This is the CineEye II Pro, a wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver from Accsoon.
I've been using the Hollyland wireless HDMI systems for a while now, so I was intrigued
when Accsoon reached out to me to ask if I'd be interested in testing out the new
CineEye II Pro. We're going to run this through a few tests and talk about some of the
best features of this device.
Hi, I'm Aaron Parecki.
I make videos on YouTube primarily about live streaming and video production.
So let's start with a quick overview of the features of this device.
The CineEye II Pro is a transmitter and receiver pair for wirelessly transmitting a HDMI
video feed, as well as monitoring it on a smartphone.
You can actually connect up to four receivers in case you need more than one person to
monitor the video as well.
One of the unique things about this device is that it uses both 2.4ghz and 5ghz to get a
stronger connection and avoid interference in the wireless signal.
It sends a compressed h.265 video feed, which lets it send a better quality picture
without needing a lot more bandwidth.
A transmitter and receivers can be powered with NP batteries or from DC power.
It's always interesting to see which combinations of inputs and outputs these things
have. In this case, the transmitter has an HDMI input and a pass through output and the
receiver has one HDMI output.
They claim that the device has a 1200 foot line of sight range, which is a very long
distance and only .06 seconds of latency.
So at 30 frames per second that is only 2 frames, and at 60 frames per second, it's about
3.5 frames. But we're going to put this to the test.
So for these tests, I'm going to use my stress test video clips, which I've designed to
push the limits of video encoders to see how well they can handle extremely challenging
graphics. This will let us test both latency as well as the image quality of the picture
at the other end. So the way this is going to work, I'm going to play back this stress
test on my hypertext, meaning we're going to look at the output of the transmitter parser
as well as the output of the receiver, and then we'll see the quality difference as well
as the delay. And the way I'm going to do this is I'm going to actually run both of these
devices into the ATEM Mini that is recording this show now.
That way I'll be able to see the clips on the screen and show that to you as well.
So give me a quick second to set this up and I will be right back.
So this is the multiview of my ATEM Mini on my desk here, and both the transmitter and
the receiver are running into this.
You can see the transmitter output is there and the receiver output is there.
Now, I will say one caveat here, I'm filming this video at 30 frames per second, but
these are running at 60 frames per second, which means you're not actually seeing all 60
frames when you're watching this on YouTube.
So in this first test, I'm going to run the transmitter at high quality mode.
It also has a speed mode, and we'll compare that in a minute.
So this clip is playing from the hyperdeck at 1080p 60 frames per second.
So on the left here, this is showing what the transmitter passthrough is sending.
On the right is showing what the receiver is getting.
So if you look at a still frame of this video, you should see the frame counter at the
bottom. And we can use that to compare the offset and see how much delay is added in the
transmission. What I'm going to do is go ahead and take a photo of this so I can see it
myself right now.
So as I'm looking at this photo, I can see that on the left it's +8, on the right, it's
between +6 and +7.
So it's about one and a half frames and that's at the high quality mode.
Now, the other thing we can look for here is looking at which of these little squares
start to lose detail on the receiver.
So do keep in mind that you're seeing a video of this monitor on YouTube.
So there's a few layers of compression compared to what I'm seeing with my eyes.
So you will have to take my word for it somewhat.
So I'm going to full screen the pass through of the transmitter and compare that to the
receiver. Now, again, you're probably not seeing any difference here, but that's actually
good because it means that the image is pretty much the same.
What I will say is that on the receiver, these lines up here are a little bit blurry.
They're not super crisp anymore.
These are doing a good job of still representing the full color range.
I am seeing some compression in the colors there, so I'm seeing some banding in those
gradients compared to the original.
I'm also seeing some banding over in these.
This one is almost impossible for encoders to represent because it's actually a single
pixel grid. And see if I can zoom in.
And if you look really closely and compare the pass through to the compressed version,
you do see some artifacts there.
But that is to be expected because almost nothing can represent a true one pixel grid
accurately. But overall, when I flip back and forth between the transmitter passthrough
and the receiver, it looks nearly identical.
But more importantly, other than a little bit of banding in the gradients, the color
quality is very nearly identical.
So let's try this again now in speed mode, which should theoretically reduce the latency
at the cost of the quality.
So, again, you can freeze frame this video to look at the frame counter and I'm going to
take a photo of it for myself to see what we're looking at.
The transmitter pass through is at -8 and the receiver is at -10.
So actually it looks like the delay is about the same.
Let's go back and compare the picture quality now, looking at the transmitter pass through
compared to the receiver and I am definitely seeing some reduced quality in the received
picture. The banding is worse, and some of the sharp edges are fuzzier now.
So it definitely did have an effect on the picture quality and we didn't really get any
additional latency. I have a feeling that because we're doing this test in such a short
range, the transmitter and the receiver are right next to each other that this doesn't
actually affect it in this scenario.
But if I were to have more interference because I was farther away, then this would be
prioritizing motion and speed over the quality.
By the way, if you want to use these video clips to test your own devices, I'm actually
selling them on my website.
I'll leave a link to them in the description below.
I spent quite a while making these animations to test various parts of video compression
and encoding. Each of these blocks test the different thing and be used to see how
different devices add delay or add artifacts.
In the video, you can download these clips in 1080 and 4K at 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames
per second. And every purchase helps out this channel.
So you're probably wondering about the distance test?
Well, personally, I don't have a lot of need to transmit 1200 feet right now, considering
I've been basically living within this 20x20 rectangle for the whole year.
But also I don't really have a good place to do a fair distance test either.
So instead, I'm going to send you over to this other video from The Creator's Cup who did
an excellent job of showing just how far this thing can transmit.
I'll link to his video up there and down there.
Ok, so there's also a mobile app for iOS and Android, which you can use to monitor the
video feed as well.
They say you can connect up to four receivers and four mobile devices.
It's not actually clear to me whether they mean for devices total or actually eight
devices total. And I don't have quite enough devices to actually test that.
But anyway, the app is actually pretty cool.
You connect to the device's hotspot, then open the app and you can see the video feed
after it links up. There's also a few useful tools in here, like a histogram and focus
peaking. If you want to record a short clip of what the transmitter is sending, you can
actually tap this record button and record directly to your device and save it in your
camera roll. All right.
Lastly, I want to give you my thoughts on the build quality and how this feels to use.
First of all, it feels very solid.
The case is a nice, sturdy metal and it looks good.
The screen on top has a lot of information.
It shows the status of whether the receiver is getting video, which group and channel
it's in. And it also shows the battery level of the devices.
The buttons on the front navigate the menus.
There aren't that many settings actually change, but you can change again the transmission
quality, as well as on the transmitter you can change the channel it's in manually.
The knob on the side lets you choose which channel group it's in.
So I have both of mine set to 1.
But if you had multiple transmitters, you could put them on different groups and then any
of your receivers can tap into the video stream from any of those groups.
The four antennas on the top look a little bit intimidating, but I guess that's what you
have to do in order to get that dual band feature.
It does mean that it should be a much more stable signal than a device that has only two
antennas or has built in antennas.
I think my only complaint about the device is the mounting options.
There is a 1/4" screw hole on the bottom and it does come with a cold shoe adapter for
that. But I would have liked to see a mounting option that lets you mount it
horizontally, since that sometimes works better on certain camera rigs.
So you do have to mount it vertically straight up.
But other than that, this thing is super solid and it's definitely worth looking into
more if you're going to start adding wireless HDMI into your workflow.
Well, that's about it for this video.
Thanks again to Accsoon for sending this out to me to review.
And thank you so much for watching.
And I will see you in the next one.