VGA over Cat5 ethernet cable

[Treetop]

Came across this while skimming the PS1 thread that Joe W posted.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/dougburbidge/vgaovercat5.html

Anyone try something like this before?

 

[electron]

That would definitely be pretty awesome if this works. At work I have a blackbox vga/keyboard/mouse over cat5 adapter, but it's rather expensive and is more than just a connector. This would be great for in wall touchscreens.

 

[smee]

On the linked page, it talks about getting ghosting or smearing with an 800x600 display over 50 feet of cable. This is definitely a try-it-and-see kind of application.

There is nothing special about this. You can use any wire to extend a vga signal. Pick up some Romex or extension chords at HomeDepot and have at it - all it's got to do is conduct electricity. Just about any wire you use will cause image degradation just because of the length. I don't think there are any real properties in cat5 that make it work much better than anything else - the twist is probably not sufficient and its effects may vary greatly depending on which lines are twisted together.