1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 The Virtual Video Test Driver (vivid)
4 =====================================
6 This driver emulates video4linux hardware of various types: video capture, video
7 output, vbi capture and output, metadata capture and output, radio receivers and
8 transmitters, touch capture and a software defined radio receiver. In addition a
9 simple framebuffer device is available for testing capture and output overlays.
11 Up to 64 vivid instances can be created, each with up to 16 inputs and 16 outputs.
13 Each input can be a webcam, TV capture device, S-Video capture device or an HDMI
14 capture device. Each output can be an S-Video output device or an HDMI output
17 These inputs and outputs act exactly as a real hardware device would behave. This
18 allows you to use this driver as a test input for application development, since
19 you can test the various features without requiring special hardware.
21 This document describes the features implemented by this driver:
23 - Support for read()/write(), MMAP, USERPTR and DMABUF streaming I/O.
24 - A large list of test patterns and variations thereof
25 - Working brightness, contrast, saturation and hue controls
26 - Support for the alpha color component
27 - Full colorspace support, including limited/full RGB range
28 - All possible control types are present
29 - Support for various pixel aspect ratios and video aspect ratios
30 - Error injection to test what happens if errors occur
31 - Supports crop/compose/scale in any combination for both input and output
32 - Can emulate up to 4K resolutions
33 - All Field settings are supported for testing interlaced capturing
34 - Supports all standard YUV and RGB formats, including two multiplanar YUV formats
35 - Raw and Sliced VBI capture and output support
36 - Radio receiver and transmitter support, including RDS support
37 - Software defined radio (SDR) support
38 - Capture and output overlay support
39 - Metadata capture and output support
40 - Touch capture support
42 These features will be described in more detail below.
44 Configuring the driver
45 ----------------------
47 By default the driver will create a single instance that has a video capture
48 device with webcam, TV, S-Video and HDMI inputs, a video output device with
49 S-Video and HDMI outputs, one vbi capture device, one vbi output device, one
50 radio receiver device, one radio transmitter device and one SDR device.
52 The number of instances, devices, video inputs and outputs and their types are
53 all configurable using the following module options:
57 number of driver instances to create. By default set to 1. Up to 64
58 instances can be created.
62 which devices should each driver instance create. An array of
63 hexadecimal values, one for each instance. The default is 0xe1d3d.
64 Each value is a bitmask with the following meaning:
66 - bit 0: Video Capture node
67 - bit 2-3: VBI Capture node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
68 - bit 4: Radio Receiver node
69 - bit 5: Software Defined Radio Receiver node
70 - bit 8: Video Output node
71 - bit 10-11: VBI Output node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
72 - bit 12: Radio Transmitter node
73 - bit 16: Framebuffer for testing overlays
74 - bit 17: Metadata Capture node
75 - bit 18: Metadata Output node
76 - bit 19: Touch Capture node
78 So to create four instances, the first two with just one video capture
79 device, the second two with just one video output device you would pass
80 these module options to vivid:
84 n_devs=4 node_types=0x1,0x1,0x100,0x100
88 the number of inputs, one for each instance. By default 4 inputs
89 are created for each video capture device. At most 16 inputs can be created,
90 and there must be at least one.
94 the input types for each instance, the default is 0xe4. This defines
95 what the type of each input is when the inputs are created for each driver
96 instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 pairs of bits, each
97 pair gives the type and bits 0-1 map to input 0, bits 2-3 map to input 1,
98 30-31 map to input 15. Each pair of bits has the following meaning:
100 - 00: this is a webcam input
101 - 01: this is a TV tuner input
102 - 10: this is an S-Video input
103 - 11: this is an HDMI input
105 So to create a video capture device with 8 inputs where input 0 is a TV
106 tuner, inputs 1-3 are S-Video inputs and inputs 4-7 are HDMI inputs you
107 would use the following module options:
111 num_inputs=8 input_types=0xffa9
115 the number of outputs, one for each instance. By default 2 outputs
116 are created for each video output device. At most 16 outputs can be
117 created, and there must be at least one.
121 the output types for each instance, the default is 0x02. This defines
122 what the type of each output is when the outputs are created for each
123 driver instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 bits, each bit
124 gives the type and bit 0 maps to output 0, bit 1 maps to output 1, bit
125 15 maps to output 15. The meaning of each bit is as follows:
127 - 0: this is an S-Video output
128 - 1: this is an HDMI output
130 So to create a video output device with 8 outputs where outputs 0-3 are
131 S-Video outputs and outputs 4-7 are HDMI outputs you would use the
132 following module options:
136 num_outputs=8 output_types=0xf0
140 give the desired videoX start number for each video capture device.
