docs: UVC-H.264 detection decision tree + RØDE case study - #18
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Answer 'does this USB device have hardware H.264 over UVC?' from the device's own descriptors: the four-branch decision tree (frame-based GUID, UVC H.264 XU, vendor XU, or none), why the sysfs descriptor dump is a complete oracle, and the RØDE HDMI-to-USB-C (19f7:0080) worked example whose verdict is final — no descriptor-advertised H.264 mechanism. Records the honest limit: a fully hidden vendor mode is not establishable from descriptors alone.
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What
Add a durable engineering note,
docs/notes/uvc-h264-detection.md, that answers "does this USB device have hardware H.264 over UVC?" from the device's own descriptors:A29E7641-DE04-47E3-8B2B-F4341AFF003B+ MJPEG aux → legacy XU (unimplemented by design, cross-refcamera-compat.md:20-24); other/vendor XU → needs the vendor spec; else → "no descriptor-advertised H.264 mechanism found".descriptorssysfs attribute (drivers/usb/core/sysfs.c:853-893), readable offline without a driver.19f7:0080) case study: UVC 1.0, YUY2 + MJPEG only, no Frame-Based descriptor, no Extension Unit, no vendor H.264 claim, no firmware channel → branch 4, final.Why
The "surely this capture dongle really does H.264, our probe just missed it?" question recurs per device. This note makes the descriptor-level reasoning durable and reusable so it is never re-litigated, and gives field engineers a decision tree plus a worked example. It is cross-linked from CeraUI's "Why MJPEG?" explainer and from
cerastream/docs/notes/hardware-validation.md.How to verify
Docs-only change — no code, no build/test impact. Read the note; the citations (libuvc parse sites, plugin negotiate sites,
camera-compat.md:20-24, kernel sysfs) line up with the existingcamera-compat.mdand the RØDE descriptor evidence.Risks
None to code. The note lives at repo-root
docs/notes/to match the public URL consumed by CeraUI and the platform; the siblingcamera-compat.mdcross-ref uses a within-repo relative path.