1 The Virtual Video Test Driver (vivid)
2 =====================================
4 This driver emulates video4linux hardware of various types: video capture, video
5 output, vbi capture and output, radio receivers and transmitters and a software
6 defined radio receiver. In addition a simple framebuffer device is available for
7 testing capture and output overlays.
9 Up to 64 vivid instances can be created, each with up to 16 inputs and 16 outputs.
11 Each input can be a webcam, TV capture device, S-Video capture device or an HDMI
12 capture device. Each output can be an S-Video output device or an HDMI output
15 These inputs and outputs act exactly as a real hardware device would behave. This
16 allows you to use this driver as a test input for application development, since
17 you can test the various features without requiring special hardware.
19 This document describes the features implemented by this driver:
21 - Support for read()/write(), MMAP, USERPTR and DMABUF streaming I/O.
22 - A large list of test patterns and variations thereof
23 - Working brightness, contrast, saturation and hue controls
24 - Support for the alpha color component
25 - Full colorspace support, including limited/full RGB range
26 - All possible control types are present
27 - Support for various pixel aspect ratios and video aspect ratios
28 - Error injection to test what happens if errors occur
29 - Supports crop/compose/scale in any combination for both input and output
30 - Can emulate up to 4K resolutions
31 - All Field settings are supported for testing interlaced capturing
32 - Supports all standard YUV and RGB formats, including two multiplanar YUV formats
33 - Raw and Sliced VBI capture and output support
34 - Radio receiver and transmitter support, including RDS support
35 - Software defined radio (SDR) support
36 - Capture and output overlay support
38 These features will be described in more detail below.
40 Configuring the driver
41 ----------------------
43 By default the driver will create a single instance that has a video capture
44 device with webcam, TV, S-Video and HDMI inputs, a video output device with
45 S-Video and HDMI outputs, one vbi capture device, one vbi output device, one
46 radio receiver device, one radio transmitter device and one SDR device.
48 The number of instances, devices, video inputs and outputs and their types are
49 all configurable using the following module options:
53 number of driver instances to create. By default set to 1. Up to 64
54 instances can be created.
58 which devices should each driver instance create. An array of
59 hexadecimal values, one for each instance. The default is 0x1d3d.
60 Each value is a bitmask with the following meaning:
62 - bit 0: Video Capture node
63 - bit 2-3: VBI Capture node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
64 - bit 4: Radio Receiver node
65 - bit 5: Software Defined Radio Receiver node
66 - bit 8: Video Output node
67 - bit 10-11: VBI Output node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
68 - bit 12: Radio Transmitter node
69 - bit 16: Framebuffer for testing overlays
71 So to create four instances, the first two with just one video capture
72 device, the second two with just one video output device you would pass
73 these module options to vivid:
77 n_devs=4 node_types=0x1,0x1,0x100,0x100
81 the number of inputs, one for each instance. By default 4 inputs
82 are created for each video capture device. At most 16 inputs can be created,
83 and there must be at least one.
87 the input types for each instance, the default is 0xe4. This defines
88 what the type of each input is when the inputs are created for each driver
89 instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 pairs of bits, each
90 pair gives the type and bits 0-1 map to input 0, bits 2-3 map to input 1,
91 30-31 map to input 15. Each pair of bits has the following meaning:
93 - 00: this is a webcam input
94 - 01: this is a TV tuner input
95 - 10: this is an S-Video input
96 - 11: this is an HDMI input
98 So to create a video capture device with 8 inputs where input 0 is a TV
99 tuner, inputs 1-3 are S-Video inputs and inputs 4-7 are HDMI inputs you
100 would use the following module options:
104 num_inputs=8 input_types=0xffa9
108 the number of outputs, one for each instance. By default 2 outputs
109 are created for each video output device. At most 16 outputs can be
110 created, and there must be at least one.
114 the output types for each instance, the default is 0x02. This defines
115 what the type of each output is when the outputs are created for each
116 driver instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 bits, each bit
117 gives the type and bit 0 maps to output 0, bit 1 maps to output 1, bit
118 15 maps to output 15. The meaning of each bit is as follows:
120 - 0: this is an S-Video output
121 - 1: this is an HDMI output
123 So to create a video output device with 8 outputs where outputs 0-3 are
124 S-Video outputs and outputs 4-7 are HDMI outputs you would use the
125 following module options:
129 num_outputs=8 output_types=0xf0
133 give the desired videoX start number for each video capture device.
134 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number. This allows
135 you to map capture video nodes to specific videoX device nodes. Example:
139 n_devs=4 vid_cap_nr=2,4,6,8
141 This will attempt to assign /dev/video2 for the video capture device of
142 the first vivid instance, video4 for the next up to video8 for the last
143 instance. If it can't succeed, then it will just take the next free
148 give the desired videoX start number for each video output device.
