X-ray machine analog video conversion

[videosorveglianza 0]

Hello everybody.

 

I have a very special question/problem - I hope you can help. For a local hospital I have to find a way to transmit the video signal of the X-ray machine (a 20 years old Philips x-ray - no one knows the model, since it's composed of several cabinets) to a remote location over the internet. After many weeks, the machine administrator has finally managed to get a response from an "expert" for that machine. He said the video signal coming from the BNC connector is a 9 composite high resolution video output - does this make any sense? I don't have any fancy video signal analizer to be able to test the signal coming out, so i'll believe that.

 

So, the signal coming out from the BNC should be a composite video signal with 75Ohm impedance. I have tried connecting the video signal to GV video server, but the video is not sharp as on the special philips monitor - like it is low res compared to the monitor picture. Also if I connect it to a small TV, we usually use for testing CCTV cameras, it isn't any better.

 

Have already tried terminating the signal with a 75ohm T terminator, but the picture also doesn't get any better.

 

Any help much appreciated.

[kensplace 0]

What country is this in?

 

I find it hard to stomach that the hospital knows so little about its own equipment they dont even know the model, or the basics of how it operates?

[Soundy 1]

I don't find it surprising at all - there are probably few people working there who were around when it was installed 20 years previous, and even fewer who WOULD know anything about it, let alone such technical details. You wouldn't keep a repair/service tech on staff for such a thing; SOP would be to call in for service when needed.

 

Even the "machine administrator" is probably third or fourth generation to the position, if not even further removed from its installation... IF there's still documentation around, some is probably lost, damaged or destroyed, and would either contain very little real technical data beyond operational instructions and basic troubleshooting... or would be a 4" thick binder (or two) filled with overwhelming technical gibberish. As the OP says, too, the system exists in "several cabinets"... each one would likely have its own separate technical manual; getting any useful information would mean first determining which cabinet is the relevant one, then finding the right manual for that.

 

No, I've never dealt with X-Ray machines before... but I've dealt with these TYPES of massive, spread-out, highly-proprietary specialized systems before. The people making them gave little thought to anyone on-site being capable of servicing them; it was expected that issues would be dealt with by a factory technician.

 

To the OP: it also wouldn't surprise me if the thing uses some modified version of NTSC or PAL standard (depending on where you're located) to obtain higher resolution from its custom monitor (although at the very least, it obviously is BASED on one of the two standards, since it does display on your TV and GV input)... for something that specialized, and in the absence of mass-market HDTV or other hi-res transmission standards, it wouldn't be at all unusual for the manufacturer to use something (semi-)proprietary.

 

It's also possible the monitor itself is providing some internal processing. Is there a model number on the monitor? What are the results if you feed a regular video signal (say, from a DVD payer) into the monitor?

 

The easiest way to make it remote-viewable, other than using your GV system, would be to add a video-server box. Something like this:

http://cam2life.net/products-VS306.html

 

Or these:

http://www.axis.com/products/video/video_server/index.htm

 

Or these:

http://www.vivotek.com/products/video_servers.php