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, radio receivers and transmitters and a software
8 defined radio receiver. In addition a simple framebuffer device is available for
9 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
40 These features will be described in more detail below.
42 Configuring the driver
43 ----------------------
45 By default the driver will create a single instance that has a video capture
46 device with webcam, TV, S-Video and HDMI inputs, a video output device with
47 S-Video and HDMI outputs, one vbi capture device, one vbi output device, one
48 radio receiver device, one radio transmitter device and one SDR device.
50 The number of instances, devices, video inputs and outputs and their types are
51 all configurable using the following module options:
55 number of driver instances to create. By default set to 1. Up to 64
56 instances can be created.
60 which devices should each driver instance create. An array of
61 hexadecimal values, one for each instance. The default is 0x1d3d.
62 Each value is a bitmask with the following meaning:
64 - bit 0: Video Capture node
65 - bit 2-3: VBI Capture node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
66 - bit 4: Radio Receiver node
67 - bit 5: Software Defined Radio Receiver node
68 - bit 8: Video Output node
69 - bit 10-11: VBI Output node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
70 - bit 12: Radio Transmitter node
71 - bit 16: Framebuffer for testing overlays
73 So to create four instances, the first two with just one video capture
74 device, the second two with just one video output device you would pass
75 these module options to vivid:
79 n_devs=4 node_types=0x1,0x1,0x100,0x100
83 the number of inputs, one for each instance. By default 4 inputs
84 are created for each video capture device. At most 16 inputs can be created,
85 and there must be at least one.
89 the input types for each instance, the default is 0xe4. This defines
90 what the type of each input is when the inputs are created for each driver
91 instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 pairs of bits, each
92 pair gives the type and bits 0-1 map to input 0, bits 2-3 map to input 1,
93 30-31 map to input 15. Each pair of bits has the following meaning:
95 - 00: this is a webcam input
96 - 01: this is a TV tuner input
97 - 10: this is an S-Video input
98 - 11: this is an HDMI input
100 So to create a video capture device with 8 inputs where input 0 is a TV
101 tuner, inputs 1-3 are S-Video inputs and inputs 4-7 are HDMI inputs you
102 would use the following module options:
106 num_inputs=8 input_types=0xffa9
110 the number of outputs, one for each instance. By default 2 outputs
111 are created for each video output device. At most 16 outputs can be
112 created, and there must be at least one.
116 the output types for each instance, the default is 0x02. This defines
117 what the type of each output is when the outputs are created for each
118 driver instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 bits, each bit
119 gives the type and bit 0 maps to output 0, bit 1 maps to output 1, bit
120 15 maps to output 15. The meaning of each bit is as follows:
122 - 0: this is an S-Video output
123 - 1: this is an HDMI output
125 So to create a video output device with 8 outputs where outputs 0-3 are
126 S-Video outputs and outputs 4-7 are HDMI outputs you would use the
127 following module options:
131 num_outputs=8 output_types=0xf0
135 give the desired videoX start number for each video capture device.
136 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number. This allows
137 you to map capture video nodes to specific videoX device nodes. Example:
141 n_devs=4 vid_cap_nr=2,4,6,8
143 This will attempt to assign /dev/video2 for the video capture device of
144 the first vivid instance, video4 for the next up to video8 for the last
145 instance. If it can't succeed, then it will just take the next free
150 give the desired videoX start number for each video output device.
151 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
155 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi capture device.
156 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
160 give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi output device.
161 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
165 give the desired radioX start number for each radio receiver device.
166 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
170 give the desired radioX start number for each radio transmitter
171 device. The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
175 give the desired swradioX start number for each SDR capture device.
176 The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
180 specify the allowed video capture crop/compose/scaling combination
181 for each driver instance. Video capture devices can have any combination
182 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
183 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
184 select this through controls.
186 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
187 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
191 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
195 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
196 picture into a larger buffer.
200 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
201 picture. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
202 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
203 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
206 Note that this value is ignored by webcam inputs: those enumerate
207 discrete framesizes and that is incompatible with cropping, composing
212 specify the allowed video output crop/compose/scaling combination
213 for each driver instance. Video output devices can have any combination
214 of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
215 vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
216 select this through controls.
218 The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
219 each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
223 Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
228 Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
229 buffer into a larger picture frame.
233 Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
234 buffer. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
235 or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
236 very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
241 select whether each device instance supports multi-planar formats,
242 and thus the V4L2 multi-planar API. By default device instances are
245 This module option can override that for each instance. Values are:
247 - 1: this is a single-planar instance.
