觀察筆記

wiki : Video4Linux
Video4Linux or V4L is a video capture API  for Linux
.

about v4l + v4l2

v4l

is the original video capture/overlay API of the linux kernel. It appeared late the 2.1.x development cycle in the linux kernel.

v4l是原本的 linux kernel就有包含的有關 video 的api，在2.1.x版本都還可以看到。

如果想要看V4L規格的話，請參閱
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/video4linux/API.html
或 http://linuxtv.org/downloads/video4linux/API/V4L1_API.html

v4l2

is the second generation of the video4linux API which fixes a number of design bugs of the first version. It was integrated into the standard kernel in 2.5.x.

v4l2則是第二代的video相關api，解決了前一代的一些小問題，整合在linux2.5.x之中。

如果想要看V4L2規格的話，請參閱http://v4l2spec.bytesex.org/
Althrough v4l2 is integrated into the standard kernel a number of drivers don't support the new v4l2 API yet, so we'll likely see v4l and v4l2 coexist for some time.

不過目前還不是很多驅動程式都支援v4l2，所以目前還會看到兩者共存的情形。

相關連結：
v4l maintainer withdraw announcement
video4linux mailing list

v4l wiki: main page

wiki: how to submit v4l patches

Anatomy of a v4l driver
--