Run HD signal over Cat 5

[mhdatx]

Hi all,

I'm curious as to what the best option would be for running an HD video and audio signal over a single cat 5? A quick search showed only a few options that were $500+, and a lot of forum posts from 2007.

Basically I'm trying to put a tv where it's not ideal to put a satellite box, but I do have 1 cat 5 cable, and 1 coax at the location. My idea is to put the sat box up at the panel, and run everything down the cat 5.

Ideas?

Thanks,
M

 

[fabriziojoe]

Check out Atlona.

http://www.atlona.com/HDMI-Extenders/

 

[jskibo]

Ouch. $20 for a dual Cat 5 Balun, $250 for a single Cat 5 box!

 

[mhdatx]

Ouch. $20 for a dual Cat 5 Balun, $250 for a single Cat 5 box!

Yup. I'm learning it's an expensive cable run not to have.

Thanks, JFab, I saw some Atlona stuff in my first searches, but $230 is actually better than the $500+ I saw earlier.

 

[tmbrown97]

I tested a whole bunch of these a year ago because of a situation where I only had Cat5 run to a TV location... All the $250 ones had quirks and couldn't handle the full 1080p resolution - many had gain issues where the color was clearly off. The only one I got to work semi-reliably was one of the $500+ ones, and even it gave me a world of problems - and I believe it was responsible for actually damaging the TV permanently.

If there's any way humanly possible, run a wire. It probably looks hard, but there's almost nothing you can't do and patch/repair with a day's work. On interior walls, you sometimes cut small holes to help fish the wires through; on exterior walls I've pulled off baseboard and cut out the drywall behind the baseboard, then drilled the studs and run the wire back there (very easy to patch since there's no texture/paint to match really). Nothing beats a true HDMI cable. Also the RapidRun cables are the easiest in the world to pull since they have detachable "heads" that make the necessary hole size much smaller.

 

[TheEther]

I've done this by soldering a high quality RCA connector on each side of a cat5 cable and running component video (I ran 720p). I worked fine actually, but after a couple years I switched projectors and went HDMI. The video quality difference was quite noticeable. I just didn't get the depth of color over the CAT5. But in a pinch, have at it..

 

[tadr]

I haven't used it (yet), but I'd try picking up one of these when they come back in stock:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10105&cs_id=1010504&p_id=8122&seq=1&format=2

1080p over a single cat5e/cat6 for $180. If your run isn't too long, maybe it'll work with cat5.

Good reviews, too

 

[troymt]

I have tried a couple of the extenders with bad results and have basically given up.

Has anyone used HDMI over fiber optics... like these from Gefen?

I have a 140ft run in need of HDMI and these would be worth if they work.

 

[rismoney]

So I just did this with 2 CAT5s I had spare behind TV.
I bought the Atlona passive extender. It was a bit pricey at $~150 at Microcenter. I looked at a ton of baluns and stuff, and couldn't get anything working and didn't want to spend $500 for what I perceived as a rediculous adapter price gouging in the first place. I didn't want giant connector blocks with sucking all my juice.

It worked fine between cable box and TV, but I wanted it to go from my Yamaha receiver to the TV. This did not work. I then bought a Cables To Go 42223 RapidRun Digital HDMI Voltage Inserter (Black) from Amazon for another $20 and it worked perfectly. Apparently it had to do with not enough juice exiting the receiver to make it to the TV. This adds back 5v to the line. So far so good 1080p. Testing ARC functionality next day or 2.


Rich

 

[tmbrown97]

That'll be good to know - if it works well it'd be worth a writeup linking to the products you used to save others some guesswork.

 

[jskibo]

I'm using those monoprice (or ebay) $20 passives all over the house. Longest run is about 30ft from bar TV to Theater rack. No problems at all. Now the longer run comes off a powered Monoprice 2x1 splitter so that may be helping add some boost.

Of course none of this helps the OP as he has only one Cat5....

 

[jautor]

You could use a single-cat5 component video balun pair instead. Same basic functionality without the HDMI hassles, and cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-B136-101-Component-Extender/dp/B003UT7TJS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1321041133&sr=1-1

No direct experience, but these have stereo (analog) audio which is more practical to a remote TV than digital audio (which is what most of the single-cable solutions offer).

Jeff