248 - 2: this is a multi-planar instance.
252 enable driver debugging info
256 if set disable the error injecting controls. This option is
257 needed in order to run a tool like v4l2-compliance. Tools like that
258 exercise all controls including a control like 'Disconnect' which
259 emulates a USB disconnect, making the device inaccessible and so
260 all tests that v4l2-compliance is doing will fail afterwards.
262 There may be other situations as well where you want to disable the
263 error injection support of vivid. When this option is set, then the
264 controls that select crop, compose and scale behavior are also
265 removed. Unless overridden by ccs_cap_mode and/or ccs_out_mode the
266 will default to enabling crop, compose and scaling.
270 memory allocator selection, default is 0. It specifies the way buffers
276 Taken together, all these module options allow you to precisely customize
277 the driver behavior and test your application with all sorts of permutations.
278 It is also very suitable to emulate hardware that is not yet available, e.g.
279 when developing software for a new upcoming device.
285 This is probably the most frequently used feature. The video capture device
286 can be configured by using the module options num_inputs, input_types and
287 ccs_cap_mode (see section 1 for more detailed information), but by default
288 four inputs are configured: a webcam, a TV tuner, an S-Video and an HDMI
289 input, one input for each input type. Those are described in more detail
292 Special attention has been given to the rate at which new frames become
293 available. The jitter will be around 1 jiffie (that depends on the HZ
294 configuration of your kernel, so usually 1/100, 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second),
295 but the long-term behavior is exactly following the framerate. So a
296 framerate of 59.94 Hz is really different from 60 Hz. If the framerate
297 exceeds your kernel's HZ value, then you will get dropped frames, but the
298 frame/field sequence counting will keep track of that so the sequence
299 count will skip whenever frames are dropped.
305 The webcam input supports three framesizes: 320x180, 640x360 and 1280x720. It
306 supports frames per second settings of 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. Which ones
307 are available depends on the chosen framesize: the larger the framesize, the
308 lower the maximum frames per second.
310 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the webcam input will be
314 TV and S-Video Inputs
315 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
317 The only difference between the TV and S-Video input is that the TV has a
318 tuner. Otherwise they behave identically.
320 These inputs support audio inputs as well: one TV and one Line-In. They
321 both support all TV standards. If the standard is queried, then the Vivid
322 controls 'Standard Signal Mode' and 'Standard' determine what
325 These inputs support all combinations of the field setting. Special care has
326 been taken to faithfully reproduce how fields are handled for the different
327 TV standards. This is particularly noticeable when generating a horizontally
328 moving image so the temporal effect of using interlaced formats becomes clearly
329 visible. For 50 Hz standards the top field is the oldest and the bottom field
330 is the newest in time. For 60 Hz standards that is reversed: the bottom field
331 is the oldest and the top field is the newest in time.
333 When you start capturing in V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE mode the first buffer will
334 contain the top field for 50 Hz standards and the bottom field for 60 Hz
335 standards. This is what capture hardware does as well.
337 Finally, for PAL/SECAM standards the first half of the top line contains noise.
338 This simulates the Wide Screen Signal that is commonly placed there.
340 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
343 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the TV standard. The video aspect ratio
344 can be selected through the 'Standard Aspect Ratio' Vivid control.
345 Choices are '4x3', '16x9' which will give letterboxed widescreen video and
346 '16x9 Anamorphic' which will give full screen squashed anamorphic widescreen
347 video that will need to be scaled accordingly.
349 The TV 'tuner' supports a frequency range of 44-958 MHz. Channels are available
350 every 6 MHz, starting from 49.25 MHz. For each channel the generated image
351 will be in color for the +/- 0.25 MHz around it, and in grayscale for
352 +/- 1 MHz around the channel. Beyond that it is just noise. The VIDIOC_G_TUNER
353 ioctl will return 100% signal strength for +/- 0.25 MHz and 50% for +/- 1 MHz.
354 It will also return correct afc values to show whether the frequency is too
357 The audio subchannels that are returned are MONO for the +/- 1 MHz range around
358 a valid channel frequency. When the frequency is within +/- 0.25 MHz of the
359 channel it will return either MONO, STEREO, either MONO | SAP (for NTSC) or
360 LANG1 | LANG2 (for others), or STEREO | SAP.
362 Which one is returned depends on the chosen channel, each next valid channel
363 will cycle through the possible audio subchannel combinations. This allows
364 you to test the various combinations by just switching channels..
366 Finally, for these inputs the v4l2_timecode struct is filled in in the
367 dequeued v4l2_buffer struct.
