name[32] | Canonical name for this interface |
type | Type of interface |
channels | Number of radio/tv channels if appropriate |
audios | Number of audio devices if appropriate |
maxwidth | Maximum capture width in pixels |
maxheight | Maximum capture height in pixels |
minwidth | Minimum capture width in pixels |
minheight | Minimum capture height in pixels |
The type field lists the capability flags for the device. These are as follows
Name | Description |
---|---|
VID_TYPE_CAPTURE | Can capture to memory |
VID_TYPE_TUNER | Has a tuner of some form |
VID_TYPE_TELETEXT | Has teletext capability |
VID_TYPE_OVERLAY | Can overlay its image onto the frame buffer |
VID_TYPE_CHROMAKEY | Overlay is Chromakeyed |
VID_TYPE_CLIPPING | Overlay clipping is supported |
VID_TYPE_FRAMERAM | Overlay overwrites frame buffer memory |
VID_TYPE_SCALES | The hardware supports image scaling |
VID_TYPE_MONOCHROME | Image capture is grey scale only |
VID_TYPE_SUBCAPTURE | Capture can be of only part of the image |
The minimum and maximum sizes listed for a capture device do not imply all that all height/width ratios or sizes within the range are possible. A request to set a size will be honoured by the largest available capture size whose capture is no large than the requested rectangle in either direction. For example the quickcam has 3 fixed settings.
Frame Buffer
Capture cards that drop data directly onto the frame buffer must be told the base address of the frame buffer, its size and organisation. This is a privileged ioctl and one that eventually X itself should set.The VIDIOCSFBUF ioctl sets the frame buffer parameters for a capture card. If the card does not do direct writes to the frame buffer then this ioctl will be unsupported. The VIDIOCGFBUF ioctl returns the currently used parameters. The structure used in both cases is a struct video_buffer.
void *base | Base physical address of the buffer |
int height | Height of the frame buffer |
int width | Width of the frame buffer |
int depth | Depth of the frame buffer |
int bytesperline | Number of bytes of memory between the start of two adjacent lines |
Note that these values reflect the physical layout of the frame buffer. The visible area may be smaller. In fact under XFree86 this is commonly the case. XFree86 DGA can provide the parameters required to set up this ioctl. Setting the base address to NULL indicates there is no physical frame buffer access.
Capture Windows
The capture area is described by a struct video_window. This defines a capture area and the clipping information if relevant. The VIDIOCGWIN ioctl recovers the current settings and the VIDIOCSWIN sets new values. A successful call to VIDIOCSWIN indicates that a suitable set of parameters have been chosen. They do not indicate that exactly what was requested was granted. The program should call VIDIOCGWIN to check if the nearest match was suitable. The struct video_window contains the following fields.
x | The X co-ordinate specified in X windows format. |
y | The Y co-ordinate specified in X windows format. |
width | The width of the image capture. |
height | The height of the image capture. |
chromakey | A host order RGB32 value for the chroma key. |
flags | Additional capture flags. |
clips | A list of clipping rectangles. (Set only) |
clipcount | The number of clipping rectangles. (Set only) |
Clipping rectangles are passed as an array. Each clip consists of the following fields available to the user.
x | X co-ordinate of rectangle to skip |
y | Y co-ordinate of rectangle to skip |
width | Width of rectangle to skip |
height | Height of rectangle to skip |
Merely setting the window does not enable capturing. Overlay capturing is activated by passing the VIDIOCCAPTURE ioctl a value of 1, and disabled by passing it a value of 0.