141 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number. This allows
142 you to map capture video nodes to specific videoX device nodes. Example:
146 n_devs=4 vid_cap_nr=2,4,6,8
148 This will attempt to assign /dev/video2 for the video capture device of
149 the first vivid instance, video4 for the next up to video8 for the last
150 instance. If it can't succeed, then it will just take the next free
155 give the desired videoX start number for each video output device.
156 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
160 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi capture device.
161 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
165 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi output device.
166 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
170 give the desired radioX start number for each radio receiver device.
171 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
175 give the desired radioX start number for each radio transmitter
176 device. The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
180 give the desired swradioX start number for each SDR capture device.
181 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
185 give the desired videoX start number for each metadata capture device.
186 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
190 give the desired videoX start number for each metadata output device.
191 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
195 give the desired v4l-touchX start number for each touch capture device.
196 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
200 specify the allowed video capture crop/compose/scaling combination
201 for each driver instance. Video capture devices can have any combination
202 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
203 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
204 select this through controls.
206 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
207 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
211 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
215 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
216 picture into a larger buffer.
220 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
221 picture. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
222 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
223 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
226 Note that this value is ignored by webcam inputs: those enumerate
227 discrete framesizes and that is incompatible with cropping, composing
232 specify the allowed video output crop/compose/scaling combination
233 for each driver instance. Video output devices can have any combination
234 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
235 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
236 select this through controls.
238 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
239 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
243 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
248 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
249 buffer into a larger picture frame.
253 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
254 buffer. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
255 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
256 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
261 select whether each device instance supports multi-planar formats,
262 and thus the V4L2 multi-planar API. By default device instances are
265 This module option can override that for each instance. Values are:
267 - 1: this is a single-planar instance.
268 - 2: this is a multi-planar instance.
272 enable driver debugging info
276 if set disable the error injecting controls. This option is
277 needed in order to run a tool like v4l2-compliance. Tools like that
278 exercise all controls including a control like 'Disconnect' which
279 emulates a USB disconnect, making the device inaccessible and so
280 all tests that v4l2-compliance is doing will fail afterwards.
282 There may be other situations as well where you want to disable the
283 error injection support of vivid. When this option is set, then the
284 controls that select crop, compose and scale behavior are also
285 removed. Unless overridden by ccs_cap_mode and/or ccs_out_mode the
286 will default to enabling crop, compose and scaling.
290 memory allocator selection, default is 0. It specifies the way buffers
298 specifies if the device should set queues' user-space cache and memory
299 consistency hint capability (V4L2_BUF_CAP_SUPPORTS_MMAP_CACHE_HINTS).
300 The hints are valid only when using MMAP streaming I/O. Default is 0.
307 specifies if the device should support the Request API. There are
308 three possible values, default is 1:
311 - 1: supports requests
312 - 2: requires requests
314 Taken together, all these module options allow you to precisely customize
315 the driver behavior and test your application with all sorts of permutations.
316 It is also very suitable to emulate hardware that is not yet available, e.g.
317 when developing software for a new upcoming device.
323 This is probably the most frequently used feature. The video capture device
324 can be configured by using the module options num_inputs, input_types and
325 ccs_cap_mode (see "Configuring the driver" for more detailed information),
326 but by default four inputs are configured: a webcam, a TV tuner, an S-Video
327 and an HDMI input, one input for each input type. Those are described in more
330 Special attention has been given to the rate at which new frames become
331 available. The jitter will be around 1 jiffy (that depends on the HZ
332 configuration of your kernel, so usually 1/100, 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second),
333 but the long-term behavior is exactly following the framerate. So a
334 framerate of 59.94 Hz is really different from 60 Hz. If the framerate
335 exceeds your kernel's HZ value, then you will get dropped frames, but the
336 frame/field sequence counting will keep track of that so the sequence
337 count will skip whenever frames are dropped.
343 The webcam input supports three framesizes: 320x180, 640x360 and 1280x720. It
344 supports frames per second settings of 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. Which ones
345 are available depends on the chosen framesize: the larger the framesize, the
346 lower the maximum frames per second.
348 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the webcam input will be
352 TV and S-Video Inputs
353 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
355 The only difference between the TV and S-Video input is that the TV has a
356 tuner. Otherwise they behave identically.
358 These inputs support audio inputs as well: one TV and one Line-In. They
359 both support all TV standards. If the standard is queried, then the Vivid
360 controls 'Standard Signal Mode' and 'Standard' determine what
363 These inputs support all combinations of the field setting. Special care has
364 been taken to faithfully reproduce how fields are handled for the different
365 TV standards. This is particularly noticeable when generating a horizontally
366 moving image so the temporal effect of using interlaced formats becomes clearly
367 visible. For 50 Hz standards the top field is the oldest and the bottom field
368 is the newest in time. For 60 Hz standards that is reversed: the bottom field
369 is the oldest and the top field is the newest in time.
