DVB new get info ioctl
Hi Michael,
As you know, one of the topics discussed during the last Media Summit were about writing a new ioctl to replace FE_GET_INFO's fe_caps.
The summary of our discussions follow bellow:
(mental note: I should put the description below on our mini-summit notes):
<SUMMIT>
The main issue with fe_caps is that, currently, there are only two bits left, between:
FE_HAS_EXTENDED_CAPS = 0x800000, and FE_CAN_MULTISTREAM = 0x4000000,
And this is not enough to represent the current capabilities of modern delivery system's frontends.
As a few examples of missing things that we want to be able to report, we have:
- Some DVB-C2 demods supports automatic symbol rate detection between a certain range (Ralph);
- Some devices that only work on "auto" mode, sometimes being even unable to return what it was detected, even with the full specs (Ralph).
- Complex delivery systems like ISDB-T have some combinations that aren't very common, and some chipset providers decided to not implement (Mauro).
For example, mb86a20s frontend doesn't support guard interval equal to 1/32[1].
So, the agreeded strategy is to write a new ioctl that, once the delivery system is set, it will return what are the valid values/ranges that a given frontend property can support.
In order to optimize the drivers, the core could pre-fill it with all that it is supported by a given delivery system, letting the driver to override it, disabling the features that aren't supported.
Michael proposed to send RFCs for that.
</SUMMIT>
[1] Also, while double checking today at the code, it also doesn't support mode 1 (2K).
That's what it was agreed during the meeting.
After our discussions about a new ioctl that would be able to properly report the frontend capabilities for new standards, during the Media Summit, in order to be able to report the currently needs, I did some brainstorming about that.
It come to me that the fe_caps replacement ioctl should need to return not only the valid values/ranges but also a flag that will indicate if:
- The frontend supports auto-detecting the parameter (CAN_AUTO);
- The frontend allows setting such parameter (CAN_SET) [2];
- The frontend can report the detected parameter (CAN_GET);
- If the valid values comes on ranges (IS_RANGE), to be used by parameters like frequency and symbol rate.
Btw, we have a problem with IS_RANGE for symbol rate: There are actually two ranges there:
- The supported symbol rate range;
- The auto-detected symbol rate range.
Perhaps Ralph could shed us a light on it, but my understanding is that some devices might have a broader supported range than the one that the frontend can auto-detect.
If so, the solution could be to add an extra property for the "autodetection symbol rate" range.
[2] ISDB-S new Toshiba demod, for example, doesn't allow setting the modulation. This should always be auto-detected via TMCC table. Btw, this seems to be a requirement at the spec (but nothing prevents some vendor to not implement it).
We've discussed in priv that we might report everything as ranges, but, on a second taught, I think that we should only use ranges for numeric values, and not for enums.
Regards,
Mauro