373 The HDMI inputs supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
374 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
375 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE. For HDMI the
376 field order is always top field first, and when you start capturing an
377 interlaced format you will receive the top field first.
379 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI input or
380 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
381 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
382 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
384 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
385 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
386 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
388 The video aspect ratio can be selected through the 'DV Timings Aspect Ratio'
389 Vivid control. Choices are 'Source Width x Height' (just use the
390 same ratio as the chosen format), '4x3' or '16x9', either of which can
391 result in pillarboxed or letterboxed video.
393 For HDMI inputs it is possible to set the EDID. By default a simple EDID
394 is provided. You can only set the EDID for HDMI inputs. Internally, however,
395 the EDID is shared between all HDMI inputs.
397 No interpretation is done of the EDID data with the exception of the
398 physical address. See the CEC section for more details.
400 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI inputs (if there are more, then they will be
401 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address.
407 The video output device can be configured by using the module options
408 num_outputs, output_types and ccs_out_mode (see section 1 for more detailed
409 information), but by default two outputs are configured: an S-Video and an
410 HDMI input, one output for each output type. Those are described in more detail
413 Like with video capture the framerate is also exact in the long term.
419 This output supports audio outputs as well: "Line-Out 1" and "Line-Out 2".
420 The S-Video output supports all TV standards.
422 This output supports all combinations of the field setting.
424 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
431 The HDMI output supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
432 interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
433 mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE.
435 The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI output or
436 select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
437 less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
438 others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
440 The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
441 set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
442 standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
444 An HDMI output has a valid EDID which can be obtained through VIDIOC_G_EDID.
446 There is a maximum of 15 HDMI outputs (if there are more, then they will be
447 reduced to 15) since that's the limitation of the EDID physical address. See
448 also the CEC section for more details.
453 There are three types of VBI capture devices: those that only support raw
454 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
455 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option. In all
456 cases the driver will generate valid VBI data: for 60 Hz standards it will
457 generate Closed Caption and XDS data. The closed caption stream will
458 alternate between "Hello world!" and "Closed captions test" every second.
459 The XDS stream will give the current time once a minute. For 50 Hz standards
460 it will generate the Wide Screen Signal which is based on the actual Video
461 Aspect Ratio control setting and teletext pages 100-159, one page per frame.
463 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video and TV inputs, it will give
464 back an error if the current input is a webcam or HDMI.
470 There are three types of VBI output devices: those that only support raw
471 (undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
472 support both. This is determined by the node_types module option.
474 The sliced VBI output supports the Wide Screen Signal and the teletext signal
475 for 50 Hz standards and Closed Captioning + XDS for 60 Hz standards.
477 The VBI device will only work for the S-Video output, it will give
478 back an error if the current output is HDMI.
484 The radio receiver emulates an FM/AM/SW receiver. The FM band also supports RDS.
485 The frequency ranges are:
487 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
488 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
489 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
491 Valid channels are emulated every 1 MHz for FM and every 100 kHz for AM and SW.
492 The signal strength decreases the further the frequency is from the valid
493 frequency until it becomes 0% at +/- 50 kHz (FM) or 5 kHz (AM/SW) from the
494 ideal frequency. The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is set to
497 The FM receiver supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
498 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the RDS information is stored in read-only
499 controls. These controls are updated every time the frequency is changed,
500 or when the tuner status is requested. The Block I/O method uses the read()
501 interface to pass the RDS blocks on to the application for decoding.
503 The RDS signal is 'detected' for +/- 12.5 kHz around the channel frequency,
504 and the further the frequency is away from the valid frequency the more RDS
505 errors are randomly introduced into the block I/O stream, up to 50% of all
506 blocks if you are +/- 12.5 kHz from the channel frequency. All four errors
507 can occur in equal proportions: blocks marked 'CORRECTED', blocks marked
508 'ERROR', blocks marked 'INVALID' and dropped blocks.
510 The generated RDS stream contains all the standard fields contained in a
511 0B group, and also radio text and the current time.
513 The receiver supports HW frequency seek, either in Bounded mode, Wrap Around
514 mode or both, which is configurable with the "Radio HW Seek Mode" control.
520 The radio transmitter emulates an FM/AM/SW transmitter. The FM band also supports RDS.
521 The frequency ranges are:
523 - FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
524 - AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
525 - SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
527 The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is 95.5 MHz.
529 The FM transmitter supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
530 modes. In the 'Controls' mode the transmitted RDS information is configured
531 using controls, and in 'Block I/O' mode the blocks are passed to the driver
535 Software Defined Radio Receiver
536 -------------------------------
538 The SDR receiver has three frequency bands for the ADC tuner:
544 The RF tuner supports 50 MHz - 2000 MHz.
546 The generated data contains the In-phase and Quadrature components of a
547 1 kHz tone that has an amplitude of sqrt(2).
