Initial documentation for new camera encoder component

components/camera_encoder.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+Camera Encoder
+==============
+
+.. seo::
+    :description: Instructions for setting up the camera encoder component in ESPHome
+    :image: camera.svg
+
+The ``camera_encoder`` component provides image compression support for software-based cameras or cameras without
+internal compression. It allows raw camera frames to be compressed into a format suitable for transmission to API
+clients, such as Home Assistant, which expect JPEG-compressed images.
+
+It supports different encoder implementations, such as a default software JPEG encoder that can be configured with
+options like image quality, subsampling, and incremental encoding. These settings make it possible to balance image
+quality and performance depending on the use case.
+
+.. note::
+
+    The default software JPEG encoder enables devices like the ESP32-S3 to stream images.
+    It is primarily intended for smallar images due to limited processing power and memory.
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+    # Example configuration entry
+    camera-encoder:
+
+Configuration variables:
+------------------------
+
+- **type** (*Optional*): ``default``
+
+Default Options:
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+- **quality** (*Optional*, enum): Selects compression quality. Defaults to ``HIGH``.
+
+    - ``BEST`` (Least compression artifacts)
+    - ``HIGH`` (Minor artifacts)
+    - ``MED`` (Visible artifacts)
+    - ``LOW`` (Most artifacts)
+
+- **subsampling** (*Optional*, enum): Enables additional color compression to reduce image size at the expense of color fidelity. Defaults to ``444``.
+
+    - ``444`` (No color compression)
+    - ``420`` (Reduces color data to a quarter)
+
+- **mcu_count** (*Optional*, int): Limits the number of MCU blocks processed per call to support incremental encoding. Prevents blocking other components at the expense of potentially lower frame rates. Defaults to ``0`` (incremental encoding disabled).
+
+See Also
+--------
+
+- :doc:`/components/camera/index`
+- :apiref:`camera_encoder/default_jpeg_encoder.h`
+- :apiref:`camera/encoder.h`
+- :ghedit:`Edit`

components/index.rst

@@ -1096,6 +1096,7 @@ Miscellaneous Components
 
 .. imgtable::
 
+    Camera Encoder, components/camera_encoder, camera.svg, dark-invert
     ESP32 Camera, components/esp32_camera, camera.svg, dark-invert
     Exposure Notifications, components/exposure_notifications, exposure_notifications.png
     GPS, components/gps, crosshairs-gps.svg, dark-invert