371 When you start capturing in V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE mode the first buffer will
372 contain the top field for 50 Hz standards and the bottom field for 60 Hz
373 standards. This is what capture hardware does as well.
375 Finally, for PAL/SECAM standards the first half of the top line contains noise.
376 This simulates the Wide Screen Signal that is commonly placed there.
378 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
381 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the TV standard. The video aspect ratio
382 can be selected through the 'Standard Aspect Ratio' Vivid control.
383 Choices are '4x3', '16x9' which will give letterboxed widescreen video and
384 '16x9 Anamorphic' which will give full screen squashed anamorphic widescreen
385 video that will need to be scaled accordingly.
387 The TV 'tuner' supports a frequency range of 44-958 MHz. Channels are available
388 every 6 MHz, starting from 49.25 MHz. For each channel the generated image
389 will be in color for the +/- 0.25 MHz around it, and in grayscale for
390 +/- 1 MHz around the channel. Beyond that it is just noise. The VIDIOC_G_TUNER
391 ioctl will return 100% signal strength for +/- 0.25 MHz and 50% for +/- 1 MHz.
392 It will also return correct afc values to show whether the frequency is too
395 The audio subchannels that are returned are MONO for the +/- 1 MHz range around
396 a valid channel frequency. When the frequency is within +/- 0.25 MHz of the
397 channel it will return either MONO, STEREO, either MONO | SAP (for NTSC) or
398 LANG1 | LANG2 (for others), or STEREO | SAP.
400 Which one is returned depends on the chosen channel, each next valid channel
401 will cycle through the possible audio subchannel combinations. This allows
402 you to test the various combinations by just switching channels..
404 Finally, for these inputs the v4l2_timecode struct is filled in the
405 dequeued v4l2_buffer struct.
411 The HDMI inputs supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
412 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
413 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE. For HDMI the
414 field order is always top field first, and when you start capturing an
415 interlaced format you will receive the top field first.
417 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI input or
418 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
419 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
420 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
422 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
423 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
424 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
426 The video aspect ratio can be selected through the 'DV Timings Aspect Ratio'
427 Vivid control. Choices are 'Source Width x Height' (just use the
428 same ratio as the chosen format), '4x3' or '16x9', either of which can
429 result in pillarboxed or letterboxed video.
431 For HDMI inputs it is possible to set the EDID. By default a simple EDID
432 is provided. You can only set the EDID for HDMI inputs. Internally, however,
433 the EDID is shared between all HDMI inputs.
435 No interpretation is done of the EDID data with the exception of the
436 physical address. See the CEC section for more details.
438 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI inputs (if there are more, then they will be
439 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address.
445 The video output device can be configured by using the module options
446 num_outputs, output_types and ccs_out_mode (see "Configuring the driver"
447 for more detailed information), but by default two outputs are configured:
448 an S-Video and an HDMI input, one output for each output type. Those are
449 described in more detail below.
451 Like with video capture the framerate is also exact in the long term.
457 This output supports audio outputs as well: "Line-Out 1" and "Line-Out 2".
458 The S-Video output supports all TV standards.
460 This output supports all combinations of the field setting.
462 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
469 The HDMI output supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
470 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
471 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE.
473 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI output or
474 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
475 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
476 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
478 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
479 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
480 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
482 An HDMI output has a valid EDID which can be obtained through VIDIOC_G_EDID.
484 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI outputs (if there are more, then they will be
485 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address. See
486 also the CEC section for more details.
491 There are three types of VBI capture devices: those that only support raw
492 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
493 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option. In all
494 cases the driver will generate valid VBI data: for 60 Hz standards it will
495 generate Closed Caption and XDS data. The closed caption stream will
496 alternate between "Hello world!" and "Closed captions test" every second.
497 The XDS stream will give the current time once a minute. For 50 Hz standards
498 it will generate the Wide Screen Signal which is based on the actual Video
499 Aspect Ratio control setting and teletext pages 100-159, one page per frame.
501 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video and TV inputs, it will give
502 back an error if the current input is a webcam or HDMI.
508 There are three types of VBI output devices: those that only support raw
509 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
510 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option.
512 The sliced VBI output supports the Wide Screen Signal and the teletext signal
513 for 50 Hz standards and Closed Captioning + XDS for 60 Hz standards.
515 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video output, it will give
516 back an error if the current output is HDMI.
522 The radio receiver emulates an FM/AM/SW receiver. The FM band also supports RDS.
523 The frequency ranges are:
525 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
526 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
527 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
529 Valid channels are emulated every 1 MHz for FM and every 100 kHz for AM and SW.
530 The signal strength decreases the further the frequency is from the valid
531 frequency until it becomes 0% at +/- 50 kHz (FM) or 5 kHz (AM/SW) from the
532 ideal frequency. The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is set to
535 The FM receiver supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
536 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the RDS information is stored in read-only
537 controls. These controls are updated every time the frequency is changed,
538 or when the tuner status is requested. The Block I/O method uses the read()
539 interface to pass the RDS blocks on to the application for decoding.
