Advice Needed Suggestions for a wireless hdmi sender/receiver combo for cctv use?

[jeallen01]

CH was over here installing my CCTV cameras a few days ago after I had installed the NVR and camera cables in the attic - and now, having sorted a couple of camera IP address conflicts, everything seems to work when viewing the video from the monitor in the attic. However, remote viewing via the LAN or the normal PC wireless apps is "very turgid" and is very processor-intensive (basically, it stopped anything else running on those PC's!) , and so I want to be able to see the video o/p from the NVR directly on the downstairs lounge TV by another route.

I could run an ethernet or HDMI cable between the two but that's difficult because it would have to go down, relatively unobtrusively, through two ceilings and down those room walls. Therefore, an HDMI i/p wireless Tx/Rx combo should be easier to implement - but only IF I can find a suitable combo, and thus suggestions for the latter would be most welcome!

 

[Terryl]

Here are a few reviews from Amazon customers looking for the same thing you are.

https://www.amazon.com/slp/hdmi-transmitter/p7h4srdwuv6v6b4

 

[Channel Hopper]

You have spare cables that run from the loft to the living room.

Vga To Bnc Converter Host Video Converter Box Tv Av Interface Converter≌ | eBay

Features:<br>1. Automatically detecting and converts incoming PC images to NTSC, PAL. The VGA video scan converter is used to convert various images of the computer from 640x480 to 1920x1080, supporting NTSC or PAL video.

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HDMI To AV Adapter Converter Cable CVBS 3RCA 1080P Composite Video Audio For TV | Wish

Buy HDMI To AV Adapter Converter Cable CVBS 3RCA 1080P Composite Video Audio For TV at Wish - Shopping Made Fun

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Or to Sdi and back again

eSynic 1080p HDMI to SDI Converter Mini 3G HDMI to SDI HD Converter Adapter Supports HDMI to SD-SDI HD-SDI 3G-SDI Signal with Audio Video Output for Camera Home Theater -with UK Adapter : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy eSynic 1080p HDMI to SDI Converter Mini 3G HDMI to SDI HD Converter Adapter Supports HDMI to SD-SDI HD-SDI 3G-SDI Signal with Audio Video Output for Camera Home Theater -with UK Adapter at Amazon UK.

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eSynic SDI To HDMI Converter Mini 1080P Converter Alloy HD Video Audio Adapter Supports SDI Signal and SDI HD Signal HD-SDI SD-SDI Perfect for Camera Home Theater HD Projector LCD with UK Plug Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Shop eSynic SDI To HDMI Converter Mini 1080P Converter Alloy HD Video Audio Adapter Supports SDI Signal and SDI HD Signal HD-SDI SD-SDI Perfect for Camera Home Theater HD Projector LCD with UK Plug Adapter. Free delivery and returns on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[jeallen01]

@Channel Hopper
I didn't know about "SDI" connections and would seem to be the way to go, given that, as you said, that I have a couple of spare WF100 cables already running from the attic down to the lounge, and connecting to those will be a lot simpler (and cheaper!) than a HDMI repeater, cable HMDI over Cat 5+ or wireless!

Therefore, I will order a transmitter and receiver and see how well that works!

 

[Channel Hopper]

I would have gone for the cheaper / Wish option first, no point in complicating things.

SDi is a standard, can't quite recall what it is though.

 

[jeallen01]

You have a point, but I want to keep the NVR VGA o/p connector for that monitor that we connected up yesterday - and which is now on a VESA mount (also found in the attic!) on the same long beam as the NVR shelf - and to use its HDMI o/p for the much longer link down to the lounge. Also, the pair of HMDI-SDI & back devices should be here tomorrow whereas the "cheaper option" stuff would be coming from China, and not here for at least 2 weeks (maybe longer), and I want to get this job done and dusted as soon as I can.

Anyway, if the HDMI-SDI setup doesn't work, then I'll know that pretty rapidly and can send it back straightaway.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I have VGA splitters here, always useful.

I only provided links that came up first, there are plenty of outlets selling VGA converters on next day for around a tenner.

Too late now but dropping 10m VGA lead from the loft into your man cave would save you opening the hatch every time the NVR goes tits-up.

 

[jeallen01]

As said, I'm looking for a quick fix for downstairs viewing so that we can quickly check to see if "something is going on" outside, and the AV Rx conveniently has a spare HDMI i/p to use

As for the "man cave" (don't ever let my wife hear you call it that - she'd slaughter me!), been thinking about dropping a cable down here, but it'd probably have to be HDMI for a number of reasons, mainly that there is more scope to connect up an HDMI lead than a VGA one. Other issue is to know exactly where to make a hole in the ceiling because the boards on the attic floor make it a little difficult to do that (had enough problems dropping the broadband cable down here - it finally came down inside the airing cupboard ).

 

[Channel Hopper]

Always drill upwards.

(Start with a 6mm on hammer - so you can hear if it's under the water tank / minimise the flood - then check upstairs with the loft light off)

 

[jeallen01]

Good idea - but no water tank problem as that came out over a decade ago when the combi (Worcester-Bosch, so it still works!) was installed.

