Seeking advice on how to transfer a video signal to a laptop, low cost.

[David_]

Seeking advice on how to transfer a video signal from a camera to a laptop, low cost.

Hello.

I have a camera that I want to output video to my laptop with, see attached images.
The connector has a power lead, GND lead, audio lead and a video lead.
I'm not informed about the voltage levels from the audio and video leads, but when reading online I keep seeing 1Vpp. Know that might not applie here though when I woke up this morning I knew absolutely nothing about video signals, I can't say I know much more after three hours of searching for info online but its more than yesterday

I should be able to pic up the audio signal with the mic in my laptop but how does one get the video in to the laptops memory?

I found out that I can buy one of many different products to do this but that is not a option, I can't afford to throw money on this. Not any time soon, but I am hopping that there could be some low cost method of achieving this.
I have matlab which seams as a suitable place to handle the data whence in digital form, could the laptops mic be used to process the video?

I'm really lost and the only solution I can think of is getting some fancy high speed ADC and build some analog front end but that is not something I want to trow my self into.

Any and all thoughts are much appreciated.

Regards

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Oh yeah I should also say that I have no idea what so ever what kind of signal that this camera gives. Not even if they are analog or digital...
I have just started looking at the camera but so far I have come up with nothing, I am about to feed the camera 5V and see if anything comes out on a oscilloscope.

 

[FvM]

This looks like legacy analog composite video (FBAS) output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBAS

Many notebooks have an input for it. Otherwise you would get you a cheap USB frame grabber with video input.

 

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You would probably save yourself both time and money if you just go online and buy something like .

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This looks like legacy analog composite video (FBAS) output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBAS
Many notebooks have an input for it.

FvM, I don't think I've seen a notebook with a legacy composite video input for decades. The last 4 notebooks I've owned went from SVGA (VGA), SXGA+(VGA), DVI, to HDMI, and none of them had a composite output or input anywhere, they all had digital format video output and no video inputs. Perhaps it's a German laptop feature?

 

[FvM]

You are right. S-Video output is still common to connect to analog TVs, but no analog video input.

 

[David_]

I got this camera for free a couple of years ago while working as a intern at a company, the only defect is that when it switches from daylight to infra-red the picture goes pitch black a second or two.

I am looking for some way to start learning more about video/audio, video primarily.
Matlab has a support package for USB cameras, I haven't checked but I hope that maybe it can support laptops internal camera as well.

But this camera that I got, can it be used to display film on a tv or some display without much trouble?
I'm sorry for asking such a lazy question, I have wasted enough hours reading without gaining anything but headaches so I'll just ask.
Do you know if there is anything inside cameras like these that is worth scavenging?

That web cam seems to be a good option, I tend to go too far in order to utilize things such as this spare camera. I have wasted enough hours on just understanding if I might be able to use it so I think I'll close the book on that camera and I'll hope I can learn anything while dissecting it

Thank you for your answers.

 

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You're probably not going to learn that much from dissecting that s-video camera. What you'll likely find is one or two ICs and some passives, which won't tell you anything about how the s-video interface works.

If you really want to understand video you might want to find a copy of Video Demystified.

You know that getting the camera for free from the company you interned at was just an easy way of getting rid of obsolete junk from someones desk drawer ;-)