541 The RDS signal is 'detected' for +/- 12.5 kHz around the channel frequency,
542 and the further the frequency is away from the valid frequency the more RDS
543 errors are randomly introduced into the block I/O stream, up to 50% of all
544 blocks if you are +/- 12.5 kHz from the channel frequency. All four errors
545 can occur in equal proportions: blocks marked 'CORRECTED', blocks marked
546 'ERROR', blocks marked 'INVALID' and dropped blocks.
548 The generated RDS stream contains all the standard fields contained in a
549 0B group, and also radio text and the current time.
551 The receiver supports HW frequency seek, either in Bounded mode, Wrap Around
552 mode or both, which is configurable with the "Radio HW Seek Mode" control.
558 The radio transmitter emulates an FM/AM/SW transmitter. The FM band also supports RDS.
559 The frequency ranges are:
561 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
562 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
563 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
565 The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is 95.5 MHz.
567 The FM transmitter supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
568 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the transmitted RDS information is configured
569 using controls, and in 'Block I/O' mode the blocks are passed to the driver
573 Software Defined Radio Receiver
574 -------------------------------
576 The SDR receiver has three frequency bands for the ADC tuner:
582 The RF tuner supports 50 MHz - 2000 MHz.
584 The generated data contains the In-phase and Quadrature components of a
585 1 kHz tone that has an amplitude of sqrt(2).
591 The Metadata capture generates UVC format metadata. The PTS and SCR are
592 transmitted based on the values set in vivid controls.
594 The Metadata device will only work for the Webcam input, it will give
595 back an error for all other inputs.
601 The Metadata output can be used to set brightness, contrast, saturation and hue.
603 The Metadata device will only work for the Webcam output, it will give
604 back an error for all other outputs.
610 The Touch capture generates touch patterns simulating single tap, double tap,
611 triple tap, move from left to right, zoom in, zoom out, palm press (simulating
612 a large area being pressed on a touchpad), and simulating 16 simultaneous
618 Different devices support different controls. The sections below will describe
619 each control and which devices support them.
622 User Controls - Test Controls
623 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
625 The Button, Boolean, Integer 32 Bits, Integer 64 Bits, Menu, String, Bitmask and
626 Integer Menu are controls that represent all possible control types. The Menu
627 control and the Integer Menu control both have 'holes' in their menu list,
628 meaning that one or more menu items return EINVAL when VIDIOC_QUERYMENU is called.
629 Both menu controls also have a non-zero minimum control value. These features
630 allow you to check if your application can handle such things correctly.
631 These controls are supported for every device type.
634 User Controls - Video Capture
635 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
637 The following controls are specific to video capture.
639 The Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue controls actually work and are
640 standard. There is one special feature with the Brightness control: each
641 video input has its own brightness value, so changing input will restore
642 the brightness for that input. In addition, each video input uses a different
643 brightness range (minimum and maximum control values). Switching inputs will
644 cause a control event to be sent with the V4L2_EVENT_CTRL_CH_RANGE flag set.
645 This allows you to test controls that can change their range.
647 The 'Gain, Automatic' and Gain controls can be used to test volatile controls:
648 if 'Gain, Automatic' is set, then the Gain control is volatile and changes
649 constantly. If 'Gain, Automatic' is cleared, then the Gain control is a normal
652 The 'Horizontal Flip' and 'Vertical Flip' controls can be used to flip the
653 image. These combine with the 'Sensor Flipped Horizontally/Vertically' Vivid
656 The 'Alpha Component' control can be used to set the alpha component for
657 formats containing an alpha channel.
660 User Controls - Audio
661 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
663 The following controls are specific to video capture and output and radio
664 receivers and transmitters.
666 The 'Volume' and 'Mute' audio controls are typical for such devices to
667 control the volume and mute the audio. They don't actually do anything in
674 These vivid custom controls control the image generation, error injection, etc.
677 Test Pattern Controls
678 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
680 The Test Pattern Controls are all specific to video capture.
684 selects which test pattern to use. Use the CSC Colorbar for
685 testing colorspace conversions: the colors used in that test pattern
686 map to valid colors in all colorspaces. The colorspace conversion
687 is disabled for the other test patterns.
691 selects whether the text superimposed on the
692 test pattern should be shown, and if so, whether only counters should
693 be displayed or the full text.
695 - Horizontal Movement:
697 selects whether the test pattern should
698 move to the left or right and at what speed.
702 does the same for the vertical direction.
706 show a two-pixel wide border at the edge of the actual image,
707 excluding letter or pillarboxing.
