Re: [PATCH 0/3] Handling of reduced FPS in V4L2

[Jose Abreu <Jose.Abreu@synopsys.com>]

Hi Hans,


On 24-03-2017 12:28, Hans Verkuil wrote:
> On 03/24/17 13:21, Jose Abreu wrote:
>> Hi Hans,
>>
>>
>> On 24-03-2017 12:12, Hans Verkuil wrote:
>>> On 03/24/17 12:52, Jose Abreu wrote:
>>>> Hi Hans,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Can you please review this series, when possible? And if you
>>>>>> could test it on cobalt it would be great :)
>>>>> Hopefully next week. 
>>>> Thanks :)
>>>>
>>>>> Did you have some real-world numbers w.r.t. measured
>>>>> pixelclock frequencies and 60 vs 59.94 Hz and 24 vs 23.976 Hz?
>>>> I did make some measurements but I'm afraid I didn't yet test
>>>> with many sources (I mostly tested with signal generators which
>>>> should have a higher precision clock than real sources). I have a
>>>> bunch of players here, I will test them as soon as I can.
>>>> Regarding precision: for our controller is theoretically and
>>>> effectively enough: The worst case is for 640x480, and even in
>>>> that case the difference between 60Hz and 59.94Hz is > 1 unit of
>>>> the measuring register. This still doesn't solve the problem of
>>>> having a bad source with a bad clock, but I don't know if we can
>>>> do much more about that.
>>> I would really like to see a table with different sources sending
>>> these different framerates and the value that your HW detects.
>>>
>>> If there is an obvious and clear difference, then this feature makes
>>> sense. If it is all over the place, then I need to think about this
>>> some more.
>>>
>>> To be honest, I expect that you will see 'an obvious and clear'
>>> difference, but that is no more than a gut feeling at the moment and
>>> I would like to see some proper test results.
>> Ok, I will make a table. The test procedure will be like this:
>>     - Measure pixel clock value using certified HDMI analyzer
>>     - Measure pixel clock using our controller
>>     - Compare the values obtained from analyzer, controller and
>> the values that the source is telling to send (the value
>> displayed in source menu for example [though, some of them may
>> not discriminate the exact frame rate, thats why analyzer should
>> be used also]).
>>
>> Seems ok? I will need some time, something like a week because my
>> setup was "borrowed".
> That sounds good. Sorry for adding to your workload, but there is no
> point to have a flag that in practice is meaningless.
>
> I'm actually very curious about the results!

I managed to do the tests but unfortunately I can't publish the
full results (at least until I get approval).

I can say that the results look good. As you expected we have
some sources with a bad clock but this is correctly detected by
the controller (and also by the HDMI analyzer).

Using the v4l2_calc_framerate function I managed to get this:

| Source       | Resolution                  | v4l2_calc_framerate()
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Analyzer 1 | 640x480@59.94         | 59.92
| Analyzer 1 | 640x480@60              | 60
| Analyzer 1 | 1920x1080@60          | 60
| Player 1     | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.94
| Player 2     | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.93
| Player 3     | 3840x2160@59.94     | 59.94
| Player 4     | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.94
| Player 5     | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.93
| Player 6     | 1280x720@50            | 50
| Player 7     | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.93
| Player 8     | 1920x1080@60          | 60
| Analyzer 2 | 720x480@59.94         | 59.94
| Analyzer 2 | 720x480@60              | 60
| Analyzer 2 | 1920x1080@59.94     | 59.93
| Analyzer 2 | 1920x180@60            | 60
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@23.98     | 23.97
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@24          | 24
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@29.97     | 29.96
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@30          | 30
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@59.94     | 59.93
| Analyzer 2 | 3840x2160@60          | 60
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What do you think? Shall we continue integrating this new patch
or drop it?

Best regards,
Jose Miguel Abreu

>
> Regards,
>
> 	Hans
>
>> Best regards,
>> Jose Miguel Abreu
>>
>>>>> I do want to see that, since this patch series only makes sense if you can
>>>>> actually make use of it to reliably detect the difference.
>>>>>
>>>>> I will try to test that myself with cobalt, but almost certainly I won't
>>>>> be able to tell the difference; if memory serves it can't detect the freq
>>>>> with high enough precision.
>>>> Ok, thanks, this would be great because I didn't test the series
>>>> exactly "as is" because I'm using 4.10. I did look at vivid
>>>> driver but it already handles reduced frame rate, so it kind of
>>>> does what it is proposed in this series. If this helper is
>>>> integrated in the v4l2 core then I can send the patch to vivid.
>>> That would be nice to have in vivid.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> 	Hans
>>>