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.
266 Taken together, all these module options allow you to precisely customize
267 the driver behavior and test your application with all sorts of permutations.
268 It is also very suitable to emulate hardware that is not yet available, e.g.
269 when developing software for a new upcoming device.
275 This is probably the most frequently used feature. The video capture device
276 can be configured by using the module options num_inputs, input_types and
277 ccs_cap_mode (see section 1 for more detailed information), but by default
278 four inputs are configured: a webcam, a TV tuner, an S-Video and an HDMI
279 input, one input for each input type. Those are described in more detail
282 Special attention has been given to the rate at which new frames become
283 available. The jitter will be around 1 jiffie (that depends on the HZ
284 configuration of your kernel, so usually 1/100, 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second),
285 but the long-term behavior is exactly following the framerate. So a
286 framerate of 59.94 Hz is really different from 60 Hz. If the framerate
287 exceeds your kernel's HZ value, then you will get dropped frames, but the
288 frame/field sequence counting will keep track of that so the sequence
289 count will skip whenever frames are dropped.
295 The webcam input supports three framesizes: 320x180, 640x360 and 1280x720. It
296 supports frames per second settings of 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. Which ones
297 are available depends on the chosen framesize: the larger the framesize, the
298 lower the maximum frames per second.
300 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the webcam input will be
304 TV and S-Video Inputs
305 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
307 The only difference between the TV and S-Video input is that the TV has a
308 tuner. Otherwise they behave identically.
310 These inputs support audio inputs as well: one TV and one Line-In. They
311 both support all TV standards. If the standard is queried, then the Vivid
312 controls 'Standard Signal Mode' and 'Standard' determine what
315 These inputs support all combinations of the field setting. Special care has
316 been taken to faithfully reproduce how fields are handled for the different
317 TV standards. This is particularly noticeable when generating a horizontally
318 moving image so the temporal effect of using interlaced formats becomes clearly
319 visible. For 50 Hz standards the top field is the oldest and the bottom field
320 is the newest in time. For 60 Hz standards that is reversed: the bottom field
321 is the oldest and the top field is the newest in time.
323 When you start capturing in V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE mode the first buffer will
324 contain the top field for 50 Hz standards and the bottom field for 60 Hz
325 standards. This is what capture hardware does as well.
327 Finally, for PAL/SECAM standards the first half of the top line contains noise.
328 This simulates the Wide Screen Signal that is commonly placed there.
330 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
333 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the TV standard. The video aspect ratio
334 can be selected through the 'Standard Aspect Ratio' Vivid control.
335 Choices are '4x3', '16x9' which will give letterboxed widescreen video and
336 '16x9 Anamorphic' which will give full screen squashed anamorphic widescreen
337 video that will need to be scaled accordingly.
339 The TV 'tuner' supports a frequency range of 44-958 MHz. Channels are available
340 every 6 MHz, starting from 49.25 MHz. For each channel the generated image
341 will be in color for the +/- 0.25 MHz around it, and in grayscale for
342 +/- 1 MHz around the channel. Beyond that it is just noise. The VIDIOC_G_TUNER
343 ioctl will return 100% signal strength for +/- 0.25 MHz and 50% for +/- 1 MHz.
344 It will also return correct afc values to show whether the frequency is too
347 The audio subchannels that are returned are MONO for the +/- 1 MHz range around
348 a valid channel frequency. When the frequency is within +/- 0.25 MHz of the
349 channel it will return either MONO, STEREO, either MONO | SAP (for NTSC) or
350 LANG1 | LANG2 (for others), or STEREO | SAP.
352 Which one is returned depends on the chosen channel, each next valid channel
353 will cycle through the possible audio subchannel combinations. This allows
354 you to test the various combinations by just switching channels..
356 Finally, for these inputs the v4l2_timecode struct is filled in in the
357 dequeued v4l2_buffer struct.
363 The HDMI inputs supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
364 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
365 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE. For HDMI the
366 field order is always top field first, and when you start capturing an
367 interlaced format you will receive the top field first.
369 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI input or
370 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
371 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
372 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
374 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
375 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
376 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
378 The video aspect ratio can be selected through the 'DV Timings Aspect Ratio'
379 Vivid control. Choices are 'Source Width x Height' (just use the
380 same ratio as the chosen format), '4x3' or '16x9', either of which can
381 result in pillarboxed or letterboxed video.
