As we all know, SDI cameras mainly refer to cameras equipped with SDI output interfaces. Featuring low latency, minimal encoding‑decoding loss, low‑bandwidth consumption and real‑time high‑definition video capture, they are widely adopted in scenarios with high video‑quality requirements, such as conference systems, court trial systems, education systems and recording‑broadcasting systems. Nevertheless, SDI cameras adopt different high‑definition video‑signal transmission modes to satisfy diverse application demands. What are these transmission modes? The editor from Kaimorui gives the following introduction:

The SDI interface of an SDI camera cannot directly transmit compressed digital signals. Compressed signals played back from digital video recorders, hard disks and other devices must be decompressed and output via the SDI interface before entering the SDI system. Repeated decompression and compression will inevitably result in image degradation and increased latency. For this reason, digital video recorders of various formats and non‑linear editing systems have defined their own interfaces dedicated to direct transmission of compressed digital signals. Therefore, after signals are captured by the CCD or CMOS image sensor of an SDI camera, uncompressed high‑definition video signals are transmitted in two modes: analog and digital.

Analog Transmission Mode for SDI Cameras:

YPbPr component transmission is generally applied. One channel of high‑definition video signal requires three coaxial cables for simultaneous transmission.

Digital Transmission Mode for SDI Cameras:

Digital transmission is mostly implemented via DVI, HDMI or HD‑SDI. The transmission distance of DVI or HDMI is merely several meters. Even with a repeater amplifier installed in‑line, the maximum distance reaches only dozens of meters, which makes them unsuitable for long‑distance surveillance‑video transmission.

In summary, SDI cameras mainly support two high‑definition video‑signal transmission modes: analog transmission and digital transmission. Users may select the appropriate transmission mode according to their practical application requirements.