HDMI to Cat5e

[ByoXFPD]

Hi there!, ive some little doubts before i proced with some custom soldering stuff, id like to have some more info..

Just bought a 32" Toshiba 1080p LCD TV and wanted to connect it to my pc for hdef movies/ expanded desktop and stuff..
So..the problem is: my PC and my new TV are each at the opposite side of my theater room, took measures and its about 12~15mts (35~50fts aprox.), ive a few hundred Cat5e meters and lots of experience soldering RGB/DVI Tips, so i was planin on cuttin some random 6 feet hdmi cable to half and then solder an extension to the cables using Cat5e just following the current color code inside cables.

Also, ive been doing some research, and i found out that some of this "Cat5 Adapters" go from HDMI to a single UTP (Cat5e) cable or 2 UTP Cables..

Ive observed in some of the hdmi diagrams that there are 19 pins, but it would look like some of 'em can be skipped, id like to know if its possible to fit the cable signal within 2 cables of UTP (being 16 rigid cable lines in total, otherwise another line of UTP would be wasted for only 3 more cable lines) and which one can i skip..

Perhaps ill write a step by step tutorial of this, 'cause there seems to be not much about customizin your own hdmi cables with the materials you may have at hand..

Was wondering if it would be fully compatible with my tv and if there could be any troubleshootin at that distance, any advice over this would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[tmbrown97]

Sounds interesting - and it could work, but I gotta tell you - I think I'd spend the $31 and just buy this:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024005&p_id=2110&seq=1&format=2
Unless you're just bored...

Most of those Cat5 extenders are very expensive because they're not just splicing wires, but actively changing what gets sent over the wires (with gain controls and other switches and settings on them).

 

[ByoXFPD]

Lets just say, my cat ate my money, or any other reason you could have to not to spend money, lol

Happens that i just have some material from Lan installations, tools, soldering iron and stuff, and i decided to make a HDMI cable from this stuff, was curious if some of the 19 internal wires from an hdmi cable could be skipped or replaced or somethin, guess ill just go with the 19 wires needed.

thanks for the replies!

 

[tmbrown97]

I assume you've looked this up already, but here's the pinout of an HDMI:

Pin 1 - TMDS Data2+
Pin 2 - TMDS Data2 Shield
Pin 3 - TMDS Data2–
Pin 4 - TMDS Data1+
Pin 5 - TMDS Data1 Shield
Pin 6 - TMDS Data1–
Pin 7 - TMDS Data0+
Pin 8 - TMDS Data0 Shield
Pin 9 - TMDS Data0–
Pin 10 - TMDS Clock+
Pin 11 - TMDS Clock Shield
Pin 12 - TMDS Clock–
Pin 13 - CEC
Pin 14 - Reserved (HDMI 1.0-1.3c), HEC Data- (Optional, HDMI 1.4+ with Ethernet)
Pin 15 - SCL (I²C Serial Clock for DDC)
Pin 16 - SDA (I²C Serial Data Line forDDC)
Pin 17 - DDC/CEC/HEC Ground
Pin 18 - +5 V Power (max 50 mA)
Pin 19 - Hot Plug Detect (All versions) and HEC Data+ (Optional, HDMI 1.4+ with Ethernet)

 

[mdesmarais]

I assume you've looked this up already, but here's the pinout of an HDMI:

Pin 1 - TMDS Data2+
Pin 2 - TMDS Data2 Shield
Pin 3 - TMDS Data2–
Pin 4 - TMDS Data1+
Pin 5 - TMDS Data1 Shield
Pin 6 - TMDS Data1–
Pin 7 - TMDS Data0+
Pin 8 - TMDS Data0 Shield
Pin 9 - TMDS Data0–
Pin 10 - TMDS Clock+
Pin 11 - TMDS Clock Shield
Pin 12 - TMDS Clock–
Pin 13 - CEC
Pin 14 - Reserved (HDMI 1.0-1.3c), HEC Data- (Optional, HDMI 1.4+ with Ethernet)
Pin 15 - SCL (I²C Serial Clock for DDC)
Pin 16 - SDA (I²C Serial Data Line forDDC)
Pin 17 - DDC/CEC/HEC Ground
Pin 18 - +5 V Power (max 50 mA)
Pin 19 - Hot Plug Detect (All versions) and HEC Data+ (Optional, HDMI 1.4+ with Ethernet)

If you are extending with twisted pair, you can skip the shields, pin 13 (if you don't need CEC remotes), 14. Data + and - should be on the same pair.
Not sure how much luck you are going to have- short extensions would probably work ok, but long ones may be problematic- UTP has different lengths for each pair, as the twist rate is different. HDMI wants them to all be the same, as the recovered clock is used for all the data lines.