diff --git a/modules/ANSCV/ANSRTSP.cpp b/modules/ANSCV/ANSRTSP.cpp
index 7536d5d..b793a16 100644
--- a/modules/ANSCV/ANSRTSP.cpp
+++ b/modules/ANSCV/ANSRTSP.cpp
@@ -454,6 +454,25 @@ namespace ANSCENTER {
             return _pLastFrame;  // Shallow copy (fast)
         }
 
+        // Early stale-out: if the decoder hasn't produced a frame in 5s the
+        // camera is dead. Skip _playerClient->getImage() entirely and return
+        // the cached frame with unchanged _pts so LabVIEW sees STALE PTS one
+        // poll earlier and triggers reconnect. Matches the 5000ms threshold
+        // already used on the duplicate-PTS branch below and in
+        // areImagesIdentical(), so all three stale paths agree.
+        if (!_pLastFrame.empty()) {
+            double ageMs = _playerClient->getLastFrameAgeMs();
+            if (ageMs >= 5000.0) {
+                ANS_DBG("RTSP_GetImage",
+                        "EARLY STALE: ageMs=%.1f pts=%lld url=%s — skipping getImage()",
+                        ageMs, (long long)_pts, _url.c_str());
+                width = _imageWidth;
+                height = _imageHeight;
+                pts = _pts;
+                return _pLastFrame;
+            }
+        }
+
         int imageW = 0, imageH = 0;
         int64_t currentPts = 0;