I've noticed the episode data for some shows in my program guide does not match what I see on http://tvlistings5.zap2it.com/. I'm getting generic program info (which doesn't do me or the scheduler a lot of good). After much web/forums searching I concluded I'm just gonna have to keep track of my upcoming recordings to see if they have actual episode information, and edit those that are generic with information I get from http://tvlistings5.zap2it.com.

So the questions are (1) how can I manually edit the program guide episode information, and (2) once that's done do I have to somehow ping the scheduler so it will redo its "record/don't record" logic?

Ran into this problem also and here is what I did to fix it. There is a pearl script on you machine that you need to run in order to correct the info. I use Putty on a remote machine to perform this task

Here are the steps

1.) Make a second copy of the file and place it somehere other than /myth/tv. In my case I put it onto my remote machine.
Note the extension of this file is either mpg or nuv.
2.) Delete the original file using myth or mythweb. The idea here is to get rid of the file and the datbase entry.
3.) Now copy the file back from your saved location into /myth/tv

4.) Log into the machine as root and run

5.) execute the pearl script

Note the File extention could be mpg or nuv depending on how the file is recorded

6.) It will search thru all the listings looking for anything that is not complete. When it finds the file with no listing answer YES that you want edit the data. This is what you wanted to do in #1

A.) Accept the default four digit channel if it looks ok
B.) For the Show Name put in the name of the show if it's not there
C.) For the subtitle it's the name of the episode
D.) The description it's what happens in the episode you can get that at Tv.com
E.) The date and time needs to be typed in manually or it will not populate the length of the show correctly for some strange reason
F. ) The lengh of the show is 60 minutes by default so if the show is 60 minutes long hit enter. If it is 30 minutes long then type 30 and enter. Do not mess this up or it will mess up the recording
G.) It then ask you do you wnat to rebuild the seek table. I say yes
and let it rebuild It scans thru the file and it ends the script

7.)

With any luck you should now be able to see the show in mythweb correctly. I don't know the answer to your second question

RacerX,
Thanks for the reply, but I think you and I have 2 different problems. Mine relates to data in the program guide before I even record a show. Since my guide doesn't contain episode specific information for some shows the scheduler can't figure out if it's already recorded that particular episode. Yet if I visit the zap2it tv listings site I CAN see information for the episode in question, so it's just a case of DataDirect not handing out the same information that's available on zap2it. Right now I'm thinking of manually editing the PROGRAM table in the database, but I don't know if that's all I have to do.

I see sorry for the confusion. How about this, let's say that you record the program Nova. You set up a schedule to always record this program on a specific channel. If the listing only shows up with Nova and no description then it will record the recording with a blank description since it has no idea weather or not the show is a repeat. You could use the peal script to manually put the description into the table. That is all you would have to do and it would be accurate from the point to view of the listing would be unique. I would be interested to know how it checks for duplicates also....

I'll keep that in mind as a fallback position. Right now I'm gonna try to figure out (1) what needs to get changed in the database, (2) where I can get the appropriate (correct) data, and finally (3) what MythTV related processes need to be informed of the new data. Hopefully someone here or on the Mythtv mailing list can help cause I don't feel like digging through all that source code.

I do this semi-regularly using a couple methods:

- On the Recordings screen if you select an item and hit 'i' you'll get a menu, selecting "Recording Options" will give you another menu which will let you "Change Recording Title" - This is a simple way to edit the Title and Subtitle for a recording. I use this for shows where the network doesn't provide zap2it with subtitles for the episodes.

- Using Webmin or some other interface to mysql you can edit the mythconverg "recorded" table. Sometime this is easier for subtitles and is the only way I'm aware of to fix descriptions and episode numbers. I try to avoid doing this while something else (like transcoding, commercial flagging or the recording itself) might be accessing that record.

Tjc that's a great way to change the Title and Subtitle when it comes down blank. Really appreciate that shortcut I was unaware of it

Thanks again

tjc,
Thanks for another fall-back alternative, but my goal is to modify the program guide data *before* the air time so my Mythtv box can determine if the episode even needs to be recorded. Ultimately when I find out what the process is I want to see how much I can automate it so I can fix any DataDirect generic episodes with correct episode descriptions from some other source as painlessly as possible.

The problem is with datadirect. I too am experiencing alot of generics in my upcoming recordings. From what I have read over in the zap2it forums, is that this problem is currently being addressed right now. All I can say is sit tight until the problem is resolved.

Yeah I came to the same conclusion about it being a Datadirect problem, but I want to be able to manually fix the bad program guide entries for shows I record so I don't get duplicates. So far I've found you can fill in the appropriate fields in the PROGRAM table with information from http://tvlistings5.zap2it.com/ and tv.com (making sure to unset the 'generic' field and set the 'first' and 'last' fields as needed), then run "mythbackend --resched" to propagate the new information through the scheduler. Now I need to start automating the procedure.