Converting from Myth-TV

[bwgreen]

Hi,
I have been running MythTV for several years, but I am getting fed up with the system and thinking of using a Windows-based PVR. I've pretty much chosen GB-PVR, but I don't really want to lose all the recording information in my database if I can help it! What I'm looking for is if anyone has converted the information from the MythTV MySQL database into GB-PVR - the main thing I don't want to lose is the information on what I have already recorded.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Brian

[dennit]

What I'm looking for is if anyone has converted the information from the MythTV MySQL database into GB-PVR - the main thing I don't want to lose is the information on what I have already recorded.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Brian

I'm not aware of a direct converter. You can use vidimport (search here and in wiki) to import the recordings. If they are well named, vidimport will look them up in IMDB or a TV series database for you.

Alternatively, you could probably bring them into the gbpvr.db3 SQL database yourself from the current MythTV SQL database if you are at all handy in SQL. I use SQLiteSpy.

There is also an XML export/import function in GBPVR, so if you can export the data and reformat it in a compatible way, that may work. Hang around a while and there's a good chance someone will post and tell you how they did this job.

[gazzat5]

I'll be looking at this shortly, as i have made the decision to move back to GBPVR after trying MythTv.


Choose GBPvr!!!

[martint123]

There is a daily dump, when the EPG update runs, of the current recordings in an XML file.
This can be imported (merges, not overwriten) with the config utility. The format is fairly obvious, so a conversion shouldn't be too bad to create to import your existing data.

[gazzat5]

There is a daily dump, when the EPG update runs, of the current recordings in an XML file.

@martint - are you talking about MythTv? I had a look on my MythTv box and could find no such file.
Where would it be?

What is the format of the import xml for gbpvr? And where is the option for this?

Is anyone good as shell scripting?

[dennit]

@martint - are you talking about MythTv? I had a look on my MythTv box and could find no such file.
Where would it be?

What is the format of the import xml for gbpvr? And where is the option for this?

Is anyone good as shell scripting?

He's referring to GBPVR's RECORDING.XML file. It's a daily dump of recordings and it has this format:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<recordings>
  <recording>
    <filename>Nature</filename>
    <channel>WEDWDT</channel>
    <status>SEASON</status>
    <group>1</group>
    <prePadding>0</prePadding>
    <postPadding>0</postPadding>
    <startTime>0001-01-01 00:00:00</startTime>
    <endTime>0001-01-01 00:00:00</endTime>
    <title>Nature</title>
    <uid></uid>
  </recording>
  <recording>
    <filename>History Detectives</filename>
    <channel>WEDWDT</channel>
    <status>SEASON</status>
    <group>2</group>
    <prePadding>0</prePadding>
    <postPadding>0</postPadding>
    <startTime>0001-01-01 00:00:00</startTime>
    <endTime>0001-01-01 00:00:00</endTime>
    <title>History Detectives</title>
    <uid></uid>
  </recording>

If you can get your recordings into this format, you can import them easily using GBPVR's config program.

[sub]

That example above is for scheduled recordings.

The below example is probably closer to what you'll need, and is for recordings that have already occurred.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<recordings>
  <recording>
    <filename>C:\MyVideos\Mythbusters\Mythbusters_20090824_21302230.ts</filename>
    <channel>Discovery Channel</channel>
    <status>READY</status>
    <startTime>2009-08-24 21:30:00</startTime>
    <endTime>2009-08-24 22:30:00</endTime>
    <title>Mythbusters</title>
    <subtitle></subtitle>
    <description>Helium Football: In Helium Football, Adam and Jamie test out a myth that footballs filled with helium will fly further and hang longer  than ones filled with regulation air.</description>
    <uid></uid>
  </recording>
  <recording>
    <filename>C:\MyVideos\Rugrats\Rugrats_20090825_09000930.ts</filename>
    <channel>Nickelodeon</channel>
    <status>READY</status>
    <startTime>2009-08-25 09:00:00</startTime>
    <endTime>2009-08-25 09:30:00</endTime>
    <title>Rugrats</title>
    <subtitle></subtitle>
    <description>Angelica sneaks a set of toy handcuffs and gets stuck cuffed to Chuckie. / Due to a meteorological anomaly, snow falls in the Rugrats' neighbourhood.</description>
    <uid></uid>
  </recording>
</recordings>

[bwgreen]

Looking at the XML from GBPVR in sub's mail, the one thing that I see missing is the episode #. How would GBPVR know what has been previously recorded without it?

[martint123]

You will have to ask someone in your EPG area to do an export and see what it is called (unless sub answers first) Very few places in the world have an episode number in their EPG, so you won't see it in anyone else's example dumps.

It could well be the uid field that appears blank in teh example above (unique ID ??).

[dennit]

That example above is for scheduled recordings.

Oops. I was in a rush and just copied the first couple of entries. At least he now knows how to import his scheduled recordings, too!

On the issue of episode numbers/uid. The database has a field for each programme entitled unique_identifier, which I'm pretty sure is the uid in the xml format. I believe that field is populated when Schedules Direct is the EPG source (for some locations), but I don't use SD.