383 For HDMI inputs it is possible to set the EDID. By default a simple EDID
384 is provided. You can only set the EDID for HDMI inputs. Internally, however,
385 the EDID is shared between all HDMI inputs.
387 No interpretation is done of the EDID data with the exception of the
388 physical address. See the CEC section for more details.
390 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI inputs (if there are more, then they will be
391 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address.
397 The video output device can be configured by using the module options
398 num_outputs, output_types and ccs_out_mode (see section 1 for more detailed
399 information), but by default two outputs are configured: an S-Video and an
400 HDMI input, one output for each output type. Those are described in more detail
403 Like with video capture the framerate is also exact in the long term.
409 This output supports audio outputs as well: "Line-Out 1" and "Line-Out 2".
410 The S-Video output supports all TV standards.
412 This output supports all combinations of the field setting.
414 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
421 The HDMI output supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
422 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
423 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE.
425 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI output or
426 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
427 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
428 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
430 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
431 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
432 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
434 An HDMI output has a valid EDID which can be obtained through VIDIOC_G_EDID.
436 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI outputs (if there are more, then they will be
437 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address. See
438 also the CEC section for more details.
443 There are three types of VBI capture devices: those that only support raw
444 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
445 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option. In all
446 cases the driver will generate valid VBI data: for 60 Hz standards it will
447 generate Closed Caption and XDS data. The closed caption stream will
448 alternate between "Hello world!" and "Closed captions test" every second.
449 The XDS stream will give the current time once a minute. For 50 Hz standards
450 it will generate the Wide Screen Signal which is based on the actual Video
451 Aspect Ratio control setting and teletext pages 100-159, one page per frame.
453 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video and TV inputs, it will give
454 back an error if the current input is a webcam or HDMI.
460 There are three types of VBI output devices: those that only support raw
461 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
462 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option.
464 The sliced VBI output supports the Wide Screen Signal and the teletext signal
465 for 50 Hz standards and Closed Captioning + XDS for 60 Hz standards.
467 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video output, it will give
468 back an error if the current output is HDMI.
474 The radio receiver emulates an FM/AM/SW receiver. The FM band also supports RDS.
475 The frequency ranges are:
477 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
478 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
479 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
481 Valid channels are emulated every 1 MHz for FM and every 100 kHz for AM and SW.
482 The signal strength decreases the further the frequency is from the valid
483 frequency until it becomes 0% at +/- 50 kHz (FM) or 5 kHz (AM/SW) from the
484 ideal frequency. The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is set to
487 The FM receiver supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
488 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the RDS information is stored in read-only
489 controls. These controls are updated every time the frequency is changed,
490 or when the tuner status is requested. The Block I/O method uses the read()
491 interface to pass the RDS blocks on to the application for decoding.
493 The RDS signal is 'detected' for +/- 12.5 kHz around the channel frequency,
494 and the further the frequency is away from the valid frequency the more RDS
495 errors are randomly introduced into the block I/O stream, up to 50% of all
496 blocks if you are +/- 12.5 kHz from the channel frequency. All four errors
497 can occur in equal proportions: blocks marked 'CORRECTED', blocks marked
498 'ERROR', blocks marked 'INVALID' and dropped blocks.
500 The generated RDS stream contains all the standard fields contained in a
501 0B group, and also radio text and the current time.
503 The receiver supports HW frequency seek, either in Bounded mode, Wrap Around
504 mode or both, which is configurable with the "Radio HW Seek Mode" control.
510 The radio transmitter emulates an FM/AM/SW transmitter. The FM band also supports RDS.
511 The frequency ranges are:
513 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
514 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
515 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
517 The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is 95.5 MHz.
519 The FM transmitter supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
520 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the transmitted RDS information is configured
521 using controls, and in 'Block I/O' mode the blocks are passed to the driver
525 Software Defined Radio Receiver
526 -------------------------------
528 The SDR receiver has three frequency bands for the ADC tuner:
534 The RF tuner supports 50 MHz - 2000 MHz.
536 The generated data contains the In-phase and Quadrature components of a
537 1 kHz tone that has an amplitude of sqrt(2).
543 Different devices support different controls. The sections below will describe
544 each control and which devices support them.
547 User Controls - Test Controls
548 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
550 The Button, Boolean, Integer 32 Bits, Integer 64 Bits, Menu, String, Bitmask and
551 Integer Menu are controls that represent all possible control types. The Menu
552 control and the Integer Menu control both have 'holes' in their menu list,
553 meaning that one or more menu items return EINVAL when VIDIOC_QUERYMENU is called.
