The 7 Best HDMI To SDI Converters
This wiki has been updated 23 times since it was first published in December of 2018. If you need to run an HDMI video signal any farther than 30 feet, especially in professional situations where the quality of the picture must be excellent, you should convert it to SDI before sending it off. We've chosen converters with a variety of features, but each will ensure that your signal does not drop a single frame on its journey from the camera to the production truck or editing bay. When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. Aja HA5-12G
2. Decimator Design MD-LX
3. Blackmagic Design Micro
Editor's Notes
December 19, 2020:
It doesn’t seem that the market has completely adopted 12G-SDI or even 6G-SDI, with models offering support for these standards being hard to come by, despite both standards having been introduced way back in 2015. This probably means that either people simply aren't aware of these differences, or that there is little demand for transfer of ultra-high-definition signals over longer distances, though this might change over the next few updates as 4K monitors and/or recording equipment become a consumer staple. I did however manage to include one newer model - the Aja HA5-12G - supporting 12 gigabit/s bitrate conversion, along with the Blackmagic Design Teranex Mini already in the list. Remember that for 6G-SDI, you’ll also need to use at least an HDMI 1.4 cable to preserve an incoming 2160p30 signal - or at least an HDMI 2.0 cable for a 2160p60 signal fed to a 12G-SDI converter.
January 11, 2019:
There is no shortage of generic converters on the market that aren't much cheaper than the Blackmagic Design Micro Converter. Yet these products tend to burn out after heavy usage because of their low-quality parts. For those who are working in live broadcast or any other high-demand environment, this can be a costly snafu. For that reason we did not include generics or less-established brands on the list.
4. Blackmagic Design Mini 6G
5. Blackmagic Design Teranex Mini
6. Gofanco Prophecy
7. Decimator MD-HX
Kaivaan grew up in a little town called York in the north of England, though he was whisked off to sunny Jamaica at the age of 14, where he attended high school. After graduating, he returned to the UK to study electronic engineering at the University of Warwick, where he became the chief editor for the engineering society’s flagship magazine. A couple of uninspiring internships in engineering later however, and after some time spent soul-searching and traveling across Asia and East Africa, he he now lives and works in in Dubai.