| Markus Heiser | 6ec710e | 2016-07-09 12:06:26 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | .. -*- coding: utf-8; mode: rst -*- |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ============ |
| 4 | Introduction |
| 5 | ============ |
| 6 | |
| 7 | This document covers the Linux Kernel to Userspace API's used by video |
| 8 | and radio streaming devices, including video cameras, analog and digital |
| 9 | TV receiver cards, AM/FM receiver cards, Software Defined Radio (SDR), |
| 10 | streaming capture and output devices, codec devices and remote controllers. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | A typical media device hardware is shown at :ref:`typical_media_device`. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | .. _typical_media_device: |
| 15 | |
| Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 8fa1bb5 | 2017-03-09 15:14:52 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 16 | .. kernel-figure:: typical_media_device.svg |
| 17 | :alt: typical_media_device.svg |
| 18 | :align: center |
| Markus Heiser | 6ec710e | 2016-07-09 12:06:26 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 19 | |
| 20 | Typical Media Device |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The media infrastructure API was designed to control such devices. It is |
| 23 | divided into five parts. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | 1. The :ref:`first part <v4l2spec>` covers radio, video capture and output, |
| 26 | cameras, analog TV devices and codecs. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | 2. The :ref:`second part <dvbapi>` covers the API used for digital TV and |
| 29 | Internet reception via one of the several digital tv standards. While it is |
| 30 | called as DVB API, in fact it covers several different video standards |
| 31 | including DVB-T/T2, DVB-S/S2, DVB-C, ATSC, ISDB-T, ISDB-S, DTMB, etc. The |
| 32 | complete list of supported standards can be found at |
| Mauro Carvalho Chehab | 836cf1d | 2016-08-30 10:21:03 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 33 | :c:type:`fe_delivery_system`. |
| Markus Heiser | 6ec710e | 2016-07-09 12:06:26 -0300 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | |
| 35 | 3. The :ref:`third part <remote_controllers>` covers the Remote Controller API. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | 4. The :ref:`fourth part <media_controller>` covers the Media Controller API. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | 5. The :ref:`fifth part <cec>` covers the CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) API. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | It should also be noted that a media device may also have audio components, like |
| 42 | mixers, PCM capture, PCM playback, etc, which are controlled via ALSA API. For |
| 43 | additional information and for the latest development code, see: |
| 44 | `https://linuxtv.org <https://linuxtv.org>`__. For discussing improvements, |
| 45 | reporting troubles, sending new drivers, etc, please mail to: `Linux Media |
| 46 | Mailing List (LMML) <http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#linux-media>`__. |