The Scanner Window

Clicking „Scan Selected“ or „Scan All“ in the Main Window opens the Scanner Window. It displays the scan results and provides export functions and filter options. Some more commands can be found in the context menu that appears after right-clicking the list.



Scanning and Scan Results | Sorting, Viewing and Filtering | Channel List Maintenance | Export Settings



Scanning and Scan Results

While scanning is in progress, the Frequ. and SR Field in the Scan Progress Section display the frequency and symbol rate of the currently scanned transponder. The four color fields show whether receiving the data has been successful or not. Yellow signals "in progress" resp. „partial success”, green success and red failure. Dark background colors with white caption indicate the results of the previous (finished) frequency.

TransEdit reads three or (depending on the settings) four kinds of tables from the transponder's data stream:

The scanning process can be stopped by clicking the Stop Button.

In the list of scan results "Free to air" channels are displayed in black, pay TV channels in red - which doesn't necessarily mean that they are really encrypted. Sometimes they may be unencrypted, e.g. for promotion purpose, without switching the "encrypted" signal off. The actual state is shown by the TS Analyzer, that, in contrast to the scanner, examines the stream itself, not only the service information tables.

Additional audio tracks of a channel are indented, like „3sat (AC3,dd)“ in the image above.

Channels that are already present in the DVBViewer's channel list are displayed with light blue background, so that they can be distinguished easily from new channels. Individual attributes with white or gray background (like the name „3sat (deu)“ in the image above) differ from the DVBViewer's channel list. A different name doesn't matter, but if other more important data is concerned it is recommendable to update the channel: Select it an click the „Add / Update “ button (see below).

For recognizing a scan result in the DVBViewer's channel list, the tuner type and the following transponder parameters must match: Frequency (DVB-S/T/C, ATSC), symbol rate (DVB-S/C), polarization (DVB-S) and the service ID, or alternatively the video and audio PID plus the channel name. Additionally TransEdit compares the orbital position for distinguishing different satellite positions, provided it is available in the DVBViewer channel list data.

Channel names in italic indicate that a scan result has been recognized in the DVBViewer channel list, but the assignment is uncertain, because the orbital position is missing in the DVBViewer channel list data, thus possibly entailing the danger of mismatches across satellite positions resp. DVB networks. If assignments are apparently correct, update the corresponding entries by using the „Add / Update“ or „Update All“ functions (see below). It will add the missing data in the DVBViewer channel list and enable an unambiguous assignment in future.

The list columns contain the following data:



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Sorting, Viewing and Filtering

After scanning is finished, you may arrange or limit the scan results in different ways and pre-view them if you want to see and hear what is broadcasted. The commands are available as buttons on the left side of the Scanner Window and in the context menu that appears after right-clicking the list.

It is recommendable to select a suitable video and audio decoder on the Preview Tab of the Settings Window before using the Preview Function for the first time. The default setting „Auto“ lets DirectShow select the decoders – sometimes, depending on the system configuration, with questionable results.

The lower part of the Scanner Window provides various filter options allowing to limit the displayed (resp. added, updated, exported...) scan results to a certain selection. The filter options do not delete scan results. Internally they remain stored, so that you can change or undo a selection at any time.

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Channel List Maintenance

Nowadays channel lists tend to become huge data collections, particularly if your equipment enables receiving several satellite positions, and it can be quite cumbersome to keep such a list up-to-date and well sorted. The TransEdit Scanner Window provides some facilities for DVBViewer channel list maintenance. The commands are available as buttons on the right side of the Scanner Window and in the context menu that appears after right-clicking the list of scan results.

If you want to use the following commands don't edit the channel list in DVBViewer while TransEdit Scanner Windows are open! If DVBViewer is running simultaneously TransEdit prompts it to save its channel list (by sending a message) as soon as the first Scanner Window is opened, loads the channel list in its own memory space and keeps it there until all Scanner Windows are closed. The Add / Update / Delete commands described below will let DVBViewer reload the channel list file (channels.dat). All channel list changes that have been made in DVBViewer in the meantime will be lost in this case.

How channels are added to the DVBViewer channel list depends on the export settings (see below). However, new audio tracks are inserted independently from the export settings as sub-items of the according channel, provided it is already present. When updating channels, TransEdit does not change user-defined settings (root, category, DiSEqC, channel group etc.). Whether channel names are updated or not depends on the corresponding checkbox on the Scanner Tab of the Settings Window. Untick it if you prefer your own naming system.

You can do the following in the Dead Channels Window:

Please regard the displayed dead channels as suggestion, not as fact. Maybe they are only temporarily missing, because they are not receivable due to bad weather conditions or other reasons. In case of doubt use the Preview function to assure that a channel is really „off air“. An X mark in the frequency column indicates that this frequency delivered no scan results at all. Either important reception parameters (e. g. the symbol rate) have changed and must be updated in the transponder list, or the transponder has been switched off, or reception is disturbed for some reason (maybe only temporarily).

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Export Settings

The Export Settings are used by TransEdit when adding channels to the DVBViewer channel list or saving them in a file.


The Category Drop-down List determines under which category exported channels appear in the DVBViewer channel list:

It is recommendable to sort the list according to the type of categorization before exporting it. Click the Provider, Frequency or Name column title in order to get a sorted sequence of categories in the DVBViewer channel list.

The Root Drop-down List specifies under which root folder (usually representing a DVB network) exported channels appear in the DVBViewer channel list:. The default setting is the name of the transponder list that has been used for scanning, but you may also

When loading exported/added channels, DVBViewer will create the root folder, if it doesn't exist yet. If the root folder already exists, it depends on the category where a new channel is inserted. If the category does not exist yet, it will be created. If the category already exists, the new channel will be appended to it.

It is strongly recommended not to mix channels with a different tuner type (DVB-S/T/C) or from different satellite positions within a root folder, in order to keep the channel list clearly arranged and the handling easy. DVBViewer GE already enforces different root folders for channels with different DVB network properties by automatically renaming root folders, if necessary, and DVBViewer Pro will probably handle it similarly in future.

The Group Drop-down List assigns one of the channel groups A...H to exported/added channels. Default is group A, except if another channel group has been assigned in the Main Window to the transponder list that is used for scanning.

Channel Groups enable binding channels to specific devices in DVBViewer and TransEdit (see Hardware Tab of the Setting Window). It will only be relevant in special cases, however. Normally it does not matter to which group a channel belongs, since by default all groups are permitted for all devices. But imagine the following: There are two DVB-S devices, each of them connected to a separate dish - one for receiving Astra and the other one for Hotbird. Without telling DVBViewer and TransEdit which device must be used for which channels, they will use both indiscriminately for all DVB-S channels. This is one of the problems that can be solved by using channel groups.

The Export to File Button opens a file dialog window allowing to save the data of the selected scan results to a file. Click „Select All“ if you want to export all scan results. The following export formats are available:

Scan results exported as INI file can be opened and re-imported in TransEdit. They are displayed in a Scanner Window „as if scanned” and can be reworked by sorting or filtering them in a different way. All functions of the Scanner Window are available except "Dead Channels" and "Analyze". TransEdit writes an additional field named „Provider” (which is ignored by DVBViewer) to the INI files enabling to restore the original Provider Column. If this field is missing (e.g. in DVBViewer exports), TransEdit replaces the Provider Column by a Category Column containing the category from the DVBViewer channel list.

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