553 Different devices support different controls. The sections below will describe
554 each control and which devices support them.
557 User Controls - Test Controls
558 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
560 The Button, Boolean, Integer 32 Bits, Integer 64 Bits, Menu, String, Bitmask and
561 Integer Menu are controls that represent all possible control types. The Menu
562 control and the Integer Menu control both have 'holes' in their menu list,
563 meaning that one or more menu items return EINVAL when VIDIOC_QUERYMENU is called.
564 Both menu controls also have a non-zero minimum control value. These features
565 allow you to check if your application can handle such things correctly.
566 These controls are supported for every device type.
569 User Controls - Video Capture
570 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
572 The following controls are specific to video capture.
574 The Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue controls actually work and are
575 standard. There is one special feature with the Brightness control: each
576 video input has its own brightness value, so changing input will restore
577 the brightness for that input. In addition, each video input uses a different
578 brightness range (minimum and maximum control values). Switching inputs will
579 cause a control event to be sent with the V4L2_EVENT_CTRL_CH_RANGE flag set.
580 This allows you to test controls that can change their range.
582 The 'Gain, Automatic' and Gain controls can be used to test volatile controls:
583 if 'Gain, Automatic' is set, then the Gain control is volatile and changes
584 constantly. If 'Gain, Automatic' is cleared, then the Gain control is a normal
587 The 'Horizontal Flip' and 'Vertical Flip' controls can be used to flip the
588 image. These combine with the 'Sensor Flipped Horizontally/Vertically' Vivid
591 The 'Alpha Component' control can be used to set the alpha component for
592 formats containing an alpha channel.
595 User Controls - Audio
596 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
598 The following controls are specific to video capture and output and radio
599 receivers and transmitters.
601 The 'Volume' and 'Mute' audio controls are typical for such devices to
602 control the volume and mute the audio. They don't actually do anything in
609 These vivid custom controls control the image generation, error injection, etc.
612 Test Pattern Controls
613 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
615 The Test Pattern Controls are all specific to video capture.
619 selects which test pattern to use. Use the CSC Colorbar for
620 testing colorspace conversions: the colors used in that test pattern
621 map to valid colors in all colorspaces. The colorspace conversion
622 is disabled for the other test patterns.
626 selects whether the text superimposed on the
627 test pattern should be shown, and if so, whether only counters should
628 be displayed or the full text.
630 - Horizontal Movement:
632 selects whether the test pattern should
633 move to the left or right and at what speed.
637 does the same for the vertical direction.
641 show a two-pixel wide border at the edge of the actual image,
642 excluding letter or pillarboxing.
646 show a square in the middle of the image. If the image is
647 displayed with the correct pixel and image aspect ratio corrections,
648 then the width and height of the square on the monitor should be
651 - Insert SAV Code in Image:
653 adds a SAV (Start of Active Video) code to the image.
654 This can be used to check if such codes in the image are inadvertently
655 interpreted instead of being ignored.
657 - Insert EAV Code in Image:
659 does the same for the EAV (End of Active Video) code.
662 Capture Feature Selection Controls
663 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
665 These controls are all specific to video capture.
667 - Sensor Flipped Horizontally:
669 the image is flipped horizontally and the
670 V4L2_IN_ST_HFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
671 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
673 - Sensor Flipped Vertically:
675 the image is flipped vertically and the
676 V4L2_IN_ST_VFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
677 a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
679 - Standard Aspect Ratio:
681 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the TV or
682 S-Video input should be 4x3, 16x9 or anamorphic widescreen. This may
683 introduce letterboxing.
685 - DV Timings Aspect Ratio:
687 selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the HDMI
688 input should be the same as the source width and height ratio, or if
689 it should be 4x3 or 16x9. This may introduce letter or pillarboxing.
693 selects when the timestamp for each buffer is taken.
697 selects which colorspace should be used when generating the image.
698 This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is selected,
699 otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
700 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
701 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
702 by colorspace conversions.
704 Changing the colorspace will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
705 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
709 selects which colorspace transfer function should be used when
710 generating an image. This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is
711 selected, otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted.
712 This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
713 should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
714 by colorspace conversions.
716 Changing the transfer function will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
717 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
721 selects which Y'CbCr encoding should be used when generating
722 a Y'CbCr image. This only applies if the format is set to a Y'CbCr format
723 as opposed to an RGB format.
