Blackmagic Forum

HEY Guys,

i have purchased the Atem Mini Pro HDMI Version now i am facing issue like i am not able to use the longer length HDMI cable and my device is useless since i bought, one of my friend has suggested me to use converter and use SDI Cables.

Now can any one Guide what should i buy now HDMI TO SDI or SDI to HDMI. My Blackmagic has HDMI so please guide me, i am confused.

If your camera has HDMI and your atem mini pro is HDMI then you will need a converter on each end.

One way to do that is to have the following:

hdmi to sdi converter: You plug your camera into the HDMI input and then you plug an SDI cable into the output of this converter. Then you run your SDI cable back to wherever your switcher is.

Then you use an sdi to hdmi converter and plug the SDI cable into the input of the converter and an HDMI cable into the output of the converter. That HDMI cable goes into your atem mini pro input.

With that said, a few things to keep in mind:
1. Each converter requires power
2. SDI is limited based on what kind of signal you are running. While it's way better than HDMI for longer runs, there is still a limit. The limit is based on what cable you buy. If you buy a Belden 1505a cable, that can go about 300 feet with a 1080i or 720p signal. But only about 200 feet with a 1080p signal.
3. Blackmagic also just came out with some IP 2110 converters which use Cat6 cables. The converters are more expensive but the cable would be less expensive.

While blackmagic has some really inexpensive converters that will do the trick, there may be reasons why you would want a more expensive converter. For example, if you have a signal that isn't playing nicely with the atem mini pro, a Decimator generally can fix most of those types of problems...but for some people a decimator has a bit of a learning curve (it's not hard, but it's easy for people to get confused with it's menu)

Do you have other questions about your signal path?

mohandesai2010 wrote:one of my friend has suggested me to use converter and use SDI Cables.

Forget converters and SDI. As long as your cable length requirement doesn't exceed 150 metres, HDMI fibre cable is the simplest and most cost effective solution, even if it's just 10 metres. The cable is powered by the units you're connecting to, so no additional power source is required.

We use them frequently for running very long feeds to large projection rigs, video walls and 4K cameras. Very reliable.

Depending on your territory, Amazon has plenty to chose from. For example, here in the UK 50 metres is £70 and 150 metres is £145.

Link to example.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SOEYBAE-Fiber- ... 125&sr=8-5

From what I have been reading about them, fibre HDMI cables don't have the best reputation for reliability over the long term.

SDI may cost more when you add in the cost of the converters, but such a solution is more likely to last longer, and the cable itself would be cheaper to replace if it becomes damaged (the fibre cable basically has converters integrated into the connectors, and if the cable breaks, you need to replace the entire unit - with the SDI solution, you don't need to replace the converters due to a broken cable).

Frank Engel wrote:From what I have been reading about them, fibre HDMI cables don't have the best reputation for reliability over the long term.

I'm simply going on our actual field experience over the last 4 or so years of using HDMI fibre on myraid events, plus, one fibre HDMI is less involved than three cables, two converters and two wallwart power supplies.

We have around forty 50 metre to 100 metre fibre HDMIs and never had a failure mid-show. The only few failures we've had has been due to being mechanically severed by others during the rig or de-rig - lighting crew being one culprit. They do the same to SDI, so it's not prejudice

It’s pretty common to need long HDMI these days. Barco, Brompton, yeah boy, love their HDMI. Can’t say that we go from HDMI to copper very often, mostly fibre. There’s a time and place for fibre HDMI, it’s the least expensive also the least robust solution.

Good Luck