel  
(Live TV) for 5 mins a passive scan should populate the guide unless  
there's no data or you've told it not too. If you name your  
region/channels other local users may be able to confirm EPG availability  
or absence.

> It appears that 11520 is related to what I am experiencing. I onlyfound  
> this after many days of watching the logs. Like I said before,the normal  
> state of affairs was nothing about the unpopulated channels.These are  
> the relevant log entries: (time stamps removed)

I'm not even sure if this affects me yet because my system restarts  
frequently. The ticket suggests that once it fails it never restarts. I'm  
assuming you have restarted the backend and it does run for long enough to  
scan everything before failing. Presumably the scanner uses a particular  
channel order. If it always dying on one particular channel then it may  
never reach the others...

> E ProcessPAT: Program not found in PAT. Rescan your transports.
> E Desired program #0 not found in PAT.
> Cannot create single program PAT.
> I EITScanner (1): Started passive scan.
> I Running housekeeping thread
> I Running housekeeping thread
> N AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space: 1.0 GB w/freq: 15min

This is not an unusual message and IMHO not very helpful/informative.  
Essentially the scanner can't find the EIT data it was expecting and so  
assumes the channels have been re-configured. However I believe it can  
also indicate;

1. There is no EIT data for this channel
2. A poor/intermittent signal resulted in momentary corrupt data. It'll  
grab it the next time...
3. The tuner is being too slow in changing channels. I get a lot of these  
messages if I put the scanner on one particular (older) tuner because it  
takes 2-3 secs to retune. The scanner does seem a touch impatient...

>
> It says: "Rescan your transports." The only scan I was aware of is the
> channel scan and that should only be necessary if the channels change,
> right? How do I do a transport scan and what are the consequences of
> doing that? Will that totally mess up the configuration requiring a
> huge amount of manual resetting?

The terminology varies for historical reasons. But yes, it's suggesting  
you rescan your channels.

Transports = Multiplexes = the physical signal received by your tuner on a  
specific frequency
Channels = a stream of related data within a transport = a branded TV  
station/channel that you watch

In theory it should only take 10 mins to delete your channels/transports &  
rescan them. Nothing else should require re-configuration.
*However YMMV*.  If you have poor or conflicting signals, like to edit  
channel numbers, locate icons, hide/delete all the dross, then it may well  
be an ordeal (although one lessened by practice).

IMHO re-scanning is always a good idea, if only to eliminate any doubt.  
It's possible that garbage left in your database is affecting some  
channels. After all, you haven't stated whether you can watch those  
problem channels yet!

I would also suggest you start from scratch & re-create your inputs  
following Mike Dean's advice in  
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/264034#264034

>
> Another thing that I've noticed is that the entries that describe the
> content of the programs are often garbled. Not the titles, the
> descriptions of what an episode/movie is about. Very often they
> obviously belong to another show. This is probably the cause of
> duplicate recordings.

I'm assuming mythfilldatabase isn't running and you do not use  
SchedulesDirect/XMLTV.

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/559616?page=last

http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/10067
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