Watched program and channel lists

[mkroc]

Hi 
I'm moving a replacement Windows system into production 7.0.1 (241229) that will replace a long running system 4.2.4 (190307).
1. 
I would like to move from the old system whatever db carries the record of watched shows (it appears to prevent repeats)
I will be using the exe client and recording Over the Air material.

2.
At the time of the conversion I will be swapping in my current production 4 tuner card to replace the 1 tuner card for testing. During testing I setup my stations and Schedules direct for the single tuner. It there a way to copy this to all tuners on the muti-tuner card without editing each station. This data would be new system to new system after card installation.
I could rescan each sub tuner, it is the process of re-editing EPG selection for each station I'm trying to avoid.

Thanks
mkroc

[mvallevand]

If you had copied the database you could have had a history but it sounds like a you already have a setup another. In that case you can use NextTool to import the recordings (i can even use your old db3 file) but the deleting file history can be retained.

On the new database if it is a quad BDA ATSC tuner card you would just install the new card and copy each of the devices when prompted when you open them. If it is a Silicondust tuner you would need to scan one copy 3 times.

Martin

[mkroc]

I have both machines running and nothing important is on the latest machine.
What file do I copy to keep the list of recorded tv shows? 
And get this file get too large?

mkroc

[mvallevand]

Will you be copying the recordings too?

Martin

[mkroc]

There is no need for me to copy recordings, just history.

mkroc

[mvallevand]

I never implemented a method of copying history in NextTool sorry. it's a sqlite3 process if you want to try manually but first change the default history in NextPVR config if you keep longer than 90 history. I can help with the command.

Martin

[mkroc]

Since I don't know the terminology we are probably not referring to the same thing.
Typically when I watch a series type TV show, I select "new programs, this channel". 
I do not get repeats, which is VG. Also when the show comes around a season later it seems to remember that show and continues to record season after season - without repeats, no interaction from me! I'm actually amazed at the process.
That is about the only thing that I wanted to carry over from the old system.

When i get Windows rot and the old system is re-imaged, I copy the whole npvr folder (I make backups) and everything works fine. But since I copied the whole folder, I do not know what helped actually helped in this process. I do not want to copy anything the would hinder the new setup since things have changed a bit over the years.

If this is the only hassle I have when I change over, it will be fine. I was asking if there was a quick (file?)copy, and otherwise the new system is seems to be a big improvement.

We can probably let this go.

Thanks,
mkroc

[mvallevand]

If you have already copied the whole NPVR folder to NPVR-data I don't think you have to do much accept add the new tuner and copy each device, then delete the original device and if that works you should be OK. I don't believe BDA tuners changed.

SD will be much better too, but don't continue to run v4 you can get locked out of SD.

Martin

[BrettB]

Since I don't know the terminology we are probably not referring to the same thing.
Typically when I watch a series type TV show, I select "new programs, this channel". 
I do not get repeats, which is VG. Also when the show comes around a season later it seems to remember that show and continues to record season after season - without repeats, no interaction from me! I'm actually amazed at the process.
That is about the only thing that I wanted to carry over from the old system.

I believe that you and Martin are referring to 2 different NPVR features:

1. "Record Season (NEW episodes)"
When scheduling a recurring recording of type "Recording Type: Record Season (NEW episodes on this channel)", then NPVR will only schedule recordings which are flagged as "New" in the EPG data. For this functionality to work as intended, the EPG data must have reliable data with shows properly flagged as "New" or not. SchedulesDirect data does have this flagging, so works great. For other EPG data sources, NPVR will try other methods to determine which shows should be flagged as "New" such as looking for a prefix of "New:" in the show title. The fallback if no shows are flagged as "New" is to default to marking EVERY show as "New" so that the "Record Season (NEW episodes on this channel)" and "Record Season (All episodes on this channel)" are effectively the same. (Therefore, NPVR defaults to recording "extra" episodes rather than missing episodes.)

This functionality depends upon have good EPG data flagging "New" shows, but does not depend upon having any history of what was previously recorded.

2. "Deletion History"
NPVR uses a unique identifier for each show/episode in the EPG data. "Good" data sources like SchedulesDirect supply this unique ID and it is "universal". If the EPG data source does not provide a unique ID, then NPVR will attempt to generate one based upon things like the show title, episode information, air date, etc. This process is not perfect (especially in cases such as shows from different years having the exact same show name, etc.), but generally works OK. For recorded shows, this history data is kept as long as the recording is still in the database. When you delete a recording, its unique ID is copied to a history table which is used to keep track of "recently deleted episodes". By default, these history entries are kept for 90 days, but there is a config.xml entry called "DeletionHistoryDays" which can be used to adjust how many days of history to maintain. Using a large number like 99999 effectively means to keep the history forever.

Whenever a guide-based recurring recording ("Record Season (NEW episodes on this channel)", "Record Season (All episodes on this channel)", "Record All Episodes, All Channels") is being scheduled, its unique ID is checked in this history list, and if it is found, then the episode is not scheduled for recording. This functionality allow for recording "old" series shows without recording duplicates of episodes which were previously recorded. Note that a "Quick Recording" or a "Record Once" recording will be schedules regardless of whether or not the unique ID is found. Also note that deleting an instance of a recurring recording before it has actually been recorded will also add the episode to the history list and hence prevent that specific episode from ever getting scheduled again.

This functionality depends upon having this table of recorded history in your npvr.db3 database file. If you start with an empty database (after an upgrade, on another machine, after a database problem), then you will not have data in that history table and this feature will effectively not work. There is no built-in/support method for transferring this history data, but if you know sqllite, you can export and import it between databases.