711 show a square in the middle of the image. If the image is
712 displayed with the correct pixel and image aspect ratio corrections,
713 then the width and height of the square on the monitor should be
716 - Insert SAV Code in Image:
718 adds a SAV (Start of Active Video) code to the image.
719 This can be used to check if such codes in the image are inadvertently
720 interpreted instead of being ignored.
722 - Insert EAV Code in Image:
724 does the same for the EAV (End of Active Video) code.
726 - Insert Video Guard Band
728 adds 4 columns of pixels with the HDMI Video Guard Band code at the
729 left hand side of the image. This only works with 3 or 4 byte RGB pixel
730 formats. The RGB pixel value 0xab/0x55/0xab turns out to be equivalent
731 to the HDMI Video Guard Band code that precedes each active video line
732 (see section 5.2.2.1 in the HDMI 1.3 Specification). To test if a video
733 receiver has correct HDMI Video Guard Band processing, enable this
734 control and then move the image to the left hand side of the screen.
735 That will result in video lines that start with multiple pixels that
736 have the same value as the Video Guard Band that precedes them.
737 Receivers that will just keep skipping Video Guard Band values will
738 now fail and either loose sync or these video lines will shift.
741 Capture Feature Selection Controls
742 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
744 These controls are all specific to video capture.
746 - Sensor Flipped Horizontally:
748 the image is flipped horizontally and the
749 V4L2_IN_ST_HFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
750 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
752 - Sensor Flipped Vertically:
754 the image is flipped vertically and the
755 V4L2_IN_ST_VFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
756 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
758 - Standard Aspect Ratio:
760 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the TV or
761 S-Video input should be 4x3, 16x9 or anamorphic widescreen. This may
762 introduce letterboxing.
764 - DV Timings Aspect Ratio:
766 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the HDMI
767 input should be the same as the source width and height ratio, or if
768 it should be 4x3 or 16x9. This may introduce letter or pillarboxing.
772 selects when the timestamp for each buffer is taken.
776 selects which colorspace should be used when generating the image.
777 This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is selected,
778 otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
779 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
780 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
781 by colorspace conversions.
783 Changing the colorspace will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
784 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
788 selects which colorspace transfer function should be used when
789 generating an image. This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is
790 selected, otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
791 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
792 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
793 by colorspace conversions.
795 Changing the transfer function will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
796 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
800 selects which Y'CbCr encoding should be used when generating
801 a Y'CbCr image. This only applies if the format is set to a Y'CbCr format
802 as opposed to an RGB format.
804 Changing the Y'CbCr encoding will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
805 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
809 selects which quantization should be used for the RGB or Y'CbCr
810 encoding when generating the test pattern.
812 Changing the quantization will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
813 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
815 - Limited RGB Range (16-235):
817 selects if the RGB range of the HDMI source should
818 be limited or full range. This combines with the Digital Video 'Rx RGB
819 Quantization Range' control and can be used to test what happens if
820 a source provides you with the wrong quantization range information.
821 See the description of that control for more details.
823 - Apply Alpha To Red Only:
825 apply the alpha channel as set by the 'Alpha Component'
826 user control to the red color of the test pattern only.
828 - Enable Capture Cropping:
830 enables crop support. This control is only present if
831 the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
832 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
834 - Enable Capture Composing:
836 enables composing support. This control is only
837 present if the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of
838 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
840 - Enable Capture Scaler:
842 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
843 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_cap_mode
844 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
845 module option is set to 0 (the default).
847 - Maximum EDID Blocks:
849 determines how many EDID blocks the driver supports.
850 Note that the vivid driver does not actually interpret new EDID
851 data, it just stores it. It allows for up to 256 EDID blocks
852 which is the maximum supported by the standard.
854 - Fill Percentage of Frame:
856 can be used to draw only the top X percent
857 of the image. Since each frame has to be drawn by the driver, this
858 demands a lot of the CPU. For large resolutions this becomes
859 problematic. By drawing only part of the image this CPU load can
863 Output Feature Selection Controls
864 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
866 These controls are all specific to video output.
868 - Enable Output Cropping:
870 enables crop support. This control is only present if
871 the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
872 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
874 - Enable Output Composing:
876 enables composing support. This control is only
877 present if the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of
878 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
880 - Enable Output Scaler:
882 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
883 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_out_mode
884 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
885 module option is set to 0 (the default).
888 Error Injection Controls
889 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
891 The following two controls are only valid for video and vbi capture.
893 - Standard Signal Mode:
895 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERYSTD: what should it return?
897 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
898 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
899 was plugged in or out).
903 selects the standard that VIDIOC_QUERYSTD should return if the
904 previous control is set to "Selected Standard".
906 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
907 to be sent since it emulates a changed input standard.