149 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
153 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi capture device.
154 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
158 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi output device.
159 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
163 give the desired radioX start number for each radio receiver device.
164 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
168 give the desired radioX start number for each radio transmitter
169 device. The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
173 give the desired swradioX start number for each SDR capture device.
174 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
178 specify the allowed video capture crop/compose/scaling combination
179 for each driver instance. Video capture devices can have any combination
180 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
181 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
182 select this through controls.
184 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
185 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
189 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
193 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
194 picture into a larger buffer.
198 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
199 picture. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
200 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
201 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
204 Note that this value is ignored by webcam inputs: those enumerate
205 discrete framesizes and that is incompatible with cropping, composing
210 specify the allowed video output crop/compose/scaling combination
211 for each driver instance. Video output devices can have any combination
212 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
213 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
214 select this through controls.
216 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
217 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
221 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
226 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
227 buffer into a larger picture frame.
231 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
232 buffer. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
233 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
234 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
239 select whether each device instance supports multi-planar formats,
240 and thus the V4L2 multi-planar API. By default device instances are
243 This module option can override that for each instance. Values are:
245 - 1: this is a single-planar instance.
246 - 2: this is a multi-planar instance.
250 enable driver debugging info
254 if set disable the error injecting controls. This option is
255 needed in order to run a tool like v4l2-compliance. Tools like that
256 exercise all controls including a control like 'Disconnect' which
257 emulates a USB disconnect, making the device inaccessible and so
258 all tests that v4l2-compliance is doing will fail afterwards.
260 There may be other situations as well where you want to disable the
261 error injection support of vivid. When this option is set, then the
262 controls that select crop, compose and scale behavior are also
263 removed. Unless overridden by ccs_cap_mode and/or ccs_out_mode the
264 will default to enabling crop, compose and scaling.
268 memory allocator selection, default is 0. It specifies the way buffers
274 Taken together, all these module options allow you to precisely customize
275 the driver behavior and test your application with all sorts of permutations.
276 It is also very suitable to emulate hardware that is not yet available, e.g.
277 when developing software for a new upcoming device.
283 This is probably the most frequently used feature. The video capture device
284 can be configured by using the module options num_inputs, input_types and
285 ccs_cap_mode (see section 1 for more detailed information), but by default
286 four inputs are configured: a webcam, a TV tuner, an S-Video and an HDMI
287 input, one input for each input type. Those are described in more detail
290 Special attention has been given to the rate at which new frames become
291 available. The jitter will be around 1 jiffie (that depends on the HZ
292 configuration of your kernel, so usually 1/100, 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second),
293 but the long-term behavior is exactly following the framerate. So a
294 framerate of 59.94 Hz is really different from 60 Hz. If the framerate
295 exceeds your kernel's HZ value, then you will get dropped frames, but the
296 frame/field sequence counting will keep track of that so the sequence
297 count will skip whenever frames are dropped.
303 The webcam input supports three framesizes: 320x180, 640x360 and 1280x720. It
304 supports frames per second settings of 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. Which ones
305 are available depends on the chosen framesize: the larger the framesize, the
306 lower the maximum frames per second.
308 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the webcam input will be
312 TV and S-Video Inputs
313 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
315 The only difference between the TV and S-Video input is that the TV has a
316 tuner. Otherwise they behave identically.
318 These inputs support audio inputs as well: one TV and one Line-In. They
319 both support all TV standards. If the standard is queried, then the Vivid
320 controls 'Standard Signal Mode' and 'Standard' determine what
323 These inputs support all combinations of the field setting. Special care has
324 been taken to faithfully reproduce how fields are handled for the different
325 TV standards. This is particularly noticeable when generating a horizontally
326 moving image so the temporal effect of using interlaced formats becomes clearly
327 visible. For 50 Hz standards the top field is the oldest and the bottom field
328 is the newest in time. For 60 Hz standards that is reversed: the bottom field
329 is the oldest and the top field is the newest in time.
331 When you start capturing in V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE mode the first buffer will
332 contain the top field for 50 Hz standards and the bottom field for 60 Hz
333 standards. This is what capture hardware does as well.
335 Finally, for PAL/SECAM standards the first half of the top line contains noise.
336 This simulates the Wide Screen Signal that is commonly placed there.
338 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
341 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the TV standard. The video aspect ratio
342 can be selected through the 'Standard Aspect Ratio' Vivid control.
343 Choices are '4x3', '16x9' which will give letterboxed widescreen video and
344 '16x9 Anamorphic' which will give full screen squashed anamorphic widescreen
345 video that will need to be scaled accordingly.
