1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
|
vivid: Virtual Video Test Driver
================================
This driver emulates video4linux hardware of various types: video capture, video
output, vbi capture and output, radio receivers and transmitters and a software
defined radio receiver. In addition a simple framebuffer device is available for
testing capture and output overlays.
Up to 64 vivid instances can be created, each with up to 16 inputs and 16 outputs.
Each input can be a webcam, TV capture device, S-Video capture device or an HDMI
capture device. Each output can be an S-Video output device or an HDMI output
device.
These inputs and outputs act exactly as a real hardware device would behave. This
allows you to use this driver as a test input for application development, since
you can test the various features without requiring special hardware.
This document describes the features implemented by this driver:
- Support for read()/write(), MMAP, USERPTR and DMABUF streaming I/O.
- A large list of test patterns and variations thereof
- Working brightness, contrast, saturation and hue controls
- Support for the alpha color component
- Full colorspace support, including limited/full RGB range
- All possible control types are present
- Support for various pixel aspect ratios and video aspect ratios
- Error injection to test what happens if errors occur
- Supports crop/compose/scale in any combination for both input and output
- Can emulate up to 4K resolutions
- All Field settings are supported for testing interlaced capturing
- Supports all standard YUV and RGB formats, including two multiplanar YUV formats
- Raw and Sliced VBI capture and output support
- Radio receiver and transmitter support, including RDS support
- Software defined radio (SDR) support
- Capture and output overlay support
These features will be described in more detail below.
Table of Contents
-----------------
Section 1: Configuring the driver
Section 2: Video Capture
Section 2.1: Webcam Input
Section 2.2: TV and S-Video Inputs
Section 2.3: HDMI Input
Section 3: Video Output
Section 3.1: S-Video Output
Section 3.2: HDMI Output
Section 4: VBI Capture
Section 5: VBI Output
Section 6: Radio Receiver
Section 7: Radio Transmitter
Section 8: Software Defined Radio Receiver
Section 9: Controls
Section 9.1: User Controls - Test Controls
Section 9.2: User Controls - Video Capture
Section 9.3: User Controls - Audio
Section 9.4: Vivid Controls
Section 9.4.1: Test Pattern Controls
Section 9.4.2: Capture Feature Selection Controls
Section 9.4.3: Output Feature Selection Controls
Section 9.4.4: Error Injection Controls
Section 9.4.5: VBI Raw Capture Controls
Section 9.5: Digital Video Controls
Section 9.6: FM Radio Receiver Controls
Section 9.7: FM Radio Modulator
Section 10: Video, VBI and RDS Looping
Section 10.1: Video and Sliced VBI looping
Section 10.2: Radio & RDS Looping
Section 11: Cropping, Composing, Scaling
Section 12: Formats
Section 13: Capture Overlay
Section 14: Output Overlay
Section 15: Some Future Improvements
Section 1: Configuring the driver
---------------------------------
By default the driver will create a single instance that has a video capture
device with webcam, TV, S-Video and HDMI inputs, a video output device with
S-Video and HDMI outputs, one vbi capture device, one vbi output device, one
radio receiver device, one radio transmitter device and one SDR device.
The number of instances, devices, video inputs and outputs and their types are
all configurable using the following module options:
n_devs: number of driver instances to create. By default set to 1. Up to 64
instances can be created.
node_types: which devices should each driver instance create. An array of
hexadecimal values, one for each instance. The default is 0x1d3d.
Each value is a bitmask with the following meaning:
bit 0: Video Capture node
bit 2-3: VBI Capture node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
bit 4: Radio Receiver node
bit 5: Software Defined Radio Receiver node
bit 8: Video Output node
bit 10-11: VBI Output node: 0 = none, 1 = raw vbi, 2 = sliced vbi, 3 = both
bit 12: Radio Transmitter node
bit 16: Framebuffer for testing overlays
So to create four instances, the first two with just one video capture
device, the second two with just one video output device you would pass
these module options to vivid:
n_devs=4 node_types=0x1,0x1,0x100,0x100
num_inputs: the number of inputs, one for each instance. By default 4 inputs
are created for each video capture device. At most 16 inputs can be created,
and there must be at least one.
input_types: the input types for each instance, the default is 0xe4. This defines
what the type of each input is when the inputs are created for each driver
instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 pairs of bits, each
pair gives the type and bits 0-1 map to input 0, bits 2-3 map to input 1,
30-31 map to input 15. Each pair of bits has the following meaning:
00: this is a webcam input
01: this is a TV tuner input
10: this is an S-Video input
11: this is an HDMI input
So to create a video capture device with 8 inputs where input 0 is a TV
tuner, inputs 1-3 are S-Video inputs and inputs 4-7 are HDMI inputs you
would use the following module options:
num_inputs=8 input_types=0xffa9
num_outputs: the number of outputs, one for each instance. By default 2 outputs
are created for each video output device. At most 16 outputs can be
created, and there must be at least one.
