Get ready. This is another long post...
The precise functionality of the scan options varies from machine to machine. For example, The new Echostar 7000 receivers about to hit the market offer many different ways of scanning. These include options like: scan only for transmissions flagged as being FTA, scan only on a single transponder, scan a particular 'network' (=provider effectively, like Canal+ or like Sky), scan all transponders on the current satellite, scan all satellites, scan only for changes, etc. Each scan option behaves differently. The "all" options typically replace (completely overwrite) the existing list of channels in your receiver (or at least, the list for the particular satellite being scanned). The single transponder or network scan options typically will simply append the channels found to the existing list. The "update" option when present (it is by no means common) will replace individual channels with their new settings (or delete any that have disappeared altogether since the last scan), and add new ones to the existing list. All of this should be described in the manual for your receiver.
The key(s) required to acutually decrypt a particular channel are independant of the channel parameters that scan/search works with. Scan functions can not test the decryption process itself during scanning. Even the "FTA-only" options actually only look at the status of a flag that the provider sets manually for its channels. Half the time, the provider doesn't bother to use that consistently and encrypted channels will be flagged as FTA/clear, or vice versa.
For those channels that are really encrypted, the timeframe in which the keys change is dependent on the policy of the provider. Some providers never change the keys. Some change them hourly, to keep ahead of the pirates. Official subscribers never notice key changes since their cards are "autoupdating". And indeed some pirate cards can be made auto-updating too, although that requires having a "masterkey". Important here to note that there are different kinds of keys, usually a heirarchy of them. Keys at the bottom of the heirarchy give access for the moment, but those keys can change frequently as I said. Keys at the next level up will control the auto-update of the lower keys. And the details vary too for the different encryption systems. The working of Irdeto keys at the detailed level are different from, for example, that of Mediaguard keys.
The FreeCAM firmware incorporates an Irdeto v1 emulator, and a set of the lowest-level Irdeto keys, called plainkeys. These are fine for watching the German Premiere World package and the part of the Dutch Canal+ package that is still encrypted in Irdeto - since those two providers rarely change even that lowest level of keys. But it's next to useless for packages such as Nova/Hellas which changed keys every day or so (and incidentally had now stopped using Irdeto v1 altogether). There is no auto-update functionality in a FreeCAM when used in emulator mode (ie when used without a card and with the EMU option set to "ON" in the "goodies" menu). When those low-level plainkeys do change, you need to hunt down the new ones from the internet (or indeed by logging them yourself as they are transmitted by the provider by satellite - if you have the right equipment) - and then convert them into the form that FreeCAM understands, before entering them using your remote control from the FreeCAM menu.
Details of how to do the conversion have been posted here before (use our search function). It's not difficult. I could describe the mnechanics in a few lines, but I tyink it's better to first understand the underlying concepts.
In a nutshell: the "plainkeys" you can enter into a FreeCAM are actually concatenations of a 1-byte provider sequence number, a 1-byte key-sequence number and an actual 8-byte plainkey. Those ten hexadecimal bytes are converted into ten 3-digit decimal numbers simply so that they can be entered via the remote-control (which only has decimal digits available).
Sites which carry such keys are included in the links posted from time to time in our keys forum. Some sites even carry the converted 10x3 digit freeCAM codes so you don't need to do the conversion yourself.
If you want to watch channels encrypted under any other system than Irdeto v1 (and the variant called Betacrypt used by Premiere World) then you will in any case definitely need a card. The FreeCAM will accept a range of cards. They include official subscriber Irdeto cards, as well as pirate Irdeto cards or pirate "multi-encryption" cards. By "pirate" I mean cards such as the ubiquitous goldwafer or funcard. Please refer to many other posts on this board for full details on that. There is also a beginners how to/FAQ on porogramming goldwafers, under our smartcards forum (locate using the search function).
On your question about entering channel parameters - again, this is something that is receiver dependent. You need to realise that there are dozens of different receivers on the market and they each have their own unique software & functionality. Check your manual. If you had followed the recommended procedure and still didn't see the expected channel, there could be a load of reasons why. Here are a few:
- channel parameters entered were simply wrong
- channel parameters entered were out of date (eg channel now using different PIDs)
- channel no longer exists at all, or has moved to a different transponder or even satellite.
- channel is transmitting in a format your equipment can not proces. EG it is carried ona low "C-band" frequency whereas your Dish, LNB and receiver are only suitable for the higher "ku-band" frequencies.
- channel is correctly specified and receivable but you can not decrypt it (eg no smartcard, invalid smartcard, not the correct CI module/CAM, keys have changed and your card was not auto-updating...)
There are a few reliable sources of channel/transponder/satellite lists - such as lyngsat, or satcodx (both online). But you need to be aware that these can never be completely 100% up to date. They are maintained by hobbyists or provider-independent professionals, who can do no more than collate their own discoveries or those reported by other enthusiasts. It is not the case that all of the dozens of different providers dutifully keep such sites informed of changes. They only have an obligation to keeyp their own particular customer base informed, and often that customer base may not even be a consumer. It may be the manager of a cable distribution network or a studio news network (many satellite broadcasts are not intended for the general public at all).
A further note of clarification on tranponders: like I said in my earlier post, the term "transponder' has become misused in the satellite world. People and receivers often refer to a particular combination of frequency/polarisation and sometimes symbol-rate as being a "transponder". So the "add transponder" option really means "enter into my receiver's database another different unique combination of frequency, polarisation and symbol rate that can be scanned for channels". Here too an additional word of clarification is needed: you may think that a receiver auutomatically scans for any and every signal that might be up there, but that is not usually possible. Only a tiny number of receivers offer such a fully automatic scan option (I know of only one in the consumer market). All others scan whatever particular set/database of pre-defined "transponders" you have defined (or that someone else loaded before you purchased it). This is for the sake of speed. A full scan, actively hunting out whatever frequencies happen to be carrying signals, could take 24 hours or more.
In fact, some receivers - particularly those aimed at the non-specialist - use an even quicker method of setting up channels. They simply download a table that has been set up by the provider and is part of the constant stream of info being beamed down from a particular "default" transponder. The Sky Digibox uses that method. When you access the "new installation" option in a digibox's installer menu, it doesn't really re-scan the satellite or even a set of pre-defined tranponders. It simply downloads a table of channel settings held in Sky's default transponder.
One final note in case it wasn't entirely clear in all of the above:
as I said, the decryption and the scanning processes are entirely independent. That means, for example, that a smartcard will never give access to channels that hadn't already been scanned in. In fact, the receiver only passes control to the card & CAM once it has already locked onto a particular channel. So if the channel is not in your receiver's memory/list in the first place, no card - however up to date the keys are - will give access to it.
2old
PS
There is no satellite currently positioned at 19.0 degrees east. Any reference to 19east is actually a less accurate reference to the Astra1 cluster of satellites at 19.2east.