Experts,
I have a variety of older cameras, all different outputs, but one in mind for a project has its output as plain NTSC video (BNC & all)...
I want to take this signal, and have an arduino programmed mcu take a picture from it. Speed of creating the image is not important, as in, 1 pic very infrequently, then another. I want to try to get bird images at feeder, then xmit to house, not important now, but that is the gist.
I know a bit about video, but only as a technician years ago in a/v TV to & a TV truck uplinks. None of that seems relevant, so I'm a noob at understanding how to capture a frame/scan & convert.
I imagine a memory buffer is needed to hold the digitized "frame", then write out in jpg, png, etc. format... That is the extent of my lame guess.
I have shelved some low res video cans I need get got working with arduino (like ov670?), but the collect dust now.
Any guidance appreciated, even if it means I need a formal video capture card.
OK, you want to capture video from an NTSC video stream.
Two devices come to mind, neither of which incidentally has any connection whatsoever with Arduino.
One is a USB video capture dongle which plugs into a Raspberry Pi, a reasonably inexpensive combination.
The other is a cheap security camera recorder unit such as sold by Aldi and probably available on eBay. This of necessity, contains the video capture system and should be able to be adapted for the purpose.
Not an expert, and my answer may be a bit off-topic and speculative:
There are quite inexpensive conversion boards for TFT displays that take VGA, HDMI and composite PAL or NTSC signals as inputs. I think the output is some sort of parallel RGB data stream, but I don't know.
Maybe an expert knows more.
And I bought some inexpensive TFT (rear view) video monitors, in the hope to get TFTs complete with case.
However the TFTs are not the kind usable with Arduino, as they do not have a usual controller, they also seem to take a video stream of unknown kind (parallel or serial?). In the case there is a small (cheap?) conversion board from composite to the TFT signals.
Could be interesting to investigate for hobby use? Maybe an expert can tell us more, hopefully.
Paul,
I imagine using the Arduino platform for sensing, triggering picture, then transmission to house. I was also hoping the esp32 would have enough storage & speed to do the whole job, minus a device it would talk to for capture.
Jean-Paul, I have done lots of LCD, but never tft. As this is to be remote/ battery powered, I'll keep looking!
holesflow:
I imagine using the Arduino platform for sensing, triggering picture, then transmission to house.
Well, apart from sensing, an Arduino might have a supervisory role, but you need a much more sophisticated device for the video processing.
holesflow:
I was also hoping the esp32 would have enough storage & speed to do the whole job, minus a device it would talk to for capture.
But there is the point - I have not heard of any integration of the ESP32 with video. Not that what I know counts for anything in this regard. I would say the Raspberry Pi, with its ability to work with common devices such as - hopefully - a video capture dongle, would be your best bet.
And you are going to need a significant battery reserve with solar panels to run video processing - at least twelve watts continuous, I would say.
I think there are plenty of DIY projects on the net using a raspberry and a camera. This may cost maybe ten dollars. You can use it to get images and send them wirelessly to an arduino if you like
I would say the Raspberry Pi, with its ability to work with common devices such as - hopefully - a video capture dongle, would be your best bet.