2D/3D/fpv video glasses to use with external camera

Question

I do not have any prior experience with FPV goggles (never owned one), but now I am involved in a project where I need to connect a video or FPV glasses to an external camera through a wired connection and watch the camera view on the goggles.

It is important that it is connected to an external camera because I need to achieve that point of view. A person must be able to see his own hands through the camera if he points the camera towards the hands! This is a must.

I have been looking through the internet trying to find some potential glasses that I can test on, and I have found the following:

(Option 1), (Option 2), (Option 3), (Option 4)

Since the goggles and the video camera will always be within a close range, I am at the moment considering a wired connection. I assumed that wired should provide with better quality video compared to wireless. Is that correct? If not, there is absolutely no reason for me to go wired, and I'll go wireless.

For now, I consider wired connection, therefore the goggles must have AV or HDMI input that I could plug my camera into, which is my main concern.

Few questions I have regarding this project

1. Wired vs Wireless communication between the goggles and the camera? Is it true that using wireless will reduce the preview video quality?

2. AV or HDMI? I was planning to use an FPV camera such as this, and connect it to my goggles through an AV cable. However, I am concerned about the video quality. Will the HDMI provide better quality video? In that case, I must consider glasses that have hdmi input and must find a small camera that I would be able to conveniently mount on a stick (planning to use something like a selfie stick).

The price is not the biggest problem here. I am willing to spend extra to achieve very good quality video preview through the goggles.

I am hoping to receive some help from people who know about FPV (2D 3D video) goggles, FPV cameras and AV/HDMI. Appreciate any help

Answer 1

Ordinary FPV cameras output an analogue PAL or NTSC TV signal, which you should be able to plug straight into a TV or goggles that are intended for watching TV.

Some FPV goggles only have a receiver and no input socket, but the good ones generally allow you to change the receiver, and thus have a socket for the AV signal. (Also some of the very cheap ones are just a box for a screen from an automotive reversing camera system, and expect you to provide your own receiver)

So, skipping the radio link should be easy enough, which is good because you do get some radio 'noise', especially if you're indoors where the signal can reflect from metal objects, or where there's interference from WiFi and other electronics.

Good quality FPV cameras are generally optimised for a wide dynamic range (so you can still see details on the ground when the sun is in the picture) and low light (it's common to finish an evening flight and be surprised by how dark it really is) and low latency (for racing) but the resolution is usually fairly limited because the radio bandwidth is limited.

It gets harder if you want better resolution. The only real option from the FPV world is the DJI digital FPV system, but it's quite expensive and I don't think you can use it without the radio, which is integrated into the goggles. The goggles may have an HDMI socket, but the camera doesn't.

Then again, there must be HDMI cameras outside of the FPV world. A quick google shows lots of people using DSLRs, and lots of action-cams (like GoPros) have HDMI ports - although I'm not sure if they support real-time video, or just replay. Also, any form of digital processing introduces some lag, and it doesn't take much to make hand-eye coordination difficult.