554 Both menu controls also have a non-zero minimum control value. These features
555 allow you to check if your application can handle such things correctly.
556 These controls are supported for every device type.
559 User Controls - Video Capture
560 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
562 The following controls are specific to video capture.
564 The Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue controls actually work and are
565 standard. There is one special feature with the Brightness control: each
566 video input has its own brightness value, so changing input will restore
567 the brightness for that input. In addition, each video input uses a different
568 brightness range (minimum and maximum control values). Switching inputs will
569 cause a control event to be sent with the V4L2_EVENT_CTRL_CH_RANGE flag set.
570 This allows you to test controls that can change their range.
572 The 'Gain, Automatic' and Gain controls can be used to test volatile controls:
573 if 'Gain, Automatic' is set, then the Gain control is volatile and changes
574 constantly. If 'Gain, Automatic' is cleared, then the Gain control is a normal
577 The 'Horizontal Flip' and 'Vertical Flip' controls can be used to flip the
578 image. These combine with the 'Sensor Flipped Horizontally/Vertically' Vivid
581 The 'Alpha Component' control can be used to set the alpha component for
582 formats containing an alpha channel.
585 User Controls - Audio
586 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
588 The following controls are specific to video capture and output and radio
589 receivers and transmitters.
591 The 'Volume' and 'Mute' audio controls are typical for such devices to
592 control the volume and mute the audio. They don't actually do anything in
599 These vivid custom controls control the image generation, error injection, etc.
602 Test Pattern Controls
603 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
605 The Test Pattern Controls are all specific to video capture.
609 selects which test pattern to use. Use the CSC Colorbar for
610 testing colorspace conversions: the colors used in that test pattern
611 map to valid colors in all colorspaces. The colorspace conversion
612 is disabled for the other test patterns.
616 selects whether the text superimposed on the
617 test pattern should be shown, and if so, whether only counters should
618 be displayed or the full text.
620 - Horizontal Movement:
622 selects whether the test pattern should
623 move to the left or right and at what speed.
627 does the same for the vertical direction.
631 show a two-pixel wide border at the edge of the actual image,
632 excluding letter or pillarboxing.
636 show a square in the middle of the image. If the image is
637 displayed with the correct pixel and image aspect ratio corrections,
638 then the width and height of the square on the monitor should be
641 - Insert SAV Code in Image:
643 adds a SAV (Start of Active Video) code to the image.
644 This can be used to check if such codes in the image are inadvertently
645 interpreted instead of being ignored.
647 - Insert EAV Code in Image:
649 does the same for the EAV (End of Active Video) code.
652 Capture Feature Selection Controls
653 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
655 These controls are all specific to video capture.
657 - Sensor Flipped Horizontally:
659 the image is flipped horizontally and the
660 V4L2_IN_ST_HFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
661 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
663 - Sensor Flipped Vertically:
665 the image is flipped vertically and the
666 V4L2_IN_ST_VFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
667 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
669 - Standard Aspect Ratio:
671 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the TV or
672 S-Video input should be 4x3, 16x9 or anamorphic widescreen. This may
673 introduce letterboxing.
675 - DV Timings Aspect Ratio:
677 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the HDMI
678 input should be the same as the source width and height ratio, or if
679 it should be 4x3 or 16x9. This may introduce letter or pillarboxing.
683 selects when the timestamp for each buffer is taken.
687 selects which colorspace should be used when generating the image.
688 This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is selected,
689 otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
690 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
691 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
692 by colorspace conversions.
694 Changing the colorspace will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
695 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
699 selects which colorspace transfer function should be used when
700 generating an image. This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is
701 selected, otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
702 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
703 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
704 by colorspace conversions.
706 Changing the transfer function will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
707 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
711 selects which Y'CbCr encoding should be used when generating
712 a Y'CbCr image. This only applies if the format is set to a Y'CbCr format
713 as opposed to an RGB format.
715 Changing the Y'CbCr encoding will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
716 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
720 selects which quantization should be used for the RGB or Y'CbCr
721 encoding when generating the test pattern.
