dvbv5-scan needs which channel file?

Greetings --

How do you actually use dvbv5-scan? It seems to require some kind of input file but there is no man page and the --help screen doesn't say anything about it.

Could we document this? I tried

$ dvbv5-scan
Usage: dvbv5-scan [OPTION...] <initial file>
scan DVB services using the channel file

What is "the channel file"? Maybe the channels.conf file? (I created mine using "w_scan -ft -A3 -X -cUS -o7 -a /dev/dvb/adapter0/")

$ dvbv5-scan /etc/channels.conf
ERROR key/value without a channel group while parsing line 1 of /etc/channels.conf

So it knows what it wants -- but what is it? Or is this a matter of dvb versions, and my /etc/channels.conf is in the older format?

Very mysterious.

Cheers,
David

Hello David,

Coincidentally I was just yesterday working with dvbv5-scan and the initial scan files. dvbv5-scan expects the initial scan files in the new DVBV5 format. w_scan is not producing results in this format.

The scan tables at
http://git.linuxtv.org/cgit.cgi/dtv-scan-tables.git/ are in the new format. Some of them are a bit outdated though (send in a patch if you can update it for your area).

The v4l-utils package also includes tools to convert between the old and the new format.

Cheers,
-olli

Ah, thank you Olli -- much appreciated!

If dvbv5-scan expects the initial scan files in the new DVBV5 format, does that mean that these still somewhat mysterious "initial scan files" have to be supplied, as in the link to the dtv-scan-tables? How are these "initial scan files" themselves generated?

Surely there must be thousands of different dvb signal locations -- is linux-tv going to try to maintain these thousands of scan tables for download? What do users do when their particular location is not represented in the dtv-scan-tables.git?

Finally, I'm using gnutv to record television; I imagine it still only accepts the old format? What's the new alternative?

Cheers,
David

Hi David,

Well, the initial scan files need to be supplied for dvbv5-scan somehow.

The initial scan files that are maintained in the the git repo I posted earlier are updated by users who notice differencies. Basically I and some other users have created scripts that automatically generate the files for my country, so it's rather easy. I don't know how it works for other countries.

Anyway, if you prefer to generate the data yourself you can use w_scan to generate it in DVBV3 format:
w_scan -ft -c FI -x > ~/initial_v3.conf

Then use the dvb-format-convert tool that comes in the v4l-utils package:
dvb-format-convert -I CHANNEL -O DVBV5 ~/initial_v3.conf ~/initial_data_v5.conf

Then you can run dvbv5-scan with this file:
dvbv5-scan ~/initial_data_v5.conf

Alternatively you can skip the whole conversion phase and run dvbv5-scan with the DVBV3 initial tuning data:
dvbv5-scan -I CHANNEL ~/initial_v3.conf

Cheers,
-olli

OK, perfect; thank you. This should be documented in dvbv5-scan. And we should have a man page for it.

Cheers,
David

Hi David,

Em Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:49:05 -0800
David Liontooth <[email protected]> escreveu:

This is documented, and there is a man page for it:

dvbv5-scan(1) User Commands dvbv5-scan(1)

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 terminol‐ ogy, 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 chan‐
nels/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.

-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 chan‐ nel 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 ver‐ bosity.

-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 …
Service Dog, provider (null): digital television New transponder/channel found: #2: 579000000 …
New transponder/channel found: #39: 507000000

The scan process will then scan the other 38 discovered new transpon‐ ders, and generate a dvb_channel.com with several entries with will have not only the physical channel/transponder info, but also the Ser‐ vice 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 <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2011-2014 by Mauro Carvalho Chehab.

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.

DVBv5 Utils 1.6.2 Fri Oct 3 2014 dvbv5-scan(1)

Em Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:11:34 -0200
Mauro Carvalho Chehab <[email protected]> escreveu:

...

Forgot to mention, but, of course, if you think that the information there is not enough, feel free to submit patches to improve it ;)

The documentation source file is at:

	http://git.linuxtv.org/cgit.cgi/v4l-utils.git/tree/utils/dvb/dvbv5-scan.1.in

Also, translations for other languages is also welcomed.

Cheers,
Mauro