Video output devices encode stills or image sequences as analog video signal. With this interface applications can control the encoding process and move images from user space to the driver. Conventionally V4L2 video output devices are accessed through character device special files named /dev/video and /dev/video0 to /dev/video63 with major number 81 and minor numbers 0 to 63. /dev/video is typically a symbolic link to the preferred video device. Note the same device files are used for video capture devices.

Devices supporting the video output interface set the V4L2_CAP_VIDEO_OUTPUT flag in the capabilities field of &v4l2-capability; returned by the &VIDIOC-QUERYCAP; ioctl. As secondary device functions they may also support the raw VBI output (V4L2_CAP_VBI_OUTPUT) interface. At least one of the read/write or streaming I/O methods must be supported. Modulators and audio outputs are optional.

Video output devices shall support audio output, modulator, controls, cropping and scaling and streaming parameter ioctls as needed. The video output and video standard ioctls must be supported by all video output devices.

The output is determined by cropping and image format parameters. The former select an area of the video picture where the image will appear, the latter how images are stored in memory, &ie; in RGB or YUV format, the number of bits per pixel or width and height. Together they also define how images are scaled in the process. As usual these parameters are not reset at &func-open; time to permit Unix tool chains, programming a device and then writing to it as if it was a plain file. Well written V4L2 applications ensure they really get what they want, including cropping and scaling. Cropping initialization at minimum requires to reset the parameters to defaults. An example is given in . To query the current image format applications set the type field of a &v4l2-format; to V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VIDEO_OUTPUT and call the &VIDIOC-G-FMT; ioctl with a pointer to this structure. Drivers fill the &v4l2-pix-format; pix member of the fmt union. To request different parameters applications set the type field of a &v4l2-format; as above and initialize all fields of the &v4l2-pix-format; vbi member of the fmt union, or better just modify the results of VIDIOC_G_FMT, and call the &VIDIOC-S-FMT; ioctl with a pointer to this structure. Drivers may adjust the parameters and finally return the actual parameters as VIDIOC_G_FMT does. Like VIDIOC_S_FMT the &VIDIOC-TRY-FMT; ioctl can be used to learn about hardware limitations without disabling I/O or possibly time consuming hardware preparations. The contents of &v4l2-pix-format; are discussed in . See also the specification of the VIDIOC_G_FMT, VIDIOC_S_FMT and VIDIOC_TRY_FMT ioctls for details. Video output devices must implement both the VIDIOC_G_FMT and VIDIOC_S_FMT ioctl, even if VIDIOC_S_FMT ignores all requests and always returns default parameters as VIDIOC_G_FMT does. VIDIOC_TRY_FMT is optional.

A video output device may support the write() function and/or streaming (memory mapping or user pointer) I/O. See for details.