VIDEO(9) | Kernel Developer's Manual | VIDEO(9)

# NAME

`video` —
interface between low and high level video drivers

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <dev/video_if.h>`

device_t
`video_attach_mi`(const struct video_hw_if *hw_if, device_t hw_dev);

void
`video_submit_payload`(device_t vl_dev, const struct video_payload *payload);

# DESCRIPTION

The video device driver is divided into a high level, machine independent layer, and a low level hardware dependent layer. The interface between these is the video_hw_if structure function pointers called by the video layer, and video layer functions called by the hardware driver.

The high level video driver attaches to the low level driver when the latter calls video_attach_mi. The video_hw_if struct is as shown below. dev is the device struct for the hardware device. Return value is the video layer device.

    struct video_hw_if {
    	int	(*open)(void *, int); /* open hardware */
    	void	(*close)(void *);     /* close hardware */

    	const char *	(*get_devname)(void *);

    	int	(*enum_format)(void *, uint32_t, struct video_format *);
    	int	(*get_format)(void *, struct video_format *);
    	int	(*set_format)(void *, struct video_format *);
    	int	(*try_format)(void *, struct video_format *);

    	int	(*start_transfer)(void *);
    	int	(*stop_transfer)(void *);

    	int	(*control_iter_init)(void *, struct video_control_iter *);
    	int	(*control_iter_next)(void *, struct video_control_iter *);
    	int	(*get_control_desc_group)(void *,
    					  struct video_control_desc_group *);
    	int	(*get_control_group)(void *, struct video_control_group *);
    	int	(*set_control_group)(void *, const struct video_control_group *);
    };

The upper layer of the video driver allocates buffers for video samples. The hardware driver submits data to the video layer with video_submit_payload. vl_dev is the video layer device returned by video_attach_mi.

    struct video_payload {
    	const uint8_t	*data;
    	size_t		size;
    	int		frameno;
    	bool		end_of_frame;
    };

data
  Pointer to the video data for this payload. This may only be a portion of the data in one video sample or frame.
size
  Size in bytes of the video data in this payload
frameno
  Frame number to which this payload belongs. The hardware driver must toggle the frame number between 0 and 1 so the video layer can detect sample or frame boundaries.
end_of_frame
  Optional end of frame marker. If the hardware layer sets this, the video layer can immediately pass the completed sample or frame to userspace rather than waiting for the next payload to toggle frameno.

# HARDWARE-LAYER FUNCTIONS

The fields of video_hw_if are described in some more detail below. Some fields are optional and can be set to `NULL` if not needed.

`int open(void *hdl, int flags)`
  optional, is called when the video device is opened. It should initialize the hardware for I/O. Every successful call to open is matched by a call to close. Return 0 on success, otherwise an error code.
`void close(void *hdl)`
  optional, is called when the audio device is closed.
`const char * get_devname(void *hdl)`
  mandatory, returns a NUL-terminated string naming the device, e.g. a vendor and product model name.
`int enum_format(void *hdl, uint32_t index, struct video_format *format);`
  mandatory, called with an index from 0 to max_index - 1. Fills format with the format description at that index. Returns 0 on success, otherwise an error code.
`int get_format(void *hdl, struct video_format *format)`
  mandatory, fills format with the current video format. There should be a default format so this function works before and streaming has begun. Returns 0 on success, otherwise an error code.
`int set_format(void *hdl, struct video_format *format)`
  mandatory, sets the format of the video stream based on format. Fills format with the actual format used which may not be the same as requested. Returns 0 on success, otherwise an error code.
`int try_format(void *hdl, struct video_format *format)`
  optional, like set_format but does not actually change the stream format, just checks what is available. Returns 0 on success, otherwise an error code.
`int start_transfer(void *hdl)`
  mandatory, starts the capture of video frames. Incoming video data must be submitted to the video layer with repeated calls to `video_submit_payload`().
`int stop_transfer(void *hdl)`
`int control_iter_init(void *hdl, struct video_control_iter *)`
  Does nothing at this time.
`int control_iter_next(void *hdl, struct video_control_iter *)`
  Does nothing at this time.
`int get_control_group(void *hdl, struct video_control_group *)`
`int set_control_group(void *hdl, struct video_control_group *)`

# SEE ALSO

video(4)

# AUTHORS

Patrick Mahoney <pat@polycrystal.org>

# BUGS

Incomplete. Only supports a single video capture stream. Does not support output streams. Format handling may change in the future. Control handling may change. Current design requires copying all incoming video data.

July 24, 2008 | NetBSD 9.5