1 .. -*- coding: utf-8; mode: rst -*-
5 *************************************
6 Image Cropping, Insertion and Scaling
7 *************************************
9 Some video capture devices can sample a subsection of the picture and
10 shrink or enlarge it to an image of arbitrary size. We call these
11 abilities cropping and scaling. Some video output devices can scale an
12 image up or down and insert it at an arbitrary scan line and horizontal
13 offset into a video signal.
15 Applications can use the following API to select an area in the video
16 signal, query the default area and the hardware limits.
20 Despite their name, the :ref:`VIDIOC_CROPCAP <VIDIOC_CROPCAP>`,
21 :ref:`VIDIOC_G_CROP <VIDIOC_G_CROP>` and :ref:`VIDIOC_S_CROP
22 <VIDIOC_G_CROP>` ioctls apply to input as well as output devices.
24 Scaling requires a source and a target. On a video capture or overlay
25 device the source is the video signal, and the cropping ioctls determine
26 the area actually sampled. The target are images read by the application
27 or overlaid onto the graphics screen. Their size (and position for an
28 overlay) is negotiated with the :ref:`VIDIOC_G_FMT <VIDIOC_G_FMT>`
29 and :ref:`VIDIOC_S_FMT <VIDIOC_G_FMT>` ioctls.
31 On a video output device the source are the images passed in by the
32 application, and their size is again negotiated with the
33 :ref:`VIDIOC_G_FMT <VIDIOC_G_FMT>` and :ref:`VIDIOC_S_FMT <VIDIOC_G_FMT>`
34 ioctls, or may be encoded in a compressed video stream. The target is
35 the video signal, and the cropping ioctls determine the area where the
38 Source and target rectangles are defined even if the device does not
39 support scaling or the :ref:`VIDIOC_G_CROP <VIDIOC_G_CROP>` and
40 :ref:`VIDIOC_S_CROP <VIDIOC_G_CROP>` ioctls. Their size (and position
41 where applicable) will be fixed in this case.
45 All capture and output devices must support the
46 :ref:`VIDIOC_CROPCAP <VIDIOC_CROPCAP>` ioctl such that applications
47 can determine if scaling takes place.
57 :alt: crop.pdf / crop.svg
60 Image Cropping, Insertion and Scaling
62 The cropping, insertion and scaling process
66 For capture devices the coordinates of the top left corner, width and
67 height of the area which can be sampled is given by the ``bounds``
68 substructure of the struct :c:type:`v4l2_cropcap` returned
69 by the :ref:`VIDIOC_CROPCAP <VIDIOC_CROPCAP>` ioctl. To support a wide
70 range of hardware this specification does not define an origin or units.
71 However by convention drivers should horizontally count unscaled samples
72 relative to 0H (the leading edge of the horizontal sync pulse, see
73 :ref:`vbi-hsync`). Vertically ITU-R line numbers of the first field
74 (see ITU R-525 line numbering for :ref:`525 lines <vbi-525>` and for
75 :ref:`625 lines <vbi-625>`), multiplied by two if the driver
76 can capture both fields.
78 The top left corner, width and height of the source rectangle, that is
79 the area actually sampled, is given by struct
80 :c:type:`v4l2_crop` using the same coordinate system as
81 struct :c:type:`v4l2_cropcap`. Applications can use the
82 :ref:`VIDIOC_G_CROP <VIDIOC_G_CROP>` and :ref:`VIDIOC_S_CROP <VIDIOC_G_CROP>`
83 ioctls to get and set this rectangle. It must lie completely within the
84 capture boundaries and the driver may further adjust the requested size
85 and/or position according to hardware limitations.
87 Each capture device has a default source rectangle, given by the
88 ``defrect`` substructure of struct
89 :c:type:`v4l2_cropcap`. The center of this rectangle
90 shall align with the center of the active picture area of the video
91 signal, and cover what the driver writer considers the complete picture.
92 Drivers shall reset the source rectangle to the default when the driver
93 is first loaded, but not later.
95 For output devices these structures and ioctls are used accordingly,
96 defining the *target* rectangle where the images will be inserted into
103 Video hardware can have various cropping, insertion and scaling
104 limitations. It may only scale up or down, support only discrete scaling
105 factors, or have different scaling abilities in horizontal and vertical
106 direction. Also it may not support scaling at all. At the same time the
107 struct :c:type:`v4l2_crop` rectangle may have to be aligned,
108 and both the source and target rectangles may have arbitrary upper and
109 lower size limits. In particular the maximum ``width`` and ``height`` in
110 struct :c:type:`v4l2_crop` may be smaller than the struct
111 :c:type:`v4l2_cropcap`. ``bounds`` area. Therefore, as
112 usual, drivers are expected to adjust the requested parameters and
113 return the actual values selected.
115 Applications can change the source or the target rectangle first, as
116 they may prefer a particular image size or a certain area in the video
117 signal. If the driver has to adjust both to satisfy hardware
118 limitations, the last requested rectangle shall take priority, and the
119 driver should preferably adjust the opposite one. The
120 :ref:`VIDIOC_TRY_FMT <VIDIOC_G_FMT>` ioctl however shall not change
121 the driver state and therefore only adjust the requested rectangle.
