w_scan_cpp(1)

📦
version 0~20230121 · 4 versions
, in debian bookworm

👑 w_scan_cpp — the universal DTV scanner, explained by your bestie

okay so, this is the manual page for w_scan_cpp(1), and I'm gonna walk you through it like we're texting at 2am. no gatekeeping, no boring manpage voice. every single flag is still here, i promise. periodt. 💖

🌸 NAME

w_scan_cpp — an universal DTV scanner and successor of w_scan.

✨ SYNOPSIS

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

🦋 DESCRIPTION

w_scan_cpp scans for DVB-C, DVB-S/S2, DVB-T/T2 and ATSC channels — or, let's call it digital TV and Radio services. it's giving "i find every channel for you" energy. 💅

during a scan, this utility writes commands to your DTV hardware and reads data from it. so like... it's talking to your tuner directly.

🚨 bestie, listen: because of that, any other program accessing the DVB hardware with write access (like e.g. VDR, tvheadend, minisatip,..) has to be closed in order to avoid conflicts while running w_scan_cpp. literally close them. all of them.

also, enshure that you start this tool with proper write permissions to your hardware, i.e using sudo. (yes, the manual really says "enshure", we love her 🥰)

after a successful scan, w_scan_cpp provides the channels in different output formats. by default, the data is written as VDR channels.conf. if you prefer another output format, see the OPTIONS section below. slay.

💜 OPTIONS

the following options are available. buckle up.

  • -f TYPE, --frontend TYPE — frontend type, what programs do you want to search for?
    • "a" = atsc (vsb/qam; North-America)
    • "c" = DVB-C (digital cable)
    • "s" = DVB-S/S2 (digital satellite)
    • "t" = DVB-T/T2 (digital terrestrial) [default]
⚠️ IMPORTANT: depending on "TYPE", either of the arguments "-s" or "-c" is mandatory. no skipping this one, bestie.
  • -A N, --atsc_type N — specify ATSC type (North-America only)
    • "1" = Terrestrial ('VSB') [default]
    • "2" = Cable (sometimes called wrong 'QAM' or 'clear-QAM')
    • "3" = both, Terrestrial and Cable
  • -t, --satip — use a SAT>IP (network connected) tuner via VDR Satip Plugin, instead of a local installed tuner. see https://www.satip.info 🌐
  • -c <COUNTRY_ID>, --country <COUNTRY_ID> — mandatory argument for ATSC, cable and terrestrian scans, see option -f. specifies the country where you try to scan for channels. argument is an uppercase two letter identifier, e.g.
    • DE = Germany,
    • FR = France
    • GB = Great Britain
    • US = United States,

use "-c?" for a list of all known identifiers. 🗺️

  • -s <SATELLITE_ID>, --satellite <SATELLITE_ID> — choose your satellite here: S19E2, S13E0, S15W0, .. and ? for list. 🛰️
  • -I, --output-ini — generate transponder ini instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -L, --output-VLC — generate VLC xspf playlist instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -V, --output-VLC-satip — generate VLC xspf playlist for SAT>IP instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -M, --output-mplayer — generate mplayer output instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -X, --output-xine — generate tzap/czap/xine output instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -x, --output-initial — generate dtv scan table for dvbv5-scan instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -Z, --output-xml — generate w_scan XML tuning data instead of VDR channels.conf
  • -Y <FILENAME>, --output-dat <FILENAME> — generate channels.dat for SAT>IP DvbViewer Lite
  • -F <VDR-CHANNEL>, --femon <VDR-CHANNEL> — tune to a channel in VDR syntax and report signal status. for details about VDR channel syntax, see vdr(5)
  • -H, --extended-help — view extended help (experts only) 🤓

🔥 EXPERT OPTIONS

🧚 General

  • -v, --verbose — be more verbose (repeat for more)
  • -q, --quiet — be more quiet (repeat for less)

🎀 Services

  • -C FILE, --sort-criteria FILE — sort services in sequence, as given by FILE.

FILE is a text file, each line gives the name of a service, optionally followed by a delimiter (, or ; or :) and a comment.

if 'name' is 7bit ASCII only, the comparison is case-insensitive. otherwise, for non-7bit ASCII, the case behaviour depends on your system.

w_scan_cpp tries to output services in the same sequence as your file — but only for those channels which are really found. if several services match the name, they are grouped together. services not matching any sort-criteria appear after the sorted lines.

📝 NOTE: 'FILE' should be in the same encoding as used during scan, ie utf8.

Example:

Das Erste HD;ARD:
ZDF HD
:*** private channels ***
SAT.1 HD;ProSiebenSat.1
RTL HD:should be channel number 4.
  • -R N, --radio-services N
    • 0 = don't search radio channels
    • 1 = search radio channels [default]
  • -T N, --tv-services N
    • 0 = don't search TV channels
    • 1 = search TV channels [default]
  • -E N, --encrypted-services (Conditional Access)
    • N=0 gets only Free TV channels
    • N=1 search also encrypted channels [default]

🌈 Device

  • -a N, --adapter N — use device /dev/dvb/adapterN/ [default: auto detect] (also allowed: -a /dev/dvb/adapterN/frontendM)
  • --satip-server <STRING> — do not auto detect the satip server, but use manual server settings, ie.
    • 192.168.2.66 (the servers IP)
    • 192.168.2.66|DVBC-1 (the server has one DVB-C frontend)
    • 192.168.2.66|DVBS2-2,DVBT2-2|OctopusNet (two different fe types and quirks for OctopusNet)
📝 NOTE: as this option is just forwarded to the vdr-plugin-satip, please refer to it's README for further details.

