Commit f495ab86 authored by Mauro Carvalho Chehab's avatar Mauro Carvalho Chehab

media: dtv-core.rst: add an introduction to FE kAPI

Instead of just start describing the kAPI functions, add
an introduction giving a general line about a DVB driver's
structure.
Signed-off-by: default avatarMauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@s-opensource.com>
parent 430e29d9
Digital TV (DVB) devices
------------------------
Digital TV devices are implemented by several different drivers:
- A bridge driver that is responsible to talk with the bus where the other
devices are connected (PCI, USB, SPI), bind to the other drivers and
implement the digital demux logic (either in software or in hardware);
- Frontend drivers that are usually implemented as two separate drivers:
- A tuner driver that implements the logic with commands the part of the
hardware with is reponsible to tune into a digital TV transponder or
physical channel. The output of a tuner is usually a baseband or
Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal;
- A demodulator driver (a.k.a "demod") that implements the logic with
commands the digital TV decoding hardware. The output of a demod is
a digital stream, with multiple audio, video and data channels typically
multiplexed using MPEG Transport Stream [#f1]_.
On most hardware, the frontend drivers talk with the bridge driver using an
I2C bus.
.. [#f1] Some standards use TCP/IP for multiplexing data, like DVB-H (an
abandoned standard, not used anymore) and ATSC version 3.0 current
proposals. Currently, the DVB subsystem doesn't implement those standards.
Digital TV Common functions
---------------------------
......@@ -87,7 +112,7 @@ and measuring the quality of service.
For each statistics measurement, the driver should set the type of scale used,
or ``FE_SCALE_NOT_AVAILABLE`` if the statistics is not available on a given
time. Drivers should also provide the number of statistics for each type.
that's usually 1 for most video standards [#f1]_.
that's usually 1 for most video standards [#f2]_.
Drivers should initialize each statistic counters with length and
scale at its init code. For example, if the frontend provides signal
......@@ -103,7 +128,7 @@ And, when the statistics got updated, set the scale::
c->strength.stat[0].scale = FE_SCALE_DECIBEL;
c->strength.stat[0].uvalue = strength;
.. [#f1] For ISDB-T, it may provide both a global statistics and a per-layer
.. [#f2] For ISDB-T, it may provide both a global statistics and a per-layer
set of statistics. On such cases, len should be equal to 4. The first
value corresponds to the global stat; the other ones to each layer, e. g.:
......@@ -129,13 +154,13 @@ Signal strength (:ref:`DTV-STAT-SIGNAL-STRENGTH`)
at the maximum value (so, strength is on its minimal).
- As the gain is visible through the set of registers that adjust the gain,
typically, this statistics is always available [#f2]_.
typically, this statistics is always available [#f3]_.
- Drivers should try to make it available all the times, as this statistics
can be used when adjusting an antenna position and to check for troubles
at the cabling.
.. [#f2] On a few devices, the gain keeps floating if no carrier.
.. [#f3] On a few devices, the gain keeps floating if no carrier.
On such devices, strength report should check first if carrier is
detected at the tuner (``FE_HAS_CARRIER``, see :c:type:`fe_status`),
and otherwise return the lowest possible value.
......
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