SmallHD's DP7Pro not compatible with Sony A7s???

N

Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
Has anyone here used a DP7 Pro with the Sony A7s?

The reason I ask is that I've been unable to get an hdmi feed from the A7s to my DP7 Pro. I'm using a high end 1ft HDMI to micro-HDMI cable and I updated to the latest DP7Pro firmware 3.01. But all I keep getting on the DP7 screen is "no HDMI signal".

Is the Sony A7s not compatible with the DP7Pro? Or is there some setting I'm missing in the A7s menu preventing an external monitor from seeing what the A7s sees.
 
I can't speak directly to experience with the dp7, but when going from a7s to 7q on hdmi, you need to take a7s output off auto and force 1080i. I think this is due to the output being fixed at 50 and 50p being above old hdmi specs. You can use a specific converter hdmi > sdi and the 7q will then take 1080 50/60p from the 7q. So if the dp7 has sdi in as well it's an option. Since you are not recording maybe you'll be ok with 1080i
 
I don't know about A7s, but keep in mind that SmalHD firmware 3.x has a lot of bugs. As an example, this firmware doesn't work with Paralinx. Not long ago I communicated with the manufacture on this issue and they admitted that HDMI implementation in 3.x should be improved. I have two PRO monitors from SmallHD, HB and OLED, both stopped working after I installed 3.0.1 ( one of them actually had 3.1 installed by SmallHD after I got it back from the vendor - it stopped working completely after installing 3.0.1).

The solution for Paralinx was to downgrade to whatever it was before 3.x - I think it was 2.0.4 (you can still download it from their site). Once I went back it started working again.
 
timmytimetravel said:
but when going from a7s to 7q on hdmi, you need to take a7s output off auto and force 1080i. I think this is due to the output being fixed at 50 and 50p being above old hdmi specs.
Click to expand...

I use a large HD-SDI external monitor with a HDMI to HD-SDI converter in between on my A7s quite a bit. The first thing to check is the A7s and make sure the HDMI output is NOT set to auto or 24 frames or 1080p. You should start with 1080i output from the A7s and if you need progressive fiddle with settings after you have got a solid signal using an interlaced output. Second thing is the external monitor or the HDMI to HD-SDI converter is to make sure it is set up to receive a 1080i signal. From a troubleshooting perspective, start with interlaced if you can and then move to a progressive signal on whatever device you have 1st connected to the HDMI output on the A7s, in your case the DP7Pro.
 
Thank you very much everybody. Silyn, thank you for the tip regarding the firmware 3.01 bugs. I just reverted to 2.0 and now it's all good. Seems the problem was the 3.01 firmware update like you said. Andrew, thank you as well. I actually didn't have to change the HDMI setting on the A7s. Left it on auto. I believe the problem was only the latest firmware update. I'll let SmallHD know my results. I'll just have to wait for them to resolve the remaining bugs in 3.01 before I update from 2.0

Thanks again everyone.
 
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I spoke to SmallHD and they said their monitors (as of 2014) don't take a 4K signal and downscale to their native 720p so you need to send it 1080p, 1080i or 720p. The only monitor that does downscaling from a 4K HDMI signal is the Atomos Shogun.
 
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