1 2ivtv release notes 3================== 4 5This is a v4l2 device driver for the Conexant cx23415/6 MPEG encoder/decoder. 6The cx23415 can do both encoding and decoding, the cx23416 can only do MPEG 7encoding. Currently the only card featuring full decoding support is the 8Hauppauge PVR-350. 9 10NOTE: this driver requires the latest encoder firmware (version 2.06.039, size 11376836 bytes). Get the firmware from here: 12 13http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/ivtv/firmware/ 14 15NOTE: 'normal' TV applications do not work with this driver, you need 16an application that can handle MPEG input such as mplayer, xine, MythTV, 17etc. 18 19The primary goal of the IVTV project is to provide a "clean room" Linux 20Open Source driver implementation for video capture cards based on the 21iCompression iTVC15 or Conexant CX23415/CX23416 MPEG Codec. 22 23Features: 24 * Hardware mpeg2 capture of broadcast video (and sound) via the tuner or 25 S-Video/Composite and audio line-in. 26 * Hardware mpeg2 capture of FM radio where hardware support exists 27 * Supports NTSC, PAL, SECAM with stereo sound 28 * Supports SAP and bilingual transmissions. 29 * Supports raw VBI (closed captions and teletext). 30 * Supports sliced VBI (closed captions and teletext) and is able to insert 31 this into the captured MPEG stream. 32 * Supports raw YUV and PCM input. 33 34Additional features for the PVR-350 (CX23415 based): 35 * Provides hardware mpeg2 playback 36 * Provides comprehensive OSD (On Screen Display: ie. graphics overlaying the 37 video signal) 38 * Provides a framebuffer (allowing X applications to appear on the video 39 device) 40 * Supports raw YUV output. 41 42IMPORTANT: In case of problems first read this page: 43 http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Troubleshooting 44 45See also: 46 47Homepage + Wiki 48http://www.ivtvdriver.org 49 50IRC 51irc://irc.freenode.net/ivtv-dev 52 53---------------------------------------------------------- 54 55Devices 56======= 57 58A maximum of 12 ivtv boards are allowed at the moment. 59 60Cards that don't have a video output capability (i.e. non PVR350 cards) 61lack the vbi8, vbi16, video16 and video48 devices. They also do not 62support the framebuffer device /dev/fbx for OSD. 63 64The radio0 device may or may not be present, depending on whether the 65card has a radio tuner or not. 66 67Here is a list of the base v4l devices: 68crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 0 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/video0 69crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 16 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/video16 70crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 24 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/video24 71crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 32 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/video32 72crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 48 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/video48 73crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 64 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/radio0 74crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 224 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/vbi0 75crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 228 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/vbi8 76crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 232 Jun 19 22:22 /dev/vbi16 77 78Base devices 79============ 80 81For every extra card you have the numbers increased by one. For example, 82/dev/video0 is listed as the 'base' encoding capture device so we have: 83 84 /dev/video0 is the encoding capture device for the first card (card 0) 85 /dev/video1 is the encoding capture device for the second card (card 1) 86 /dev/video2 is the encoding capture device for the third card (card 2) 87 88Note that if the first card doesn't have a feature (eg no decoder, so no 89video16, the second card will still use video17. The simple rule is 'add 90the card number to the base device number'. If you have other capture 91cards (e.g. WinTV PCI) that are detected first, then you have to tell 92the ivtv module about it so that it will start counting at 1 (or 2, or 93whatever). Otherwise the device numbers can get confusing. The ivtv 94'ivtv_first_minor' module option can be used for that. 95 96 97/dev/video0 98The encoding capture device(s). 99Read-only. 100 101Reading from this device gets you the MPEG1/2 program stream. 102Example: 103 104cat /dev/video0 > my.mpg (you need to hit ctrl-c to exit) 105 106 107/dev/video16 108The decoder output device(s) 109Write-only. Only present if the MPEG decoder (i.e. CX23415) exists. 110 111An mpeg2 stream sent to this device will appear on the selected video 112display, audio will appear on the line-out/audio out. It is only 113available for cards that support video out. Example: 114 115cat my.mpg >/dev/video16 116 117 118/dev/video24 119The raw audio capture device(s). 120Read-only 121 122The raw audio PCM stereo stream from the currently selected 123tuner or audio line-in. Reading from this device results in a raw 124(signed 16 bit Little Endian, 48000 Hz, stereo pcm) capture. 125This device only captures audio. This should be replaced by an ALSA 126device in the future. 127Note that there is no corresponding raw audio output device, this is 128not supported in the decoder firmware. 129 130 131/dev/video32 132The raw video capture device(s) 133Read-only 134 135The raw YUV video output from the current video input. The YUV format 136is non-standard (V4L2_PIX_FMT_HM12). 137 138Note that the YUV and PCM streams are not synchronized, so they are of 139limited use. 140 141 142/dev/video48 143The raw video display device(s) 144Write-only. Only present if the MPEG decoder (i.e. CX23415) exists. 145 146Writes a YUV stream to the decoder of the card. 147 148 149/dev/radio0 150The radio tuner device(s) 151Cannot be read or written. 152 153Used to enable the radio tuner and tune to a frequency. You cannot 154read or write audio streams with this device. Once you use this 155device to tune the radio, use /dev/video24 to read the raw pcm stream 156or /dev/video0 to get an mpeg2 stream with black video. 157 158 159/dev/vbi0 160The 'vertical blank interval' (Teletext, CC, WSS etc) capture device(s) 161Read-only 162 163Captures the raw (or sliced) video data sent during the Vertical Blank 164Interval. This data is used to encode teletext, closed captions, VPS, 165widescreen signalling, electronic program guide information, and other 166services. 167 168 169/dev/vbi8 170Processed vbi feedback device(s) 171Read-only. Only present if the MPEG decoder (i.e. CX23415) exists. 172 173The sliced VBI data embedded in an MPEG stream is reproduced on this 174device. So while playing back a recording on /dev/video16, you can 175read the embedded VBI data from /dev/vbi8. 176 177 178/dev/vbi16 179The vbi 'display' device(s) 180Write-only. Only present if the MPEG decoder (i.e. CX23415) exists. 181 182Can be used to send sliced VBI data to the video-out connector. 183 184--------------------------------- 185 186Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl> 187