Scanning Parameters
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About ARGUS TV supplied Scanning Presets & Parameters
ARGUS TV supports digital terrestrial, satellite and cable tuners. In addition it supports 
ATSC tuner cards.
For all of them, ARGUS TV provides preset scanning lists, the needed type is selected automatically when you enter ARGUS TV Recorder Console / Scan and select the card to scan with.
Terrestrial frequencies, satellite information and ATSC scanning presets are common for larger geographical entities or regions, and usually are not too often subjected to changes.
Cable transponder definition on the other hand are not only provider-related, but even within the same provider different for small regions and cities. They are quite often subjected to changes and very provider-specific.
We also have to consider, that in the move to more and more HDTV content, we're since the last years in the midst of considerable frequent changes.
Representing these four tuner types, we find among our ARGUS TV installation four tuning preset files of type XML, that contain the preset scanning information: Terrestrial.xml, satellites.xml, Cables.xml, and Atsc.xml
They usually reside on your ARGUS TV Recorder PC in the directory "C:\ProgramData\ARGUS TV\Tuning".
Be aware, that you will find them on every PC that's running ARGUS TV Recorder - if you have more than one ARGUS TV Recorder Server running. The steps then have to be applied to all of those PC's individually.
Therefore the cable scanning presets are the focus of latter article, as satellite, terrestrial, and also ATSC customers simply do not have the issue to search for their specific provider to get the scan successfully done.
If your provider isn't listed under ARGUS TV Recorder Console / Scan in the cable's drop-down list, please follow the next steps.
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Information If you are having difficultly locating the correct folder, type (or copy & paste) %AllUsersProfile% into one of the following places and tap Enter:
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Download of the most recent tuning XML Files
The first measure is to check, whether your provider has been added to the presets since the Cables.xml, that you're using, was published. Check the most recent Tuning XML files' Version:
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Download the most recent ARGUS TV Tuning XML files
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If you still can't find your provider's information, please step to the next section below.
General Purpose and Bruteforce scanning Lists for common Configurations
Recently some "general purpose" scanning lists have been added to the definition files. Those entries appear at the beginning of the provider's drop-down list.
"General Purpose" means that those scanning lists contain commonly used frequencies, symbol rates, and modulations, that you may use to scan without knowing the transponder frequencies of your provider in detail.
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Pleae note: Also frequencies, symbol rates and modulations follow at least partly regional preferences. Therefore these "general purpose" scanning lists, that are provided, might not suit to your needs by 100%. And: you still have to select, which of the general purpose scanning presets you would like to use. |
| Therefore please search the web site of your provider to find as much information as you can get for your city or region (!) You need at least the symbol rate that your provider is using - this will be common for all used frequencies of it. Maybe you stumbled over the word "bruteforce" in the drop-down list. "Bruteforce" usually are channel presets that cover many frequencies, modulations, or even symbol rates. Your card will try to "try all" - the other side of the medal is, that this scan may take hours. The more you can specify, the less time a scan will take. |
... but even better than finding nothing, or? That's the though that's behind "bruteforce" scanning method.
Still, those provided bruteforce lists are not complete - and probably will hardly ever be. BUT.. you can create your own "general purpose" list! Get the most complete information you can get from your provider, select out of the XML file one of the general purpose sections, copy them to the end of the file, name them accordingly, and follow the structure description of the following section.
Can I manually edit or expand the tuning Presets for Cable, Satellite, ATSC or Terrestrial?
First of all: Yes, you can!
Search for the appropriate *.xml file (Cables.xml, satellites.xml, Atsc.xml, or Terrestrial.xml) and open it in a text editor - best in one, that also supports syntax highlighting for XML files): you'll probably find it on Win Vista/7 PCs in the directory "C:\ProgramData\ARGUS TV\Tuning".
Usually this will only be needed for cable provider's information, find the structure description and naming convention for the cable definition file "Cables.xml".
Structure of Cables.xml entries
Add at the end of the file:
Beginning of your section:
| <cable name="[your country (English)]: [your provider's name (Your Language)]" satfeed="true" flags="0"> |
| |-> unused, not important
|-> not important
One line for each of your transponders/frequencies to be scanned, e.g.:
| <transponder frequency="354000000" symbol_rate="6900000" fec_inner="0" modulation="5"/> |
| | | |-> "1" = Modulation QAM 16
| | | |-> "2" = Modulation QAM 32
| | | |-> "3" = Modulation QAM 64
| | | |-> "4" = Modulation QAM 128
| | | |-> "5" = Modulation QAM 256
| | |-> FEC (forward error correction)
| | |-> leave "0" ("not set"; your card detects)
| |-> commonly noted symbol rate x 1'000
|-> = [Hz] = [kHz] value x 1'000 = [MHz] value x 1'000'000
And as end of your newly added section:
| </cable> |
... done!
Structure of satellites.xml entries
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Useful links:
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Add at the end of the file:
Beginning of your section:
| <sat name="Eutelsat 12WA (12.5W)" flags="0" position="-125"> |
| |-> Degree x 10 of satellite's position, negative val. = West, positive val. = East
| |-> unused, not important
|-> official name of the satellite with (<degree W/E>)
One line for each of your transponders/frequencies to be scanned, e.g.:
| <transponder frequency="11408000" symbol_rate="27500000" polarization="1" fec_inner="3" system="0" modulation="1" /> |
| | | | | |-> "0" = Modulation not set
| | | | | |-> "1" = Modulation QPSK
| | | | | |-> "2" = Modulation 8-PSK
| | | | | |-> "3" = Modulation QAM 160
| | | | |-> "0" = DVB-S
| | | | |-> "1" = DVB-S2 / MPEG-2
| | | |FEC (forward error correction)
| | | |-> "0" = "not set"; your card detects
| | | |-> "1" = Rate 1/2
| | | |-> "2" = Rate 2/3
| | | |-> "3" = Rate 3/4
| | | |-> "4" = Rate 5/6
| | | |-> "5" = Rate 7/8
| | | |-> "6" = Rate 8/9
| | | |-> "7" = Rate 3/5
| | | |-> "8" = Rate 4/5
| | | |-> "9" = Rate 9/10
| | |-> "0" = Linear H polarization
| | |-> "1" = Linear V polarization
| | |-> "2" = Circular L polarization
| | |-> "3" = Circular R polarization
| |-> commonly noted symbol rate x 1'000
|-> = [Hz] = [kHz] value x 1'000 = [MHz] value x 1'000'000
And as end of your newly added section:
| </sat> |
... done!
Now go back in ARGUS TV Recorder Console and select under scan your desired card and your newly added provider (which will also occur at the end of the drop-down list) - and do a scan.
Successfully created a preset? Please distribute this know-how to all other users and read the following section. Not been successful? Drop us a note in the ARGUS TV forum's thread Can't find your provider? Get the latest Tuning XMLs here! and we will be pleased to support!
How can I contribute to provide extended Information also to other Users?
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Do you want to support and help other users? We ask you now for YOUR help: if you successfully created scanning information - either for your local provider or a general purpose scanning list, please let us participate! |