output_types: the output types for each instance, the default is 0x02. This defines
what the type of each output is when the outputs are created for each
driver instance. This is a hexadecimal value with up to 16 bits, each bit
gives the type and bit 0 maps to output 0, bit 1 maps to output 1, bit
15 maps to output 15. The meaning of each bit is as follows:
0: this is an S-Video output
1: this is an HDMI output
So to create a video output device with 8 outputs where outputs 0-3 are
S-Video outputs and outputs 4-7 are HDMI outputs you would use the
following module options:
num_outputs=8 output_types=0xf0
vid_cap_nr: give the desired videoX start number for each video capture device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number. This allows
you to map capture video nodes to specific videoX device nodes. Example:
n_devs=4 vid_cap_nr=2,4,6,8
This will attempt to assign /dev/video2 for the video capture device of
the first vivid instance, video4 for the next up to video8 for the last
instance. If it can't succeed, then it will just take the next free
number.
vid_out_nr: give the desired videoX start number for each video output device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
vbi_cap_nr: give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi capture device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
vbi_out_nr: give the desired vbiX start number for each vbi output device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
radio_rx_nr: give the desired radioX start number for each radio receiver device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
radio_tx_nr: give the desired radioX start number for each radio transmitter
device. The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
sdr_cap_nr: give the desired swradioX start number for each SDR capture device.
The default is -1 which will just take the first free number.
ccs_cap_mode: specify the allowed video capture crop/compose/scaling combination
for each driver instance. Video capture devices can have any combination
of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
select this through controls.
The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
bit 0: Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
incoming picture.
bit 1: Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
picture into a larger buffer.
bit 2: Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
picture. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
key, not quality.
Note that this value is ignored by webcam inputs: those enumerate
discrete framesizes and that is incompatible with cropping, composing
or scaling.
ccs_out_mode: specify the allowed video output crop/compose/scaling combination
for each driver instance. Video output devices can have any combination
of cropping, composing and scaling capabilities and this will tell the
vivid driver which of those is should emulate. By default the user can
select this through controls.
The value is either -1 (controlled by the user) or a set of three bits,
each enabling (1) or disabling (0) one of the features:
bit 0: Enable crop support. Cropping will take only part of the
outgoing buffer.
bit 1: Enable compose support. Composing will copy the incoming
buffer into a larger picture frame.
bit 2: Enable scaling support. Scaling can scale the incoming
buffer. The scaler of the vivid driver can enlarge up
or down to four times the original size. The scaler is
very simple and low-quality. Simplicity and speed were
key, not quality.
multiplanar: select whether each device instance supports multi-planar formats,
and thus the V4L2 multi-planar API. By default the first device instance
is single-planar, the second multi-planar, and it keeps alternating.
This module option can override that for each instance. Values are:
0: use alternating single and multi-planar devices.
1: this is a single-planar instance.
2: this is a multi-planar instance.
vivid_debug: enable driver debugging info
no_error_inj: if set disable the error injecting controls. This option is
needed in order to run a tool like v4l2-compliance. Tools like that
exercise all controls including a control like 'Disconnect' which
emulates a USB disconnect, making the device inaccessible and so
all tests that v4l2-compliance is doing will fail afterwards.
There may be other situations as well where you want to disable the
error injection support of vivid. When this option is set, then the
controls that select crop, compose and scale behavior are also
removed. Unless overridden by ccs_cap_mode and/or ccs_out_mode the
will default to enabling crop, compose and scaling.
Taken together, all these module options allow you to precisely customize
the driver behavior and test your application with all sorts of permutations.
It is also very suitable to emulate hardware that is not yet available, e.g.
when developing software for a new upcoming device.
Section 2: Video Capture
------------------------
This is probably the most frequently used feature. The video capture device
can be configured by using the module options num_inputs, input_types and
ccs_cap_mode (see section 1 for more detailed information), but by default
four inputs are configured: a webcam, a TV tuner, an S-Video and an HDMI
input, one input for each input type. Those are described in more detail
below.
Special attention has been given to the rate at which new frames become
available. The jitter will be around 1 jiffie (that depends on the HZ
configuration of your kernel, so usually 1/100, 1/250 or 1/1000 of a second),
but the long-term behavior is exactly following the framerate. So a
framerate of 59.94 Hz is really different from 60 Hz. If the framerate
exceeds your kernel's HZ value, then you will get dropped frames, but the
frame/field sequence counting will keep track of that so the sequence
count will skip whenever frames are dropped.
Section 2.1: Webcam Input
-------------------------
The webcam input supports three framesizes: 320x180, 640x360 and 1280x720. It
supports frames per second settings of 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. Which ones
are available depends on the chosen framesize: the larger the framesize, the
lower the maximum frames per second.
The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the webcam input will be
sRGB.
