Nikon Coolpix 990 Video out to go wireless

CCD camera view ports LCDs are low resolution devices and make the display possible at high speed in moving picture frames. Transporting high resolution pictures to PC going to take time. You can calculated on the bases of pixels you have and each pixel has bytes for color depth. It may be possible to transport pictures in real if your wireless device and MAC hardware has such a high data rate compatibility. I am afraid your off the self device can not meet this.

Assuming that your picture has three bytes for color and you have just 1 megapixel camera then it requires 3 Mega bytes per image. To make reasonably fast video image you may need about 20 frame per second minimum, which makes it 600 mega bytes for 1s movie.

If picture compression is used then data is possibly reduced to much higher degree and that may take its own time for the processor in you camera to do that.

I think you are asking for too much in your low cost device. Perhaps next generation technology like quantum process may do that in future but right now you may have to wait. I agree that this feature sure very interesting one and most of the camera company also know that and it is breaking their nerves to design that.

Good question. I am afraid there is no immediate solution. However, future is sure pointing towards this direction.

good thinking, Dr. Shyam, but if I use my abacus to calculate 3 Megapixels times 20 images per second, it tells me that I need 60 Mb/sec ... ?

If we use a data compression of 5:1 we need a bandwith of 12Mb/sec ... I think this not so "futuristic" anymore, right? ....

I would connect the video output of the camera to a TV modulator/sender module, put a TVin card in the computer, and see what the results are ... if the picture doesn't have to be super Hires, I guess that the result will be satisfactory...

I know hat those TV modulator/sender modules can be found quite cheap... so it wouldn't cost a fortune for a tryout...

You are right with the numbers.

11M Bytes/s Maxim provides a wireless link. Perhaps spread spectrum in 2.4GHz and above frequency zone may still make it reach this limit. However, data compression hardware need to be good to do all that in real time. Putting all that resources in camera is not impossible.

Perhaps in near future, it may be a reachable thing.

With all that has already been said, let me add my $.02 worth:

Your Video Out port may be intended for viewing only and may not give the resolution that the camera is capable of if the recording is done internally in the camera's own memory or onto a removable data card that you later read into your Mac.

The suggestions for use of video transmitters are quite good, but remember that these are likely to be relatively low resolution. NTSC in the US is the broadcast standard (PAL in Europe and other parts of the world) and is limited to no more than about 500 lines (in practice often as low as 300 or so). That is roughly equivalent to less than the original VGA resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (0.3 MP, not 3.0 MP!). If that is all the video your camera can record anyway (video is usually much lower res than still pictures, check your camera manual or specs), it may work for you. However, please note that you will not get any MORE lines/pixels by going wireless, more likely you will get less. The Mac G5 will most likely display this video at true size in a small window on your 20in. monitor, and of course you can resize to fill the screen, but at that point you will most likely get a lot of pixellation and other artifacts showing up, since you are only increasing the SIZE of your screen and NOT the resolution.

If you really want to do it right, you may just have to spring for a new video camera, possibly one with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi built in. This could give you DVD quality video, which you will not likely get with your current set-up, and be wireless to your PC with the appropriate card (Bluetooth/Wi-Fi).

On the other hand, if you are only using the Mac as a real-time monitor and capturing the video internally in the camera, any old TV could do that and using the Mac for that purpose would be a waste. You could simply purchase a security type wireless video sender that transmits on channels 3 or 4 with low power (so you don't need a broadcasting license!) then receive it on your portable TV. If you really want to view it on the Mac than get a TV Tuner card as suggested previously.

Hi,

I gave up and bought a D300................Happy now!

Thanks,

Luckey