347 The TV 'tuner' supports a frequency range of 44-958 MHz. Channels are available
348 every 6 MHz, starting from 49.25 MHz. For each channel the generated image
349 will be in color for the +/- 0.25 MHz around it, and in grayscale for
350 +/- 1 MHz around the channel. Beyond that it is just noise. The VIDIOC_G_TUNER
351 ioctl will return 100% signal strength for +/- 0.25 MHz and 50% for +/- 1 MHz.
352 It will also return correct afc values to show whether the frequency is too
355 The audio subchannels that are returned are MONO for the +/- 1 MHz range around
356 a valid channel frequency. When the frequency is within +/- 0.25 MHz of the
357 channel it will return either MONO, STEREO, either MONO | SAP (for NTSC) or
358 LANG1 | LANG2 (for others), or STEREO | SAP.
360 Which one is returned depends on the chosen channel, each next valid channel
361 will cycle through the possible audio subchannel combinations. This allows
362 you to test the various combinations by just switching channels..
364 Finally, for these inputs the v4l2_timecode struct is filled in in the
365 dequeued v4l2_buffer struct.
371 The HDMI inputs supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
372 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
373 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE. For HDMI the
374 field order is always top field first, and when you start capturing an
375 interlaced format you will receive the top field first.
377 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI input or
378 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
379 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
380 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
382 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
383 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
384 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
386 The video aspect ratio can be selected through the 'DV Timings Aspect Ratio'
387 Vivid control. Choices are 'Source Width x Height' (just use the
388 same ratio as the chosen format), '4x3' or '16x9', either of which can
389 result in pillarboxed or letterboxed video.
391 For HDMI inputs it is possible to set the EDID. By default a simple EDID
392 is provided. You can only set the EDID for HDMI inputs. Internally, however,
393 the EDID is shared between all HDMI inputs.
395 No interpretation is done of the EDID data with the exception of the
396 physical address. See the CEC section for more details.
398 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI inputs (if there are more, then they will be
399 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address.
405 The video output device can be configured by using the module options
406 num_outputs, output_types and ccs_out_mode (see section 1 for more detailed
407 information), but by default two outputs are configured: an S-Video and an
408 HDMI input, one output for each output type. Those are described in more detail
411 Like with video capture the framerate is also exact in the long term.
417 This output supports audio outputs as well: "Line-Out 1" and "Line-Out 2".
418 The S-Video output supports all TV standards.
420 This output supports all combinations of the field setting.
422 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
429 The HDMI output supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
430 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
431 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE.
433 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI output or
434 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
435 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
436 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
438 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
439 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
440 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
442 An HDMI output has a valid EDID which can be obtained through VIDIOC_G_EDID.
444 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI outputs (if there are more, then they will be
445 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address. See
446 also the CEC section for more details.
451 There are three types of VBI capture devices: those that only support raw
452 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
453 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option. In all
454 cases the driver will generate valid VBI data: for 60 Hz standards it will
455 generate Closed Caption and XDS data. The closed caption stream will
456 alternate between "Hello world!" and "Closed captions test" every second.
457 The XDS stream will give the current time once a minute. For 50 Hz standards
458 it will generate the Wide Screen Signal which is based on the actual Video
459 Aspect Ratio control setting and teletext pages 100-159, one page per frame.
461 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video and TV inputs, it will give
462 back an error if the current input is a webcam or HDMI.
468 There are three types of VBI output devices: those that only support raw
469 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
470 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option.
472 The sliced VBI output supports the Wide Screen Signal and the teletext signal
473 for 50 Hz standards and Closed Captioning + XDS for 60 Hz standards.
475 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video output, it will give
476 back an error if the current output is HDMI.
482 The radio receiver emulates an FM/AM/SW receiver. The FM band also supports RDS.
483 The frequency ranges are:
485 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
486 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
487 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
489 Valid channels are emulated every 1 MHz for FM and every 100 kHz for AM and SW.
490 The signal strength decreases the further the frequency is from the valid
491 frequency until it becomes 0% at +/- 50 kHz (FM) or 5 kHz (AM/SW) from the
492 ideal frequency. The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is set to
495 The FM receiver supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
496 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the RDS information is stored in read-only
497 controls. These controls are updated every time the frequency is changed,
498 or when the tuner status is requested. The Block I/O method uses the read()
499 interface to pass the RDS blocks on to the application for decoding.