723 Changing the quantization will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
724 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
726 - Limited RGB Range (16-235):
728 selects if the RGB range of the HDMI source should
729 be limited or full range. This combines with the Digital Video 'Rx RGB
730 Quantization Range' control and can be used to test what happens if
731 a source provides you with the wrong quantization range information.
732 See the description of that control for more details.
734 - Apply Alpha To Red Only:
736 apply the alpha channel as set by the 'Alpha Component'
737 user control to the red color of the test pattern only.
739 - Enable Capture Cropping:
741 enables crop support. This control is only present if
742 the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
743 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
745 - Enable Capture Composing:
747 enables composing support. This control is only
748 present if the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of
749 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
751 - Enable Capture Scaler:
753 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
754 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_cap_mode
755 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
756 module option is set to 0 (the default).
758 - Maximum EDID Blocks:
760 determines how many EDID blocks the driver supports.
761 Note that the vivid driver does not actually interpret new EDID
762 data, it just stores it. It allows for up to 256 EDID blocks
763 which is the maximum supported by the standard.
765 - Fill Percentage of Frame:
767 can be used to draw only the top X percent
768 of the image. Since each frame has to be drawn by the driver, this
769 demands a lot of the CPU. For large resolutions this becomes
770 problematic. By drawing only part of the image this CPU load can
774 Output Feature Selection Controls
775 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
777 These controls are all specific to video output.
779 - Enable Output Cropping:
781 enables crop support. This control is only present if
782 the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
783 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
785 - Enable Output Composing:
787 enables composing support. This control is only
788 present if the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of
789 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
791 - Enable Output Scaler:
793 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
794 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_out_mode
795 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
796 module option is set to 0 (the default).
799 Error Injection Controls
800 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
802 The following two controls are only valid for video and vbi capture.
804 - Standard Signal Mode:
806 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERYSTD: what should it return?
808 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
809 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
810 was plugged in or out).
814 selects the standard that VIDIOC_QUERYSTD should return if the
815 previous control is set to "Selected Standard".
817 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
818 to be sent since it emulates a changed input standard.
821 The following two controls are only valid for video capture.
823 - DV Timings Signal Mode:
824 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS: what
827 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
828 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
829 was plugged in or out).
833 selects the timings the VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS should return
834 if the previous control is set to "Selected DV Timings".
836 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
837 to be sent since it emulates changed input timings.
840 The following controls are only present if the no_error_inj module option
841 is set to 0 (the default). These controls are valid for video and vbi
842 capture and output streams and for the SDR capture device except for the
843 Disconnect control which is valid for all devices.
845 - Wrap Sequence Number:
847 test what happens when you wrap the sequence number in
848 struct v4l2_buffer around.
852 test what happens when you wrap the timestamp in struct
855 - Percentage of Dropped Buffers:
857 sets the percentage of buffers that
858 are never returned by the driver (i.e., they are dropped).
862 emulates a USB disconnect. The device will act as if it has
863 been disconnected. Only after all open filehandles to the device
864 node have been closed will the device become 'connected' again.
866 - Inject V4L2_BUF_FLAG_ERROR:
868 when pressed, the next frame returned by
869 the driver will have the error flag set (i.e. the frame is marked
872 - Inject VIDIOC_REQBUFS Error:
874 when pressed, the next REQBUFS or CREATE_BUFS
875 ioctl call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
876 queue_setup() op will return -EINVAL.
878 - Inject VIDIOC_QBUF Error:
880 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_QBUF or
881 VIDIOC_PREPARE_BUFFER ioctl call will fail with an error. To be
882 precise: the videobuf2 buf_prepare() op will return -EINVAL.
884 - Inject VIDIOC_STREAMON Error:
886 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_STREAMON ioctl
887 call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
888 start_streaming() op will return -EINVAL.
890 - Inject Fatal Streaming Error:
892 when pressed, the streaming core will be
893 marked as having suffered a fatal error, the only way to recover
894 from that is to stop streaming. To be precise: the videobuf2
895 vb2_queue_error() function is called.
898 VBI Raw Capture Controls
899 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
901 - Interlaced VBI Format:
903 if set, then the raw VBI data will be interlaced instead
904 of providing it grouped by field.
907 Digital Video Controls
908 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
910 - Rx RGB Quantization Range:
912 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
913 input. This combines with the Vivid 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
914 control and can be used to test what happens if a source provides
915 you with the wrong quantization range information. This can be tested
916 by selecting an HDMI input, setting this control to Full or Limited
917 range and selecting the opposite in the 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
918 control. The effect is easy to see if the 'Gray Ramp' test pattern
921 - Tx RGB Quantization Range:
923 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
924 output. It is currently not used for anything in vivid, but most HDMI
925 transmitters would typically have this control.
