Edision HDMI Modulator Full HD Distribution over Coax Black

This is a fantastic piece of kit. I can't comment on whether the Magic Eye works, or on any of the technical numbers, but I don't particularly care about them either. I'm not particularly knowledgeable in this area, nor am I particularly technical.What I do care about is that this box enables me to have Sky HD transmitted around the house and appear instantly on every Freeview tuner in every TV we have. Several are running without the Freeview HD tuner, but they can decode the HD signal no trouble at all; I understand this is to do with them lacking a DVB-T2 tuner, but this works on DVB-T, so any recent Freeview tuner will work (mostly).Worth noting that the two aerial sockets at the back of this box are F-type cables, rather than the standard aerial coaxial cables on the back of the Sky box and most TVs, so you'll need to buy a couple of little adapters (a couple of pounds each on Amazon) to get it to link up. You'll also need a 12V DC adapter, as the one in the box is a European plug. Also very cheap, and there's a chance you might have a spare one lying around anyway from an old electrical item. The more expensive item you might need if you want to use this box but keep an existing HDMI connection is an HDMI splitter, which will need to be powered to function. Don't waste your money on anything that's just a cable; it won't work. A perfectly good one will be 10-20 pounds.Installation is very straightforward. Just plug everything in and then retune your TV. I decided to make absolutely sure there wouldn't be a conflict by setting the "channel" on the box to one not used by Freeview. These numbers vary by region, but you can check it by going to https://ukfree.tv/prediction and clicking on the "TV Full Details" option. You can also set a "Logical Channel Number" (LCN) on the box so that it'll have a set channel (100 seems a fair bet), but you'll need to set ONID to 9018 for some UK TVs. While changing these numbers, you might find that you can't move between settings and you have to keep hitting OK and then trying again. I'm not sure if there's away around it, but it's a minor nuisance considering that everything else works so beautifully.Picture quality is excellent. I can't tell if it's really 1080p, but it's at least as good as 720p. Very sharp picture and sound, although if you're using it in a room adjacent to a TV with a direct HDMI connection, you'll notice the second or so lag. This shouldn't be an issue for most purposes, particularly if you're watching upstairs.Overall, absolutely fantastic product. The price point might put people off, but this is by far the cheapest solution for getting Sky HD around the house, and if you're already using a distributed analogue signal, like me, then it will fit into your system with minimum effort and fuss. Brilliant.

My experience of this is pretty much summed up by the other reviewers.1. Two or three years ago, the only option was a £2k DVB-T modulator or a £200 distribution over CAT5 system. I put in lots of expensive and difficult to manage Cat6, which has caused lots of hassle, so to find this a few years later for £200 is just unbelievable progress in technology affordability. This will also be cheaper to run, as I won't need Cat5-to-HDMI receivers plugged in at all the sets from now on2. Two sets that I would like to distribute to only receive the sound and display "Invalid format" i.e. they're not MPEG4 compatible, so have ordered a couple of boxes for £14 a piece to solve that. Both these sets seem to run the same firmware. Surprisingly, an LG monitor/TV that's quite old and which is used as a secondary laptop monitor, receives the signal no problem. The added advantage is that, unlike HDMI input, I can put PIP with the TV tuner on, which means I can use 3/4 of the screen for laptop use, and have a 1/4 of the screen displaying TV in proper HD. That was a real joy to discover, it means I no longer need yet another TV in my office while I'm supposed to be working but actually watching Judge Rinder and Tipping Point.... ;-)3. I use a Loftbox distribution system - I couldn't get it to work on UHF2 but that might be because I suspect I disturbed the cables. I went back to the original UHF2 feed from the Sky HD box and connected this into the CCTV input instead. They're all multiplexed so arrive at the TVs on the same coax regardless. As someone pointed out, there's a lag with the remote, but only in the sense that because of the modulation, you're watching a signal that was actually generated a second or so ago, so the remote works fine, just that you don't see it action anything for a second or so later, but once you get used to that, it works fine.4. I ordered mine from someone who included a 2-pin to 3-pin adaptor so the fact it's a German (?) product didn't bother me.5. The channel range is a tad limited, 40-60 I think? Something in that range anyway, not as wide as I'd have expected. Currently Freeview channels 50-54 or thereabouts are free but I foresee issues perhaps in the future where channels may end up clashing and you need to change the channel on this box.6. Haven't noticed any heat issues, but thanks to the other reviewers I'll keep an eye on that now.ConclusionIf you're got MPEG4 compatible sets (or are prepared to add additional cheap MPEG4 receivers to upgrade older or incompatible sets), this is an EXTREMELY affordable and simple (after initial configuration) unit to use. When I first set it up, I connected it to a Bluray player to test it, and I literally had shivers when I saw a 1080p signal indistinguishable from an HDMI connection come up on the screen when it was only connected via coax. It supports the bottom right quadrant (the highest demands) of DVB-T specification (i.e. 64QAM modulation, with a coding rate of 7/8 and a guard interval of 1/32 and running at 31.668Mbps) so it should handle pretty much anything that HDMI can output, with the exception of high bit-rate audio. If you intend to use it for Sky or something similar, this should suit everyone, as it's likely you'll already have coax run to each set to begin with.Amazon screwed up the delivery and missed the next day commitment which put a downer on things, but I was extremely pleased with the purchase and I would highly recommend this product.

This is by far the affordable digital television modulator on the market, and does a great job broadcasting my cable STB output on my home television distribution system. There are a quite a few menu options and the instructions are a bit terse and non-explanatory, so you may need to spend some time on the Internet researching what to configure, but you can use most of the default options. One setting that probably does need changing is the Logical Channel Number as the default '0' doesn't sit well with some EPGs (in the UK it should be set between 800-900), and of course the output channel may need changing in some areas.Some other reviewers have commented on overheating and reliability problems with extended use. I've not experienced any of this - the unit barely gets warm and has been running constantly for three weeks without problems. As others have reported, the output isn't fully compatible with some older digital television tuners - I have one older television (circa 2007) that picks up the channel and will play the audio but no picture. However, an older Elgato television tuner connected to an iMac works fine.The device came with a power adapter with a European plug, and whilst a UK converter was provided, this was pretty unwieldy, inconvenient and looked ridiculous. Not a big deal, although I ended-up replacing it for an equivalent UK power adapter.With a UK power adapter and slightly more informative manual I'd have given this product five stars as technically it does the job well and feels like a well made product.