501 The RDS signal is 'detected' for +/- 12.5 kHz around the channel frequency,
502 and the further the frequency is away from the valid frequency the more RDS
503 errors are randomly introduced into the block I/O stream, up to 50% of all
504 blocks if you are +/- 12.5 kHz from the channel frequency. All four errors
505 can occur in equal proportions: blocks marked 'CORRECTED', blocks marked
506 'ERROR', blocks marked 'INVALID' and dropped blocks.
508 The generated RDS stream contains all the standard fields contained in a
509 0B group, and also radio text and the current time.
511 The receiver supports HW frequency seek, either in Bounded mode, Wrap Around
512 mode or both, which is configurable with the "Radio HW Seek Mode" control.
518 The radio transmitter emulates an FM/AM/SW transmitter. The FM band also supports RDS.
519 The frequency ranges are:
521 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
522 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
523 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
525 The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is 95.5 MHz.
527 The FM transmitter supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
528 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the transmitted RDS information is configured
529 using controls, and in 'Block I/O' mode the blocks are passed to the driver
533 Software Defined Radio Receiver
534 -------------------------------
536 The SDR receiver has three frequency bands for the ADC tuner:
542 The RF tuner supports 50 MHz - 2000 MHz.
544 The generated data contains the In-phase and Quadrature components of a
545 1 kHz tone that has an amplitude of sqrt(2).
551 Different devices support different controls. The sections below will describe
552 each control and which devices support them.
555 User Controls - Test Controls
556 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
558 The Button, Boolean, Integer 32 Bits, Integer 64 Bits, Menu, String, Bitmask and
559 Integer Menu are controls that represent all possible control types. The Menu
560 control and the Integer Menu control both have 'holes' in their menu list,
561 meaning that one or more menu items return EINVAL when VIDIOC_QUERYMENU is called.
562 Both menu controls also have a non-zero minimum control value. These features
563 allow you to check if your application can handle such things correctly.
564 These controls are supported for every device type.
567 User Controls - Video Capture
568 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
570 The following controls are specific to video capture.
572 The Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue controls actually work and are
573 standard. There is one special feature with the Brightness control: each
574 video input has its own brightness value, so changing input will restore
575 the brightness for that input. In addition, each video input uses a different
576 brightness range (minimum and maximum control values). Switching inputs will
577 cause a control event to be sent with the V4L2_EVENT_CTRL_CH_RANGE flag set.
578 This allows you to test controls that can change their range.
580 The 'Gain, Automatic' and Gain controls can be used to test volatile controls:
581 if 'Gain, Automatic' is set, then the Gain control is volatile and changes
582 constantly. If 'Gain, Automatic' is cleared, then the Gain control is a normal
585 The 'Horizontal Flip' and 'Vertical Flip' controls can be used to flip the
586 image. These combine with the 'Sensor Flipped Horizontally/Vertically' Vivid
589 The 'Alpha Component' control can be used to set the alpha component for
590 formats containing an alpha channel.
593 User Controls - Audio
594 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
596 The following controls are specific to video capture and output and radio
597 receivers and transmitters.
599 The 'Volume' and 'Mute' audio controls are typical for such devices to
600 control the volume and mute the audio. They don't actually do anything in
607 These vivid custom controls control the image generation, error injection, etc.
610 Test Pattern Controls
611 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
613 The Test Pattern Controls are all specific to video capture.
617 selects which test pattern to use. Use the CSC Colorbar for
618 testing colorspace conversions: the colors used in that test pattern
619 map to valid colors in all colorspaces. The colorspace conversion
620 is disabled for the other test patterns.
624 selects whether the text superimposed on the
625 test pattern should be shown, and if so, whether only counters should
626 be displayed or the full text.
628 - Horizontal Movement:
630 selects whether the test pattern should
631 move to the left or right and at what speed.
635 does the same for the vertical direction.
639 show a two-pixel wide border at the edge of the actual image,
640 excluding letter or pillarboxing.
644 show a square in the middle of the image. If the image is
645 displayed with the correct pixel and image aspect ratio corrections,
646 then the width and height of the square on the monitor should be
649 - Insert SAV Code in Image:
651 adds a SAV (Start of Active Video) code to the image.
652 This can be used to check if such codes in the image are inadvertently
653 interpreted instead of being ignored.
655 - Insert EAV Code in Image:
657 does the same for the EAV (End of Active Video) code.
660 Capture Feature Selection Controls
661 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
663 These controls are all specific to video capture.
665 - Sensor Flipped Horizontally:
667 the image is flipped horizontally and the
668 V4L2_IN_ST_HFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
669 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
671 - Sensor Flipped Vertically:
673 the image is flipped vertically and the
674 V4L2_IN_ST_VFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
675 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
677 - Standard Aspect Ratio:
679 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the TV or
680 S-Video input should be 4x3, 16x9 or anamorphic widescreen. This may
681 introduce letterboxing.
