Introduction

bt848x is a Solaris device driver package for Brooktree/Conexant's Bt8x8 based video capture card.

Capabilities

• Driver supports following chips family: Bt848 (Brooktree), Bt849 (Brooktree), Bt878 (Brooktree), Bt879 (Brooktree), Fusion878 (Conexant)
• Runs on following platforms:
  • Solaris8 or later on UltraSPARC workstation with PCI slot (32-bit mode kernel)
  • Solaris8 or later on UltraSPARC workstation with PCI slot (64-bit mode kernel)
  • Solaris8 or later on x86-based PC (32-bit mode kernel)
• Supported video standards (norms): NTSC, PAL, SECAM
• Supported capturing formats: RGB555, RGB565, RGB24, RGB32, planar YUV422, packed YUVV
• Maximum capture size:
  • 640x480 (norm: NTSC, platform: SPARC, format: any)
  • 480x320 (norm: NTSC, platform: x86, format: RGB32)
  • 640x480 (norm: NTSC, platform: x86, format: other than RGB32)
• Maximum capture rate is 29.97 frames/second (at NTSC)
• Up to 4 video signals selectable
• S-Video (Y/C separated video signal) supported
• Tuner (TV/radio) control supported
• Provides Video4Linux (version 1) compatible API
• Captured data accessible via fast mmap(2) interface. read(2) interface also supported
• Viewers and radio tuner included

Package Content

bt848x package contains following files.

• Kernel driver and configuration file
  • /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/bt848x: for 32-bit SPARC
  • /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/bt848x: for 64-bit SPARC
  • /platform/i86pc/kernel/drv/bt848x: for 32-bit x86
  • /platform/`uname -m`/kernel/drv/bt848x.conf: driver configuration file
• Viewer utilities
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/sdlview: for SDL
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/pgxview: for PGX frame buffer; SPARC only
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/ffbview: for FFB+ frame buffer; SPARC only
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/v4lsview: unified viewer; SPARC only
• Other utilities
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/gtk-v4lctl: GUI video attribute controller
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/tune_radio: Radio tuner
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/tv-station-util: TV station database utility
  • /opt/KSWbt8x8/bin/watch_tv: Viewer invocation tool

Limitations

bt848x has following limitations:

• Lacks overlay display capability
  Bt8x8 chip has an ability to transfer captured data onto frame buffer memory without CPU operation. This function saves overhead of X in viewing movies. To use this, Bt8x8 needs destination bus address of frame buffer, but it is unknown to driver and application under Solaris DDI/DKI.
• Many sound related chip are not supported
  There are too many cards...
• Lacks VBI (vertical blanking interval) support
  It's broken.
• Lacks digital audio interface on Bt878/Fusion878
  Not implemented at all.