DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / w-scan / w_scan.1.en
w_scan(1) w_scan(1)

w_scan - a universal ATSC and DVB blind scanner

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 ]

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.

The following options are available.

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.
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.
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.
specify ATSC scan type
1 = terrestrial [default],
2 = cable,
3 = both, cable and terrestrial.
VDR channels.conf format
2 = VDR-2.0 [default],
21 = VDR-2.1
generate zap/czap/xine output instead of VDR channels.conf.
generate initial tuning data output for (dvb-)scan instead of VDR channels.conf.
generate channels.dvb for kaffeine instead of VDR channels.conf.
generate VLC xspf playlist (experimental)
mplayer output instead of vdr channels.conf
generate output for Gstreamer dvbsrc plugin
show help
show expert help

specifies the output charset, i.e. "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-15"
use 'iconv --list' to see full list of charsets.
import dvbscan initial_tuning_data
verbose (repeat for more)
quiet (repeat for less)
Radio channels
0 = don't search radio channels
1 = search radio channels [default]
TV channels
0 = don't search TV channels,
1 = search TV channels [default]
Other services
0 = don't search other services [default]
1 = search other services
Conditional access / encrypted channels
0 = only Free TV channels,
1 = include encrypted channels [default]
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.
Long filter timeout for reading data from hardware.
Tuning timeout, increasing may help if device tunes slowly or has bad reception.
1 = fastest [default],
2 = medium,
3 = slowest
spectral inversion setting for cable TV
0 = off,
1 = on,
2 = auto [default]
DVB-C modulation [default: choosen by country]
NOTE: for experienced users only!
0 = QAM64,
1 = QAM256,
2 = QAM128
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
extended DVB-C scan flags.
NOTE: for experienced users only!
Any combination of these flags:
1 = use extended symbolrate list,
2 = extended QAM scan
choose LNB type by name (DVB-S/S2 only) [default: UNIVERSAL],
"-l?" for list of known LNBs.
use DiSEqC committed switch position N (N = 0 .. 3)
use DiSEqC uncommitted switch position N (N = 0 .. 15)
use DiSEqC rotor Position file
use Rotor position N (N = 1 .. 255)
ATSC scan: do not use ATSC PSIP tables for scan (PAT and PMT only)

w_scan -fs -s S19E2
w_scan -fc -c DE
w_scan -ft -c FR
w_scan -fa -A2 -c US
w_scan -fa -A1 -c US
w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -k
w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -X
w_scan [ OTHER OPTIONS ] -x
NOTE: w_scan also performs full scans, so there is generally no need for this.

see README file from source code package.

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.

vdr(1)

28 March 2011