683 - DV Timings Aspect Ratio:
685 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the HDMI
686 input should be the same as the source width and height ratio, or if
687 it should be 4x3 or 16x9. This may introduce letter or pillarboxing.
691 selects when the timestamp for each buffer is taken.
695 selects which colorspace should be used when generating the image.
696 This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is selected,
697 otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
698 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
699 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
700 by colorspace conversions.
702 Changing the colorspace will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
703 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
707 selects which colorspace transfer function should be used when
708 generating an image. This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is
709 selected, otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
710 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
711 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
712 by colorspace conversions.
714 Changing the transfer function will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
715 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
719 selects which Y'CbCr encoding should be used when generating
720 a Y'CbCr image. This only applies if the format is set to a Y'CbCr format
721 as opposed to an RGB format.
723 Changing the Y'CbCr encoding will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
724 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
728 selects which quantization should be used for the RGB or Y'CbCr
729 encoding when generating the test pattern.
731 Changing the quantization will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
732 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
734 - Limited RGB Range (16-235):
736 selects if the RGB range of the HDMI source should
737 be limited or full range. This combines with the Digital Video 'Rx RGB
738 Quantization Range' control and can be used to test what happens if
739 a source provides you with the wrong quantization range information.
740 See the description of that control for more details.
742 - Apply Alpha To Red Only:
744 apply the alpha channel as set by the 'Alpha Component'
745 user control to the red color of the test pattern only.
747 - Enable Capture Cropping:
749 enables crop support. This control is only present if
750 the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
751 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
753 - Enable Capture Composing:
755 enables composing support. This control is only
756 present if the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of
757 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
759 - Enable Capture Scaler:
761 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
762 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_cap_mode
763 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
764 module option is set to 0 (the default).
766 - Maximum EDID Blocks:
768 determines how many EDID blocks the driver supports.
769 Note that the vivid driver does not actually interpret new EDID
770 data, it just stores it. It allows for up to 256 EDID blocks
771 which is the maximum supported by the standard.
773 - Fill Percentage of Frame:
775 can be used to draw only the top X percent
776 of the image. Since each frame has to be drawn by the driver, this
777 demands a lot of the CPU. For large resolutions this becomes
778 problematic. By drawing only part of the image this CPU load can
782 Output Feature Selection Controls
783 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
785 These controls are all specific to video output.
787 - Enable Output Cropping:
789 enables crop support. This control is only present if
790 the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
791 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
793 - Enable Output Composing:
795 enables composing support. This control is only
796 present if the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of
797 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
799 - Enable Output Scaler:
801 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
802 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_out_mode
803 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
804 module option is set to 0 (the default).
807 Error Injection Controls
808 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
810 The following two controls are only valid for video and vbi capture.
812 - Standard Signal Mode:
814 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERYSTD: what should it return?
816 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
817 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
818 was plugged in or out).
822 selects the standard that VIDIOC_QUERYSTD should return if the
823 previous control is set to "Selected Standard".
825 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
826 to be sent since it emulates a changed input standard.
829 The following two controls are only valid for video capture.
831 - DV Timings Signal Mode:
833 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS: what
836 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
837 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
838 was plugged in or out).
842 selects the timings the VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS should return
843 if the previous control is set to "Selected DV Timings".
845 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
846 to be sent since it emulates changed input timings.
849 The following controls are only present if the no_error_inj module option
850 is set to 0 (the default). These controls are valid for video and vbi
851 capture and output streams and for the SDR capture device except for the
852 Disconnect control which is valid for all devices.
854 - Wrap Sequence Number:
856 test what happens when you wrap the sequence number in
857 struct v4l2_buffer around.
861 test what happens when you wrap the timestamp in struct
864 - Percentage of Dropped Buffers:
866 sets the percentage of buffers that
867 are never returned by the driver (i.e., they are dropped).
871 emulates a USB disconnect. The device will act as if it has
872 been disconnected. Only after all open filehandles to the device
873 node have been closed will the device become 'connected' again.
875 - Inject V4L2_BUF_FLAG_ERROR:
877 when pressed, the next frame returned by
878 the driver will have the error flag set (i.e. the frame is marked
881 - Inject VIDIOC_REQBUFS Error:
883 when pressed, the next REQBUFS or CREATE_BUFS
884 ioctl call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
885 queue_setup() op will return -EINVAL.
887 - Inject VIDIOC_QBUF Error:
889 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_QBUF or
890 VIDIOC_PREPARE_BUFFER ioctl call will fail with an error. To be
891 precise: the videobuf2 buf_prepare() op will return -EINVAL.