Some capture devices can capture a subfield of the image they actually see. This is indicated when VIDEO_TYPE_SUBCAPTURE is defined. The video_capture describes the time and special subfields to capture. The video_capture structure contains the following fields.
x | X co-ordinate of source rectangle to grab |
y | Y co-ordinate of source rectangle to grab |
width | Width of source rectangle to grab |
height | Height of source rectangle to grab |
decimation | Decimation to apply |
flags | Flag settings for grabbing |
Name | Description |
---|---|
VIDEO_CAPTURE_ODD | Capture only odd frames |
VIDEO_CAPTURE_EVEN | Capture only even frames |
Video Sources
Each video4linux video or audio device captures from one or more source channels. Each channel can be queries with the VDIOCGCHAN ioctl call. Before invoking this function the caller must set the channel field to the channel that is being queried. On return the struct video_channel is filled in with information about the nature of the channel itself.The VIDIOCSCHAN ioctl takes an integer argument and switches the capture to this input. It is not defined whether parameters such as colour settings or tuning are maintained across a channel switch. The caller should maintain settings as desired for each channel. (This is reasonable as different video inputs may have different properties).
The struct video_channel consists of the following
channel | The channel number |
name | The input name - preferably reflecting the label on the card input itself |
tuners | Number of tuners for this input |
flags | Properties the tuner has |
type | Input type (if known) |
norm | The norm for this channel |
The flags defined are
VIDEO_VC_TUNER | Channel has tuners. |
VIDEO_VC_AUDIO | Channel has audio. |
VIDEO_VC_NORM | Channel has norm setting. |
The types defined are
VIDEO_TYPE_TV | The input is a TV input. |
VIDEO_TYPE_CAMERA | The input is a camera. |
Image Properties
The image properties of the picture can be queried with the VIDIOCGPICT ioctl which fills in a struct video_picture. The VIDIOCSPICT ioctl allows values to be changed. All values except for the palette type are scaled between 0-65535.The struct video_picture consists of the following fields
brightness | Picture brightness |
hue | Picture hue (colour only) |
colour | Picture colour (colour only) |
contrast | Picture contrast |
whiteness | The whiteness (greyscale only) |
depth | The capture depth (may need to match the frame buffer depth) |
palette | Reports the palette that should be used for this image |
The following palettes are defined
VIDEO_PALETTE_GREY | Linear intensity grey scale (255 is brightest). |
VIDEO_PALETTE_HI240 | The BT848 8bit colour cube. |
VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB565 | RGB565 packed into 16 bit words. |
VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB555 | RGV555 packed into 16 bit words, top bit undefined. |
VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB24 | RGB888 packed into 24bit words. |
VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB32 | RGB888 packed into the low 3 bytes of 32bit words. The top 8bits are undefined. |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV422 | Video style YUV422 - 8bits packed 4bits Y 2bits U 2bits V |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUYV | Describe me |
VIDEO_PALETTE_UYVY | Describe me |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV420 | YUV420 capture |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV411 | YUV411 capture |
VIDEO_PALETTE_RAW | RAW capture (BT848) |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV422P | YUV 4:2:2 Planar |
VIDEO_PALETTE_YUV411P | YUV 4:1:1 Planar |
Tuning
Each video input channel can have one or more tuners associated with it. Many devices will not have tuners. TV cards and radio cards will have one or more tuners attached.Tuners are described by a struct video_tuner which can be obtained by the VIDIOCGTUNER ioctl. Fill in the tuner number in the structure then pass the structure to the ioctl to have the data filled in. The tuner can be switched using VIDIOCSTUNER which takes an integer argument giving the tuner to use. A struct tuner has the following fields
tuner | Number of the tuner |
name | Canonical name for this tuner (eg FM/AM/TV) |
rangelow | Lowest tunable frequency |
rangehigh | Highest tunable frequency |
flags | Flags describing the tuner |
mode | The video signal mode if relevant |
signal | Signal strength if known - between 0-65535 |
The following flags exist
VIDEO_TUNER_PAL | PAL tuning is supported |
VIDEO_TUNER_NTSC | NTSC tuning is supported |
VIDEO_TUNER_SECAM | SECAM tuning is supported |
VIDEO_TUNER_LOW | Frequency is in a lower range |
VIDEO_TUNER_NORM | The norm for this tuner is settable |
VIDEO_TUNER_STEREO_ON | The tuner is seeing stereo audio |
VIDEO_TUNER_RDS_ON | The tuner is seeing a RDS datastream |
VIDEO_TUNER_MBS_ON | The tuner is seeing a MBS datastream |
The following modes are defined
VIDEO_MODE_PAL | The tuner is in PAL mode |
VIDEO_MODE_NTSC | The tuner is in NTSC mode |
VIDEO_MODE_SECAM | The tuner is in SECAM mode |
VIDEO_MODE_AUTO | The tuner auto switches, or mode does not apply |
Tuning frequencies are an unsigned 32bit value in 1/16th MHz or if the VIDEO_TUNER_LOW flag is set they are in 1/16th KHz. The current frequency is obtained as an unsigned long via the VIDIOCGFREQ ioctl and set by the VIDIOCSFREQ ioctl.
