Analog Devices ADV7481/ADV7482 HDMI and analog video decoder bridges
Analog Devices ADV7481 and ADV7482 are video front-end chips that take in HDMI plus legacy analog video (composite, component, S-Video) and convert it into a digital camera-style stream that an SoC can capture. They are mainly used in automotive infotainment, rear-view camera systems, and embedded video-ingest boards rather than in consumer PCs.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because the silicon is still listed as in production by Analog Devices and is actively bought for automotive and embedded designs in 2025. Upstream activity is healthy too, with substantive patches landing as recently as 2024 and 2025, and no generic framework replaces this device-specific support.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent upstream functional work touched adv748x in 2024 ('Use routes to configure VC'), indicating the driver is still being maintained rather than abandoned.
- lore.kernel.org
A second adv748x patch in the same 2024 series ('Add flags to adv748x_subdev_init()') shows non-removal development activity in the core driver.
- analog.com
Analog Devices lists ADV7482 as 'PRODUCTION' with 'Sample & Buy', supporting that ADV748x-family hardware remained sold new through 2025 and beyond, mainly for automotive/video-bridge designs.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: 4 C files plus module driver entrypoint in provided context. lore_activity and lore_file_timeline on adv748x-core.c showed steady 2024 upstream work and no removal/deprecation evidence in the returned subjects; static context also reports substantive touches as late as 2025-07-10. Web search + open on Analog Devices product page showed ADV7482 marked PRODUCTION/Sample & Buy. Deployment is low, not none: this is specialized automotive/embedded video-ingest silicon, not commodity consumer hardware. No natural upstream replacement driver covers the same silicon; generic media bridge frameworks do not replace this device-specific driver.