929 sets the transmit mode of the HDMI output to HDMI or DVI-D. This
930 affects the reported colorspace since DVI_D outputs will always use
934 FM Radio Receiver Controls
935 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
939 set if the RDS receiver should be enabled.
950 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
953 - RDS Traffic Program:
958 these are all read-only controls. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set to
959 "Block I/O", then they are inactive as well. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set
960 to "Controls", then these controls report the received RDS data.
963 The vivid implementation of this is pretty basic: they are only
964 updated when you set a new frequency or when you get the tuner status
967 - Radio HW Seek Mode:
969 can be one of "Bounded", "Wrap Around" or "Both". This
970 determines if VIDIOC_S_HW_FREQ_SEEK will be bounded by the frequency
971 range or wrap-around or if it is selectable by the user.
973 - Radio Programmable HW Seek:
975 if set, then the user can provide the lower and
976 upper bound of the HW Seek. Otherwise the frequency range boundaries
979 - Generate RBDS Instead of RDS:
981 if set, then generate RBDS (the US variant of
982 RDS) data instead of RDS (European-style RDS). This affects only the
983 PICODE and PTY codes.
987 this can be "Block I/O" where the RDS blocks have to be read()
988 by the application, or "Controls" where the RDS data is provided by
989 the RDS controls mentioned above.
992 FM Radio Modulator Controls
993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1010 - RDS Artificial Head:
1019 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
1022 - RDS Traffic Program:
1027 these are all controls that set the RDS data that is transmitted by
1032 this can be "Block I/O" where the application has to use write()
1033 to pass the RDS blocks to the driver, or "Controls" where the RDS data
1034 is Provided by the RDS controls mentioned above.
1037 Video, VBI and RDS Looping
1038 --------------------------
1040 The vivid driver supports looping of video output to video input, VBI output
1041 to VBI input and RDS output to RDS input. For video/VBI looping this emulates
1042 as if a cable was hooked up between the output and input connector. So video
1043 and VBI looping is only supported between S-Video and HDMI inputs and outputs.
1044 VBI is only valid for S-Video as it makes no sense for HDMI.
1046 Since radio is wireless this looping always happens if the radio receiver
1047 frequency is close to the radio transmitter frequency. In that case the radio
1048 transmitter will 'override' the emulated radio stations.
1050 Looping is currently supported only between devices created by the same
1051 vivid driver instance.
1054 Video and Sliced VBI looping
1055 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1057 The way to enable video/VBI looping is currently fairly crude. A 'Loop Video'
1058 control is available in the "Vivid" control class of the video
1059 capture and VBI capture devices. When checked the video looping will be enabled.
1060 Once enabled any video S-Video or HDMI input will show a static test pattern
1061 until the video output has started. At that time the video output will be
1062 looped to the video input provided that:
1064 - the input type matches the output type. So the HDMI input cannot receive
1065 video from the S-Video output.
1067 - the video resolution of the video input must match that of the video output.
1068 So it is not possible to loop a 50 Hz (720x576) S-Video output to a 60 Hz
1069 (720x480) S-Video input, or a 720p60 HDMI output to a 1080p30 input.
1071 - the pixel formats must be identical on both sides. Otherwise the driver would
1072 have to do pixel format conversion as well, and that's taking things too far.
1074 - the field settings must be identical on both sides. Same reason as above:
1075 requiring the driver to convert from one field format to another complicated
1076 matters too much. This also prohibits capturing with 'Field Top' or 'Field
1077 Bottom' when the output video is set to 'Field Alternate'. This combination,
1078 while legal, became too complicated to support. Both sides have to be 'Field
1079 Alternate' for this to work. Also note that for this specific case the
1080 sequence and field counting in struct v4l2_buffer on the capture side may not
1083 - field settings V4L2_FIELD_SEQ_TB/BT are not supported. While it is possible to
1084 implement this, it would mean a lot of work to get this right. Since these
1085 field values are rarely used the decision was made not to implement this for
1088 - on the input side the "Standard Signal Mode" for the S-Video input or the
1089 "DV Timings Signal Mode" for the HDMI input should be configured so that a
1090 valid signal is passed to the video input.
