$30 vs $150 HDMI to Analog converter review & tear down

I compare a cheap $30 HDMI to component analog converter from Amazon with a high quality SDI to Analog converter from Blackmagic Design. Unsurprisingly, you get what you pay for. I wasted weeks trying to find a decent unit on Amazon, but it turns out there are hundreds of variants of the cheap unit and they all are pretty janky when it comes to quality and signal integrity. I pull out the oscilloscope and compare their outputs and do a quick overview of the PCB circuit design.

[@alphabeets]

Nice job on this. This is exactly the kind of in depth review I look for. You took the time to show exactly why one box is better in the viewable signal, the scope signal, and the hardware design. Bravo! I just subscribed.

[@bobsbits5357]

i am pleased you posted this video saved us alot of cash man

[@alpharisc]

Quite a big difference in quality between the two units. I have gone back to using some analogue screens for playing retro games, I am using a Mister FPGA unit and a few Sony PVM screens I collected over the years (and a few Sony computer monitors), having high quality analogue output is important, the signal coming out of the Mister FPGA is extremely clean compared to something like a Nintendo Famicom or Sega Megadrive. Great video, my scope is only 50Mhz so I too am unable to see the nice squares of the test pattern.

[@superchromat]

I have to admit that I've started searching ebay for a deal on a >1GHz scope. It would be great to see things in detail. I do have a 100MHz analog tek scope, but it isn't a significant improvement over the 70MHz DSO.

[@strayeddm2882]

This was massively informative, do you have any hardware suggestions for recording gameplay onto tape? Bit of an odd use case, but cheap converters are a headache to try and scale.

[@EverythingPSPOfficial]

Did you find any issues with latency? I’m trying to run a mini snes on crt by going hdmi-component and the intermediary sdi step looks like a great solution just not sure about any input lag I may encounter

[@superchromat]

I didn’t notice any lag, but I haven’t measured it. Good call, I can do that.

[@McGuinness89]

Would this work on a 480i PVM? If so then how? Thanks

[@c_h_r_i_s_t_c_o_r_e]

So an issue I am having (I do glitch visuals) when I send my 4:3 resolution screen from my laptop to my crt tv the hdmi to composite converter shrinks the footage and looks like if you put 4:3 resolution on a regular 16:9 tv, If I did hdmi to sdi then sdi to composite do you think I could get the native input from my laptop? Thank you!

[@superchromat]

What converter are you using? Decent ones should have a direct pixel for pixel mode that won’t stretch 4:3 out to 16:9

[@Richbroth]

Very helpful thanks

[@no15minutecities]

what about analogue to SDI??

[@EverScrolls]

How do you get the SDI cable?

[@richms]

I have found that any time I convert to SDI that my black level gets messed up, like I have the TV set to limited range for HDMI, I'm not sure if thats a limitation with the format but I find that to be much worse than the ringing in the output. Did you probe the output of the chip to see if it was cleaner before those passives by the RCA socket? Perhaps someone could put a better output buffer on it to clean it up?

[@superchromat]

Odd that your black levels get messed up with SDI. I'm relatively new to learning about digital video formats in any sort of depth, and I'm at a loss as to why that would happen. Do you have any theories? I haven't directly probed the output of the cheap chip. I'd have to desolder some 0402 SMD components to isolate it from the impedance matching passives behind the RCA. And even if I could clean it up, I'd still be dealing with the fact that it resamples from 24p to 50p. That would be fine for most use cases, but in my case I'm sending the analog signal to a video effects unit / synthesizer that I'm building. I've designed all the analog components, filters, etc., for 24p and things wouldn't look right at 50p.

[@richms]

@@superchromat Found this thread detailing something similar which black magic solved. Seems that SDI is so rooted in broadcast that they assume everyone is using limited video levels - forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7096

[@superchromat]

Fascinating. I’m from PAL land, although I now live in NTSC. The difference in black level was never something I noticed when working with composite video. But I’m by no means professional. Now I finally understand the 7.5 vs 0 IRE setting in the Blackmagic config.

[@JogosMofados]

Nice, quick question, how did you connect the scope to the luma signal? Can I just connect the probe to the RCA connector, or do we need some specific cable for that?

[@superchromat]

Yup. That will work. If your scope has BNC inputs (most do), you can buy BNC to RCA adapters that work fine.

[@JogosMofados]

@@superchromat cool, I have I have a BNC to RCA adapter, didn't know we don't need the probe on this case.

