HDMI over cat5

[GoChris]

I'm moving real soon and the house has some cat5 runs to where I want to put a tv. I'd like to run HDMI over cat5 so I can leave the equipment in the basement.

I thought monoprice.com might have the connections I need but I don't see it on there. What and where can I get what I need to accomplish this?

[Grogador]

Try here.

[Xtrema]

http://www.muxlab.com/products/ve_HD...ender_Kit.html

[GoChris]

Originally posted by Grogador
Try here.

Thanks, found this, http://bit.ly/asCk51

[benyl]

I guess you didn't look very well?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[GoChris]

Originally posted by benyl
I guess you didn't look very well?

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...1&format=2

I guess not, no. If only I knew how long the cable run is to know if these would work. The only thing is I don't need a wall plate on the one end, but whatever.

[Grogador]

Originally posted by GoChris
Thanks, found this, http://bit.ly/asCk51

haha nice

[thetransporter]

Originally posted by Grogador
Try here.

wow googling hdmi cat5 gave very interesting results, how did you figure that out?


that automatic link made me laugh.

[GoChris]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...22990(ME).aspx

I never thought to check memex, seems they are doing much more tv and related products now. (Guess that's why their pc parts pricing sucks now)

[Euro838]

I bought the ones from monoprice, I haven't had a chance to install it but the reviews look good. It's definitely a lot cheaper to run HDMI over cat5 if you are going long distances i.e. >25 ft.

[rage2]

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=4559
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8227

If you want multichannel audio over HDMI in 1 room, it has to be in every room, which means each room will need either an AV receiver with HDMI audio support, or you use one of these:

http://www.audiocubes.com/product_in...oducts_id=1633

Where you'd take the TOSLink output from the TV, run it into the SU-DH1, and take the 2 channel output and use the TV speakers as external speakers.

Or you can force every room to be 2 channel audio. You can't have a mix of 2 channel and multichannel.

For each room all you need is 2 CAT5 cables, the gefen sender/receiver end units does IR as well.

Finally, if your house is larger, you'll probably have a ground loop issue. Make sure every component plugged into the chain is ungrounded. Yes there are risks, but it's the only way you'll get proper HDMI synchronization. I haven't been able to find a ground loop isolator that works with this setup. Gefen knows of this problem, and is looking at fixing it at a hardware level, specifically, not requiring ground on their AC/DC adapters. I'm not sure if that's fixed yet.

It's a really nice setup. I've set this up a few times and know all the quirks. Once it's working, it's awesome. You have 4 or 8 sources all in the basement, and each room can watch any of the sources. All rooms can be watching the same source, or different sources. It reduces clutter in each TV room, since all you need is a TV, the remote box (which can be hidden with a $5 remote IR receiver wire), and required audio hardware if necessary.

[ercchry]

rage, does that gefen box pass the hdcp keys? also matrixing shaw cable boxes is pointless since they only hold one hdcp key

[rage2]

Yes, the Gefen box is fully HDCP compliant. It doesn't pass through HDCP keys. The sources does HDCP handshakes to the gefen matrix one time at startup and negotiates proper settings (1080p, 2ch or multich audio). The gefen box individually does HDCP to each remote TV. The Gefen box can autolearn each room's capabilities, but I found that slightly flaky, sometimes dropping me to 2 channel audio. You can preset the HDMI features using dipswitches, which is what I did. I haven't had to reset the box for over a year now.

All my sources are HDCP compliant. In fact, my old Sony TV stopped working with it because the HDCP portion broke. If you have HDCP sources, your TV's must be HDCP compliant.

[ercchry]

hrm... we had the crestron rep in here not too long ago and the way they were talking it sounded like the source and display need to confirm that they are there every few seconds and the source needs to see that key or it will not send anything out (well... once we start seeing more hdcp crap enabled)

[ercchry]

yeah the more i read your post rage the more i think you are talking about EDID

here is a handy pdf about the amount of keys different sources can hold

http://www.crestron.com/downloads/pd...dcp_limits.pdf

notice all the motorola cable boxes?

[ercchry]

Originally posted by rage2
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=4559
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8227

If you want multichannel audio over HDMI in 1 room, it has to be in every room, which means each room will need either an AV receiver with HDMI audio support, or you use one of these:

we have yet to have gefen in yet but crestron and extron came in to talk about their digital media stuff... and i really liked crestron's solutions... pricey... but very nice.

you can mix and match 2 channel audio or multi channel in different rooms, run digital or analog sources... pretty much everything

http://www.crestron.com/downloads/ap...multi-room.pdf

[rage2]

From my understanding, the source only sees the Gefen as a HDCP device, everything else is managed by Gefen past the switching. I don't have a Motorola box, so really, can't tell you if that's the case or not.

As for mixing and matching 2ch + multi ch audio, the Gefen doesn't natively support it... the source can only provide one or the other, so I'm guessing the Crestron stuff is doing internal downmixing into 2 channels. That's why I posted up that JVC decoder, which does the downmixing at the end where the TV is.

That motorola on the list is fucked. If it can only do 1 key, that means it can't even go Motorola --> AV receiver --> Display, as that requires 2 keys in the chain.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by rage2
it can't even go Motorola --> AV receiver --> Display, as that requires 2 keys in the chain.

ah, so that is what the difference is between the crestron and the gefen then. the crestron actually passes the key so it uses no extras in the chain. they had a nice power point show that

[rage2]

I'm pretty sure that the same applies to the Gefen as well. The only difference I can see is the audio, where the Crestron stuff can natively handle both 2ch and multi ch audio. It doesn't look like it downmixes it back into the HDMI channel tho, as there's a separate feed for speakers in the PDF there. That will require more wiring to each room.

The Gefen solution is cheap, and simple. Well, it took a solid 3 days to iron out the bugs with tech support, another week and a half back and forth to get "beta" firmware to diagnose the problem, but once it's done it's easy. I believe kenny got it up and running in a day after I told him all the probs that he could run into.