725 Changing the Y'CbCr encoding will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
726 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
730 selects which quantization should be used for the RGB or Y'CbCr
731 encoding when generating the test pattern.
733 Changing the quantization will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
734 to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
736 - Limited RGB Range (16-235):
738 selects if the RGB range of the HDMI source should
739 be limited or full range. This combines with the Digital Video 'Rx RGB
740 Quantization Range' control and can be used to test what happens if
741 a source provides you with the wrong quantization range information.
742 See the description of that control for more details.
744 - Apply Alpha To Red Only:
746 apply the alpha channel as set by the 'Alpha Component'
747 user control to the red color of the test pattern only.
749 - Enable Capture Cropping:
751 enables crop support. This control is only present if
752 the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
753 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
755 - Enable Capture Composing:
757 enables composing support. This control is only
758 present if the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of
759 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
761 - Enable Capture Scaler:
763 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
764 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_cap_mode
765 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
766 module option is set to 0 (the default).
768 - Maximum EDID Blocks:
770 determines how many EDID blocks the driver supports.
771 Note that the vivid driver does not actually interpret new EDID
772 data, it just stores it. It allows for up to 256 EDID blocks
773 which is the maximum supported by the standard.
775 - Fill Percentage of Frame:
777 can be used to draw only the top X percent
778 of the image. Since each frame has to be drawn by the driver, this
779 demands a lot of the CPU. For large resolutions this becomes
780 problematic. By drawing only part of the image this CPU load can
784 Output Feature Selection Controls
785 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
787 These controls are all specific to video output.
789 - Enable Output Cropping:
791 enables crop support. This control is only present if
792 the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
793 the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
795 - Enable Output Composing:
797 enables composing support. This control is only
798 present if the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of
799 -1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
801 - Enable Output Scaler:
803 enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
804 and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_out_mode
805 module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
806 module option is set to 0 (the default).
809 Error Injection Controls
810 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
812 The following two controls are only valid for video and vbi capture.
814 - Standard Signal Mode:
816 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERYSTD: what should it return?
818 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
819 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
820 was plugged in or out).
824 selects the standard that VIDIOC_QUERYSTD should return if the
825 previous control is set to "Selected Standard".
827 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
828 to be sent since it emulates a changed input standard.
831 The following two controls are only valid for video capture.
833 - DV Timings Signal Mode:
835 selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS: what
838 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
839 to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
840 was plugged in or out).
844 selects the timings the VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS should return
845 if the previous control is set to "Selected DV Timings".
847 Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
848 to be sent since it emulates changed input timings.
851 The following controls are only present if the no_error_inj module option
852 is set to 0 (the default). These controls are valid for video and vbi
853 capture and output streams and for the SDR capture device except for the
854 Disconnect control which is valid for all devices.
856 - Wrap Sequence Number:
858 test what happens when you wrap the sequence number in
859 struct v4l2_buffer around.
863 test what happens when you wrap the timestamp in struct
866 - Percentage of Dropped Buffers:
868 sets the percentage of buffers that
869 are never returned by the driver (i.e., they are dropped).
873 emulates a USB disconnect. The device will act as if it has
874 been disconnected. Only after all open filehandles to the device
875 node have been closed will the device become 'connected' again.
877 - Inject V4L2_BUF_FLAG_ERROR:
879 when pressed, the next frame returned by
880 the driver will have the error flag set (i.e. the frame is marked
883 - Inject VIDIOC_REQBUFS Error:
885 when pressed, the next REQBUFS or CREATE_BUFS
886 ioctl call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
887 queue_setup() op will return -EINVAL.
889 - Inject VIDIOC_QBUF Error:
891 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_QBUF or
892 VIDIOC_PREPARE_BUFFER ioctl call will fail with an error. To be
893 precise: the videobuf2 buf_prepare() op will return -EINVAL.
895 - Inject VIDIOC_STREAMON Error:
897 when pressed, the next VIDIOC_STREAMON ioctl
898 call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
899 start_streaming() op will return -EINVAL.
901 - Inject Fatal Streaming Error:
903 when pressed, the streaming core will be
904 marked as having suffered a fatal error, the only way to recover
905 from that is to stop streaming. To be precise: the videobuf2
906 vb2_queue_error() function is called.
909 VBI Raw Capture Controls
910 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
912 - Interlaced VBI Format:
914 if set, then the raw VBI data will be interlaced instead
915 of providing it grouped by field.
