SmallHD HDMI Active Splitter

I just recently added a Zacuto Z-Finder EVF to my 5D2 package. (Really great tool to have in your kit) But I was having a little trouble routing my signal through the whole rig. I was going from the 5D to the EVF and then looping out to the Black Magic Design HDMI to SDI converter. While the loop-thru works pretty well, it appears to sometimes be a little intermittent. I think it has something to do with the handshake between all the devices. Thus the SDI feed going out to the client monitor would cut in and out occasionally.

Enter the HDMI active splitter from SmallHD. The unit is about the size of a Zippo lighter (for those of you who can remember a Zippo =) and is self powered drawing it’s juice from the inherent 5V present in the monitor/device connections. It has a great little hook at the top that is perfect 1/4-20 size. There is a little LED at the bottom to indicate if you have 1 or both HDMI outputs in use. Green for 1 and Yellow for both.

The configuration of the connections is really nice. The bottom has an HDMI IN and Out. The top has the HDMI OUT and optional power inputs if needed. The power connectors are 1 DC barrel and one mini USB. I found these were not needed in my rig and wouldn’t be needed unless I was looping a bunch of these little guys together or doing really long cable runs.

The active splitter sends full 1080 HD out each output and maintains individual handshakes with each of the devices connected. The BMD converter’s signal is really stable when the splitter is in line. The one thing I noticed in my testing is that you have to power up the rig after everything is connected to make the handshake process work correctly. Once I did that it was perfect.

I’ll do an update to this post in a few weeks after I have used the system a little more. I just wanted to get the word out how cool this little guy is. And he’s built right here in the USA in North Carolina. The price is a mere $59 and the shipping is fast and easy. Pretty Cool =)

Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com