🍓 DVB-C

  • -i N, --inversion N — spectral inversion setting for cable TV (0: off, 1: on, 2: auto [default])
  • -Q N, --dvbc-modulation N — set DVB-C modulation, see table:
    • 0 = QAM64
    • 1 = QAM256
    • 2 = QAM128
    • 3 = all (SLOW!)
⚠️ NOTE: for experienced users only!!
  • -e N,--dvbc-extflags N — extended scan flags (DVB-C only), any combination of these flags:
    • 1 = use extended symbolrate list — enables scan of symbolrates 6900, 6875, 6111, 6250, 6790, 6811, 5900, 5000, 3450, 4000, 6950, 7000, 6952, 5156, 5483
    • 2 = extended QAM scan (enable QAM128) — recommended for Nethterlands and Finland
📝 NOTE: extended scan will be slow. (and yes, the manual spells it "Nethterlands", we stan a typo 💀)
  • -S N, dvbc-symbolrate N — set DVB-C symbol rate, see table:
    • 0 = 6900 kSymbol/s
    • 1 = 6875 kSymbol/s
    • 4 = 6952 kSymbol/s
    • 5 = 6950 kSymbol/s
    • 6 = 6790 kSymbol/s
    • 7 = 6811 kSymbol/s
    • 8 = 6250 kSymbol/s
    • 9 = 6111 kSymbol/s
    • 11 = 5900 kSymbol/s
    • 12 = 5483 kSymbol/s
    • 14 = 5156 kSymbol/s
    • 15 = 5000 kSymbol/s
    • 16 = 4000 kSymbol/s
    • 17 = 3450 kSymbol/s
⚠️ NOTE: for experienced users only!!

🌸 DVB-S/S2

  • -l <LNB type>, --lnb-type <LNB type> — choose LNB type by name (DVB-S/S2 only), ? for list
  • -D Nc, --diseqc-switch Nc — use DiSEqC committed switch position N AA..BB => 0..3
  • -D Nu, --diseqc-switch Nu — use DiSEqC uncommitted switch position N N = 0..15
  • -r N, --rotor-position N — use Rotor position N (needs -s)
  • -U PARAMLIST, --rotor-usals PARAMLIST — where PARAMLIST is Lat:Long:Speed:Swing
    • Lat : your site latitude in tenth of degree, negative south, positive north
    • Long : your site longitude in tenth of degree, negative west , positive east
    • Speed: your rotor speed in tenth of degree per second
    • Swing: your rotor max swing in tenth of degree

example: a rotor located in Berlin/Germany (52.52,13.41), moving at 1.5deg/sec, max swing 65deg gives --rotor-usals 525:134:15:650

  • -u <slot:user_frequency:sat_pos(:user_pin)> — see --scr
  • --scr <slot:user_frequency:sat_pos(:user_pin)> — Satellite Channel Routing

a) use EN50494:

  • slot : slot number for user frequency, 0..7
  • user_frequency: receiver user frequency for slot in MHz, i.e. 1400
  • sat_pos : satellite position (upper case), 'A' or 'B'
  • user_pin : optional user pin, normally not used (0..255)

i.e. -u 0:1400:A for EN50494, slot 0 at 1400 MHz, Satellite Pos 'A'

b) use advanced SCR EN50607/JESS:

  • slot : slot number for user frequency, 0..31
  • user_frequency: receiver user frequency for slot in MHz, i.e. 1400
  • sat_pos : satellite position (lower case), 'a' .. 'p'
  • user_pin : optional user pin, normally not used (0..255)

i.e. -u 0:1400:a for EN50607 slot 0 at 1400 MHz, Satellite Pos 'a'

sat| committed switch  | uncommitted switch
pos| option | position | option | position
'a'    0   |   0      |   0    |   0
'b'    0   |   1      |   0    |   0
'c'    1   |   0      |   0    |   0
'd'    1   |   1      |   0    |   0
'e'    0   |   0      |   0    |   1
'f'    0   |   1      |   0    |   1
'g'    1   |   0      |   0    |   1
'h'    1   |   1      |   0    |   1
'i'    0   |   0      |   1    |   0
'j'    0   |   1      |   1    |   0
'k'    1   |   0      |   1    |   0
'l'    1   |   1      |   1    |   0
'm'    0   |   0      |   1    |   1
'n'    0   |   1      |   1    |   1
'o'    1   |   0      |   1    |   1
'p'    1   |   1      |   1    |   1

🫶 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)
  • w_scan (1)

that's the whole thing bestie, no cap, nothing skipped. this page is from 16 May 2021, part of the w_scan_cpp(1) manual set — go scan something iconic 💅✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from