Methods and Modes for Scanning and Searching Channels on FTA Decoders

 Today, we will explain various FTA decoder channel scanning modes and methods. In this article, I shall be giving brief but concise tutorials on how to search for channels on various standalone FTA decoders such as strong, t-link, Qsat, Gsky, Superesat, Alphabox, tigersat, nusky. And so on. In other words, this guide may not be helpful for those trying to scan for channels on custom/company-branded decoders like DStv, Mytv, StarTimes, etc. However, if you own a PayTV decoder, contact the customer service company for support.

 

Search channels on FTA decoders: PID scan for decoders

 

Relevant Articles:

• Predetermine the right dish to use for a particular satellite

• How to Manually Track a Satellite Dish Network & Frequencies

• Introduction To The Most Popular Free-To-Air Satellite TV Channels and Frequencies

• Difference between FTA decoder & satellite company branded decoders

Table of Contents

Various Satellite Decoders Channels Scanning Modes and Methods

Before I proceed, let me say that I strongly advise that you scan your decoder periodically. All the various modes have their advantages and disadvantages. Manual scan, for example, will only give you channels from a specific frequency/TP. Similarly, Autoscan gives you all genuinely valid channels of all the TPs/frequencies on a particular satellite. And Blindscan will provide you with everything, including duplicate channels from a given satellite. We can deduce from the above that if you are interested in getting a particular channel and do not know its frequency(in order for you to use the manual scan), you must use the “blindscan.”

Note: all the various scanning modes can be found under every FTA satellite decoder’s “installation” menu.

Various Methods For Scanning/Searching Channels on FTA Standalone Decoders

In this section, I shall provide, in a comprehensive manner, how you can search for or scan satellite tv channels on any standalone free-to-air satellite receiver. This method will work regardless of the brand of the decoder.

1. Method One: PID Scan/Search

It is appropriate to say that this mode is uncommon with most standalone decoders. PID stands for “package identifier” (or PID). This tech tells the receiver what to do with the packet. As one would expect, PID is more complicated than a manual scan, and the rest, here you input the satellite, the frequency, the symbol rate, the polarization, the Video-PID, Audio-PID, and Pcr-PID. 

• Video-PID = PID for Video stream
• Audio-PID= PID for Audio Stream
• PCR-PID= PID for PCR Stream(Program clock reference) is used to synchronize the video and audio packets; however, this data is usually embedded into the video stream.

You will need to input all the values appropriately and then scan. Note this will only bring the channel on that TP with the PID data.

2. Second Method:  The Manual Scan/Search 

The interpretation of this is that you must search manually on your own. In satellite terms, this means you need to input the frequency, symbol rate, and polarization of the channel you want to scan. Unlike a PID scan, you don’t need the PCR, Audio, and video data. A manual scan allows you to search a particular frequency alone without affecting others, and it’s faster.

Noteworthy, if you have ten frequencies with a signal on a particular satellite, you can not search for all simultaneously (using the manual search). On the contrary, you can only search them one after the other.

3. Method 3: The BLINDSCAN scanning mode

Another name for this mode is the “multiple-sat” scan.  It is about the most productive scanning technique you can use on any decoder.  You can call blindscan the combination of both manual and auto.  This is the easiest because you don’t need to input the frequency like that of PID and manual scan. A blind scan does a complete job for you. It searches both the frequencies and channels altogether.

4. Method 4: The Satellite Channels “AUTOSCAN” Mode

Auto-scan means that you can search for different frequencies at a time. Now, here is the difference when compared with the manual scan. Using the manual scan you can only search one TP each but with the auto scan, you combine all frequencies as one and search simultaneously.

When you do an auto-scan, you are relieving yourself of the job of navigating to one frequency at a time to search; you click on auto-scan, and it performs the task of searching and sourcing for channels on all the frequencies on the satellite, provided that the frequency is already saved on the satellite. When you are done using any of the scanning modes above, please don’t forget to save your scan.