Back in January I tweeted about an HDMI capture device that for the Raspberry Pi. I’ve only recently have gotten a chance to use it. The device, known as the “HDMI to CSI-2 module”, works with the Raspberry Pi. Overall my experience was positive, though I found that this device has limitations that, if not previously known, can result in some frustration. The device connects to the CSI-2 camera interface and presents itself as a camera. The utilities and scripts that you may have used with the Raspberry Pi also work with this device without modifications. Along with the HDMI capture module the package contains the cable needed for connecting it to the full size Raspberry Pi and a second cable for use with a Raspberry Pi Zero.

One of the first uses that came to mind with this device is that I could use camera options beyond the official Pi cameras. The camera that I have about the house produce clean HDMI signals. They already have a range of lenses, ranging from some macro lenses for pictures of small items close-up and a 2132 millimeter Schmidt–Cassegrain for astrophotography.

The first time I tried to use the capture device with one of my cameras, it didn’t work. I received a non-descriptive error that is primarily associated with non-working or improperly installed cameras.

mmal: mmal_vc_component_enabled: failed to enable component: ENOSPC
mmal: camera component couldn't be enabled
mmal: main: Failed to create camera component
mmal: Failed to run camera app. Please check for firmware updates

Thankfully, this isn’t indicative of an actual hardware failure. The capture device works with a limited set of resolutions and refresh rates. For 1080p video signals, the maximum refresh rate is 25 fps.

After making adjustments to the output settings of my camera, I was successful in using it with the HDMI capture.

The camera was the first device that came to mind, but it could work with non-camera HDMI sources too. I connected a Nintendo Switch to the device and it captured from the switch just fine. Provided that the signal is within the resolution and FPS range and is not an encrypted (HDCP) signal, it works.

Comparing the HDMI capture device to the Raspberry Pi cameras, there were a few differences to note. While it may be easy to assume that the digital photo camera paired with this device is better than the Raspberry Pi cameras, that isn’t necessarily the case. “Better” is a matter of what satisfies the requirements for a solution. If that solution requires high physical portability, the photo camera’s size could be a disadvantage. Using an external camera also ads to external power needs; the external camera will need to have it’s own battery or power supply. The official Raspberry Pi cameras run off of the Raspberry Pi’s power.

The Pi cameras offer some higher resolutions than one can capture with the HDMI capture device. Resolution is an attribute of quality, but not the only metric for quality. I hesitate to label the higher resolution as higher quality because there are cases where a lower resolution camera may be rated better on other quality metrics, such as clarity or dynamic range, or may have attributes that make it a better fit for a specific application, such as a different shutter angle.

The Raspberry Pi HQ camera (recognizable from it’s C-mount for attaching a lens) can capture still photographs of up to 4056×3040 pixels. The Raspberry Pi Camera v2 captures stills at up to 3280×2464 pixels. For video, all of the cameras have the same resolution. Keep in mind though at these higher resolutions since the device is receiving stills and not video frame the rate of capture will be much lower.

How did it work? After trying it on a Raspberry Pi with a Nintendo Switch I would rate the capture device as being okay. It isn’t stellar, but it isn’t bad either. It provides a way to interface with HDMI sources. During the process of recording, it appeared there were frames that were dropped. The playback confirmed this. I was wondering if the dropped frames were due to the speed of the memory card in the Pi or from some computational limits on its ability to encode the video to .H264. The next thought that came to mind was to try it with the Jetson Nano. Sadly, while the Jetson Nano uses the CSI-2 interface, at the time of this writing it is not compatible with the Jetson Nano.