HDMI to SDI converter major problem

I sponsor a high school broadcasting club. Our current equipment is as follows:

4 - Canon XA10
1 - Canon XA25
4 - HDMI to SDI BM converters (battery but used with power cable)
ATEM TV Studio

The issue is:
We want to live stream our football games as we did with basketball last year. We have yet to have more than three cameras running with converters at one time.

In testing we have found:

The XA25 works in all ports on the ATEM.
One XA10 works with all converters (in both ports) and with all ports on the ATEM.
The other three XA10s all work straight into ATEM with HDMI. None of them can get an SD signal out of their converters (either port). Each camera produces HDMI lock on the converter but still no signal through ATEM.

We have spent a week trouble shooting. All coax cables have been tested and are good. If one camera works with every converter why don't the other three? Is it a camera problem? A converter problem? An ATEM problem? A stupid teacher problem?

HELP ME please!!! Our first game of the season is tomorrow night and we want to run four cameras!

Becky Hoch
Monarch Broadcasting Club
monarchbroadcasting.com

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a setting on the camera somewhere. When connecting via HDMI, each end has to handshake what format of signal each end supports. When connected directly to the ATEM the ATEM tells it the exact resolution it needs, but when connected to a converter the converter will tell the camera it supports every (video) resolution, so the camera may be negotiating HD instead of SD. The easy way to tell is to hook up an SDI monitor to the output of the converter.

TL;DR: Compare the output settings of the working camera with the non-working cameras for differences.

Sounds like a camera problem... or a cable problem (although I would assume you checked cabling and made sure to use the cable that worked with the one camera). Although it is a real oddity that all of the XA10's work when connected directly to the ATEM without the battery converters.

When you mention "One XA10 works with all converters (in both ports)" - what do you mean by "in both ports"? The converters you have convert from HDMI to SDI... so what other port can you use? There are four HDMI ports and four SDI ports (HDMI ports 3/4 and SDI ports 5/6 are shared so you have to enable using the ATEM Software Control which ports are actually active).

You mention "SD" - are you running this in SD or HD? Which video mode?

There are two ports on the converter. Those are the two ports to which I'm referring. We are outputting the same format from all four XA10s in HD. My reference to SD should have been SDI.

One of my students suggested that the cameras may have a different strength of signal and that while each is strong enough to get HDMI lock three of them may not be strong enough to carry through the converter. At one point we sent a camera back to Canon and they sent it back saying there were no issues. It is not the one that works with all four converters.

We are still within warranty. Does anyone think it worth our while to send the three converters back to BM to see if they are faulty?

You mention "SD" - are you running this in SD or HD? Which video mode?

I think she meant SDI since she said the part about both ports.

I'm guessing you don't have any type of SDI monitor to test and verify signal out of the BM converters? The ATEM can be very picky about what type of signal it receives. As you probably know, everything has to be the same resolution and frame rate otherwise the ATEM won't read it. That's what's probably happening if the BM converter shows HDMI lock. Camera is just sending incompatible res/frame rate that isn't consistent with the rest of your cameras or settings.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I think we have a list to start checking in the morning. We will start with verifying that all cameras are set on the same output and go on from there.

Tune in to monarchbroadcasting.com tomorrow night at 7 Central to see if we got it worked out or not.

Maybe the DHMI-Out ist set to an incompatible framreate or resoltution (1080p ?). Can you set it in menu ?

Indeed. Check framerate (interlaced only), Check Resolution, Check firmware versions betweens camera's, And if you use HDMI leads to the converter. Don't use more then 2 meters and you will be fine. (**Strength of signal data )

Hello!

I had a similar problem with Canon HF G30 camera.
The solution was: downgrade converter firmware to version 1.9.
I got the solution from this post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8406&p=66135&hilit=downgrade#p66135

Indrek