910 The following two controls are only valid for video capture.
912 - DV Timings Signal Mode:
914 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS: what
917 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
918 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
919 was plugged in or out).
923 selects the timings the VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS should return
924 if the previous control is set to "Selected DV Timings".
926 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
927 to be sent since it emulates changed input timings.
930 The following controls are only present if the no_error_inj module option
931 is set to 0 (the default). These controls are valid for video and vbi
932 capture and output streams and for the SDR capture device except for the
933 Disconnect control which is valid for all devices.
935 - Wrap Sequence Number:
937 test what happens when you wrap the sequence number in
938 struct v4l2_buffer around.
942 test what happens when you wrap the timestamp in struct
945 - Percentage of Dropped Buffers:
947 sets the percentage of buffers that
948 are never returned by the driver (i.e., they are dropped).
952 emulates a USB disconnect. The device will act as if it has
953 been disconnected. Only after all open filehandles to the device
954 node have been closed will the device become 'connected' again.
956 - Inject V4L2_BUF_FLAG_ERROR:
958 when pressed, the next frame returned by
959 the driver will have the error flag set (i.e. the frame is marked
962 - Inject VIDIOC_REQBUFS Error:
964 when pressed, the next REQBUFS or CREATE_BUFS
965 ioctl call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
966 queue_setup() op will return -EINVAL.
968 - Inject VIDIOC_QBUF Error:
970 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_QBUF or
971 VIDIOC_PREPARE_BUFFER ioctl call will fail with an error. To be
972 precise: the videobuf2 buf_prepare() op will return -EINVAL.
974 - Inject VIDIOC_STREAMON Error:
976 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_STREAMON ioctl
977 call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
978 start_streaming() op will return -EINVAL.
980 - Inject Fatal Streaming Error:
982 when pressed, the streaming core will be
983 marked as having suffered a fatal error, the only way to recover
984 from that is to stop streaming. To be precise: the videobuf2
985 vb2_queue_error() function is called.
988 VBI Raw Capture Controls
989 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
991 - Interlaced VBI Format:
993 if set, then the raw VBI data will be interlaced instead
994 of providing it grouped by field.
997 Digital Video Controls
998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1000 - Rx RGB Quantization Range:
1002 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
1003 input. This combines with the Vivid 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
1004 control and can be used to test what happens if a source provides
1005 you with the wrong quantization range information. This can be tested
1006 by selecting an HDMI input, setting this control to Full or Limited
1007 range and selecting the opposite in the 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
1008 control. The effect is easy to see if the 'Gray Ramp' test pattern
1011 - Tx RGB Quantization Range:
1013 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
1014 output. It is currently not used for anything in vivid, but most HDMI
1015 transmitters would typically have this control.
1019 sets the transmit mode of the HDMI output to HDMI or DVI-D. This
1020 affects the reported colorspace since DVI_D outputs will always use
1024 FM Radio Receiver Controls
1025 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1029 set if the RDS receiver should be enabled.
1040 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
1043 - RDS Traffic Program:
1048 these are all read-only controls. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set to
1049 "Block I/O", then they are inactive as well. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set
1050 to "Controls", then these controls report the received RDS data.
1053 The vivid implementation of this is pretty basic: they are only
1054 updated when you set a new frequency or when you get the tuner status
1057 - Radio HW Seek Mode:
1059 can be one of "Bounded", "Wrap Around" or "Both". This
1060 determines if VIDIOC_S_HW_FREQ_SEEK will be bounded by the frequency
1061 range or wrap-around or if it is selectable by the user.
1063 - Radio Programmable HW Seek:
1065 if set, then the user can provide the lower and
1066 upper bound of the HW Seek. Otherwise the frequency range boundaries
1069 - Generate RBDS Instead of RDS:
1071 if set, then generate RBDS (the US variant of
1072 RDS) data instead of RDS (European-style RDS). This affects only the
1073 PICODE and PTY codes.
1077 this can be "Block I/O" where the RDS blocks have to be read()
1078 by the application, or "Controls" where the RDS data is provided by
1079 the RDS controls mentioned above.
1082 FM Radio Modulator Controls
1083 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1100 - RDS Artificial Head:
1109 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
1112 - RDS Traffic Program:
1117 these are all controls that set the RDS data that is transmitted by
1122 this can be "Block I/O" where the application has to use write()
1123 to pass the RDS blocks to the driver, or "Controls" where the RDS data
1124 is Provided by the RDS controls mentioned above.
1126 Metadata Capture Controls
1127 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1131 if set, then the generated metadata stream contains Presentation timestamp.
1135 if set, then the generated metadata stream contains Source Clock information.
1138 Video, Sliced VBI and HDMI CEC Looping
1139 --------------------------------------
1141 Video Looping functionality is supported for devices created by the same
1142 vivid driver instance, as well as across multiple instances of the vivid driver.
