What's HD-MDI security camera?

Do you know HD-MDI technology? Recently, many security product manufacturers launched HD-MDI enabled high definition analog cameras which support Power over Ethernet (PoE). Compared with current popular HD-over-coaxial solutions such as AHD, HDCVI, HDTVI, few people know HD-MDI.

HD-MDI stands for high definition medium dependent interface, this technology emerged in 2012, it launched much earlier than other analog high definition technologies. Technically speaking, HD-MDI is a new generation high definition video transmission technology which utilizes standard high-speed Ethernet physique layer hardware, make transmitting device (HD camera) and receiving device (DVR, DVR card, Repeater, Optical Device) become MDI devices, the data no longer transmit over Hub, network switch, the front-end cameras directly connect to backend DVR using standard Cat5 or Cat6 Ethernet cables.

A medium dependent interface (MDI) describes the interface (both physical and electrical) in a computer network from a physical layer implementation to the physical medium used to carry the transmission.

In conclusion, HD-MDI can transmit analog data signals through unshielded twisted pair (UTP). Additionally, the new version of HD-MDI supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) feature which allows front-end camera to get power supply from HD-MDI DVR. Similar to other HD-over-coaxial solutions, HD-MDI supports uncompressed, loss-less, 720p and 1080p high definition video transmission. The HD-MDI products include HD-MDI cameras, HD-MDI repeater, HD-MDI DVR, HD-MDI Optical Device, HD-MDI matrix, and HD-MDI audio video capture cards. The new version of HD-MDI expected to support up to 500 meters transmission distance.

Just back to several days ago, I visited a security company which specializes in developing and manufacturing security cameras. In exhibition room, they displayed latest HD-MDI products. At that time, I didn't know what the HD-MDI was.  Four HD-MDI box cameras connect to an 4CH recorder using Ethernet cable. I wanted to find an Ethernet cable to connect with one of IP camera for testing purpose. Then I plugged out the Ethernet cable from one HD-MID camera, and plugged it to IP camera. Apparently, the IP camera didn't work. Right now, I know there is an another HD-over-coaxial solution which utilizes Ethernet cable for data transmission, and the data is analog.