STMicroelectronics STiH4xx HVA video encoder
A hardware video encoding accelerator (the "HVA" block) built into STMicroelectronics' STiH407, STiH410, and STiH418 set-top-box system-on-chips from around 2013-2015. It offloads H.264 and similar video compression for consumer TV boxes and recording devices based on those ST SoCs.
recommendation
Worth keeping but document its niche because the hardware only appears in STMicroelectronics' STiH407/410/418 set-top-box SoCs from the early 2010s, and the chip itself is now sold only as obsolete/end-of-life stock. Even so, the driver is still listed as Supported in MAINTAINERS, the Kconfig option is intact, and it continues to pick up small fixes, so removing it would needlessly break the handful of older STB and media-appliance users who still run mainline kernels on these boards.
repository signals
sources
- kernel.org
The kernel MAINTAINERS file lists `drivers/media/platform/st/sti/hva` under `HVA ST MEDIA DRIVER` with status `Supported`.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows `CONFIG_VIDEO_STI_HVA` still present through current kernel series and binds to OF compatible `st,st-hva` / module `st-hva`.
- kernel.org
Kernel STi platform documentation describes STiH407, STiH410, and STiH418 as the supported STi ARM SoC family.
- st.com
ST's own STiH407/STiH410 data brief is a December 2013 set-top-box SoC product brief, indicating an older consumer-STB generation rather than a current platform.
- excesschip.com
A 2026 aftermarket listing markets STIH410 as `Obsolete / End of life / Factory Excess Stock`, consistent with legacy-only sourcing rather than new mainstream deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: local `exec_command` inspection found `module_platform_driver`, V4L2 mem2mem encoder code, and OF match `st,st-hva`; local DTS grep also found an HVA node in `arch/arm/boot/dts/st/stih410.dtsi`, tying it to the STiH4xx/STiH410 family. Lore MCP was unavailable here and `lei` was not installed, so upstream-activity grounding used local `git log` via `exec_command`: 2024-2025 touches were mostly treewide/API-cleanup commits plus one small HVA-specific clk fix, with no removal signal. URLs were obtained by web search (`kernel.org` MAINTAINERS, STi ARM overview, LKDDb, ST data brief, aftermarket availability page). Net: hardware looks legacy and niche, but the driver remains explicitly supported upstream and still receives occasional maintenance, so `keep-annotate` fits better than deprecate/remove.