1092 The framerates do not have to match, although this might change in the future.
1094 By default you will see the OSD text superimposed on top of the looped video.
1095 This can be turned off by changing the "OSD Text Mode" control of the video
1098 For VBI looping to work all of the above must be valid and in addition the vbi
1099 output must be configured for sliced VBI. The VBI capture side can be configured
1100 for either raw or sliced VBI. Note that at the moment only CC/XDS (60 Hz formats)
1101 and WSS (50 Hz formats) VBI data is looped. Teletext VBI data is not looped.
1107 As mentioned in section 6 the radio receiver emulates stations are regular
1108 frequency intervals. Depending on the frequency of the radio receiver a
1109 signal strength value is calculated (this is returned by VIDIOC_G_TUNER).
1110 However, it will also look at the frequency set by the radio transmitter and
1111 if that results in a higher signal strength than the settings of the radio
1112 transmitter will be used as if it was a valid station. This also includes
1113 the RDS data (if any) that the transmitter 'transmits'. This is received
1114 faithfully on the receiver side. Note that when the driver is loaded the
1115 frequencies of the radio receiver and transmitter are not identical, so
1116 initially no looping takes place.
1119 Cropping, Composing, Scaling
1120 ----------------------------
1122 This driver supports cropping, composing and scaling in any combination. Normally
1123 which features are supported can be selected through the Vivid controls,
1124 but it is also possible to hardcode it when the module is loaded through the
1125 ccs_cap_mode and ccs_out_mode module options. See section 1 on the details of
1126 these module options.
1128 This allows you to test your application for all these variations.
1130 Note that the webcam input never supports cropping, composing or scaling. That
1131 only applies to the TV/S-Video/HDMI inputs and outputs. The reason is that
1132 webcams, including this virtual implementation, normally use
1133 VIDIOC_ENUM_FRAMESIZES to list a set of discrete framesizes that it supports.
1134 And that does not combine with cropping, composing or scaling. This is
1135 primarily a limitation of the V4L2 API which is carefully reproduced here.
1137 The minimum and maximum resolutions that the scaler can achieve are 16x16 and
1138 (4096 * 4) x (2160 x 4), but it can only scale up or down by a factor of 4 or
1139 less. So for a source resolution of 1280x720 the minimum the scaler can do is
1140 320x180 and the maximum is 5120x2880. You can play around with this using the
1141 qv4l2 test tool and you will see these dependencies.
1143 This driver also supports larger 'bytesperline' settings, something that
1144 VIDIOC_S_FMT allows but that few drivers implement.
1146 The scaler is a simple scaler that uses the Coarse Bresenham algorithm. It's
1147 designed for speed and simplicity, not quality.
1149 If the combination of crop, compose and scaling allows it, then it is possible
1150 to change crop and compose rectangles on the fly.
1156 The driver supports all the regular packed and planar 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0
1157 YUYV formats, 8, 16, 24 and 32 RGB packed formats and various multiplanar
1160 The alpha component can be set through the 'Alpha Component' User control
1161 for those formats that support it. If the 'Apply Alpha To Red Only' control
1162 is set, then the alpha component is only used for the color red and set to
1165 The driver has to be configured to support the multiplanar formats. By default
1166 the driver instances are single-planar. This can be changed by setting the
1167 multiplanar module option, see section 1 for more details on that option.
1169 If the driver instance is using the multiplanar formats/API, then the first
1170 single planar format (YUYV) and the multiplanar NV16M and NV61M formats the
1171 will have a plane that has a non-zero data_offset of 128 bytes. It is rare for
1172 data_offset to be non-zero, so this is a useful feature for testing applications.
1174 Video output will also honor any data_offset that the application set.
1180 Note: capture overlay support is implemented primarily to test the existing
1181 V4L2 capture overlay API. In practice few if any GPUs support such overlays
1182 anymore, and neither are they generally needed anymore since modern hardware
1183 is so much more capable. By setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module
1184 option the vivid driver will create a simple framebuffer device that can be
1185 used for testing this API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1188 This driver has support for a destructive capture overlay with bitmap clipping
1189 and list clipping (up to 16 rectangles) capabilities. Overlays are not
1190 supported for multiplanar formats. It also honors the struct v4l2_window field
1191 setting: if it is set to FIELD_TOP or FIELD_BOTTOM and the capture setting is
1192 FIELD_ALTERNATE, then only the top or bottom fields will be copied to the overlay.
1194 The overlay only works if you are also capturing at that same time. This is a
1195 vivid limitation since it copies from a buffer to the overlay instead of
1196 filling the overlay directly. And if you are not capturing, then no buffers
1197 are available to fill.