893 - Inject VIDIOC_STREAMON Error:
895 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_STREAMON ioctl
896 call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
897 start_streaming() op will return -EINVAL.
899 - Inject Fatal Streaming Error:
901 when pressed, the streaming core will be
902 marked as having suffered a fatal error, the only way to recover
903 from that is to stop streaming. To be precise: the videobuf2
904 vb2_queue_error() function is called.
907 VBI Raw Capture Controls
908 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
910 - Interlaced VBI Format:
912 if set, then the raw VBI data will be interlaced instead
913 of providing it grouped by field.
916 Digital Video Controls
917 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
919 - Rx RGB Quantization Range:
921 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
922 input. This combines with the Vivid 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
923 control and can be used to test what happens if a source provides
924 you with the wrong quantization range information. This can be tested
925 by selecting an HDMI input, setting this control to Full or Limited
926 range and selecting the opposite in the 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
927 control. The effect is easy to see if the 'Gray Ramp' test pattern
930 - Tx RGB Quantization Range:
932 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
933 output. It is currently not used for anything in vivid, but most HDMI
934 transmitters would typically have this control.
938 sets the transmit mode of the HDMI output to HDMI or DVI-D. This
939 affects the reported colorspace since DVI_D outputs will always use
943 FM Radio Receiver Controls
944 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
948 set if the RDS receiver should be enabled.
959 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
962 - RDS Traffic Program:
967 these are all read-only controls. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set to
968 "Block I/O", then they are inactive as well. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set
969 to "Controls", then these controls report the received RDS data.
972 The vivid implementation of this is pretty basic: they are only
973 updated when you set a new frequency or when you get the tuner status
976 - Radio HW Seek Mode:
978 can be one of "Bounded", "Wrap Around" or "Both". This
979 determines if VIDIOC_S_HW_FREQ_SEEK will be bounded by the frequency
980 range or wrap-around or if it is selectable by the user.
982 - Radio Programmable HW Seek:
984 if set, then the user can provide the lower and
985 upper bound of the HW Seek. Otherwise the frequency range boundaries
988 - Generate RBDS Instead of RDS:
990 if set, then generate RBDS (the US variant of
991 RDS) data instead of RDS (European-style RDS). This affects only the
992 PICODE and PTY codes.
996 this can be "Block I/O" where the RDS blocks have to be read()
997 by the application, or "Controls" where the RDS data is provided by
998 the RDS controls mentioned above.
1001 FM Radio Modulator Controls
1002 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1019 - RDS Artificial Head:
1028 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
1031 - RDS Traffic Program:
1036 these are all controls that set the RDS data that is transmitted by
1041 this can be "Block I/O" where the application has to use write()
1042 to pass the RDS blocks to the driver, or "Controls" where the RDS data
1043 is Provided by the RDS controls mentioned above.
1046 Video, VBI and RDS Looping
1047 --------------------------
1049 The vivid driver supports looping of video output to video input, VBI output
1050 to VBI input and RDS output to RDS input. For video/VBI looping this emulates
1051 as if a cable was hooked up between the output and input connector. So video
1052 and VBI looping is only supported between S-Video and HDMI inputs and outputs.
1053 VBI is only valid for S-Video as it makes no sense for HDMI.
1055 Since radio is wireless this looping always happens if the radio receiver
1056 frequency is close to the radio transmitter frequency. In that case the radio
1057 transmitter will 'override' the emulated radio stations.
1059 Looping is currently supported only between devices created by the same
1060 vivid driver instance.
1063 Video and Sliced VBI looping
1064 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1066 The way to enable video/VBI looping is currently fairly crude. A 'Loop Video'
1067 control is available in the "Vivid" control class of the video
1068 capture and VBI capture devices. When checked the video looping will be enabled.
1069 Once enabled any video S-Video or HDMI input will show a static test pattern
1070 until the video output has started. At that time the video output will be
1071 looped to the video input provided that:
1073 - the input type matches the output type. So the HDMI input cannot receive
1074 video from the S-Video output.
1076 - the video resolution of the video input must match that of the video output.
1077 So it is not possible to loop a 50 Hz (720x576) S-Video output to a 60 Hz
1078 (720x480) S-Video input, or a 720p60 HDMI output to a 1080p30 input.
1080 - the pixel formats must be identical on both sides. Otherwise the driver would
1081 have to do pixel format conversion as well, and that's taking things too far.
