Video4Linux

Video4Linux
Repositorygit.linuxtv.org/v4l-utils.git
Written inC
Operating systemLinux
PlatformLinux kernel
LicenseGNU General Public License
Websitewww.linuxtv.org

Video4Linux (V4L for short) is a collection of device drivers and an API for supporting realtime video capture on Linux systems.[1] It supports many USB webcams, TV tuners, and related devices, standardizing their output, so programmers can easily add video support to their applications.

Video4Linux is responsible for creating V4L2 device nodes aka a device file (/dev/videoX, /dev/vbiX and /dev/radioX) and tracking data from these nodes. The device node creation is handled by V4L device drivers using the video_device struct (v4l2-dev.h) and it can either be allocated dynamically or embedded in another larger struct.

Video4Linux was named after Video for Windows (which is sometimes abbreviated "V4W"), but is not technically related to it.[2][3]

While Video4Linux is only available on Linux, there is a compatibility layer available for FreeBSD called Video4BSD. This provides a way for many programs that depend on V4L to also compile and run on the FreeBSD operating system.

  1. ^ "An Introduction to the Video4Linux Framework: How to write a video capture driver". 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-02-16.
  2. ^ "Overview of the V4L2 driver framework". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2013-12-04. Overview of the V4L2 driver framework.
  3. ^ "Path to a Standardized Video Codec API" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2014-01-06.