I discovered the AVerMedia that hosts a activity to try their new product ET111. So I registered to be a volunteer for testing the quality to transfer the signal output from AV (Composite video connector) to HDMI. After two days testing, currently my comment is: easy for installation, quality of picture output is satisfactory. But I got a small problem.
This time the activity that's hosted by AVerMedia is for collecting world wide use cases of ET11X series. The target products of testing is ET110, ET111 and ET113. I registered to test ET111, it's a AV to HDMI transfor.
I got a box:
Open it:
I found there have a AVerMedia ET111 inside. The package of my received model is English package. There has "Video Converter AV to HDMI Format" wording on front side. Actually the "AV" means "Composite video connector":
Comparing the size of ET111 with pen:
It claim high compatibility, high quality and fewer distortions. For a transfer product, compatibility and fewer distorions are very important. If the transfer result out of the boundry of screen or out of shape. Then it not worth to check the quality of picture:
Back side, the same, it's Enlgish on package:
Here show the characteristic by different language, printed by Chinese:
Tn addition, There have specifictions on back side. Composite Video RCA input, USB DC input, HDMI output resolution: 480p 60 Hz / 576p 50 Hz:
System Requirements, need Composite and Audio Cable, HDMI cable and USB port for taking 5V power:
After open the plastic packaging, I saw the E111 device and a multi-languages guide:
The same, comparing the size of E111 device with pen:
The guide includes 15 different languages that includes Chinese, the Traditional Chinese guide as following. Looks very easy:
English guide:
The HDMI output is female port:
The input of AV line is also female port. You can see the length is not long by comparing with pen. That because it's in case you already have a long AV line. On the other hand, the USB input is male side:
The label behind ET111 has a label that shows model type and certificates:
Next is installation. My TV is a Panasonic plasma TV. There have HDMI, AV and USB port on the left side of my TV. That's very convenient for connecting to ET111 because those ports are close by Panasonic's design.
I collect the AV cable from Tivo to ET111, then collect ET111 to TV's HDMI port by HDMI cable:
And, ET111 need the 5V DC power from USB port. So connect ET111's USB male connector to TV's USB port:
Because my use case is transfer Tivo's AV output, so there have another way is connect ET111 to Tivo's AV and USB port in Tivo's back panel:
Like this. If you don't like the AV cable too long, you can buy 3 RCA male to male connector to transfer the ET111's AV port from female to male. Then you don't need a long AV cable:
Connect ET111's AV and USB cable to Tivo's port on back panel:
Connect HDMI cable from ET111's HDMI output port to TV's HDMI port:
The following video is the picture quality from Tivo's original AV output:
At the begging of the above video, I disconnect my ET111 with TV and connect the Tivo's AV cable to TV. Then playing video, first please looking at the yellow frame of blue selection bar on the Tivo's main page. Please note there have NO any shake on the boundary of yellow frame, but have shake from ET111 output.Please comparing later's E111 video.
In the TV program, please check the face contour and hair of people, and the shadow below eyes. The picture quality from pure Tivo AV output is not HD, the contour looks fuzzy and easy to identify the blocks of color. Especially when the night scene, looking at the big black block can easy to find the bad quality. But, I think the main reason is because the quality of kbro TV box's AV output that's not really good. The kbro TV box processes the digital signal to avoid the water wave and noise from analog signal, but the presentation of color block doesn't good as analog signal. I thought kbro deliberately reduced the quailty from its AV output.
Anyway, please comparing the with the following output result from ET111 with Tivo, actually that doesn't have big difference. The picture quality and performance from ET111 HDMI output is not bad. I didn't see picture distortion or out of screen boundary. Comparing with pure Tivo output, the quality is not better or optimize. I think that because the bad video source from kbro TV box but not ET111's problem.
Here is the ET111 HDMI output with Tivo:
Looking at the 1:28 in the above video, there have shake on the yellow boundary of the selection bar on Tivo's main page. The shake situation didn't see on the picture of pure Tivo AV output. And, I didn't see shake when playing video on Tivo with ET111, only saw on Tivo's main page.
Then please back to the begging in the TV program in video, comparing the face contour, shadow with pure Tivo output. There doesn't have too many difference. ET111's HDMI output almost the same with Tivo's AV output.
The final topic is I got a random one second black screen problem. The following video is for presenting issue, please ignore the picture quality. (Smoking unhealthy):
Please note there have a first time "one second black screen" at 0:56-0:57, I fallback and replay the same fragments but I can not reproduce the same problem. Then at later 4:45-4:46 happened second time "one second black screen". That can not reproduce issue by playing the same fragments on pure Tivo AV output, I never saw the same situation. Due to ET111 is doing the ADC job to transfer analogy signal (AV) to digital signal (HDMI). So it's possible E111 parer one kind of analogy signal to be black screen.
After I found random one second black screen, I have played another 2 movies that recorded by Tivo. The total playing time from 4 to 5 hours, the situation happened again when I am playing "Ender Gaome". The problem was happened when I just turn on TV to play the movie, looks the problem does not relate to the length of playing time. It's also can not reproduce by replaying the same fragments. My summary is that has "one second black screen" problem but the fail rate is not too high per my experience.
So, if there still have idle AV port (Composite video connector) doesn't used on your TV, then direct connecting your player to AV port makes more sense. Because I think the ET111 doesn't give more picture quality improvement, it's unworthy to waste the power for transferring AV signal to HDMI by another device. But, if your TV only has idle HDMI port, then you should consider using ET111. Per my testing with Tivo, I didn't see picture distortion or out of screen boundary, the output of ET111's HDMI doesn't have difference with the original AV output from Tivo.
Tivo's AV port may output a kind of analogy signal that causes ET111 parer it to be one second black screen. But the fail rate is not high. If you also got the same black screen problem with high rate, then you may need AVerMedia's help on this problem.
