The USB video device class (also USB video class or UVC) is a USB device class that describes devices capable of streaming video like webcams, digital camcorders, analog video converters, television tuners, and still-image cameras.

The latest revision of the USB video class specification carries the version number 1.1 and was defined by the USB Implementers Forum in a set of documents describing both the basic protocol and the different payload formats.

See also the List of USB video class devices

Devices

Webcams

Webcams were among the first devices to support the UVC standard and they are currently the most popular UVC devices. It can be expected that in the near future most webcams will be UVC compatible as this is a logo requirement for Windows Vista.

Operating system support

Linux

USB video class support for Linux is provided by the Linux UVC driver

Since Linux 2.6.26 the driver is included in kernel source distribution.

Apple Mac OS X

Mac OS X ships with a UVC driver included since version 10.4.3, updated in 10.4.9 to work with iChat.

OpenBSD

OpenBSD added the uvideo driver for UVC devices in April, 2008; its first official appearance will be in the 4.4 release.

Sony PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 added support for UVC compatible webcams in firmware version 1.54.

Sun Solaris

Solaris includes support for UVC webcams in the form of the usbvc driver for OpenSolaris The driver ships with Solaris Express build 56 and later.

Microsoft Windows

MS-Windows XP has support for USB video class devices since Service Pack 2. A post-service pack 2 update that adds more capabilities is also available. Most device manufacturers do, however, provide their own drivers tailored to the capabilities of the product in question.

Windows Vista ships with a UVC class driver included.

References