w_scan(1)

✨ w_scan — a universal ATSC and DVB blind scanner ✨

okay bestie, buckle up, we're going channel hunting 🦋 this is the w_scan(1) manual page and i'm about to make it make sense.

---

🎀 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 goes out there and scans for DVB-C, DVB-S/S2, DVB-T, ISDB-T and ATSC channels. like, all of them. it's giving main character energy.

⚠️ real talk: any other program that's touching the DVB hardware (yes, even VDR) has to be closed while you run w_scan, or you're gonna have conflicts. no cap. close it. 🙈

and then it hands you those channels in a bunch of different output formats — default is VDR channels.conf. want something else? the OPTIONS section has you covered, bestie 💅

---

💖 OPTIONS 💖

these are the ones available:

• -f TYPE — the frontend type, aka what hardware vibe we're scanning:
  • "a" = ATSC
  • "c" = DVB-C
  • "s" = DVB-S/S2
  • "t" = DVB-T (and ISDB-T) [default]

depending on which TYPE you pick, either the -s argument or the -c argument becomes mandatory. can't skip it, babe.

• -c COUNTRY_ID — mandatory for ATSC scans, cable scans and terrestrian scans (peep option -f). tells w_scan which country you're scanning in, as an uppercase two letter identifier, e.g.
  • DE = Germany
  • US = United States
  • FR = France

want the whole list of known identifiers? use "-c?" 👑

• -s SATELLITE_ID — mandatory for satellite scans (again, see option -f). this is the satellite you wanna scan, as an uppercase identifier, e.g.
  • S19E2 = 19.2° east
  • S13E0 = 13.0° east
  • S0W8 = 0.8° west

and yep, "-s?" gives you every known identifier 🛰️

• -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 👑

for when you're literally built different:

• -C CHARSET — specifies the output charset, i.e. "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-15". use 'iconv --list' to see the 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. (yes bestie, that's genuinely all it says, go read the README 🫶)

---

🦋 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)

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💜 this manual page is from w_scan(1) and it's dated 28 March 2011 — vintage, iconic, still slaying. go scan something. periodt. 💅✨