1083 - the field settings must be identical on both sides. Same reason as above:
1084 requiring the driver to convert from one field format to another complicated
1085 matters too much. This also prohibits capturing with 'Field Top' or 'Field
1086 Bottom' when the output video is set to 'Field Alternate'. This combination,
1087 while legal, became too complicated to support. Both sides have to be 'Field
1088 Alternate' for this to work. Also note that for this specific case the
1089 sequence and field counting in struct v4l2_buffer on the capture side may not
1092 - field settings V4L2_FIELD_SEQ_TB/BT are not supported. While it is possible to
1093 implement this, it would mean a lot of work to get this right. Since these
1094 field values are rarely used the decision was made not to implement this for
1097 - on the input side the "Standard Signal Mode" for the S-Video input or the
1098 "DV Timings Signal Mode" for the HDMI input should be configured so that a
1099 valid signal is passed to the video input.
1101 The framerates do not have to match, although this might change in the future.
1103 By default you will see the OSD text superimposed on top of the looped video.
1104 This can be turned off by changing the "OSD Text Mode" control of the video
1107 For VBI looping to work all of the above must be valid and in addition the vbi
1108 output must be configured for sliced VBI. The VBI capture side can be configured
1109 for either raw or sliced VBI. Note that at the moment only CC/XDS (60 Hz formats)
1110 and WSS (50 Hz formats) VBI data is looped. Teletext VBI data is not looped.
1116 As mentioned in section 6 the radio receiver emulates stations are regular
1117 frequency intervals. Depending on the frequency of the radio receiver a
1118 signal strength value is calculated (this is returned by VIDIOC_G_TUNER).
1119 However, it will also look at the frequency set by the radio transmitter and
1120 if that results in a higher signal strength than the settings of the radio
1121 transmitter will be used as if it was a valid station. This also includes
1122 the RDS data (if any) that the transmitter 'transmits'. This is received
1123 faithfully on the receiver side. Note that when the driver is loaded the
1124 frequencies of the radio receiver and transmitter are not identical, so
1125 initially no looping takes place.
1128 Cropping, Composing, Scaling
1129 ----------------------------
1131 This driver supports cropping, composing and scaling in any combination. Normally
1132 which features are supported can be selected through the Vivid controls,
1133 but it is also possible to hardcode it when the module is loaded through the
1134 ccs_cap_mode and ccs_out_mode module options. See section 1 on the details of
1135 these module options.
1137 This allows you to test your application for all these variations.
1139 Note that the webcam input never supports cropping, composing or scaling. That
1140 only applies to the TV/S-Video/HDMI inputs and outputs. The reason is that
1141 webcams, including this virtual implementation, normally use
1142 VIDIOC_ENUM_FRAMESIZES to list a set of discrete framesizes that it supports.
1143 And that does not combine with cropping, composing or scaling. This is
1144 primarily a limitation of the V4L2 API which is carefully reproduced here.
1146 The minimum and maximum resolutions that the scaler can achieve are 16x16 and
1147 (4096 * 4) x (2160 x 4), but it can only scale up or down by a factor of 4 or
1148 less. So for a source resolution of 1280x720 the minimum the scaler can do is
1149 320x180 and the maximum is 5120x2880. You can play around with this using the
1150 qv4l2 test tool and you will see these dependencies.
1152 This driver also supports larger 'bytesperline' settings, something that
1153 VIDIOC_S_FMT allows but that few drivers implement.
1155 The scaler is a simple scaler that uses the Coarse Bresenham algorithm. It's
1156 designed for speed and simplicity, not quality.
1158 If the combination of crop, compose and scaling allows it, then it is possible
1159 to change crop and compose rectangles on the fly.
1165 The driver supports all the regular packed and planar 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0
1166 YUYV formats, 8, 16, 24 and 32 RGB packed formats and various multiplanar
1169 The alpha component can be set through the 'Alpha Component' User control
1170 for those formats that support it. If the 'Apply Alpha To Red Only' control
1171 is set, then the alpha component is only used for the color red and set to
1174 The driver has to be configured to support the multiplanar formats. By default
1175 the driver instances are single-planar. This can be changed by setting the
1176 multiplanar module option, see section 1 for more details on that option.
1178 If the driver instance is using the multiplanar formats/API, then the first
1179 single planar format (YUYV) and the multiplanar NV16M and NV61M formats the
1180 will have a plane that has a non-zero data_offset of 128 bytes. It is rare for
1181 data_offset to be non-zero, so this is a useful feature for testing applications.