Section 2.2: TV and S-Video Inputs
----------------------------------
The only difference between the TV and S-Video input is that the TV has a
tuner. Otherwise they behave identically.
These inputs support audio inputs as well: one TV and one Line-In. They
both support all TV standards. If the standard is queried, then the Vivid
controls 'Standard Signal Mode' and 'Standard' determine what
the result will be.
These inputs support all combinations of the field setting. Special care has
been taken to faithfully reproduce how fields are handled for the different
TV standards. This is particularly noticable when generating a horizontally
moving image so the temporal effect of using interlaced formats becomes clearly
visible. For 50 Hz standards the top field is the oldest and the bottom field
is the newest in time. For 60 Hz standards that is reversed: the bottom field
is the oldest and the top field is the newest in time.
When you start capturing in V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE mode the first buffer will
contain the top field for 50 Hz standards and the bottom field for 60 Hz
standards. This is what capture hardware does as well.
Finally, for PAL/SECAM standards the first half of the top line contains noise.
This simulates the Wide Screen Signal that is commonly placed there.
The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
will be SMPTE-170M.
The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the TV standard. The video aspect ratio
can be selected through the 'Standard Aspect Ratio' Vivid control.
Choices are '4x3', '16x9' which will give letterboxed widescreen video and
'16x9 Anomorphic' which will give full screen squashed anamorphic widescreen
video that will need to be scaled accordingly.
The TV 'tuner' supports a frequency range of 44-958 MHz. Channels are available
every 6 MHz, starting from 49.25 MHz. For each channel the generated image
will be in color for the +/- 0.25 MHz around it, and in grayscale for
+/- 1 MHz around the channel. Beyond that it is just noise. The VIDIOC_G_TUNER
ioctl will return 100% signal strength for +/- 0.25 MHz and 50% for +/- 1 MHz.
It will also return correct afc values to show whether the frequency is too
low or too high.
The audio subchannels that are returned are MONO for the +/- 1 MHz range around
a valid channel frequency. When the frequency is within +/- 0.25 MHz of the
channel it will return either MONO, STEREO, either MONO | SAP (for NTSC) or
LANG1 | LANG2 (for others), or STEREO | SAP.
Which one is returned depends on the chosen channel, each next valid channel
will cycle through the possible audio subchannel combinations. This allows
you to test the various combinations by just switching channels..
Finally, for these inputs the v4l2_timecode struct is filled in in the
dequeued v4l2_buffer struct.
Section 2.3: HDMI Input
-----------------------
The HDMI inputs supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE. For HDMI the
field order is always top field first, and when you start capturing an
interlaced format you will receive the top field first.
The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI input or
select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
The video aspect ratio can be selected through the 'DV Timings Aspect Ratio'
Vivid control. Choices are 'Source Width x Height' (just use the
same ratio as the chosen format), '4x3' or '16x9', either of which can
result in pillarboxed or letterboxed video.
For HDMI inputs it is possible to set the EDID. By default a simple EDID
is provided. You can only set the EDID for HDMI inputs. Internally, however,
the EDID is shared between all HDMI inputs.
No interpretation is done of the EDID data.
Section 3: Video Output
-----------------------
The video output device can be configured by using the module options
num_outputs, output_types and ccs_out_mode (see section 1 for more detailed
information), but by default two outputs are configured: an S-Video and an
HDMI input, one output for each output type. Those are described in more detail
below.
Like with video capture the framerate is also exact in the long term.
Section 3.1: S-Video Output
---------------------------
This output supports audio outputs as well: "Line-Out 1" and "Line-Out 2".
The S-Video output supports all TV standards.
This output supports all combinations of the field setting.
The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the TV or S-Video input
will be SMPTE-170M.
Section 3.2: HDMI Output
------------------------
The HDMI output supports all CEA-861 and DMT timings, both progressive and
interlaced, for pixelclock frequencies between 25 and 600 MHz. The field
mode for interlaced formats is always V4L2_FIELD_ALTERNATE.
The initially selected colorspace when you switch to the HDMI output or
select an HDMI timing is based on the format resolution: for resolutions
less than or equal to 720x576 the colorspace is set to SMPTE-170M, for
others it is set to REC-709 (CEA-861 timings) or sRGB (VESA DMT timings).
The pixel aspect ratio will depend on the HDMI timing: for 720x480 is it
set as for the NTSC TV standard, for 720x576 it is set as for the PAL TV
standard, and for all others a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio is returned.
An HDMI output has a valid EDID which can be obtained through VIDIOC_G_EDID.
Section 4: VBI Capture
----------------------
There are three types of VBI capture devices: those that only support raw
(undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
support both. This is determined by the node_types module option. In all
cases the driver will generate valid VBI data: for 60 Hz standards it will
generate Closed Caption and XDS data. The closed caption stream will
alternate between "Hello world!" and "Closed captions test" every second.
