Archived:Comparison of the scanning utilities

Note: The differences between scan and dvbscan should be added to this wiki article. The information for dvbscan is still to be completed - please help.

command line frequency scanners comparison

The following table lists the main features of the different command line scanners. For specific information on usage, have a look at its specific wiki article.

feature \ scanner	scan	dvbscan	w_scan	scan-s2
analog / digital	digital TV only	digital TV only	digital TV only	digital TV only
download	linuxtv.org/hg/dvb-apps	linuxtv.org/hg/dvb-apps	wirbel.htpc-forum.de/w_scan/index.html	mercurial.intuxication.org/hg/scan-s2
last stable	linuxtv-dvb-apps-1.1.1 (outdated, May 2006)	?	none / use latest version	none / use latest version
comments	linuxtv.org maintained DVB-S2 support missing needs dvb driver with API-3.2 or 5.x	linuxtv.org maintained	compiling needs dvb driver with API-5.0 or higher usage needs API-3.2 or API-5.x	needs dvb driver with 5.0 or higher
supported DTV types	DVB-S, DVB-C(Europe), DVB-T, ATSC (VSB and QAM), DMB-TH (China)	?	DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C(Europe), DVB-T, ATSC (VSB and QAM), DMB-TH (China)	DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C(Europe), DVB-T, ATSC (VSB and QAM)
initial scan file required (matching to your satellite or local aerial/cable network)	yes (use dvb-apps hg from linuxtv.org)	yes (use dvb-apps hg from linuxtv.org)	not required	yes (use dvb-apps hg from linuxtv.org) NOTE: slightly different file format from scan because of additional DVB-S2 support.
can generate initial scan file	no	no	yes	no
can generate channels.conf for zap/xine/mplayer/vlc	yes (default)	?	yes	yes
can generate channels.conf for VDR	yes (vdr-1.3 only)	?	yes (default)	yes (default)
can generate channels.dvb for kaffeine	no	?	yes	no