1183 Video output will also honor any data_offset that the application set.
1189 Note: capture overlay support is implemented primarily to test the existing
1190 V4L2 capture overlay API. In practice few if any GPUs support such overlays
1191 anymore, and neither are they generally needed anymore since modern hardware
1192 is so much more capable. By setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module
1193 option the vivid driver will create a simple framebuffer device that can be
1194 used for testing this API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1197 This driver has support for a destructive capture overlay with bitmap clipping
1198 and list clipping (up to 16 rectangles) capabilities. Overlays are not
1199 supported for multiplanar formats. It also honors the struct v4l2_window field
1200 setting: if it is set to FIELD_TOP or FIELD_BOTTOM and the capture setting is
1201 FIELD_ALTERNATE, then only the top or bottom fields will be copied to the overlay.
1203 The overlay only works if you are also capturing at that same time. This is a
1204 vivid limitation since it copies from a buffer to the overlay instead of
1205 filling the overlay directly. And if you are not capturing, then no buffers
1206 are available to fill.
1208 In addition, the pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer
1209 must be the same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return
1212 In order to really see what it going on you will need to create two vivid
1213 instances: the first with a framebuffer enabled. You configure the capture
1214 overlay of the second instance to use the framebuffer of the first, then
1215 you start capturing in the second instance. For the first instance you setup
1216 the output overlay for the video output, turn on video looping and capture
1217 to see the blended framebuffer overlay that's being written to by the second
1218 instance. This setup would require the following commands:
1220 .. code-block:: none
1222 $ sudo modprobe vivid n_devs=2 node_types=0x10101,0x1
1223 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --find-fb
1224 /dev/fb1 is the framebuffer associated with base address 0x12800000
1225 $ sudo v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fbuf fb=1
1226 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fbuf fb=1
1227 $ v4l2-ctl -d0 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1228 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fmt-video-out=pixelformat='AR15'
1229 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1232 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 -c horizontal_movement=4
1233 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --overlay=1
1234 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 -c loop_video=1
1235 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --stream-mmap --overlay=1
1237 And from another console:
1239 .. code-block:: none
1241 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --stream-out-mmap
1243 And yet another console:
1245 .. code-block:: none
1249 and start streaming.
1251 As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart...
1257 Note: output overlays are primarily implemented in order to test the existing
1258 V4L2 output overlay API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1261 This driver has support for an output overlay and is capable of:
1264 - list clipping (up to 16 rectangles)
1269 - local inverse alpha
1271 Output overlays are not supported for multiplanar formats. In addition, the
1272 pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer must be the
1273 same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return an error.
1275 Output overlays only work if the driver has been configured to create a
1276 framebuffer by setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module option. The
1277 created framebuffer has a size of 720x576 and supports ARGB 1:5:5:5 and
1280 In order to see the effects of the various clipping, chromakeying or alpha
1281 processing capabilities you need to turn on video looping and see the results
1282 on the capture side. The use of the clipping, chromakeying or alpha processing
1283 capabilities will slow down the video loop considerably as a lot of checks have
1284 to be done per pixel.
1287 CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)
1288 ----------------------------------
1290 If there are HDMI inputs then a CEC adapter will be created that has
1291 the same number of input ports. This is the equivalent of e.g. a TV that
1292 has that number of inputs. Each HDMI output will also create a
1293 CEC adapter that is hooked up to the corresponding input port, or (if there
1294 are more outputs than inputs) is not hooked up at all. In other words,
1295 this is the equivalent of hooking up each output device to an input port of
1296 the TV. Any remaining output devices remain unconnected.
1298 The EDID that each output reads reports a unique CEC physical address that is
1299 based on the physical address of the EDID of the input. So if the EDID of the
1300 receiver has physical address A.B.0.0, then each output will see an EDID
1301 containing physical address A.B.C.0 where C is 1 to the number of inputs. If
1302 there are more outputs than inputs then the remaining outputs have a CEC adapter
1303 that is disabled and reports an invalid physical address.
1306 Some Future Improvements
1307 ------------------------
1309 Just as a reminder and in no particular order:
1311 - Add a virtual alsa driver to test audio
1312 - Add virtual sub-devices and media controller support
1313 - Some support for testing compressed video
1314 - Add support to loop raw VBI output to raw VBI input
1315 - Add support to loop teletext sliced VBI output to VBI input
1316 - Fix sequence/field numbering when looping of video with alternate fields
1317 - Add support for V4L2_CID_BG_COLOR for video outputs
1318 - Add ARGB888 overlay support: better testing of the alpha channel
1319 - Improve pixel aspect support in the tpg code by passing a real v4l2_fract
1320 - Use per-queue locks and/or per-device locks to improve throughput
1321 - Add support to loop from a specific output to a specific input across
1323 - The SDR radio should use the same 'frequencies' for stations as the normal
1324 radio receiver, and give back noise if the frequency doesn't match up with
1326 - Make a thread for the RDS generation, that would help in particular for the
1327 "Controls" RDS Rx I/O Mode as the read-only RDS controls could be updated
1329 - Changing the EDID should cause hotplug detect emulation to happen.