can you transmit live video at 30 mhz? The resolution is 100 lines. Each line consist of 100 pixels. No color, instead a black and white image. A video compression method that only transmit differences in frames is used.

 

can you transmit live video at 30 mhz? The resolution is 100 lines. Each line consist of 100 pixels. No color, instead a black and white image. A video compression method that only transmit differences in frames is used.

Grok says:

**Yes, easily.**

### Quick calculation
- **Resolution**: 100 × 100 = 10,000 pixels per frame.
- **Frame rate**: Assume 30 fps for live video (not specified; lower rates make it even easier).
- **Bit depth (B&W/grayscale)**:
- 8-bit grayscale: ~80,000 bits/frame → **2.4 Mbps** uncompressed.
- 1-bit (black/white, possibly dithered): **300 kbps** uncompressed.
- **Differential/interframe compression** (“only transmit differences”): This is classic motion-compensated or delta encoding. For typical scenes it often yields 10×–100× reduction (or more on mostly static content). Worst case (every pixel changes every frame) is still only the uncompressed rate above.

### RF bandwidth
A 30 MHz channel supports far more than needed:
- Even at a modest spectral efficiency of ~1 bit/s/Hz (simple modulation), you get ~30 Mbps.
- Practical schemes (QPSK ~2 bit/s/Hz, 16-QAM ~4 bit/s/Hz, etc.) give higher throughput.
- Analog B&W video of this tiny resolution would need well under 1–2 MHz of baseband bandwidth (standard NTSC-style video uses ~4.2 MHz for ~480 lines with far more horizontal detail).

So the raw data rate is tiny relative to 30 MHz of available spectrum, and the differential compression reduces it further. Practical systems (amateur radio ATV, low-rate digital video links, security cameras, etc.) routinely do higher resolutions or better quality in far narrower channels.

**Caveats** (none of which prevent it):
- Frame rate, exact bit depth, and scene motion affect the average rate.
- Regulatory channel masks, modulation choice, error correction, and range/SNR matter for a real radio link, but 30 MHz is ample headroom.
- Latency of the differential codec should be low for true “live” use.

In short, this is a very low-demand video stream by modern standards.

 

can you transmit live video at 30 mhz? The resolution is 100 lines. Each line consist of 100 pixels. No color, instead a black and white image. A video compression method that only transmit differences in frames is used.

Please note, pay attention to units.

You meant 30 MHz, not 30 mhz

m = milli = 10⁻³
M = mega = 10⁶

The difference between m and M is 12 orders of magnitude.

Edit: 9 orders of magnitude.

 

can you transmit live video at 30 mhz? The resolution is 100 lines. Each line consist of 100 pixels. No color, instead a black and white image. A video compression method that only transmit differences in frames is used.

Not at 30 mhz. Now, if you're talking 30 MHz, that's different.

But, even then, the question is what do you mean by 30 MHz. Is that the carrier frequency? Or is that your allowed signal bandwidth?

 

When I was at Sony I say prototypes of video over phone lines. The resolution was low. Maybe close to your 100x100. They used compression. Probably slow, very slow. If the person stood still and talked the video was good. If the person jumped around the compression lost it. You are asking 30Mhz, they were well under 5Khz.

 

Back in the day, broadcast-legal, full-motion, full-color, 640 x 480 analog video was modulated on a 7.06 to 10 MHz FM carrier for recording and playback on videotape.

Before that, 4.2 MHz monochrome video was modulated on a 4.28 to 6.80 MHz FM carrier. This sounds like it violates Shannon and Nyquist but it didn't, thanks to a very linear FM modulator designed by a young Ray Dolby.

ak

 

m = milli = 10⁻³
M = mega = 10⁶

The difference between m and M is 12 orders of magnitude.

No, it's only 9.

 

We have VHF low HDTV stations, so 100 line, mono live TV on a 30MHz carrier is easy on some closed circuit system. The main problem is getting a legal RF channel from X government agency for broadcasting.

https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/list-vhf-low-channels-2-6-stations-broadcasting-us/
.

 

For comparison purposes;
Apollo 11’s broadcasts of the surface of the Moon were 320x200 B&W at non-interlaced 10 frames per second. Required bandwidth was approximately 500 KHz using pure analog video.