If you are willing to drop down to standard video quality using the TV out port on your camera, a USB video capture device will allow you to display photos from your D3100 on any laptop with a USB port, but you would not be able to view the live view output this way, only captured images or video. The camera is connected to an HDMI-CEC device Recorded and photographs can not be taken in live view while The view through the lens as shown at right. When the camera is attached to an HDMI video device, theĬamera monitor will turn off and the video device will display Be aware that according to page 42 of your D3100's user manual: There may be other models that also do this. Dell, who bought Alienware, still lists the M17X and M18X with HDMI-in capability.
Alienware once made a couple of models, the M17X and M18X, that would do this, but they were very expensive. Most laptops do not accept HDMI inputs due to copyright constraints on the licensing of the HDMI technology. The easiest and most economical solution would be a display only device such as a portable HDMI monitor. digiCamControl has support for almost all Nikon DSLR’s cameras. It supports tethering, live view, remote triggering, direct image transfer, controlling multiple cameras simultaneously and even offers you camera control from your tablet or smartphone.
If all you want to do is view the output of your camera without controlling it, you just need to connect it to a device that accepts an HDMI input. digiCamControl is a free, open source program that gives you full control over Nikon cameras from your Windows PC. The D3100's firmware or hardware may limit this capability. NOTE (): I was using the 2.0.69 Beta version of digicamcontrol in this video That version or above is required for the full screen option to work.Ev. Most of the Dx, Dxx, and some of the D7xxx and D5xxx bodies are at least partially supported. Most tethering softwares that list support for Nikon cameras do not include the D3xxx series.