video4linux devices

[Kay Sievers]

On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 06:35:17PM +0000, Richard Hughes wrote:
> >From the HAL commit log:
> 
> http://cia.navi.cx/stats/project/hal/.message/464b0
> 
> I think the new video4linux devices make a lot of sense -- but your
> comment about "Meaningful properties need to be added by someone who
> knows about this device class." confused me a little.

Well, I almost know nothing about video devices. :) I did the same with
some more properties for the 0.4 HAL, but that never made it into the
0.5 version. We need the devices, to let userspace apps receive a list
of devices and not need to look up device files in /dev. It would be nice,
if - at best someone writing an app that need video devices from HAL - would
add or at least tell us, what properties would be useful.

> Does this mean we have to add properties from an fdi file, or query the
> device with a prober using the V4L calls?

In the 0.4 HAL I used ioctls to query information from the video device.
There have been may changes to the v4l layer in the meantime and the
version1 interface is deprecated if I remember correctly, but as said, I
have almost no clue about video. :)

Kay