1199 In addition, the pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer
1200 must be the same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return
1203 In order to really see what it going on you will need to create two vivid
1204 instances: the first with a framebuffer enabled. You configure the capture
1205 overlay of the second instance to use the framebuffer of the first, then
1206 you start capturing in the second instance. For the first instance you setup
1207 the output overlay for the video output, turn on video looping and capture
1208 to see the blended framebuffer overlay that's being written to by the second
1209 instance. This setup would require the following commands:
1211 .. code-block:: none
1213 $ sudo modprobe vivid n_devs=2 node_types=0x10101,0x1
1214 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --find-fb
1215 /dev/fb1 is the framebuffer associated with base address 0x12800000
1216 $ sudo v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fbuf fb=1
1217 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fbuf fb=1
1218 $ v4l2-ctl -d0 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1219 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fmt-video-out=pixelformat='AR15'
1220 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1223 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 -c horizontal_movement=4
1224 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --overlay=1
1225 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 -c loop_video=1
1226 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --stream-mmap --overlay=1
1228 And from another console:
1230 .. code-block:: none
1232 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --stream-out-mmap
1234 And yet another console:
1236 .. code-block:: none
1240 and start streaming.
1242 As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart...
1248 Note: output overlays are primarily implemented in order to test the existing
1249 V4L2 output overlay API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1252 This driver has support for an output overlay and is capable of:
1255 - list clipping (up to 16 rectangles)
1260 - local inverse alpha
1262 Output overlays are not supported for multiplanar formats. In addition, the
1263 pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer must be the
1264 same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return an error.
1266 Output overlays only work if the driver has been configured to create a
1267 framebuffer by setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module option. The
1268 created framebuffer has a size of 720x576 and supports ARGB 1:5:5:5 and
1271 In order to see the effects of the various clipping, chromakeying or alpha
1272 processing capabilities you need to turn on video looping and see the results
1273 on the capture side. The use of the clipping, chromakeying or alpha processing
1274 capabilities will slow down the video loop considerably as a lot of checks have
1275 to be done per pixel.
1278 CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)
1279 ----------------------------------
1281 If there are HDMI inputs then a CEC adapter will be created that has
1282 the same number of input ports. This is the equivalent of e.g. a TV that
1283 has that number of inputs. Each HDMI output will also create a
1284 CEC adapter that is hooked up to the corresponding input port, or (if there
1285 are more outputs than inputs) is not hooked up at all. In other words,
1286 this is the equivalent of hooking up each output device to an input port of
1287 the TV. Any remaining output devices remain unconnected.
1289 The EDID that each output reads reports a unique CEC physical address that is
1290 based on the physical address of the EDID of the input. So if the EDID of the
1291 receiver has physical address A.B.0.0, then each output will see an EDID
1292 containing physical address A.B.C.0 where C is 1 to the number of inputs. If
1293 there are more outputs than inputs then the remaining outputs have a CEC adapter
1294 that is disabled and reports an invalid physical address.
1297 Some Future Improvements
1298 ------------------------
1300 Just as a reminder and in no particular order:
1302 - Add a virtual alsa driver to test audio
1303 - Add virtual sub-devices and media controller support
1304 - Some support for testing compressed video
1305 - Add support to loop raw VBI output to raw VBI input
1306 - Add support to loop teletext sliced VBI output to VBI input
1307 - Fix sequence/field numbering when looping of video with alternate fields
1308 - Add support for V4L2_CID_BG_COLOR for video outputs
1309 - Add ARGB888 overlay support: better testing of the alpha channel
1310 - Improve pixel aspect support in the tpg code by passing a real v4l2_fract
1311 - Use per-queue locks and/or per-device locks to improve throughput
1312 - Add support to loop from a specific output to a specific input across
1314 - The SDR radio should use the same 'frequencies' for stations as the normal
1315 radio receiver, and give back noise if the frequency doesn't match up with
1317 - Make a thread for the RDS generation, that would help in particular for the
1318 "Controls" RDS Rx I/O Mode as the read-only RDS controls could be updated
1320 - Changing the EDID should cause hotplug detect emulation to happen.