dvbv5-scan

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Fri Oct 3 2014
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NAME

dvbv5-scan - DVBv5 tool for frequency scanning

SYNOPSIS

dvbv5-scan [OPTION]... initial-file

DESCRIPTION

dvbv5-scan is a command line frequency scanning tool for digital TV services that is compliant with version 5 of the DVB API, and backward compatible with the older v3 DVB API.

dvbv5-scan uses by default the new channel/service file format that it is capable of supporting all types of Digital TV standards. It can also support the legacy format used by the legacy dvb-apps.

A single physical channel (also called as transponder) may have several virtual channels inside it, encapsulated via a MPEG Transport stream.

Those virtual channels are called as 'service' at the MPEG-TS terminology, and may have one or more audio, video and other types of elements inside it.

The dvbv5-scan goal is to scan for a list of physical channels/transponders and identify there the MPEG-TS services available.

The dvbv5-scan tool is smart enough to retrieve the information at the MPEG-TS Network Information Table (NIT) about other channels available on the stream.

OPTIONS

The following options are valid:

-3, --dvbv3

Force dvbv5-scan to use DVBv3 only.

-a, --adapter=adapter#

Use the given adapter. Default value: 0.

-C, --cc=country_code

Set the default country to be used by the MPEG-TS parsers, in ISO 3166-1 two letter code. If not specified, the default charset is guessed from the locale environment variables.

-d, --demux=demux#

Use the given demux. Default value: 0.

-f, --frontend=frontend#

Use the given frontend. Default value: 0.

-F, --file-freqs-only

Don't use the other frequencies discovered during scan. By default, dvbv5-scan will find new transponder/physical channels and add them at the internal frequency table it uses for scan. This option disables such feature.

-G, --get_frontend

Use data from get_frontend on the output file. By default, dvbv5-scan will repeat the same network parameters as found at the scan file. This should work fine if the output file will be used by the same frontend. However, if you intend to use the generated file on another frontend, or wants a faster tuner, this option can be used to store the actual detected parameters, instead of the ones that came from the source channel file.

-I, --input-format=format

Format of the input file. Please notice that caps is ignored. It can be:

channel - for dvb-apps compatible channel file;

zap - for dvb-apps compatible zap file;

dvbv5 (default) - for the dvbv5 apps format.

-l, --lnbf=LNBf_type

Type of LNBf to use 'help' lists the available ones.

-N, --nit

Use data from NIT table on the output file. By default, dvbv5-scan will repeat the same network parameters as found at the scan file. This should work fine if the output file will be used by the same frontend. However, if you intend to use the generated file on another frontend, or wants a faster tuner, this option can be used to store the parameters that are announced by the broadcaster via the MPEG-TS Network Information Table (NIT), instead of the ones that came from the source channel file.

-o, --output=file

output filename (default: dvb_channel.conf)

-O, --output-format=format

Output format:

channel - for dvb-apps compatible channel file;

zap - for dvb-apps compatible zap file;

vdr - for vdr compatible zap file;

dvbv5 (default) - for the dvbv5 apps format.

-p, --parse-other-nit

Parse the other NIT/SDT tables that could be found mainly on some DVB-C carriers.

-S, --sat_number=satellite_number

Satellite number. Used only on satellite delivery systems. If not specified, disable DISEqC satellite switch.

-T, --timeout-multiply=factor

Multiply the scan lock wait time and MPEG-TS table parsing by this factor.

-U, --freq_bpf=frequency

SCR/Unicable band-pass filter frequency to use, in kHz. Used only on satellite delivery systems.

-v, --verbose

Be (very) verbose. Useful to check if the MPEG-TS is happenning fine. This option can be used multiple times to increase verbosity.

-w, --lna=LNA

Enable, disable or put LNA power in auto mode. Not all frontends support it. Valid values are:

0 - disable
1 - enable
-1 - auto

-W, --wait=time

Adds additional wait time for DISEqC command completion.

-?, --help

Outputs the usage help.

--usage

Gives a short usage message.

-V, --version

Prints the program version.

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options.

NOTE

If both --nit and --get_frontend options are used at the same time, the --nit parameters will be applied after the ones that the frontend detected.

EXIT STATUS

On success, it returns 0.

EXAMPLE

$ dvbv5-scan /usr/share/dvbv5/dvb-c/the-brownfox

Scanning frequency #1 573000000
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= -13.80dB UCB= 0 postBER= 3.14x10^-3 PER= 0
Service The, provider (null): digital television
Service Quick, provider BrownFox: digital television
Service Brown, provider (null): digital television
Service Jumps, provider (null): digital television
26
Service Dog, provider (null): digital television
New transponder/channel found: #2: 579000000
26
New transponder/channel found: #39: 507000000

The scan process will then scan the other 38 discovered new transponders, and generate a dvb_channel.conf with several entries with will have not only the physical channel/transponder info, but also the Service ID, and the corresponding audio/video/other program IDs (PID), like:

[Quick]
        SERVICE_ID = 5
        VIDEO_PID = 288
        AUDIO_PID = 289
        FREQUENCY = 573000000
        MODULATION = QAM/256
        INVERSION = OFF
        SYMBOL_RATE = 5247500
        INNER_FEC = NONE
        DELIVERY_SYSTEM = DVBC/ANNEX_A

BUGS

Report bugs to Linux Media Mailing List <linux-media@vger.kernel.org>

COPYRIGHT

License GPLv2: GNU GPL version 2 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.