software - Is it possible to shoot tethered with a preview on the screen?

I had to shoot self-portraits today, and it didn't go well. I first tried shooting tethered, but it was so hard to get composition & focus right, that I just did it with a mirror. Which of course introduced a whole new set of problems. Not only is using a strobe with a mirror an extremely dumb idea (and I don't have real continuous lightning, so ended up using an anti-SAD lamp), but my infrared remote has to be pointed at the front panel of the camera. While I managed somehow, the results are far from thrilling.

So I searched a bit and landed at good old DPS, which has an article about self-portraits. This includes following advice:

Shoot tethered; most digital cameras have a mini video if not a HD video out. I borrowed my son’s DVD player (the one he watches movies in the car with) on multiple occasions for the sole purpose of shooting self portraits. This is where the remote comes in great; you can fine tune the composition by watching that little monitor, without having to run back and forth. If you have a newer DSLR with an HD out then you could hook up your laptop or HD monitor.

(source http://www.digital-photography-school.com/self-portrait-photography-tips#ixzz1FBqKNMCi)

This made me wonder. I have a D90, which has both LiveView and a HDMI output. I have shot with it tethered using DarkTable, but I cannot see the image on the monitor the way I would be seeing it on the camera back in LiveView mode. Instead, I can just make some changes with the mouse (and that doesn't work perfectly, as some settings are overridden by the position of the controls on the camera) and then click on a button to shoot, effectively using the wireless mouse as a wireless remote. And then the picture is visible on the big colour-calibrated monitor. This is, of course, much better than shooting camera-only and later noticing that what looked OK on the camera back is not so hot at normal resolutions, but it still isn't enough for very demanding situations like self-portraits.

The quote from DPS, on the other hand, sounds as if it is possible to send a video to the monitor, which I imagine like a kind of LiveView on the monitor. Which would be, of course, perfect. So, is this possible, and if yes, which software supports it? (preferred platform is Linux with Gnome, but if there are Windows options, I want to hear about them too). Or did I just misunderstand the quote and does he mean that he is only tethering the same way as I do, but using a HDMI instead of a USB cable?

Answer

Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2 supports LiveView with the D90 on both Windows and Mac.