The XDS stream will give the current time once a minute. For 50 Hz standards
it will generate the Wide Screen Signal which is based on the actual Video
Aspect Ratio control setting and teletext pages 100-159, one page per frame.
The VBI device will only work for the S-Video and TV inputs, it will give
back an error if the current input is a webcam or HDMI.
Section 5: VBI Output
---------------------
There are three types of VBI output devices: those that only support raw
(undecoded) VBI, those that only support sliced (decoded) VBI and those that
support both. This is determined by the node_types module option.
The sliced VBI output supports the Wide Screen Signal and the teletext signal
for 50 Hz standards and Closed Captioning + XDS for 60 Hz standards.
The VBI device will only work for the S-Video output, it will give
back an error if the current output is HDMI.
Section 6: Radio Receiver
-------------------------
The radio receiver emulates an FM/AM/SW receiver. The FM band also supports RDS.
The frequency ranges are:
FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
Valid channels are emulated every 1 MHz for FM and every 100 kHz for AM and SW.
The signal strength decreases the further the frequency is from the valid
frequency until it becomes 0% at +/- 50 kHz (FM) or 5 kHz (AM/SW) from the
ideal frequency. The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is set to
95 MHz.
The FM receiver supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
modes. In the 'Controls' mode the RDS information is stored in read-only
controls. These controls are updated every time the frequency is changed,
or when the tuner status is requested. The Block I/O method uses the read()
interface to pass the RDS blocks on to the application for decoding.
The RDS signal is 'detected' for +/- 12.5 kHz around the channel frequency,
and the further the frequency is away from the valid frequency the more RDS
errors are randomly introduced into the block I/O stream, up to 50% of all
blocks if you are +/- 12.5 kHz from the channel frequency. All four errors
can occur in equal proportions: blocks marked 'CORRECTED', blocks marked
'ERROR', blocks marked 'INVALID' and dropped blocks.
The generated RDS stream contains all the standard fields contained in a
0B group, and also radio text and the current time.
The receiver supports HW frequency seek, either in Bounded mode, Wrap Around
mode or both, which is configurable with the "Radio HW Seek Mode" control.
Section 7: Radio Transmitter
----------------------------
The radio transmitter emulates an FM/AM/SW transmitter. The FM band also supports RDS.
The frequency ranges are:
FM: 64 MHz - 108 MHz
AM: 520 kHz - 1710 kHz
SW: 2300 kHz - 26.1 MHz
The initial frequency when the driver is loaded is 95.5 MHz.
The FM transmitter supports RDS as well, both using 'Block I/O' and 'Controls'
modes. In the 'Controls' mode the transmitted RDS information is configured
using controls, and in 'Block I/O' mode the blocks are passed to the driver
using write().
Section 8: Software Defined Radio Receiver
------------------------------------------
The SDR receiver has three frequency bands for the ADC tuner:
- 300 kHz
- 900 kHz - 2800 kHz
- 3200 kHz
The RF tuner supports 50 MHz - 2000 MHz.
The generated data contains the In-phase and Quadrature components of a
1 kHz tone that has an amplitude of sqrt(2).
Section 9: Controls
-------------------
Different devices support different controls. The sections below will describe
each control and which devices support them.
Section 9.1: User Controls - Test Controls
------------------------------------------
The Button, Boolean, Integer 32 Bits, Integer 64 Bits, Menu, String, Bitmask and
Integer Menu are controls that represent all possible control types. The Menu
control and the Integer Menu control both have 'holes' in their menu list,
meaning that one or more menu items return EINVAL when VIDIOC_QUERYMENU is called.
Both menu controls also have a non-zero minimum control value. These features
allow you to check if your application can handle such things correctly.
These controls are supported for every device type.
Section 9.2: User Controls - Video Capture
------------------------------------------
The following controls are specific to video capture.
The Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Hue controls actually work and are
standard. There is one special feature with the Brightness control: each
video input has its own brightness value, so changing input will restore
the brightness for that input. In addition, each video input uses a different
brightness range (minimum and maximum control values). Switching inputs will
cause a control event to be sent with the V4L2_EVENT_CTRL_CH_RANGE flag set.
This allows you to test controls that can change their range.
The 'Gain, Automatic' and Gain controls can be used to test volatile controls:
if 'Gain, Automatic' is set, then the Gain control is volatile and changes
constantly. If 'Gain, Automatic' is cleared, then the Gain control is a normal
control.
The 'Horizontal Flip' and 'Vertical Flip' controls can be used to flip the
image. These combine with the 'Sensor Flipped Horizontally/Vertically' Vivid
controls.
The 'Alpha Component' control can be used to set the alpha component for
formats containing an alpha channel.
Section 9.3: User Controls - Audio
----------------------------------
The following controls are specific to video capture and output and radio
receivers and transmitters.
The 'Volume' and 'Mute' audio controls are typical for such devices to
control the volume and mute the audio. They don't actually do anything in
the vivid driver.
