w_scan 20090502, why is the new country code necessary, its breaking my systems

w_scan 20090502, why is the new country code necessary, its breaking my systems

[Jelle de Jong]

Hello everybody,

My w_scan version 20081106 stopped working on my Debian system. I had
the following errors:
ERROR: Sorry - i couldn't get any working frequency/transponder

So I first checked if there was a wscan update.

I downloaded the new version:
http://wirbel.htpc-forum.de/w_scan/w_scan-20090504.tar.bz2

Why is w_scan not available in the Debian repository?

However my old command arguments did not work anymore:
old: ~/.wscan/wscan -t 3 -E 0 -O 0 -X tzap > ~/.wscan/channels.conf

main:2715: FATAL: Missing argument "-c" (country setting)

I had to make a new argument line:
~/.wscan/wscan -t 3 -A 1 -E 0 -O 0 -c NL -X tzap > ~/.wscan/channels.conf

This is very troubling for me because I must have a scan command that
works in complete Europa and not in one country. This is because I have
traveling systems that need to scan for channels on every stop.

Why :-( please explain and  try to fix this regression that a country
code is needed?

I was hoping for auto signal strength detection and automatic filtering
depending on the signal strength to remove duplicated channels from
different broadcast towers.. what work is being done to realize this,
and can I help by donating resources?

Thanks in advance,

Best regards,

Jelle de Jong

Re: w_scan 20090502, why is the new country code necessary, its breaking my systems

[wk]

Hello Jelle,

 > My w_scan version 20081106 stopped working on my Debian system. I had
 > the following errors:
 > ERROR: Sorry - i couldn't get any working frequency/transponder
 >
 > So I first checked if there was a wscan update.

No reception for some reason - probably the new version will show the 
same result.

 > I had to make a new argument line:
 > ~/.wscan/wscan -t 3 -A 1 -E 0 -O 0 -c NL -X tzap > 
~/.wscan/channels.conf

"-A 1" is wrong for you, please omitt this one, it's used outside Europe 
only.
"-O 0" is default anyway, not needed

 > This is very troubling for me because I must have a scan command that
 > works in complete Europa and not in one country. This is because I have
 > traveling systems that need to scan for channels on every stop.
 >
 > Why :-( please explain and try to fix this regression that a country
 > code is needed?

w_scan tends to be used now to be used also in other countries - with 
different settings
- frequency lists
- frequency offsets from center frequency
- Symbolrates
- channel bandwidths
- Modulations ( QAM_128 for example in FI, QAM_64 and QAM_256 otherwise )
At the beginning w_scan was made to work in Germany only. But with the 
time more and more additions were made
and at some point one has to find a compromise. Either prolong scanning 
time to be endless, omitt new features or change command line options.

If you need the some behaviour working in many european countries, you 
may simply use "-c DE". It will give nearly the same result as the old 
versions.

 > I was hoping for auto signal strength detection and automatic filtering
 > depending on the signal strength to remove duplicated channels from
 > different broadcast towers.. what work is being done to realize this,
 > and can I help by donating resources?

As soon we have dvb drivers which give some reliable and *comparable* 
signal strength information
signal information *across all frontends* this would be possible, not 
earlier. But i guess it will never happen.

Best Regards,
Winfried

Re: w_scan 20090502, why is the new country code necessary, its breaking my systems

[Jelle de Jong]

wk wrote:
> Hello Jelle,
> 
>  > My w_scan version 20081106 stopped working on my Debian system. I had
>  > the following errors:
>  > ERROR: Sorry - i couldn't get any working frequency/transponder
>  >
>  > So I first checked if there was a wscan update.
> 
> No reception for some reason - probably the new version will show the 
> same result.

I am know using w_scan version 20090528 and this version works partly
and does also not loop. The error still sometimes happens, something
changed in the device modules... The device is not always stable, i have
to repluging the device and then the scanning works again. Sorry for the
lack of further info, no messages in dmesg...

> 
>  > I had to make a new argument line:
>  > ~/.wscan/wscan -t 3 -A 1 -E 0 -O 0 -c NL -X tzap > 
> ~/.wscan/channels.conf
> 
> "-A 1" is wrong for you, please omitt this one, it's used outside Europe 
> only.
> "-O 0" is default anyway, not needed
> 

I am know using the bellow command, i use some default values, since I
am afraid these option can change in the future and break my system.
~/.wscan/wscan -f 1 -c NL -X tzap -R 1 -T 1 -E 0 -O 0 -t 3 >
~/.wscan/channels.conf

>  > This is very troubling for me because I must have a scan command that
>  > works in complete Europa and not in one country. This is because I have
>  > traveling systems that need to scan for channels on every stop.
>  >
>  > Why :-( please explain and try to fix this regression that a country
>  > code is needed?
> 
> w_scan tends to be used now to be used also in other countries - with 
> different settings
> - frequency lists
> - frequency offsets from center frequency
> - Symbolrates
> - channel bandwidths
> - Modulations ( QAM_128 for example in FI, QAM_64 and QAM_256 otherwise )
> At the beginning w_scan was made to work in Germany only. But with the 
> time more and more additions were made
> and at some point one has to find a compromise. Either prolong scanning 
> time to be endless, omitt new features or change command line options.
> 
> If you need the some behaviour working in many european countries, you 
> may simply use "-c DE". It will give nearly the same result as the old 
> versions.
> 

Is there a way you can do a scanning without selecting a country, a scan
time of 25min is acceptable, as long as the result works? If not how can
i made an automated scanning that works in The Netherlands, Norway,
Germany and Belgum and France (one command) that works in all countries?

>  > I was hoping for auto signal strength detection and automatic filtering
>  > depending on the signal strength to remove duplicated channels from
>  > different broadcast towers.. what work is being done to realize this,
>  > and can I help by donating resources?
> 
> As soon we have dvb drivers which give some reliable and *comparable* 
> signal strength information
> signal information *across all frontends* this would be possible, not 
> earlier. But i guess it will never happen.

Me-TV and kaffeine show the signal strength I don't know if wscan can do
the same. The smart signal strength stuff is really mandatory I have
seen people go from Linux to mac only to get proper dvb-t scanning and
signal detection support. Any ideas?

> 
> Best Regards,
> Winfried

Best regards,

Jelle de Jong