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Comment by _abox | Hacker News Reader

I prefer pikvm instead. They support cheap HDMI to CSI boards that have lower latency. And they don't make you pay for some features like tiny pilot does. This site sounds like a hobby one but it's actually a commercial product.

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TinyPilot founder here. TinyPilot also supports HDMI to CSI bridges. They're included in the pre-made TinyPilot Voyagers:

https://github.com/tiny-pilot/tinypilot/wiki/HDMI-Capture-De...

Hey Michael, what do you think of building an HDMI-to-UVC device? Basically a device integrated in a cable with 2 ends: HDMI and USB. It would capture the video output of a computer, emulate a USB video class (webcam) device so the USB end can be plugged into another computer which would be able to see the video output of the other computer using any standard webcam software.

Heck it could even be powered by the USB host. It would be an "active cable" that doesn't require any custom software. Would be super convenient to carry with a laptop for data center technicians.

Such a device exists and can be bought from Amazon for less than 20 dollars. Keyword USB HDMI Capture.

Awesome! Last time I looked into, many years ago, this did not exist. Thanks!

These things tend to be buggy though, I have had a litany of bad experiences. If you want quality, go for the stuff that Blackmagic Design sells - yes, it's about 5x more expensive than bottom-of-the-barrel crap on Amazon that's actually rebranded or dropshipped crap from Alibaba, but it actually works.

For KVM stuff it will suffice.

Not really if its USB stack just locks up after a couple of hours and needs to be manually power cycled to work again.

Haven't had that problem.

Ok that's interesting.

I still don't think I'll use it though. I can understand you're trying to make a business out of it. But the password protection feature is one that's too big to do without even in my home network.

For the other stuff like remote mounting drives I can imagine you're asking money for. But the password is pretty essential IMO, as is HTTPs. And the license drives the price far above $100.

Nevertheless I wish you luck with your business!

Fwiw I think pikvm is going the same route now, selling premade hardware. It's nice but the price is just too high for hobbyists. Some of my servers didn't even cost me $200 new and that's with iLO included.

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