NAME¶

w_scan - a universal ATSC and DVB blind scanner

SYNOPSIS¶

w_scan -fa -c <COUNTRY_ID> [ options ]
w_scan -fc -c <COUNTRY_ID> [ options ]
w_scan -ft -c <COUNTRY_ID> [ options ]
w_scan -fs -s <SATELLITE_ID> [ options ]

DESCRIPTION¶

w_scan scans for DVB-C, DVB-S/S2, DVB-T, ISDB-T and ATSC channels. Any other program accessing the DVB hardware (like e.g. VDR) has to be closed in order to avoid conflicts while running w_scan.
w_scan provides the channels in different output formats (Default: VDR channels.conf). For other output formats see OPTIONS.

OPTIONS¶

The following options are available.

-f TYPE

Frontend type,
"a" = ATSC,
"c" = DVB-C,
"s" = DVB-S/S2,
"t" = DVB-T (and ISDB-T) [default]
Depending on "TYPE", either of the arguments "-s" or "-c" is mandatory.

-c COUNTRY_ID

Mandatory argument for ATSC scans, cable scans and terrestrian scans, see option -f.
Specifies the country where you try to scan for channels as uppercase two letter identifier, e.g.
DE = Germany,
US = United States,
FR = France
Use "-c?" for a list of all known identifiers.

-s SATELLITE_ID

Mandatory argument for satellite scans, see option -f.
Specifies the satellite you wish to scan as uppercase identifier, e.g.
S19E2 = 19.2° east,
S13E0 = 13.0° east,
S0W8 = 0.8° west.
Use "-s?" for a list of all known identifiers.

-A N

specify ATSC scan type
1 = terrestrial [default],
2 = cable,
3 = both, cable and terrestrial.

-o N

VDR channels.conf format
2 = VDR-2.0 [default],
21 = VDR-2.1

-X

generate zap/czap/xine output instead of VDR channels.conf.

-x

generate initial tuning data output for (dvb-)scan instead of VDR channels.conf.

-k

generate channels.dvb for kaffeine instead of VDR channels.conf.

-L

generate VLC xspf playlist (experimental)

-M

mplayer output instead of vdr channels.conf

-G

generate output for Gstreamer dvbsrc plugin

-h

show help

-H

show expert help

EXPERT OPTIONS¶

-C CHARSET

specifies the output charset, i.e. "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-15"
use 'iconv --list' to see full list of charsets.

-I FILE

import dvbscan initial_tuning_data

-v

verbose (repeat for more)

-q

quiet (repeat for less)

-R N

Radio channels
0 = don't search radio channels
1 = search radio channels [default]

-T N

TV channels
0 = don't search TV channels,
1 = search TV channels [default]

-O N

Other services
0 = don't search other services [default]
1 = search other services

-E N

Conditional access / encrypted channels
0 = only Free TV channels,
1 = include encrypted channels [default]

-a N

use device /dev/dvb/adapterN/ [default: auto detect]
(also allowed: -a /dev/dvb/adapterN/frontendM)
NOTE: This option is deprecated and should be usually omitted.

-F

Long filter timeout for reading data from hardware.

-t N

Tuning timeout, increasing may help if device tunes slowly or has bad reception.
1 = fastest [default],
2 = medium,
3 = slowest

-i N

spectral inversion setting for cable TV
0 = off,
1 = on,
2 = auto [default]

-Q

DVB-C modulation [default: choosen by country]
NOTE: for experienced users only!
0 = QAM64,
1 = QAM256,
2 = QAM128

-S RATE

set DVB-C symbol rate, see table: [default: choosen by country]
NOTE: for experienced users only!!
0 = 6.9000 MSymbol/s
1 = 6.8750 MSymbol/s
2 = 6.9565 MSymbol/s
3 = 6.9560 MSymbol/s
4 = 6.9520 MSymbol/s
5 = 6.9500 MSymbol/s
6 = 6.7900 MSymbol/s
7 = 6.8110 MSymbol/s
8 = 6.2500 MSymbol/s
9 = 6.1110 MSymbol/s
10 = 6.0860 MSymbol/s
11 = 5.9000 MSymbol/s
12 = 5.4830 MSymbol/s
13 = 5.2170 MSymbol/s
14 = 5.1560 MSymbol/s
15 = 5.0000 MSymbol/s
16 = 4.0000 MSymbol/s
17 = 3.4500 MSymbol/s

-e

extended DVB-C scan flags.
NOTE: for experienced users only!
Any combination of these flags:
1 = use extended symbolrate list,
2 = extended QAM scan

-l TYPE

choose LNB type by name (DVB-S/S2 only) [default: UNIVERSAL],
"-l?" for list of known LNBs.

-D Nc

use DiSEqC committed switch position N (N = 0 .. 3)

-D Nu

use DiSEqC uncommitted switch position N (N = 0 .. 15)

-p <file>

use DiSEqC rotor Position file

-r N

use Rotor position N (N = 1 .. 255)

-P

ATSC scan: do not use ATSC PSIP tables for scan (PAT and PMT only)

EXAMPLES¶

scan satellite 19.2° east:

w_scan -fs -s S19E2

scan cable (DVB), Germany:

w_scan -fc -c DE

scan aerial (DVB), France:

w_scan -ft -c FR

scan cable (ATSC), United States:

w_scan -fa -A2 -c US

scan aerial (ATSC), United States:

w_scan -fa -A1 -c US

use output format kaffeine:

w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -k

use output format zap/czap/xine:

w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -X

use output format dvbscan/scan/scan-s2 initial tuning data.

w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -x
NOTE: w_scan also performs full scans, so there is generally no need for this.

REPORTING BUGS¶

see README file from source code package.

AUTHOR¶

Written by W.Koehler

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

SEE ALSO¶

vdr(1)