123 Suppose scaling on a video capture device is restricted to a factor 1:1
124 or 2:1 in either direction and the target image size must be a multiple
125 of 16 × 16 pixels. The source cropping rectangle is set to defaults,
126 which are also the upper limit in this example, of 640 × 400 pixels at
127 offset 0, 0. An application requests an image size of 300 × 225 pixels,
128 assuming video will be scaled down from the "full picture" accordingly.
129 The driver sets the image size to the closest possible values 304 × 224,
130 then chooses the cropping rectangle closest to the requested size, that
131 is 608 × 224 (224 × 2:1 would exceed the limit 400). The offset 0, 0 is
132 still valid, thus unmodified. Given the default cropping rectangle
133 reported by :ref:`VIDIOC_CROPCAP <VIDIOC_CROPCAP>` the application can
134 easily propose another offset to center the cropping rectangle.
136 Now the application may insist on covering an area using a picture
137 aspect ratio closer to the original request, so it asks for a cropping
138 rectangle of 608 × 456 pixels. The present scaling factors limit
139 cropping to 640 × 384, so the driver returns the cropping size 608 × 384
140 and adjusts the image size to closest possible 304 × 192.
146 Source and target rectangles shall remain unchanged across closing and
147 reopening a device, such that piping data into or out of a device will
148 work without special preparations. More advanced applications should
149 ensure the parameters are suitable before starting I/O.
153 On the next two examples, a video capture device is assumed;
154 change ``V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE`` for other types of device.
156 Example: Resetting the cropping parameters
157 ==========================================
161 struct v4l2_cropcap cropcap;
162 struct v4l2_crop crop;
164 memset (&cropcap, 0, sizeof (cropcap));
165 cropcap.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
167 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_CROPCAP, &cropcap)) {
168 perror ("VIDIOC_CROPCAP");
172 memset (&crop, 0, sizeof (crop));
173 crop.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
174 crop.c = cropcap.defrect;
176 /* Ignore if cropping is not supported (EINVAL). */
178 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_S_CROP, &crop)
179 && errno != EINVAL) {
180 perror ("VIDIOC_S_CROP");
185 Example: Simple downscaling
186 ===========================
190 struct v4l2_cropcap cropcap;
191 struct v4l2_format format;
193 reset_cropping_parameters ();
195 /* Scale down to 1/4 size of full picture. */
197 memset (&format, 0, sizeof (format)); /* defaults */
199 format.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
201 format.fmt.pix.width = cropcap.defrect.width >> 1;
202 format.fmt.pix.height = cropcap.defrect.height >> 1;
203 format.fmt.pix.pixelformat = V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV;
205 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_S_FMT, &format)) {
206 perror ("VIDIOC_S_FORMAT");
210 /* We could check the actual image size now, the actual scaling factor
211 or if the driver can scale at all. */
213 Example: Selecting an output area
214 =================================
216 .. note:: This example assumes an output device.
220 struct v4l2_cropcap cropcap;
221 struct v4l2_crop crop;
223 memset (&cropcap, 0, sizeof (cropcap));
224 cropcap.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_OUTPUT;
226 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_CROPCAP;, &cropcap)) {
227 perror ("VIDIOC_CROPCAP");
231 memset (&crop, 0, sizeof (crop));
233 crop.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_OUTPUT;
234 crop.c = cropcap.defrect;
236 /* Scale the width and height to 50 % of their original size
237 and center the output. */
241 crop.c.left += crop.c.width / 2;
242 crop.c.top += crop.c.height / 2;
244 /* Ignore if cropping is not supported (EINVAL). */
246 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_S_CROP, &crop)
247 && errno != EINVAL) {
248 perror ("VIDIOC_S_CROP");
252 Example: Current scaling factor and pixel aspect
253 ================================================
255 .. note:: This example assumes a video capture device.
259 struct v4l2_cropcap cropcap;
260 struct v4l2_crop crop;
261 struct v4l2_format format;
262 double hscale, vscale;
266 memset (&cropcap, 0, sizeof (cropcap));
267 cropcap.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
269 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_CROPCAP, &cropcap)) {
270 perror ("VIDIOC_CROPCAP");
274 memset (&crop, 0, sizeof (crop));
275 crop.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
277 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_G_CROP, &crop)) {
278 if (errno != EINVAL) {
279 perror ("VIDIOC_G_CROP");
283 /* Cropping not supported. */
284 crop.c = cropcap.defrect;
287 memset (&format, 0, sizeof (format));
288 format.fmt.type = V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_CAPTURE;
290 if (-1 == ioctl (fd, VIDIOC_G_FMT, &format)) {
291 perror ("VIDIOC_G_FMT");
295 /* The scaling applied by the driver. */
297 hscale = format.fmt.pix.width / (double) crop.c.width;
298 vscale = format.fmt.pix.height / (double) crop.c.height;
300 aspect = cropcap.pixelaspect.numerator /
301 (double) cropcap.pixelaspect.denominator;
302 aspect = aspect * hscale / vscale;
304 /* Devices following ITU-R BT.601 do not capture
305 square pixels. For playback on a computer monitor
306 we should scale the images to this size. */
308 dwidth = format.fmt.pix.width / aspect;
309 dheight = format.fmt.pix.height;