Section 9.4: Vivid Controls
---------------------------
These vivid custom controls control the image generation, error injection, etc.
Section 9.4.1: Test Pattern Controls
------------------------------------
The Test Pattern Controls are all specific to video capture.
Test Pattern: selects which test pattern to use. Use the CSC Colorbar for
testing colorspace conversions: the colors used in that test pattern
map to valid colors in all colorspaces. The colorspace conversion
is disabled for the other test patterns.
OSD Text Mode: selects whether the text superimposed on the
test pattern should be shown, and if so, whether only counters should
be displayed or the full text.
Horizontal Movement: selects whether the test pattern should
move to the left or right and at what speed.
Vertical Movement: does the same for the vertical direction.
Show Border: show a two-pixel wide border at the edge of the actual image,
excluding letter or pillarboxing.
Show Square: show a square in the middle of the image. If the image is
displayed with the correct pixel and image aspect ratio corrections,
then the width and height of the square on the monitor should be
the same.
Insert SAV Code in Image: adds a SAV (Start of Active Video) code to the image.
This can be used to check if such codes in the image are inadvertently
interpreted instead of being ignored.
Insert EAV Code in Image: does the same for the EAV (End of Active Video) code.
Section 9.4.2: Capture Feature Selection Controls
-------------------------------------------------
These controls are all specific to video capture.
Sensor Flipped Horizontally: the image is flipped horizontally and the
V4L2_IN_ST_HFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
Sensor Flipped Vertically: the image is flipped vertically and the
V4L2_IN_ST_VFLIP input status flag is set. This emulates the case where
a sensor is for example mounted upside down.
Standard Aspect Ratio: selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the TV or
S-Video input should be 4x3, 16x9 or anamorphic widescreen. This may
introduce letterboxing.
DV Timings Aspect Ratio: selects if the image aspect ratio as used for the HDMI
input should be the same as the source width and height ratio, or if
it should be 4x3 or 16x9. This may introduce letter or pillarboxing.
Timestamp Source: selects when the timestamp for each buffer is taken.
Colorspace: selects which colorspace should be used when generating the image.
This only applies if the CSC Colorbar test pattern is selected,
otherwise the test pattern will go through unconverted (except for
the so-called 'Transfer Function' corrections and the R'G'B' to Y'CbCr
conversion). This behavior is also what you want, since a 75% Colorbar
should really have 75% signal intensity and should not be affected
by colorspace conversions.
Changing the colorspace will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
to be sent since it emulates a detected colorspace change.
Limited RGB Range (16-235): selects if the RGB range of the HDMI source should
be limited or full range. This combines with the Digital Video 'Rx RGB
Quantization Range' control and can be used to test what happens if
a source provides you with the wrong quantization range information.
See the description of that control for more details.
Apply Alpha To Red Only: apply the alpha channel as set by the 'Alpha Component'
user control to the red color of the test pattern only.
Enable Capture Cropping: enables crop support. This control is only present if
the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
Enable Capture Composing: enables composing support. This control is only
present if the ccs_cap_mode module option is set to the default value of
-1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
Enable Capture Scaler: enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_cap_mode
module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
module option is set to 0 (the default).
Maximum EDID Blocks: determines how many EDID blocks the driver supports.
Note that the vivid driver does not actually interpret new EDID
data, it just stores it. It allows for up to 256 EDID blocks
which is the maximum supported by the standard.
Fill Percentage of Frame: can be used to draw only the top X percent
of the image. Since each frame has to be drawn by the driver, this
demands a lot of the CPU. For large resolutions this becomes
problematic. By drawing only part of the image this CPU load can
be reduced.
Section 9.4.3: Output Feature Selection Controls
------------------------------------------------
These controls are all specific to video output.
Enable Output Cropping: enables crop support. This control is only present if
the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of -1 and if
the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
Enable Output Composing: enables composing support. This control is only
present if the ccs_out_mode module option is set to the default value of
-1 and if the no_error_inj module option is set to 0 (the default).
Enable Output Scaler: enables support for a scaler (maximum 4 times upscaling
and downscaling). This control is only present if the ccs_out_mode
module option is set to the default value of -1 and if the no_error_inj
module option is set to 0 (the default).
Section 9.4.4: Error Injection Controls
---------------------------------------
The following two controls are only valid for video and vbi capture.
Standard Signal Mode: selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERYSTD: what should
it return?
Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
was plugged in or out).
Standard: selects the standard that VIDIOC_QUERYSTD should return if the
previous control is set to "Selected Standard".
Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
to be sent since it emulates a changed input standard.
The following two controls are only valid for video capture.
DV Timings Signal Mode: selects the behavior of VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS: what
should it return?
Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
to be sent since it emulates a changed input condition (e.g. a cable
was plugged in or out).
DV Timings: selects the timings the VIDIOC_QUERY_DV_TIMINGS should return
if the previous control is set to "Selected DV Timings".
