On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:55:19 +0100 Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > RFC: Completing the V4L2 RDS API > ================================ > > Introduction > ------------ > > There are several drivers that implement RDS support: bttv (through > saa6588), radio-si470x and radio-cadet. radio-tea5764 wants to support this > in the future as well. > > The saa6588 is used in different cards, but is currently only enabled in > bttv, but I have it working with a saa7134 as well. > > I expect this to become more important with the increased use of linux and > v4l2 in embedded devices. What is holding it back at the moment is the fact > that this interface has not been defined properly. It's 90% there, but it > is poorly documented and is still not officially part of V4L2. > > This RFC is intended to fill in the final gaps and make it official. > > Current API > ----------- > > The V4L2 spec says this about the RDS Interface: > > 4.11. RDS Interface > > The Radio Data System transmits supplementary information in binary format, > for example the station name or travel information, on a inaudible audio > subcarrier of a radio program. This interface aims at devices capable of > receiving and decoding RDS information. > > The V4L API defines its RDS API as follows. > > From radio devices supporting it, RDS data can be read with the read() > function. The data is packed in groups of three, as follows: > > First Octet: Least Significant Byte of RDS Block > Second Octet: Most Significant Byte of RDS Block > Third Octet: > Bit 7: Error bit. Indicates that an uncorrectable error occurred > during reception of this block. > Bit 6: Corrected bit. Indicates that an error was corrected for > this data block. > Bits 5-3: Received Offset. Indicates the offset received by the > sync system. > Bits 2-0: Offset Name. Indicates the offset applied to this data. > > It was argued the RDS API should be extended before integration into V4L2, > no new API has been devised yet. Please write to the linux-media mailing > list for discussion: http://www.linuxtv.org/lists.php. Meanwhile no V4L2 > driver should set the V4L2_CAP_RDS_CAPTURE capability flag. > > Problems with this API > ---------------------- > > As I said before, it is 90% complete, there are just a few things missing. > The Offset Name refers to six possible offsets as defined by the RDS and > RBDS standard (that is the US variant of RDS). Possible offsets are: A, B, > C, C', D and E (RBDS specific). > > The mapping of the values 0-7 to offsets is as follows: > > 0: A > 1: B > 2: C > 3: D > 4: C' > 5: E (RBDS specific) > 6: invalid block E (RDS mode) > 7: invalid block > > This mapping comes from the saa6588 RDS decoder, but it makes sense and I > see no reason to change this. As long as we document it and add a public > RDS header with this information. The original mapping was from the > radio-cadet.c driver. Unfortunately, it was never documented and I cannot > find any details on what the mapping between number and offset code looks > like. Since the cadet is an ISA card I am not too worried about this and > I'm following the newer devices. > > After a lot of googling I found this ancient radio-cadet posting: > http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9904.0/0609.html > > This finally explained what the difference between the Received Offset and > the Offset Name is: > > "Bits 5-3: Received Offset. Indicates the block offset received by the > decoder hardware (used to determine the location of the block in a RDS > group). > > Bits 2-0: Offset Name. Indicates the block offset applied by the decoder. > (In some cases, the hardware may try to second-guess the received values to > try to overcome poor reception conditions)." > > Currently all other RDS implementations just make a copy of bits 2-0 and the > rdsd daemon (http://rdsd.berlios.de/) uses only bits 2-0. > > I would like to change the definition of these bits, setting bits 5-3 to 0. > This way we have three bits available for future enhancements. I see no > advantage in having two offsets. Just pick the one the decoder gives you. This would be an userspace API breakage. I can't see any gain on doing this. Are you needing those bytes for some usage? IMO, I would describe those bits at the API, marking it with a flag stating that this its usage is deprecated, recommending to not use. Let's see if someone will complain. We can keep this as-is until we need, but, in this case, we need to properly document that it will be removed in some future. > Another problem is that there is no good method of selecting RDS vs RBDS, or > checking which of these two (or both) are available. > > I propose to use the v4l2_tuner struct for this. It is an obvious match > since the ability to read RDS is tuner related (no tuner, no RDS :-) ). > > The v4l2_tuner capability field needs two additional caps: > > V4L2_TUNER_CAP_RDS > V4L2_TUNER_CAP_RBDS > > And we can add support to select RDS/RDBS by using one of the reserved > fields: > > __u8 rds_type; > __u8 rds_signal; /* RDS signal strength quality, 0-255 */ > __u8 rds_reserved[2]; > __u32 reserved[3]; > > And rds_type is: > > V4L2_TUNER_RDS_TYPE_RDS 0x00 > V4L2_TUNER_RDS_TYPE_RBDS 0x01 > > We can also add new subband flags V4L2_TUNER_SUB_RDS and V4L2_TUNER_SUB_RBSD > so we can report if RDS/RBDS is present. > > I do not think there is any need to introduce an additional > V4L2_CAP_RDS_CAPTURE capability, since it is taken care of in v4l2_tuner. > > Finally I would prefer to have the requirement that the driver will buffer > at least 10 seconds worth of data (comes to 1200 bytes). Why? IMO, this seems to be something that should be a requirement at user side, not at kernel side: After changing from one station to another, and start receiving RDS/RBDS, wait for some time before output the data. > Or perhaps we should add a field that reports the maximum number of buffered packets? > E.g. __u16 rds_buf_size. This might be more generic and you can even allow > this to be set with VIDIOC_S_TUNER (although drivers can ignore it). Why to spend 16 bits for it? It seems easier to check for for the amount of received packets on userspace. I think we should avoid to waste those reserved bytes. > With these small changes I think the RDS API is pretty complete and can > become an official V4L2 API. > > Comments? > > Hans Verkuil > Cheers, Mauro -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
