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[Frank Cruson]

Crazy issue - Our ViewSonic projector that was 10 years old died. I replaced it with a Epson Pro EX9240 that is mounted on the ceiling and connected to an HDMI extender on the floor using a high quality Monoprice HDMI cable. The Epson Pro EX9240 works if i plug in a laptop directly to the projector with the long HDMI cable, but not with the Monoprice Blackbird 4K HDMI Extender! The extender source in is our sound booth 100' away. The extender works with the monitor on the stage floor, but not the projector. We never had this issue with the ViewSonic projector. Epson said the projector will not work with an extender, crazy. Any ideas?
Frank Cruson

[Tim McCulloch]

SDI. Aja or Black Magic Designs converters.

[Dave Garoutte]

Crazy issue - Our ViewSonic projector that was 10 years old died. I replaced it with a Epson Pro EX9240 that is mounted on the ceiling and connected to an HDMI extender on the floor using a high quality Monoprice HDMI cable. The Epson Pro EX9240 works if i plug in a laptop directly to the projector with the long HDMI cable, but not with the Monoprice Blackbird 4K HDMI Extender! The extender source in is our sound booth 100' away. The extender works with the monitor on the stage floor, but not the projector. We never had this issue with the ViewSonic projector. Epson said the projector will not work with an extender, crazy. Any ideas?
Frank Cruson

If you are just needing a long HDMI run, Get a fiber cable for the full run.  They're reasonably priced and work up to 300'.

[Ray Aberle]

Crazy issue - Our ViewSonic projector that was 10 years old died. I replaced it with a Epson Pro EX9240 that is mounted on the ceiling and connected to an HDMI extender on the floor using a high quality Monoprice HDMI cable. The Epson Pro EX9240 works if i plug in a laptop directly to the projector with the long HDMI cable, but not with the Monoprice Blackbird 4K HDMI Extender! The extender source in is our sound booth 100' away. The extender works with the monitor on the stage floor, but not the projector. We never had this issue with the ViewSonic projector. Epson said the projector will not work with an extender, crazy. Any ideas?
Frank Cruson

Frank, end of day, HDMI isn't reliable over 50 feet. It's not designed to do it, to be really candid. SDI is the professional way of getting video over longer distances (and then fiber once you max out the transmission distance of RG6 cabling for SDI signals). As to why the extender works with the monitor on the floor and not the projector, very likely that the monitor is more tolerant of out-of-spec video signal than the projector is.

We're local to you in the PNW (Seattle) and if you want to try out some HDMI to SDI (and back) converters and lengths of SDI to see if tit'll fix your problem, let me know! I'd start by testing end-of-main-HDMI-run (that's plugged into the HDMI extender) with an HDMI to SDI converter there, and then using an SDI cable there to an SDI-->HDMI converter at the projector. If that doesn't work, then dropping an entire SDI run from source_converter to projector_converter. It may also just be losing clock sync, and a Decimator MD-HX on each end may provide the needed re-clock. (We had a show where the client was using a basic BMD HDMI to SDI micro converter, SDI to the stage, and then back to HDMI, and that micro converter didn't have enough power to properly drive the signal over that length. Adding another MD-HX to the stage end re-clocked the signal and got us up and running.)

-Ray

[Dave Garoutte]

Frank, end of day, HDMI isn't reliable over 50 feet. It's not designed to do it, to be really candid. SDI is the professional way of getting video over longer distances (and then fiber once you max out the transmission distance of RG6 cabling for SDI signals). As to why the extender works with the monitor on the floor and not the projector, very likely that the monitor is more tolerant of out-of-spec video signal than the projector is.

We're local to you in the PNW (Seattle) and if you want to try out some HDMI to SDI (and back) converters and lengths of SDI to see if tit'll fix your problem, let me know! I'd start by testing end-of-main-HDMI-run (that's plugged into the HDMI extender) with an HDMI to SDI converter there, and then using an SDI cable there to an SDI-->HDMI converter at the projector. If that doesn't work, then dropping an entire SDI run from source_converter to projector_converter. It may also just be losing clock sync, and a Decimator MD-HX on each end may provide the needed re-clock. (We had a show where the client was using a basic BMD HDMI to SDI micro converter, SDI to the stage, and then back to HDMI, and that micro converter didn't have enough power to properly drive the signal over that length. Adding another MD-HX to the stage end re-clocked the signal and got us up and running.)

-Ray

For an install, the HDMI fiber cables work perfectly.  No external power supply needed, like the SDI converters. Literally plug and play.  They are not limited to 30-50ft like copper.

[Jonathan Kok]

Your cheap monoprice extender (yes, cheap...it's monoprice...'high quality monoprice' is an oxymoron) is probably not performing EDID checking. What this means is that you have a 1080p projector that can take, at MOST, a 1080p signal. When you connect your computer directly to the projector, the projector tells your computer, 'hey, I'm good up to 1080p'. That's what EDID does.

Your extender, however, is a 4K extender. An actual good quality extender would ask the projector what it's capable of doing, and then give that answer to your computer. Yours is not asking the projector anything; it's just telling your computer that IT can handle 4K.  But your PROJECTOR cannot. So...no image.

Solution: force your PC to 1080p output. May or may not be easy depending on the video card (on PC's, setting the output to 1080p using the Windows Display settings may or may not actually translate to a 1080p output; you may need to go into the actual graphics driver to force its hand).

(nothing wrong with Catx extension kits; not sure why everyone's going on as if SDI doesn't have its own issues...I'd prefer SDI myself as well, but, Catx solutions are used without issue far, far more frequently than SDI).

Dunno who you talked to at Epson; they wouldn't be in business if their projectors didn't work with Catx extensions.

[Stephen Beatty]

I would say check what the resolution the computer is sending. That it works with your floor monitor means the extender is working ok. The Epson Pro EX9240 only supports up to 1080p. Did Epson give you any idea why they said it would not work with an extender? We had a lot of Epson's on campus.

 I have used several brands of HDMI over CAT. We use those Monoprice Blackbirds on a regular basis to get HDMI from PTZ cams to the booth. Using 100' CAT 5E. I have an A-Neuvideo HDMI PoE Extender over HDBaseT to run a signal from the stage to the booth. A good 250'. Yes I would have liked to run SDI or better yet fiber but costs.

[Adam Kane]

Crazy issue - Our ViewSonic projector that was 10 years old died. I replaced it with a Epson Pro EX9240 that is mounted on the ceiling and connected to an HDMI extender on the floor using a high quality Monoprice HDMI cable. The Epson Pro EX9240 works if i plug in a laptop directly to the projector with the long HDMI cable, but not with the Monoprice Blackbird 4K HDMI Extender! The extender source in is our sound booth 100' away. The extender works with the monitor on the stage floor, but not the projector. We never had this issue with the ViewSonic projector. Epson said the projector will not work with an extender, crazy. Any ideas?
Frank Cruson

Lots of other good info already said here. If you can get the wiring in, SDI is probably the most reliable method of getting high quality video up to your projector. The only downside is that if you have HDCP to deal with, it's game over and SDI doesn't support that.

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