Changing this control will result in the V4L2_EVENT_SOURCE_CHANGE
to be sent since it emulates changed input timings.
The following controls are only present if the no_error_inj module option
is set to 0 (the default). These controls are valid for video and vbi
capture and output streams and for the SDR capture device except for the
Disconnect control which is valid for all devices.
Wrap Sequence Number: test what happens when you wrap the sequence number in
struct v4l2_buffer around.
Wrap Timestamp: test what happens when you wrap the timestamp in struct
v4l2_buffer around.
Percentage of Dropped Buffers: sets the percentage of buffers that
are never returned by the driver (i.e., they are dropped).
Disconnect: emulates a USB disconnect. The device will act as if it has
been disconnected. Only after all open filehandles to the device
node have been closed will the device become 'connected' again.
Inject V4L2_BUF_FLAG_ERROR: when pressed, the next frame returned by
the driver will have the error flag set (i.e. the frame is marked
corrupt).
Inject VIDIOC_REQBUFS Error: when pressed, the next REQBUFS or CREATE_BUFS
ioctl call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
queue_setup() op will return -EINVAL.
Inject VIDIOC_QBUF Error: when pressed, the next VIDIOC_QBUF or
VIDIOC_PREPARE_BUFFER ioctl call will fail with an error. To be
precise: the videobuf2 buf_prepare() op will return -EINVAL.
Inject VIDIOC_STREAMON Error: when pressed, the next VIDIOC_STREAMON ioctl
call will fail with an error. To be precise: the videobuf2
start_streaming() op will return -EINVAL.
Inject Fatal Streaming Error: when pressed, the streaming core will be
marked as having suffered a fatal error, the only way to recover
from that is to stop streaming. To be precise: the videobuf2
vb2_queue_error() function is called.
Section 9.4.5: VBI Raw Capture Controls
---------------------------------------
Interlaced VBI Format: if set, then the raw VBI data will be interlaced instead
of providing it grouped by field.
Section 9.5: Digital Video Controls
-----------------------------------
Rx RGB Quantization Range: sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
input. This combines with the Vivid 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
control and can be used to test what happens if a source provides
you with the wrong quantization range information. This can be tested
by selecting an HDMI input, setting this control to Full or Limited
range and selecting the opposite in the 'Limited RGB Range (16-235)'
control. The effect is easy to see if the 'Gray Ramp' test pattern
is selected.
Tx RGB Quantization Range: sets the RGB quantization detection of the HDMI
output. It is currently not used for anything in vivid, but most HDMI
transmitters would typically have this control.
Transmit Mode: sets the transmit mode of the HDMI output to HDMI or DVI-D. This
affects the reported colorspace since DVI_D outputs will always use
sRGB.
Section 9.6: FM Radio Receiver Controls
---------------------------------------
RDS Reception: set if the RDS receiver should be enabled.
RDS Program Type:
RDS PS Name:
RDS Radio Text:
RDS Traffic Announcement:
RDS Traffic Program:
RDS Music: these are all read-only controls. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set to
"Block I/O", then they are inactive as well. If RDS Rx I/O Mode is set
to "Controls", then these controls report the received RDS data. Note
that the vivid implementation of this is pretty basic: they are only
updated when you set a new frequency or when you get the tuner status
(VIDIOC_G_TUNER).
Radio HW Seek Mode: can be one of "Bounded", "Wrap Around" or "Both". This
determines if VIDIOC_S_HW_FREQ_SEEK will be bounded by the frequency
range or wrap-around or if it is selectable by the user.
Radio Programmable HW Seek: if set, then the user can provide the lower and
upper bound of the HW Seek. Otherwise the frequency range boundaries
will be used.
Generate RBDS Instead of RDS: if set, then generate RBDS (the US variant of
RDS) data instead of RDS (European-style RDS). This affects only the
PICODE and PTY codes.
RDS Rx I/O Mode: this can be "Block I/O" where the RDS blocks have to be read()
by the application, or "Controls" where the RDS data is provided by
the RDS controls mentioned above.
Section 9.7: FM Radio Modulator Controls
----------------------------------------
RDS Program ID:
RDS Program Type:
RDS PS Name:
RDS Radio Text:
RDS Stereo:
RDS Artificial Head:
RDS Compressed:
RDS Dymanic PTY:
RDS Traffic Announcement:
RDS Traffic Program:
RDS Music: these are all controls that set the RDS data that is transmitted by
the FM modulator.
RDS Tx I/O Mode: this can be "Block I/O" where the application has to use write()
to pass the RDS blocks to the driver, or "Controls" where the RDS data is
provided by the RDS controls mentioned above.
Section 10: Video, VBI and RDS Looping
--------------------------------------
The vivid driver supports looping of video output to video input, VBI output
to VBI input and RDS output to RDS input. For video/VBI looping this emulates
as if a cable was hooked up between the output and input connector. So video
and VBI looping is only supported between S-Video and HDMI inputs and outputs.
