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, transcoders, analog video converters and still-image cameras.
The latest revision of the USB video class specification carries the version number 1.5 and was defined by the USB Implementers Forum in a set of documents describing both the basic protocol and the different payload formats. [1]
Webcams were among the first devices to support the UVC standard and are currently the most popular UVC devices.[ citation needed ]
 | This section's factual accuracy is disputed .(July 2020) |
UVC v1.5 supports transmission of compressed video streams, including MPEG-2 TS, H.264, MPEG-4 SL SMPTE VC1 and MJPEG. [1]
For detailed history on releases, see the revision history section of the published USB UVC documents, available from the USB.org page.
| Version | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | September 4, 2003 | Initial release |
| 1.0a | December 4, 2003 | Add additional descriptor subtypes for "extension" types. FAQ: Added section 2.21 Interlaced video |
| 1.0b | Unknown | Changes to FAQ only: Protocol STALL behavior, current and future payload header formats |
| 1.0c | June 5, 2004 | Changes to FAQ only: Added motion JPEG characteristics |
| 1.1 | June 1, 2005 | Major update including among other things: New documents specifying for stream and frame based payloads, latency optimizations for stream-based formats, specification of absolute and relative control relationship, asynchronous controls behavior, change naming from "VDC" to "UVC", obsolete old formats and add new ones, add a flag to distinguish between dynamic and fixed frame rate devices (RR0043). |
| 1.5 | June 6, 2012 | Added H.264 and VP8 payloads, and accompanying controls for video encoders. Included references to USB 3.0 |
 | This section needs to be updated.(January 2013) |
| UVC Version | Windows XP/Vista | Windows 7 | Windows 8/10/11 |
|---|---|---|---|
| USB Video Class 1.0 | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| USB Video Class 1.1 | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| USB Video Class 1.5 (H.264 video codec) | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
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