Software Capability Matrix

The list of modes that can be generated by the Portsdown software and hardware is extensive. All modes have different capabilities. This table is an attempt to summarise what is possible with software version 201803060 and later. Please read with the notes below.

Encoding	Source	Audio	4:3	16:9	720p	1080p	Viewfinder	Streaming
MPEG-2	Pi Cam	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
MPEG-2	Comp Vid	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
MPEG-2	TCAnim	Not Available
MPEG-2	Test Card	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
MPEG-2	Pi Screen	Not Available
MPEG-2	Contest	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes(!)
MPEG-2	Webcam	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
MPEG-2	C920	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
H264	Pi Cam	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
H264	Comp Vid	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
H264	TCAnim	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
H264	Test Card	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
H264	Pi Screen	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
H264	Contest	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
H264	Webcam	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
H264	C920	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
As Req	IPTS In	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
As Req	File TS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

NOTES

Please feel free to contribute your experiences to this page.

1. The H264 modes (apart from C920) transmit a 704 x 576 image from the Source at SRs from 125KS up to over 4MS with the Portsdown filter-modulator board. No sound is transmitted.

2. The audio on the MPEG-2 test card and contest modes suffers from occasional break-up. This is due to insufficient CPU processing power in the Raspberry Pi 3.

3. A moving viewfinder is only available in Pi Cam and TCAnim (the animated test card with the bouncing balls) modes.

4. The Waveshare Touchscreen is only updated a few times each second, so movement will be displayed in a jerky fashion. The transmitted picture is smoother.

5. The Caption overlay (at top left) is only available in MPEG-2 modes. However the callsign is displayed on H264 test cards and contest numbers.

6. The 16:9 mode is difficult to generate and with the Composite Video source the video is down-sampled to 512x288 to achieve the correct aspect ratio.