1143 The vivid driver supports looping of video and Sliced VBI data between an S-Video output
1144 and an S-Video input. It also supports looping of video and HDMI CEC data between an
1145 HDMI output and an HDMI input.
1147 To enable looping, set the 'HDMI/S-Video XXX-N Is Connected To' control(s) to select
1148 whether an input uses the Test Pattern Generator, or is disconnected, or is connected
1149 to an output. An input can be connected to an output from any vivid instance.
1150 The inputs and outputs are numbered XXX-N where XXX is the vivid instance number
1151 (see module option n_devs). If there is only one vivid instance (the default), then
1152 XXX will be 000. And N is the Nth S-Video/HDMI input or output of that instance.
1153 If vivid is loaded without module options, then you can connect the S-Video 000-0 input
1154 to the S-Video 000-0 output, or the HDMI 000-0 input to the HDMI 000-0 output.
1155 This is the equivalent of connecting or disconnecting a cable between an input and an
1156 output in a physical device.
1158 If an 'HDMI/S-Video XXX-N Is Connected To' control selected an output, then the video
1159 output will be looped to the video input provided that:
1161 - the currently selected input matches the input indicated by the control name.
1163 - in the vivid instance of the output connector, the currently selected output matches
1164 the output indicated by the control's value.
1166 - the video resolution of the video input must match that of the video output.
1167 So it is not possible to loop a 50 Hz (720x576) S-Video output to a 60 Hz
1168 (720x480) S-Video input, or a 720p60 HDMI output to a 1080p30 input.
1170 - the pixel formats must be identical on both sides. Otherwise the driver would
1171 have to do pixel format conversion as well, and that's taking things too far.
1173 - the field settings must be identical on both sides. Same reason as above:
1174 requiring the driver to convert from one field format to another complicated
1175 matters too much. This also prohibits capturing with 'Field Top' or 'Field
1176 Bottom' when the output video is set to 'Field Alternate'. This combination,
1177 while legal, became too complicated to support. Both sides have to be 'Field
1178 Alternate' for this to work. Also note that for this specific case the
1179 sequence and field counting in struct v4l2_buffer on the capture side may not
1182 - field settings V4L2_FIELD_SEQ_TB/BT are not supported. While it is possible to
1183 implement this, it would mean a lot of work to get this right. Since these
1184 field values are rarely used the decision was made not to implement this for
1187 - on the input side the "Standard Signal Mode" for the S-Video input or the
1188 "DV Timings Signal Mode" for the HDMI input should be configured so that a
1189 valid signal is passed to the video input.
1191 If any condition is not valid, then the 'Noise' test pattern is shown.
1193 The framerates do not have to match, although this might change in the future.
1195 By default you will see the OSD text superimposed on top of the looped video.
1196 This can be turned off by changing the "OSD Text Mode" control of the video
1199 For VBI looping to work all of the above must be valid and in addition the vbi
1200 output must be configured for sliced VBI. The VBI capture side can be configured
1201 for either raw or sliced VBI. Note that at the moment only CC/XDS (60 Hz formats)
1202 and WSS (50 Hz formats) VBI data is looped. Teletext VBI data is not looped.
1208 The vivid driver supports looping of RDS output to RDS input.
1210 Since radio is wireless this looping always happens if the radio receiver
1211 frequency is close to the radio transmitter frequency. In that case the radio
1212 transmitter will 'override' the emulated radio stations.
1214 RDS looping is currently supported only between devices created by the same
1215 vivid driver instance.
1217 As mentioned in the "Radio Receiver" section, the radio receiver emulates
1218 stations at regular frequency intervals. Depending on the frequency of the
1219 radio receiver a signal strength value is calculated (this is returned by
1220 VIDIOC_G_TUNER). However, it will also look at the frequency set by the radio
1221 transmitter and if that results in a higher signal strength than the settings
1222 of the radio transmitter will be used as if it was a valid station. This also
1223 includes the RDS data (if any) that the transmitter 'transmits'. This is
1224 received faithfully on the receiver side. Note that when the driver is loaded
1225 the frequencies of the radio receiver and transmitter are not identical, so
1226 initially no looping takes place.
1229 Cropping, Composing, Scaling
1230 ----------------------------
1232 This driver supports cropping, composing and scaling in any combination. Normally
1233 which features are supported can be selected through the Vivid controls,
1234 but it is also possible to hardcode it when the module is loaded through the
1235 ccs_cap_mode and ccs_out_mode module options. See "Configuring the driver" on
1236 the details of these module options.
