[pvrusb2] HVR-1950 Schedule Information Source

[roccomoretti]

Roger wrote:
> Is it still required to use a secondary provider (such as Schedules
> Direct) for downloading scheduling information, or can this information
> be downloaded directly via the ATSC tuner?

I've successfully been using (only) the over-the-air ATSC scheduling 
data with my HVR-1950 and MythTV for quite some time now. Program titles 
come through perfectly. (The episode descriptions, however, get mixed 
around between programs. But as Mike indicates, this is almost certainly 
a MythTV issue - as I understand it, the pvrusb2 driver just passes the 
data through as-received.) Schedule forecasting can be a little thin, 
though. Although my local PBS station gives 3+ days of info, the 
networks give substantially less - sometimes even less than the FTC 
mandated 12 hours.

> I do believe there is an option for this within MythTV, however, MythTV
> wiki sites state to use Schedules Direct.

Yeah, it's a bit of a deliberate blindspot on their part. (To the extent 
that when you have issues with the ATSC schedule information, their 
first suggestion is to use Schedules Direct. *sigh*) The ATSC scheduling 
guide still works, though. FYI: the OTA (over the air) ATSC EPG 
(electronic programming guide) is sometimes called the EIT (event 
information table) by MythTV.

A final, more pvrusb2-related note: the pvrusb2 driver enforces mutual 
exclusion between the digital and analog sides, due to hardware 
constraints. Usually the transition happens seamlessly, but if any 
program is using the digital tuner *for any reason*, you can't switch to 
the analog mode for as long as the digital tuner is in use. Scanning for 
EIT data counts as using the digital tuner. The issue comes if you tell 
MythTV to use the ATSC EIT info - it will constantly scan the EIT, 
holding the digital side open. You can turn the EIT scan off, but then 
updates to the EPG become unreliable. :-)