linux-drivers/
drivers/media/platform

Generic V4L2 platform media helpers (video-mux and mem2mem deinterlace)

Two small, hardware-agnostic building blocks for the kernel's V4L2 video pipeline. The video-mux helper drives N-to-1 video bus multiplexers commonly found on embedded boards (notably NXP i.MX6 industrial designs), and the mem2mem deinterlace helper provides a generic software deinterlacer for capture pipelines that need progressive output.

keep conf=0.78 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=media category=media-other
78%

recommendation

It should stay because both pieces are still actively maintained upstream, with recent fixes and framework adaptation work landing in 2024 and 2025, and they remain wired into current device-tree bindings used by i.MX-family embedded video pipelines that are still shipping in industrial products. They are generic plumbing rather than orphaned chipset code, so removing them would break working embedded media setups.

repository signals

949 files
424,246 source lines
2,889 commits, 5y
+236,147 / −63,999 lines added / removed, 5y
329 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 2,889 total · active in 60/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 77 commits · +1,901 −567 2021-05: 23 commits · +77 −47 2021-06: 69 commits · +1,836 −1,150 2021-07: 35 commits · +1,869 −946 2021-08: 34 commits · +2,488 −844 2021-09: 56 commits · +1,052 −438 2021-10: 21 commits · +2,034 −47 2021-11: 30 commits · +198 −241 2021-12: 46 commits · +2,602 −565 2022-01: 69 commits · +2,090 −1,237 2022-02: 49 commits · +17,536 −738 2022-03: 112 commits · +2,353 −2,075 2022-04: 44 commits · +561 −305 2022-05: 68 commits · +9,783 −1,031 2022-06: 78 commits · +1,763 −1,016 2022-07: 47 commits · +14,981 −272 2022-08: 85 commits · +6,944 −8,480 2022-09: 40 commits · +1,937 −610 2022-10: 20 commits · +601 −5,857 2022-11: 69 commits · +10,944 −7,065 2022-12: 25 commits · +284 −164 2023-01: 51 commits · +800 −865 2023-02: 45 commits · +680 −501 2023-03: 152 commits · +2,314 −1,668 2023-04: 28 commits · +1,435 −460 2023-05: 82 commits · +13,255 −993 2023-06: 21 commits · +494 −358 2023-07: 52 commits · +2,922 −2,462 2023-08: 33 commits · +238 −168 2023-09: 46 commits · +2,961 −915 2023-10: 56 commits · +2,333 −832 2023-11: 69 commits · +14,399 −1,285 2023-12: 77 commits · +3,879 −763 2024-01: 21 commits · +287 −88 2024-02: 36 commits · +1,010 −221 2024-03: 19 commits · +621 −129 2024-04: 17 commits · +3,469 −178 2024-05: 32 commits · +1,961 −1,491 2024-06: 36 commits · +5,878 −408 2024-07: 15 commits · +59 −80 2024-08: 62 commits · +2,481 −1,249 2024-09: 25 commits · +298 −180 2024-10: 52 commits · +5,322 −601 2024-11: 23 commits · +474 −271 2024-12: 37 commits · +2,432 −643 2025-01: 39 commits · +2,162 −1,081 2025-02: 53 commits · +11,488 −373 2025-03: 27 commits · +5,673 −309 2025-04: 82 commits · +9,435 −545 2025-05: 53 commits · +1,844 −437 2025-06: 57 commits · +5,833 −1,454 2025-07: 14 commits · +875 −283 2025-08: 140 commits · +7,382 −2,365 2025-09: 35 commits · +4,002 −2,620 2025-10: 76 commits · +1,174 −902 2025-11: 37 commits · +12,058 −364 2025-12: 48 commits · +6,618 −450 2026-01: 24 commits · +7,065 −1,694 2026-02: 8 commits · +330 −330 2026-03: 1 commit · +1 −1 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    `video-mux.c` was still being touched by active linux-media API work in April 2026, indicating the top-level driver is maintained rather than abandoned.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    `video-mux.c` received a direct bug fix ('Fix mutex locking') in September 2024, showing real maintenance beyond treewide churn.

  3. lore.kernel.org

    `m2m-deinterlace.c` was still being cleaned up in linux-media in October 2025, so the other top-level driver also remains live upstream.

  4. cateee.net

    LKDDb shows `CONFIG_VIDEO_MUX` still present through current kernel lines and describes it as support for generic N:1 video bus multiplexers.

  5. cateee.net

    LKDDb shows `CONFIG_VIDEO_MEM2MEM_DEINTERLACE` remains present in current kernels as a generic deinterlacing V4L2 driver.

  6. git.kernel.org

    Mainline keeps a dedicated DT binding for `video-mux`, which is evidence of ongoing supported deployments in device-tree-described embedded video pipelines.

  7. git.kernel.org

    Mainline DTS files still instantiate `compatible = "video-mux"`; i.MX-family embedded boards remain a practical deployment niche in 2025-era industrial products.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

This directory is a real driver directory, but it is not one chipset driver: it contains two generic platform-media drivers (`video-mux.c` and `m2m-deinterlace.c`). I grounded activity with `lore_file_timeline` on both files; recent lore hits show direct maintenance and framework adaptation, not removal. I used web search to obtain the two LKDDb URLs for current-config presence. The kernel.org URLs are canonical recall, cross-checked against the local tree with `sed` on `drivers/media/platform/Kconfig` and `rg` hits for `video-mux` in DT bindings/DTS. Because these are generic helpers still wired into current media pipelines and still receiving upstream work, this should be kept, not deprecated.