1238 This allows you to test your application for all these variations.
1240 Note that the webcam input never supports cropping, composing or scaling. That
1241 only applies to the TV/S-Video/HDMI inputs and outputs. The reason is that
1242 webcams, including this virtual implementation, normally use
1243 VIDIOC_ENUM_FRAMESIZES to list a set of discrete framesizes that it supports.
1244 And that does not combine with cropping, composing or scaling. This is
1245 primarily a limitation of the V4L2 API which is carefully reproduced here.
1247 The minimum and maximum resolutions that the scaler can achieve are 16x16 and
1248 (4096 * 4) x (2160 x 4), but it can only scale up or down by a factor of 4 or
1249 less. So for a source resolution of 1280x720 the minimum the scaler can do is
1250 320x180 and the maximum is 5120x2880. You can play around with this using the
1251 qv4l2 test tool and you will see these dependencies.
1253 This driver also supports larger 'bytesperline' settings, something that
1254 VIDIOC_S_FMT allows but that few drivers implement.
1256 The scaler is a simple scaler that uses the Coarse Bresenham algorithm. It's
1257 designed for speed and simplicity, not quality.
1259 If the combination of crop, compose and scaling allows it, then it is possible
1260 to change crop and compose rectangles on the fly.
1266 The driver supports all the regular packed and planar 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0
1267 YUYV formats, 8, 16, 24 and 32 RGB packed formats and various multiplanar
1270 The alpha component can be set through the 'Alpha Component' User control
1271 for those formats that support it. If the 'Apply Alpha To Red Only' control
1272 is set, then the alpha component is only used for the color red and set to
1275 The driver has to be configured to support the multiplanar formats. By default
1276 the driver instances are single-planar. This can be changed by setting the
1277 multiplanar module option, see "Configuring the driver" for more details on that
1280 If the driver instance is using the multiplanar formats/API, then the first
1281 single planar format (YUYV) and the multiplanar NV16M and NV61M formats the
1282 will have a plane that has a non-zero data_offset of 128 bytes. It is rare for
1283 data_offset to be non-zero, so this is a useful feature for testing applications.
1285 Video output will also honor any data_offset that the application set.
1291 Note: output overlays are primarily implemented in order to test the existing
1292 V4L2 output overlay API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1295 This driver has support for an output overlay and is capable of:
1298 - list clipping (up to 16 rectangles)
1303 - local inverse alpha
1305 Output overlays are not supported for multiplanar formats. In addition, the
1306 pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer must be the
1307 same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return an error.
1309 Output overlays only work if the driver has been configured to create a
1310 framebuffer by setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module option. The
1311 created framebuffer has a size of 720x576 and supports ARGB 1:5:5:5 and
1314 In order to see the effects of the various clipping, chromakeying or alpha
1315 processing capabilities you need to turn on video looping and see the results
1316 on the capture side. The use of the clipping, chromakeying or alpha processing
1317 capabilities will slow down the video loop considerably as a lot of checks have
1318 to be done per pixel.
1321 CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)
1322 ----------------------------------
1324 If there are HDMI inputs then a CEC adapter will be created that has
1325 the same number of input ports. This is the equivalent of e.g. a TV that
1326 has that number of inputs. Each HDMI output will also create a
1327 CEC adapter that is hooked up to the corresponding input port, or (if there
1328 are more outputs than inputs) is not hooked up at all. In other words,
1329 this is the equivalent of hooking up each output device to an input port of
1330 the TV. Any remaining output devices remain unconnected.
1332 The EDID that each output reads reports a unique CEC physical address that is
1333 based on the physical address of the EDID of the input. So if the EDID of the
1334 receiver has physical address A.B.0.0, then each output will see an EDID
1335 containing physical address A.B.C.0 where C is 1 to the number of inputs. If
1336 there are more outputs than inputs then the remaining outputs have a CEC adapter
1337 that is disabled and reports an invalid physical address.
1340 Some Future Improvements
1341 ------------------------
1343 Just as a reminder and in no particular order:
1345 - Add a virtual alsa driver to test audio
1346 - Add virtual sub-devices
1347 - Some support for testing compressed video
1348 - Add support to loop raw VBI output to raw VBI input
1349 - Add support to loop teletext sliced VBI output to VBI input
1350 - Fix sequence/field numbering when looping of video with alternate fields
1351 - Add support for V4L2_CID_BG_COLOR for video outputs
1352 - Add ARGB888 overlay support: better testing of the alpha channel
1353 - Improve pixel aspect support in the tpg code by passing a real v4l2_fract
1354 - Use per-queue locks and/or per-device locks to improve throughput
1355 - The SDR radio should use the same 'frequencies' for stations as the normal
1356 radio receiver, and give back noise if the frequency doesn't match up with
1358 - Make a thread for the RDS generation, that would help in particular for the
1359 "Controls" RDS Rx I/O Mode as the read-only RDS controls could be updated
1361 - Changing the EDID doesn't wait 100 ms before setting the HPD signal.