Audio
TV and Radio devices have one or more audio inputs that may be selected. The audio properties are queried by passing a struct video_audio to VIDIOCGAUDIO ioctl. The VIDIOCSAUDIO ioctl sets audio properties.The structure contains the following fields
audio | The channel number |
volume | The volume level |
bass | The bass level |
treble | The treble level |
flags | Flags describing the audio channel |
name | Canonical name for the audio input |
mode | The mode the audio input is in |
balance | The left/right balance |
step | Actual step used by the hardware |
The following flags are defined
VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTE | The audio is muted |
VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTABLE | Audio muting is supported |
VIDEO_AUDIO_VOLUME | The volume is controllable |
VIDEO_AUDIO_BASS | The bass is controllable |
VIDEO_AUDIO_TREBLE | The treble is controllable |
VIDEO_AUDIO_BALANCE | The balance is controllable |
The following decoding modes are defined
VIDEO_SOUND_MONO | Mono signal |
VIDEO_SOUND_STEREO | Stereo signal (NICAM for TV) |
VIDEO_SOUND_LANG1 | European TV alternate language 1 |
VIDEO_SOUND_LANG2 | European TV alternate language 2 |
Reading Images
Each call to the read syscall returns the next available image from the device. It is up to the caller to set the format and then to pass a suitable size buffer and length to the function. Not all devices will support read operations.A second way to handle image capture is via the mmap interface if supported. To use the mmap interface a user first sets the desired image size and depth properties. Next the VIDIOCGMBUF ioctl is issued. This reports the size of buffer to mmap and the offset within the buffer for each frame. The number of frames supported is device dependent and may only be one.
The video_mbuf structure contains the following fields
size | The number of bytes to map |
frames | The number of frames |
offsets | The offset of each frame |
Once the mmap has been made the VIDIOCMCAPTURE ioctl sets the image size you wish to use (which should match or be below the initial query size). Having done so it will begin capturing to the memory mapped buffer. Whenever a buffer is "used" by the program it should called VIDIOCSYNC to free this frame up and continue. to add:VIDIOCSYNC takes the frame number you are freeing as its argument. When the buffer is unmapped or all the buffers are full capture ceases. While capturing to memory the driver will make a "best effort" attempt to capture to screen as well if requested. This normally means all frames that "miss" memory mapped capture will go to the display.
A final ioctl exists to allow a device to obtain related devices if a driver has multiple components (for example video0 may not be associated with vbi0 which would cause an intercast display program to make a bad mistake). The VIDIOCGUNIT ioctl reports the unit numbers of the associated devices if any exist. The video_unit structure has the following fields.
video | Video capture device |
vbi | VBI capture device |
radio | Radio device |
audio | Audio mixer |
teletext | Teletext device |
RDS Datastreams
For radio devices that support it, it is possible to receive Radio Data System (RDS) data by means of a read() on the device. The data is packed in groups of three, as follows:First Octet | Least Significant Byte of RDS Block | |
Second Octet | Most Significant Byte of RDS Block | |
Third Octet | Bit 7: | Error bit. Indicates that an uncorrectable error occurred during reception of this block. |
Bit 6: | Corrected bit. Indicates that an error was corrected for this data block. | |
Bits 5-3: | Received Offset. Indicates the offset received by the sync system. | |
Bits 2-0: | Offset Name. Indicates the offset applied to this data. |