VBI is only valid for S-Video as it makes no sense for HDMI.
Since radio is wireless this looping always happens if the radio receiver
frequency is close to the radio transmitter frequency. In that case the radio
transmitter will 'override' the emulated radio stations.
Looping is currently supported only between devices created by the same
vivid driver instance.
Section 10.1: Video and Sliced VBI looping
------------------------------------------
The way to enable video/VBI looping is currently fairly crude. A 'Loop Video'
control is available in the "Vivid" control class of the video
output and VBI output devices. When checked the video looping will be enabled.
Once enabled any video S-Video or HDMI input will show a static test pattern
until the video output has started. At that time the video output will be
looped to the video input provided that:
- the input type matches the output type. So the HDMI input cannot receive
video from the S-Video output.
- the video resolution of the video input must match that of the video output.
So it is not possible to loop a 50 Hz (720x576) S-Video output to a 60 Hz
(720x480) S-Video input, or a 720p60 HDMI output to a 1080p30 input.
- the pixel formats must be identical on both sides. Otherwise the driver would
have to do pixel format conversion as well, and that's taking things too far.
- the field settings must be identical on both sides. Same reason as above:
requiring the driver to convert from one field format to another complicated
matters too much. This also prohibits capturing with 'Field Top' or 'Field
Bottom' when the output video is set to 'Field Alternate'. This combination,
while legal, became too complicated to support. Both sides have to be 'Field
Alternate' for this to work. Also note that for this specific case the
sequence and field counting in struct v4l2_buffer on the capture side may not
be 100% accurate.
- on the input side the "Standard Signal Mode" for the S-Video input or the
"DV Timings Signal Mode" for the HDMI input should be configured so that a
valid signal is passed to the video input.
The framerates do not have to match, although this might change in the future.
By default you will see the OSD text superimposed on top of the looped video.
This can be turned off by changing the "OSD Text Mode" control of the video
capture device.
For VBI looping to work all of the above must be valid and in addition the vbi
output must be configured for sliced VBI. The VBI capture side can be configured
for either raw or sliced VBI. Note that at the moment only CC/XDS (60 Hz formats)
and WSS (50 Hz formats) VBI data is looped. Teletext VBI data is not looped.
Section 10.2: Radio & RDS Looping
---------------------------------
As mentioned in section 6 the radio receiver emulates stations are regular
frequency intervals. Depending on the frequency of the radio receiver a
signal strength value is calculated (this is returned by VIDIOC_G_TUNER).
However, it will also look at the frequency set by the radio transmitter and
if that results in a higher signal strength than the settings of the radio
transmitter will be used as if it was a valid station. This also includes
the RDS data (if any) that the transmitter 'transmits'. This is received
faithfully on the receiver side. Note that when the driver is loaded the
frequencies of the radio receiver and transmitter are not identical, so
initially no looping takes place.
Section 11: Cropping, Composing, Scaling
----------------------------------------
This driver supports cropping, composing and scaling in any combination. Normally
which features are supported can be selected through the Vivid controls,
but it is also possible to hardcode it when the module is loaded through the
ccs_cap_mode and ccs_out_mode module options. See section 1 on the details of
these module options.
This allows you to test your application for all these variations.
Note that the webcam input never supports cropping, composing or scaling. That
only applies to the TV/S-Video/HDMI inputs and outputs. The reason is that
webcams, including this virtual implementation, normally use
VIDIOC_ENUM_FRAMESIZES to list a set of discrete framesizes that it supports.
And that does not combine with cropping, composing or scaling. This is
primarily a limitation of the V4L2 API which is carefully reproduced here.
The minimum and maximum resolutions that the scaler can achieve are 16x16 and
(4096 * 4) x (2160 x 4), but it can only scale up or down by a factor of 4 or
less. So for a source resolution of 1280x720 the minimum the scaler can do is
320x180 and the maximum is 5120x2880. You can play around with this using the
qv4l2 test tool and you will see these dependencies.
This driver also supports larger 'bytesperline' settings, something that
VIDIOC_S_FMT allows but that few drivers implement.
The scaler is a simple scaler that uses the Coarse Bresenham algorithm. It's
designed for speed and simplicity, not quality.
If the combination of crop, compose and scaling allows it, then it is possible
to change crop and compose rectangles on the fly.
Section 12: Formats
-------------------
The driver supports all the regular packed YUYV formats, 16, 24 and 32 RGB
packed formats and two multiplanar formats (one luma and one chroma plane).
The alpha component can be set through the 'Alpha Component' User control
for those formats that support it. If the 'Apply Alpha To Red Only' control
is set, then the alpha component is only used for the color red and set to
0 otherwise.
The driver has to be configured to support the multiplanar formats. By default
the first driver instance is single-planar, the second is multi-planar, and it
keeps alternating. This can be changed by setting the multiplanar module option,
see section 1 for more details on that option.
