SmallHD cross conversion of HDMI to SDI signals may not be recognized on older Bolt transmitters

Applies to:

• Older model SmallHD monitors (e.g. SmallHD 502, SmallHD 702) with cross conversion support using HDMI input / SDI output
• Older model Bolt Transmitters (1st gen Bolt Standard, 1st gen Bolt Pro, 2nd generation Bolt 300) receiving SDI input from the SmallHD monitor
• Specific HDMI video sources

Issue:

Some customers have reported that using older model SmallHD monitors to perform HDMI to SDI cross conversion will not allow a video signal to be passed through to older model Bolt transmitters over SDI.

The cause of the issue is jitter on the HDMI output coming from the video source; this jitter is being passed through to the SDI output during the cross conversion, and this prevents certain older Bolts from being able to recognize the video input.

Even though the Bolt transmitter may show that a video signal is being received, the Bolt receiver may report "No Video" or "Check Video Input".

This has only been reported with some HDMI video sources, such as the Canon 1Dx, Canon C100mk2, or the Sony a7S II -- it does not affect all HDMI input sources being used with the SmallHD monitor and Bolt in this cross conversion setup.

This is a hardware limitation on the both the older monitors and older Bolts, and cannot be addressed with a firmware update on either the monitor or the Bolt transmitter.

Newer SmallHD monitors have additional improvements to prevent this jitter on the HDMI input from being passed on to the SDI output during cross conversion.

Workarounds:

If this issue is experienced, below are some options for using older monitors and Bolt transmitters in configuration:

• Use HDMI output from the SmallHD monitor to HDMI input on the Bolt transmitter, rather than performing HDMI to SDI cross conversion
• Use an HDMI to SDI converter which can re-clock / remove the jitter on the SDI video signal, placed between the SDI output of the SmallHD monitor and the SDI input on the Bolt transmitter
• Use an SDI distribution amp / re-clocker / format converter which can remove the jitter on the SDI video signal, placed between the SDI output of the SmallHD monitor and the SDI input on the Bolt transmitter