luciens
![](https://forum44.djicdn.com/data/attachment/common/aa/common_14_usergroup_icon.png) Second Officer
United States
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The problem, not sure but I believe, is that the software for rendering the video downlink runs on the smart device - the phone or ipad, etc. All the controller has is simply the demodulated signal from the aircraft and that's it. It's kind of just a glorified 2-way radio running in duplex, with a little bit of firmware in it to decode some of the telemetry from the signal (in the case of the controller for, say, the MA2 which has the little screen on it). So it's not just a matter of putting an HDMI port onto the controller. You need an entire hardware/firmware infrastructure there to turn it into actual video first before you can support output protocols like HDMI, etc.
That's probably how the smart controller is able to provide an HDMI feed - it has a pared-down Android device inside of it that's able to generate the video in the normal way with GO 4 and/or DJI Fly and from that they have an HDMI converter, etc.
Right now, the only viable solution I've found for decent FPV operation of a DJI aircraft without the smart controller is the DJI goggles connected via ocusync (or via USB cable with the earlier Phantom aircraft). The goggles have their own GO 4 - like firmware in them that allow decoding the video signal from the controller. The goggles are also the only means, period, of a visible video downlink outdoors in the daylight, as smart phones, ipads, external monitors, etc., are simply invisible in direct sunlight. It's nothing but frustration trying to use then in actual flights out in the field because of that. There are some devices out there with bright enough screens, but they're all too tiny (including the one in the smart controller) for real, positive, effective use for framing shots via FPV.
So what I've done is get a MP2 and switch to that for all my use, since I have 2 pairs of the goggles already. And they work via ocusync on the MP2.
My MA2 I'm not using until I get a smart controller and use my goggles via the HDMI output.
But otherwise, don't expect a USB-c or HDMI video feed from a standard DJI controller for a long time, if ever. That would require a completely custom set of hardware and firmware embedded in the controller to render the downlink, telemetry, menu system, setting the options, etc. But that's already done in GO 4 and DJI Fly, so they're not likely to replicate that effort on their own custom hardware/software inside the controllers themselves. That doesn't make good business sense, given that they decided years ago to do it on smart phones and tablets with apps running on those devices instead.
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