918 Digital Video Controls
919 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
921 - Rx RGB Quantization Range:
923 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
924 input. This combines with the Vivid 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
925 control and can be used to test what happens if a source provides
926 you with the wrong quantization range information. This can be tested
927 by selecting an HDMI input, setting this control to Full or Limited
928 range and selecting the opposite in the 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
929 control. The effect is easy to see if the 'Gray Ramp' test pattern
932 - Tx RGB Quantization Range:
934 sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
935 output. It is currently not used for anything in vivid, but most HDMI
936 transmitters would typically have this control.
940 sets the transmit mode of the HDMI output to HDMI or DVI-D. This
941 affects the reported colorspace since DVI_D outputs will always use
946 sets the presence of a "display" on the HDMI output. This affects
947 the tx_edid_present, tx_hotplug and tx_rxsense controls.
950 FM Radio Receiver Controls
951 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
955 set if the RDS receiver should be enabled.
966 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
969 - RDS Traffic Program:
974 these are all read-only controls. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set to
975 "Block I/O", then they are inactive as well. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set
976 to "Controls", then these controls report the received RDS data.
979 The vivid implementation of this is pretty basic: they are only
980 updated when you set a new frequency or when you get the tuner status
983 - Radio HW Seek Mode:
985 can be one of "Bounded", "Wrap Around" or "Both". This
986 determines if VIDIOC_S_HW_FREQ_SEEK will be bounded by the frequency
987 range or wrap-around or if it is selectable by the user.
989 - Radio Programmable HW Seek:
991 if set, then the user can provide the lower and
992 upper bound of the HW Seek. Otherwise the frequency range boundaries
995 - Generate RBDS Instead of RDS:
997 if set, then generate RBDS (the US variant of
998 RDS) data instead of RDS (European-style RDS). This affects only the
999 PICODE and PTY codes.
1003 this can be "Block I/O" where the RDS blocks have to be read()
1004 by the application, or "Controls" where the RDS data is provided by
1005 the RDS controls mentioned above.
1008 FM Radio Modulator Controls
1009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1026 - RDS Artificial Head:
1035 - RDS Traffic Announcement:
1038 - RDS Traffic Program:
1043 these are all controls that set the RDS data that is transmitted by
1048 this can be "Block I/O" where the application has to use write()
1049 to pass the RDS blocks to the driver, or "Controls" where the RDS data
1050 is Provided by the RDS controls mentioned above.
1053 Video, VBI and RDS Looping
1054 --------------------------
1056 The vivid driver supports looping of video output to video input, VBI output
1057 to VBI input and RDS output to RDS input. For video/VBI looping this emulates
1058 as if a cable was hooked up between the output and input connector. So video
1059 and VBI looping is only supported between S-Video and HDMI inputs and outputs.
1060 VBI is only valid for S-Video as it makes no sense for HDMI.
1062 Since radio is wireless this looping always happens if the radio receiver
1063 frequency is close to the radio transmitter frequency. In that case the radio
1064 transmitter will 'override' the emulated radio stations.
1066 Looping is currently supported only between devices created by the same
1067 vivid driver instance.
1070 Video and Sliced VBI looping
1071 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1073 The way to enable video/VBI looping is currently fairly crude. A 'Loop Video'
1074 control is available in the "Vivid" control class of the video
1075 capture and VBI capture devices. When checked the video looping will be enabled.
1076 Once enabled any video S-Video or HDMI input will show a static test pattern
1077 until the video output has started. At that time the video output will be
1078 looped to the video input provided that:
1080 - the input type matches the output type. So the HDMI input cannot receive
1081 video from the S-Video output.
1083 - the video resolution of the video input must match that of the video output.
1084 So it is not possible to loop a 50 Hz (720x576) S-Video output to a 60 Hz
1085 (720x480) S-Video input, or a 720p60 HDMI output to a 1080p30 input.
1087 - the pixel formats must be identical on both sides. Otherwise the driver would
1088 have to do pixel format conversion as well, and that's taking things too far.
1090 - the field settings must be identical on both sides. Same reason as above:
1091 requiring the driver to convert from one field format to another complicated
1092 matters too much. This also prohibits capturing with 'Field Top' or 'Field
1093 Bottom' when the output video is set to 'Field Alternate'. This combination,
1094 while legal, became too complicated to support. Both sides have to be 'Field
1095 Alternate' for this to work. Also note that for this specific case the
1096 sequence and field counting in struct v4l2_buffer on the capture side may not
1099 - field settings V4L2_FIELD_SEQ_TB/BT are not supported. While it is possible to
1100 implement this, it would mean a lot of work to get this right. Since these
1101 field values are rarely used the decision was made not to implement this for
1104 - on the input side the "Standard Signal Mode" for the S-Video input or the
1105 "DV Timings Signal Mode" for the HDMI input should be configured so that a
1106 valid signal is passed to the video input.
