Michael Krufky wrote: > Edgar Toernig wrote: > >> Philip Prindeville wrote: >> >> >>> Hmmm... I personally have little use for the video functionality >>> that a lot of DVB cards come with... >>> >>> Who actually uses the video capture logic? >>> >> >> I do. In fact, I've bought the card only because it has an additional >> (S-)Video-In connector for my game console (or vhs-recorder). >> >>> I've always wondered... On a multi-function card, does the driver >>> have to handle all aspects of that functionality? Or can you have >>> separate, stand-alone drivers that each handle one type of >>> functionality, without them having to be aware of each other >>> or interact with each other? >>> >> >> Speaking about the BT878 based cards, the connection is already >> pretty loose. The BT878 has two functional blocks - video capture >> and audio capture which show up as two different PCI devices. >> The bttv driver handles the video capture part and works fine >> without the dvb-driver. The DVB "receiver" is connected to the >> audio part. Unfortunately, the DVB receiver usually needs the I2C >> bus and some GPIO pins which are both part of the "video"-function >> of the BT878. So the DVB driver has to contact the bttv driver >> whenever it wants access to these pins. >> >> It should be possible to create a dummy bttv driver that only >> supplies GPIO and I2C access. This dummy driver could even be >> part of the dvb-bt878 driver. (I may be wrong but wasn't the >> first version of the dvb-bt878 driver like that?) But you >> have to find someone who's willing spends some hours of work >> to do that :-) I wouldn't - it's unsatisfying to invest a >> lot of work just to "remove" functionality. >> >> > Sure it's possible, but please, don't. This would be moving > backwards. Why write out a driver that isnt going to go away? > > It's ONE kernel. One kernel, with subsystems, that are all part of > the same ONE KERNEL. > > -Mike Which has the undesirable effect of causing changes to have a ripple effect all through the code, rather than being neatly self-contained. Too bad that V4L doesn't evolve independently of DVB. Sigh. -Philip
