How to find the description of a color format and check its support

Applicable for

STM32MP13x lines, STM32MP15x lines, STM32MP21x lines, STM32MP23x lines, STM32MP25x lines

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1. Most common pixel color formats

	DRM/KMS modetest	media bus media-ctl	V4L2 pixel format v4l2-ctl	GStreamer gst-launch-1.0
32-bit color formats
ARGB32 32-bit single plane	AR24	RGB888_1X24	AR24	BGRA
ARGB32 32-bit single plane	AB24		AB24	RGBA
ARGB32 32-bit single plane			BA24	ARGB
ARGB32 32-bit single plane			XB24	RGBx
ARGB32 32-bit single plane			RX24	xBGR
ARGB32 32-bit single plane			BX24 / RGB4	xRGB
ARGB32 32-bit single plane			XR24 / BGR4	BGRx
24-bit color formats
RGB 24-bit single plane	RG24		RGB3	RGB
BGR 24-bit single plane	BG24		BGR3	BGR
16-bit color formats
RGB565 16-bit single plane	RG16	RGB888_1X24	RGBP	RGB16
YUV422 16 bits single plane	YUYV	YUV8_1X24	YUYV	YUY2
12-bit color formats
YUV420 semi-planar 12 bits 2 planes	NV12	YUV8_1X24	NV12	NV12
YUV420 full-planar 12 bits 3 planes	YU12	YUV8_1X24	YU12	I420
RAW Bayer color formats
RAW Bayer 8-bit		SBGGR8_1X8 SGBRG8_1X8 SGRBG8_1X8 SRGGB8_1X8	BA81 GBRG GRBG RGGB	bggr gbrg grbg rggb
RAW Bayer 10-bit		SBGGR10_1X10 SGBRG10_1X10 SGRBG10_1X10 SRGGB10_1X10	BG10 GB10 BA10 RG10	bggr10le gbrg10le grbg10le rggb10le
RAW Bayer 12-bit		SBGGR12_1X12 SGBRG12_1X12 SGRBG12_1X12 SRGGB12_1X12	BG12 GB12 BA12 RG12	bggr12le gbrg12le grbg12le rggb12le
RAW Bayer 14-bit		SBGGR14_1X14 SGBRG14_1X14 SGRBG14_1X14 SRGGB14_1X14	BG14 GB14 BA14 RG14	bggr14le gbrg14le grbg14le rggb14le

2. Color formats in software components

Depending on the software component, a color format name and definition may slightly differ. The table below references the main information relating to the different color formats.

Software frameworks	Include links & Examples	Support checks
Linux® kernel DRM KMS framework	include/uapi/drm/drm_fourcc.h DRM_FORMAT_ARGB8888 (AR24) DRM_FORMAT_NV12 (NV12)	modetest
Linux® kernel V4L2 camera or V4L2 video frameworks	include/uapi/linux/videodev2.h V4L2_PIX_FMT_ARGB32 ("BA24") V4L2_PIX_FMT_NV12 ("NV12") include/uapi/linux/media-bus-format.h MEDIA_BUS_FMT_ARGB8888_1X32 - ? MEDIA_BUS_FMT_UYVY12_2X12 - ?	Command examples for cameras: v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video3 -D media-ctl -d platform:dcmipp -p Command examples for V4L2 video codecs: v4l2-ctl --list-formats-out-ext v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext
GStreamer framework	video-format.html mediatype-video-raw.html bayer2rgb.html GST_VIDEO_FORMAT_BGRA ("BGRA") GST_VIDEO_FORMAT_NV12 ("NV12")	gst-inspect-1.0 waylandsink gst-inspect-1.0 --no-colors v4l2jpegenc gst-inspect-1.0 --no-colors bayer2rgb
U-Boot video framework	include/video.h VIDEO_RGBA8888
OpenGL framework	https://www.khronos.org/opengl/wiki/Image_Format
Vulkan framework	https://docs.vulkan.org/spec/latest/chapters/formats.html VK_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UINT VK_FORMAT_R8_UNORM

Information

The media bus pixel codes (also named mbus-code) describe image formats as flowing over physical buses (both between separate physical components and inside SoC devices). See userspace-api/media/v4l/subdev-formats.html and include/uapi/linux/media-bus-format.h for more details.

3. Extra information

3.1. YUV packed, semi-planar and full planar color formats

image from Video compression basics article on rastergrid.com

The "YUV" color format (also named YCbCr) memory buffers can be organized in 3 ways:

• packed (or co-planar) with 1 buffer: for instance "YUY2" for some camera outputs
• semi-planar (or half-planar) with 2 buffers: for instance "NV12" for some video hardware decoders
• full-planar with 3 buffers: for instance "I420" and "YV12" for some software video decoders

3.2. Colorimetry

In some particular use cases, it may be important to consider:

• ITU-R BT.601 (SDTV analog) Vs. BT.709 (HDTV digital) ​
• Limited (16-235, for video) Vs. full range (for JPEG)

3.3. RAW Bayer color formats

• RAW Bayer color formats : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

https://docs.kernel.org/userspace-api/media/v4l/pixfmt-bayer.html

3.4. Related topics

• FourCC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FourCC
• Pixel format guide: https://afrantzis.com/pixel-format-guide/

Direct rendering manager (kernel module that gives direct hardware access to DRI clients, find more information on official DRI web site http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/DRM)

Kernel Mode Setting

Video 4 Linux^® version 2

fourcc of YUV420 semi-planar pixel format

fourcc of YUV420 planar pixel format

Linux^® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Open graphics library (see http://www.opengl.org/ for more details)

Direct rendering manager (kernel module that gives direct hardware access to DRI clients, find more information on official DRI web site http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/DRM)

Kernel Mode Setting

Video 4 Linux^® version 2

fourcc of YUV420 semi-planar pixel format

fourcc of YUV420 planar pixel format

Linux^® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Open graphics library (see http://www.opengl.org/ for more details)

Direct rendering infrastructure (Linux^® framework for allowing direct access to graphics hardware... find more information on official DRI web site http://dri.freedesktop.org/)