1108 The framerates do not have to match, although this might change in the future.
1110 By default you will see the OSD text superimposed on top of the looped video.
1111 This can be turned off by changing the "OSD Text Mode" control of the video
1114 For VBI looping to work all of the above must be valid and in addition the vbi
1115 output must be configured for sliced VBI. The VBI capture side can be configured
1116 for either raw or sliced VBI. Note that at the moment only CC/XDS (60 Hz formats)
1117 and WSS (50 Hz formats) VBI data is looped. Teletext VBI data is not looped.
1123 As mentioned in section 6 the radio receiver emulates stations are regular
1124 frequency intervals. Depending on the frequency of the radio receiver a
1125 signal strength value is calculated (this is returned by VIDIOC_G_TUNER).
1126 However, it will also look at the frequency set by the radio transmitter and
1127 if that results in a higher signal strength than the settings of the radio
1128 transmitter will be used as if it was a valid station. This also includes
1129 the RDS data (if any) that the transmitter 'transmits'. This is received
1130 faithfully on the receiver side. Note that when the driver is loaded the
1131 frequencies of the radio receiver and transmitter are not identical, so
1132 initially no looping takes place.
1135 Cropping, Composing, Scaling
1136 ----------------------------
1138 This driver supports cropping, composing and scaling in any combination. Normally
1139 which features are supported can be selected through the Vivid controls,
1140 but it is also possible to hardcode it when the module is loaded through the
1141 ccs_cap_mode and ccs_out_mode module options. See section 1 on the details of
1142 these module options.
1144 This allows you to test your application for all these variations.
1146 Note that the webcam input never supports cropping, composing or scaling. That
1147 only applies to the TV/S-Video/HDMI inputs and outputs. The reason is that
1148 webcams, including this virtual implementation, normally use
1149 VIDIOC_ENUM_FRAMESIZES to list a set of discrete framesizes that it supports.
1150 And that does not combine with cropping, composing or scaling. This is
1151 primarily a limitation of the V4L2 API which is carefully reproduced here.
1153 The minimum and maximum resolutions that the scaler can achieve are 16x16 and
1154 (4096 * 4) x (2160 x 4), but it can only scale up or down by a factor of 4 or
1155 less. So for a source resolution of 1280x720 the minimum the scaler can do is
1156 320x180 and the maximum is 5120x2880. You can play around with this using the
1157 qv4l2 test tool and you will see these dependencies.
1159 This driver also supports larger 'bytesperline' settings, something that
1160 VIDIOC_S_FMT allows but that few drivers implement.
1162 The scaler is a simple scaler that uses the Coarse Bresenham algorithm. It's
1163 designed for speed and simplicity, not quality.
1165 If the combination of crop, compose and scaling allows it, then it is possible
1166 to change crop and compose rectangles on the fly.
1172 The driver supports all the regular packed and planar 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0
1173 YUYV formats, 8, 16, 24 and 32 RGB packed formats and various multiplanar
1176 The alpha component can be set through the 'Alpha Component' User control
1177 for those formats that support it. If the 'Apply Alpha To Red Only' control
1178 is set, then the alpha component is only used for the color red and set to
1181 The driver has to be configured to support the multiplanar formats. By default
1182 the driver instances are single-planar. This can be changed by setting the
1183 multiplanar module option, see section 1 for more details on that option.
1185 If the driver instance is using the multiplanar formats/API, then the first
1186 single planar format (YUYV) and the multiplanar NV16M and NV61M formats the
1187 will have a plane that has a non-zero data_offset of 128 bytes. It is rare for
1188 data_offset to be non-zero, so this is a useful feature for testing applications.
1190 Video output will also honor any data_offset that the application set.
1196 Note: capture overlay support is implemented primarily to test the existing
1197 V4L2 capture overlay API. In practice few if any GPUs support such overlays
1198 anymore, and neither are they generally needed anymore since modern hardware
1199 is so much more capable. By setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module
1200 option the vivid driver will create a simple framebuffer device that can be
1201 used for testing this API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1204 This driver has support for a destructive capture overlay with bitmap clipping
1205 and list clipping (up to 16 rectangles) capabilities. Overlays are not
1206 supported for multiplanar formats. It also honors the struct v4l2_window field
1207 setting: if it is set to FIELD_TOP or FIELD_BOTTOM and the capture setting is
1208 FIELD_ALTERNATE, then only the top or bottom fields will be copied to the overlay.
1210 The overlay only works if you are also capturing at that same time. This is a
1211 vivid limitation since it copies from a buffer to the overlay instead of
1212 filling the overlay directly. And if you are not capturing, then no buffers
1213 are available to fill.
