Hi,
I think it is a great feature that VDR will update channel parameters and add newly found channels automatically if UpdateChannels is set to value 5 in setup.conf.
But my impression is currently that VDR might fail to find new channels on a satellite transponder in the special situation that the transponder has changed it's broadcasting "method" from DVB-S to DVB-S2.
Of course, prior to changing the method, a transponder might be scraped from any channels so that there will be nothing on the transponder any more for a couple of days or weeks (this of course totally depends on the habits of the provider).
And this tackles another small problem: I think that VDR doesn't delete any channels from the channels.conf in any case. So outdated channels have to be removed manually. Has there been an attempt to offer a functionality that VDR makes a note of those channels that get the line "frontend timed out while tuning to channel X" in the syslog and offers those channels for manual deletion via the OSD in a special OSD page called "Outdated channels"?
My questions are based on the experience when two transponders switched from DVB-S to DVB-S2 in 2011: 1) On S28.2E the transponder containing the BBC HD channels did this. 2) On S19.2E the transponder now containing the Sonnenklar.HD TV did this.
In both cases VDR wasn't able to add the new DVB-S2 channels to the channels.conf automatically as long as not all predecessor channels had been manually removed from the channels.conf.
It would be nice if this could happen automatically and users could remove outdated channels from the channels.conf easily.
Regards, Henning
P.S.: My own special situation is that I use my VDR as a channel list provider for the Channelpedia project and I want to make it easier for me and other people to contribute their channel lists to this directory. (http://channelpedia.yavdr.com/)