I'm having problems setting up the single digit channels in MythTV.

By default the channels get sorted numerical by leading character without assuming any leading zeros. So you get something like this:

18, 19, 2, 20, 21

I want something like this:

8, 9, 10, 11, 12


I tried adding a leading zero to channel 2 to make channel 02 and leaving the frequency ID at 2. This seemed to work as I got:

99, (wrapped) 02, 10, 11

However, when I did the same for all channels 2->9 ensuring that the frequency ID did not get leading zeros, all these channels disappeared!

How come I can set one channel that way, but not all? I tried leading zeros on the frequency ID but that definately doesn't work.

Anyone have an idea how to fix this?

Wow. I week and no one has touched this.

Ok, I've learned to deal with this not getting fixed and learning to live with a weird channel ordering. However after removing the leading zeros, all the channels appear in the Programming Guide again but not when changing channel while watching TV. All of the channels can be manually entered, but when selecting channel up or channel down some, not all of them get skipped.

I'm willing to deal with this as I'm only using the box to record and not watch live TV, but someone might want to look into this.

Perhaps no one knows the answer. Have you considered posting to the MythTV mailing list?

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Had similar problems with channel setup at the beginning of my "mythtv project". I then made sure - within channel editor of mythtv-setup - to assign ALL channels on the first screen:

- a channel name (e.g. "CNN")
- a channel numer (e.g. "1")
- a channel callsign (e.g. "CNN")
- a format (e.g. "PAL")

on the second screen:

- a frequency id (e.g. "SE20")

I found out, that when having channels not being setup like this or with incomplete settings it would cause you troubles (changing channels). Don't know why, but clearing up my channel settings helped.

For the sort order in the EPG and when changing channels: did you try out the settings in mythfrontend?

HTH

I had all sorts of issues in the beginning. Being in the UK on an HFC cable system, I couldn't even use any of the default mythtv channels plans.
(All channels in 8MHz steps starting at 136MHz)

The solution was to print out the freq plans from the source, find the closest match (Pal-China in my case !) and then create my channels in Myth-setup. To get it to work, I then had to edit the tables so the data was correct.
(All channels < 470Mhz need a -4 offset. Channels > 470MHz have a +12 offset)

I used a Mysql manager program (plus serial crack) to edit the tables directly. You can do the same thing in mythweb or webmin.

Anyway, to fix the channel ordering issue :-

1) Make sure all your channel table entries have a valid channel number.
2) Make sure you have sensible callsigns in the table.
3) Go through the freqid + offset columns and check the entries match the freq table you have selected.
4) Make sure all fields have either valid data or "NULL" in them.
5) Get rid of any duplicates. (these will cause tuning versus guide data problems)

Then Myth will tune correctly, and you can select the channel ordering mode in "Settings". The default sorts by the db column index, so to fix your issue select sort by channel number.

Next go back to your channel table and fix the icon url and channel names to match your xmltv configuration. (** Hot tip: share your xmltv icon directory with samba, so you can browse the icons & see the filenames with an image viewer app on another pc while editing the tables.)


Hope this helps,
Pete

The channels are used as keys in the DB. They're strings rather than numbers. MySQL doesn't guarantee referential integrity at least not the way MythTV is using it. You changed a primary key after the DB was already set up thus breaking referential intergrity. To fix the problem you need to restore referential integrity (all the keys that should match, do - i.e. any place that refers to a channel number it's "spelled" exactly the same way).