1215 In addition, the pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer
1216 must be the same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return
1219 In order to really see what it going on you will need to create two vivid
1220 instances: the first with a framebuffer enabled. You configure the capture
1221 overlay of the second instance to use the framebuffer of the first, then
1222 you start capturing in the second instance. For the first instance you setup
1223 the output overlay for the video output, turn on video looping and capture
1224 to see the blended framebuffer overlay that's being written to by the second
1225 instance. This setup would require the following commands:
1227 .. code-block:: none
1229 $ sudo modprobe vivid n_devs=2 node_types=0x10101,0x1
1230 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --find-fb
1231 /dev/fb1 is the framebuffer associated with base address 0x12800000
1232 $ sudo v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fbuf fb=1
1233 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fbuf fb=1
1234 $ v4l2-ctl -d0 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1235 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fmt-video-out=pixelformat='AR15'
1236 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
1239 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 -c horizontal_movement=4
1240 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --overlay=1
1241 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 -c loop_video=1
1242 $ v4l2-ctl -d2 --stream-mmap --overlay=1
1244 And from another console:
1246 .. code-block:: none
1248 $ v4l2-ctl -d1 --stream-out-mmap
1250 And yet another console:
1252 .. code-block:: none
1256 and start streaming.
1258 As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart...
1264 Note: output overlays are primarily implemented in order to test the existing
1265 V4L2 output overlay API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
1268 This driver has support for an output overlay and is capable of:
1271 - list clipping (up to 16 rectangles)
1276 - local inverse alpha
1278 Output overlays are not supported for multiplanar formats. In addition, the
1279 pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer must be the
1280 same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return an error.
1282 Output overlays only work if the driver has been configured to create a
1283 framebuffer by setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module option. The
1284 created framebuffer has a size of 720x576 and supports ARGB 1:5:5:5 and
1287 In order to see the effects of the various clipping, chromakeying or alpha
1288 processing capabilities you need to turn on video looping and see the results
1289 on the capture side. The use of the clipping, chromakeying or alpha processing
1290 capabilities will slow down the video loop considerably as a lot of checks have
1291 to be done per pixel.
1294 CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)
1295 ----------------------------------
1297 If there are HDMI inputs then a CEC adapter will be created that has
1298 the same number of input ports. This is the equivalent of e.g. a TV that
1299 has that number of inputs. Each HDMI output will also create a
1300 CEC adapter that is hooked up to the corresponding input port, or (if there
1301 are more outputs than inputs) is not hooked up at all. In other words,
1302 this is the equivalent of hooking up each output device to an input port of
1303 the TV. Any remaining output devices remain unconnected.
1305 The EDID that each output reads reports a unique CEC physical address that is
1306 based on the physical address of the EDID of the input. So if the EDID of the
1307 receiver has physical address A.B.0.0, then each output will see an EDID
1308 containing physical address A.B.C.0 where C is 1 to the number of inputs. If
1309 there are more outputs than inputs then the remaining outputs have a CEC adapter
1310 that is disabled and reports an invalid physical address.
1313 Some Future Improvements
1314 ------------------------
1316 Just as a reminder and in no particular order:
1318 - Add a virtual alsa driver to test audio
1319 - Add virtual sub-devices and media controller support
1320 - Some support for testing compressed video
1321 - Add support to loop raw VBI output to raw VBI input
1322 - Add support to loop teletext sliced VBI output to VBI input
1323 - Fix sequence/field numbering when looping of video with alternate fields
1324 - Add support for V4L2_CID_BG_COLOR for video outputs
1325 - Add ARGB888 overlay support: better testing of the alpha channel
1326 - Improve pixel aspect support in the tpg code by passing a real v4l2_fract
1327 - Use per-queue locks and/or per-device locks to improve throughput
1328 - Add support to loop from a specific output to a specific input across
1330 - The SDR radio should use the same 'frequencies' for stations as the normal
1331 radio receiver, and give back noise if the frequency doesn't match up with
1333 - Make a thread for the RDS generation, that would help in particular for the
1334 "Controls" RDS Rx I/O Mode as the read-only RDS controls could be updated
1336 - Changing the EDID should cause hotplug detect emulation to happen.