OTOH, where the mains water pipe goes down through the ceiling, and where it comes down into the airing cupboard, will tell me where there will be a safe place to drill the hole

PS: ceiling is lath and plaster and so probably won't want to use hammer action on the drill.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The hammer setting is so you can hear it touch metal rather than drill into it.

 

[jeallen01]

The hammer setting is so you can hear it touch metal rather than drill into it.

With "luck" (and care!) there won't be any metal to touch

 

[jeallen01]

PS: the last attic water tank was plastic, so I wouldn't have heard anything before the"torrent" came down, on me

 

[jeallen01]

2 steps forward, 1.75 steps back!!!!

So, on Saturday, I ordered the HDMI-to SDI converter and the SDI-to-HDMI converter from Amazon. They arrived on Sunday and late-in-day I got around to fitting those into the then-rerouted coax connection from the attic to the lounge.

"Unfortunately", the "Lock" LED on the former unit failed to light up when I connected an HDMI cable from NVR o/p and the PSU cables to it - and thus after various repeated checks, I assumed that this converter was faulty, and so initiated a Return and ordered another one, which arrived this afternoon.
FYI, according the instructions with this converter (which were actually written in very good English, and not "Chinglish"!) the Lock LED lights up when it receives a valid HDMI signal/data stream from the HDMi i/p.

Then, before taking this new converter up to the attic, I connected it to the HDMI o/p of a laptop - and the Lock LED did light up - and the same thing happened when I connected the original converter in its place!

However, when I took the replacement converter up to the attic and connected an HDMI cable (the same one as just used downstairs) from the NVR to it (as well as the PSU cable, of course!), the Lock light did NOT light up .
PS: whereas, when the NVR had been connected via HDMI to a monitor in our "office", the o/p was correctly displayed "as intended".

Therefore, my conclusion seems to be the that NVR's HDMI o/p is "faulty" in some respect as it was still displaying the camera images on the attic monitor via the VGA o/p - and the Lock LED still did not even light up when I disconnected that VGA cable.

Thus, any comments or "ideas"??????

PS: the nett "0.25 step" forwards refers to the re-routed cabling - not the rest of the work although that was actually nearer 80% of the actual work involved!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thus, any comments or "ideas"??????

I refer you to post 5.

 

[Channel Hopper]

It does sound as though the NVR isn't HDCP compliant, but have you tried a different HDMI cable ?

Next, drop the output resolution to 720p, see if that kickstarts the output and green light on the converter. Is there a setting to force the output to 50Hz / 25fps ?

You could take the lid off and see if the socket is part of the main board, or an add on circuit derived from the VGA output only, in which case you will not get it to work with any standards converters.
Some older cctv boxes have been reworked with an open source converter and are known to have compatibility limitations.

 

[jeallen01]

It does sound as though the NVR isn't HDCP compliant, but have you tried a different HDMI cable ?

3 different HDMI cables, no difference.

Next, drop the output resolution to 720p, see if that kickstarts the output and green light on the converter. Is there a setting to force the output to 50Hz / 25fps ?

Not sure if it is possible to change the NVR HDMI o/p resolution - will take a look at the manual as I don't remember seeing anything in the configuration menus (then again, I wasn't looking at this aspect of the configuration)

You could take the lid off and see if the socket is part of the main board, or an add on circuit derived from the VGA output only, in which case you will not get it to work with any standards converters.
Some older cctv boxes have been reworked with an open source converter and are known to have compatibility limitations.

Could be the case - if so, would that also mean that something like this wireless HDMI extender would not work either?

 

[jeallen01]

You have spare cables that run from the loft to the living room.

Vga To Bnc Converter Host Video Converter Box Tv Av Interface Converter≌ | eBay

Features:<br>1. Automatically detecting and converts incoming PC images to NTSC, PAL. The VGA video scan converter is used to convert various images of the computer from 640x480 to 1920x1080, supporting NTSC or PAL video.

www.ebay.com

....

Looked again at the VGA to BNC converter but wonder if that would work over the 20-25m of cable from the NVR to the lounge TV, and then what would needed to convert back to either the phono AV i/p of the AV Rx or to VGA for the TV itself?

 

[jeallen01]

Now I'm begining to wonder if an entirely different solution might be much simpler (and possibly even cheaper), i.e. get a cheap and very small s/h "nettop" PC with both wired ethernet and HDMI o/p and connected that to the LAN behind the TV & AV Rx since network access to existing PCs is already working (albeit somewhat slowly)!

Wouldn't use it for anything else, so the spec wouldn't need to be very "good"

 

[Channel Hopper]

Looked again at the VGA to BNC converter but wonder if that would work over the 20-25m of cable from the NVR to the lounge TV, and then what would needed to convert back to either the phono AV i/p of the AV Rx or to VGA for the TV itself?

I don't know what inputs are on the back of the television, but a composite video signal will happily run down RG6 coax cable for hundreds of feet.