[@sos.gamers]

What about the converters that get HDMI to 480i component? I have a CRT TV 16:9 but is SD not HD, so i really want to play PS1, PS2 on my PS5 console but on my CRT Tv and also watch movies and old tv shows there using a Fire TV Stick or the PS5

[@superchromat]

480i should work fine as that’s standard NTSC.

[@sos.gamers]

@@superchromat yup I just got the GBS - Control parts, but now I got Netflix working on my old Xbox 360 and KZbin so that's great!

[@stephenneal7373]

I think that BlackMagic may use some common PCB design techniques (not necessarily the same PCB) for a number of converters - I've seen a teardown of their SDI to HDMI converter kzbin.info/www/bejne/f57GnpqvfpyCe8k that looks very similar - so I think that unpopulated chip may be for an HDMI transmitter potentially.

[@pokepress]

Just out of curiosity, what would be the main use case for a device like this in professional AV work?

[@superchromat]

You’d have to ask an AV professional :) My guess is for interfacing with old beloved, or expensive to replace gear that doesn’t have digital inputs. The Blackmagic device was hard to find, so I imagine that they’re pretty rare too due to limited use cases.

[@dreamcast4life]

hey there ! back with another question. would you mind explaining how the sound output works on this converter or what the cables look like ? Im trying to out the sound to my tv and its not working. would a TRS to phono adapter be necessary ?

[@superchromat]

It should be straightforward, the HDMI encoded sound is output as two line-level RCA outputs. What issues are you having?

[@bobsbits5357]

hi you have a very good point i have alot of betacam digi decks they have sdi out puts the know it's not easy to put sdi cards in a new pci-e computer and it costs alot i have talked to a lot in the pro game in some betacam decks the sdi is not working on the out puts so it's not easy for a fix from old video decks if you are low on money there is place for the low cost units only on the play back of decks to see of they are working for remaster old tapes you need a pro card sdi like you said i will say my mate is using alot of very low end gear because he low on money like the gamers they spend all there money on games not gear like us pro video lot bob

[@andrewlahlum]

Can anyone recommend me a high quality HDMI to component converter? All I can find online are these cheapo China ones.

[@superchromat]

The Blackmagic one shown here is very good.

[@Wingnut353]

@@superchromat Bought a used one apparently older models only support SDI 1.5G... so don't work well. The newer model supports 3G (there are two version of this device with no outward differences in appearance) also the 4k version of it doesn't do lower resolutions apparently.

[@dreamcast4life]

hey there ! So I have the same setup you have but I cant get it to display on my tv through component. would you mind telling me what your settings on the dip switcheds are on the blackmagic box ? thanks for the help !

[@superchromat]

It could be the TV. What’s the resolution of the HDMI signal you are trying to display?

[@dreamcast4life]

@@superchromat thanks for the response ! and I think I figured it out too. I was messing with the things a bit first and it looks like HDCP may have been a culprit too. Anyway, I found out that some frequencies arent too friendly with the converter (59.9... is ok but not 60) and also settings on your computer may also affect it as well. I was able to choose resolutions from 2 categories. One titled "PC" and the other being titled "ULTRA HD, HD, SD" from my nvidia control panel. Anything in the PC settings didnt work unless it was 768p or lower while from the other list, I was only able to go up to 1080p at 59.9.. fps Im still messing with the little sdi to analog converter at the moment though and Im happy overall with it. thanks for the tip ! I really like how it can resize (4.3 or 16.9) on the fly among other things. Also you were very much right in your analysis, the signal output is CLEAN from this setup. no jittering or anything on the display. You truely have to see it to believe it.

[@chrishough2887]

Looking for rbg input to hdmi output for an old laser disc player to modern tv. Can you give me the black magic design model number? Or other suggestions. Thanks!

[@superchromat]

For BlackMagic, you’d need 2 devices: Analog to SDI and then SDI to HDMI. Are you sure it is RGB, not component?

[@evansoloway717]

sad reality of youtube 2023 is that educational videos such as this get indexed below 1,000 trash videos with affiliate links made by amateurs getting paid by the company whose product they're supposedly reviewing 😞

[@sageoffourwinds6640]

important question. does it add to input lag? the game in me wants to know.

[@superchromat]

I haven’t checked out lag but I might do that in the future. I’m not a gamer, so it’s not super relevant to my use case, but I totally understand why it’s important for gaming. You should check out Side Project Labs on KZbin as he’s building a fantastic digitizer designed specifically for retro gaming consoles: kzbin.info/door/dhCaevoHxyzLeFTYkxkblA

[@emmettturner9452]

My interest is from a games perspective and $150 is not too much for gaming IMO. :)