If the driver instance is using the multiplanar formats/API, then the first
single planar format (YUYV) and the multiplanar NV16M and NV61M formats the
will have a plane that has a non-zero data_offset of 128 bytes. It is rare for
data_offset to be non-zero, so this is a useful feature for testing applications.
Video output will also honor any data_offset that the application set.
Section 13: Capture Overlay
---------------------------
Note: capture overlay support is implemented primarily to test the existing
V4L2 capture overlay API. In practice few if any GPUs support such overlays
anymore, and neither are they generally needed anymore since modern hardware
is so much more capable. By setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module
option the vivid driver will create a simple framebuffer device that can be
used for testing this API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
questionable.
This driver has support for a destructive capture overlay with bitmap clipping
and list clipping (up to 16 rectangles) capabilities. Overlays are not
supported for multiplanar formats. It also honors the struct v4l2_window field
setting: if it is set to FIELD_TOP or FIELD_BOTTOM and the capture setting is
FIELD_ALTERNATE, then only the top or bottom fields will be copied to the overlay.
The overlay only works if you are also capturing at that same time. This is a
vivid limitation since it copies from a buffer to the overlay instead of
filling the overlay directly. And if you are not capturing, then no buffers
are available to fill.
In addition, the pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer
must be the same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return
an error.
In order to really see what it going on you will need to create two vivid
instances: the first with a framebuffer enabled. You configure the capture
overlay of the second instance to use the framebuffer of the first, then
you start capturing in the second instance. For the first instance you setup
the output overlay for the video output, turn on video looping and capture
to see the blended framebuffer overlay that's being written to by the second
instance. This setup would require the following commands:
$ sudo modprobe vivid n_devs=2 node_types=0x10101,0x1 multiplanar=1,1
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 --find-fb
/dev/fb1 is the framebuffer associated with base address 0x12800000
$ sudo v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fbuf fb=1
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fbuf fb=1
$ v4l2-ctl -d0 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 --set-fmt-video-out=pixelformat='AR15'
$ v4l2-ctl -d2 --set-fmt-video=pixelformat='AR15'
$ v4l2-ctl -d0 -i2
$ v4l2-ctl -d2 -i2
$ v4l2-ctl -d2 -c horizontal_movement=4
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 --overlay=1
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 -c loop_video=1
$ v4l2-ctl -d2 --stream-mmap --overlay=1
And from another console:
$ v4l2-ctl -d1 --stream-out-mmap
And yet another console:
$ qv4l2
and start streaming.
As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart...
Section 14: Output Overlay
--------------------------
Note: output overlays are primarily implemented in order to test the existing
V4L2 output overlay API. Whether this API should be used for new drivers is
questionable.
This driver has support for an output overlay and is capable of:
- bitmap clipping,
- list clipping (up to 16 rectangles)
- chromakey
- source chromakey
- global alpha
- local alpha
- local inverse alpha
Output overlays are not supported for multiplanar formats. In addition, the
pixelformat of the capture format and that of the framebuffer must be the
same for the overlay to work. Otherwise VIDIOC_OVERLAY will return an error.
Output overlays only work if the driver has been configured to create a
framebuffer by setting flag 0x10000 in the node_types module option. The
created framebuffer has a size of 720x576 and supports ARGB 1:5:5:5 and
RGB 5:6:5.
In order to see the effects of the various clipping, chromakeying or alpha
processing capabilities you need to turn on video looping and see the results
on the capture side. The use of the clipping, chromakeying or alpha processing
capabilities will slow down the video loop considerably as a lot of checks have
to be done per pixel.
Section 15: Some Future Improvements
------------------------------------
Just as a reminder and in no particular order:
- Add a virtual alsa driver to test audio
- Add virtual sub-devices and media controller support
- Some support for testing compressed video
- Add support to loop raw VBI output to raw VBI input
- Add support to loop teletext sliced VBI output to VBI input
- Fix sequence/field numbering when looping of video with alternate fields
- Add support for V4L2_CID_BG_COLOR for video outputs
- Add ARGB888 overlay support: better testing of the alpha channel
- Add custom DV timings support
- Add support for V4L2_DV_FL_REDUCED_FPS
- Improve pixel aspect support in the tpg code by passing a real v4l2_fract
- Use per-queue locks and/or per-device locks to improve throughput
- Add support to loop from a specific output to a specific input across
vivid instances
- Add support for VIDIOC_EXPBUF once support for that has been added to vb2
- The SDR radio should use the same 'frequencies' for stations as the normal
radio receiver, and give back noise if the frequency doesn't match up with
a station frequency
- Improve the sine generation of the SDR radio.
- Make a thread for the RDS generation, that would help in particular for the
"Controls" RDS Rx I/O Mode as the read-only RDS controls could be updated
in real-time.
|