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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/DocBook/media/v4l/dev-codec.xml | 35 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/media/v4l/dev-codec.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/media/v4l/dev-codec.xml index dca0ecd54dc..ff44c16fc08 100644 --- a/Documentation/DocBook/media/v4l/dev-codec.xml +++ b/Documentation/DocBook/media/v4l/dev-codec.xml @@ -1,18 +1,27 @@ <title>Codec Interface</title> - <note> - <title>Suspended</title> + <para>A V4L2 codec can compress, decompress, transform, or otherwise +convert video data from one format into another format, in memory. Typically +such devices are memory-to-memory devices (i.e. devices with the +<constant>V4L2_CAP_VIDEO_M2M</constant> or <constant>V4L2_CAP_VIDEO_M2M_MPLANE</constant> +capability set). +</para> - <para>This interface has been be suspended from the V4L2 API -implemented in Linux 2.6 until we have more experience with codec -device interfaces.</para> - </note> + <para>A memory-to-memory video node acts just like a normal video node, but it +supports both output (sending frames from memory to the codec hardware) and +capture (receiving the processed frames from the codec hardware into memory) +stream I/O. An application will have to setup the stream +I/O for both sides and finally call &VIDIOC-STREAMON; for both capture and output +to start the codec.</para> - <para>A V4L2 codec can compress, decompress, transform, or otherwise -convert video data from one format into another format, in memory. -Applications send data to be converted to the driver through a -&func-write; call, and receive the converted data through a -&func-read; call. For efficiency a driver may also support streaming -I/O.</para> + <para>Video compression codecs use the MPEG controls to setup their codec parameters +(note that the MPEG controls actually support many more codecs than just MPEG). +See <xref linkend="mpeg-controls"></xref>.</para> - <para>[to do]</para> + <para>Memory-to-memory devices can often be used as a shared resource: you can +open the video node multiple times, each application setting up their own codec properties +that are local to the file handle, and each can use it independently from the others. +The driver will arbitrate access to the codec and reprogram it whenever another file +handler gets access. This is different from the usual video node behavior where the video properties +are global to the device (i.e. changing something through one file handle is visible +through another file handle).</para> |