[bryhhh]

I'm about to start running cat 5 cable round my house for my home network, and whilst doing so, I'm thinking of running HDMI from behind the TV in the lounge to the master bedroom.

I've just boarded out a small area of the loft, where I'm going to fit a wall mounted 19" rack to the wall and run all my cables to a couple of patch panels in the rack.

I read somewhere that if I want to run HDMI over cat 5, then I shouldn't terminate the cables in a patch panel, but instead use a single run of cable with each end directly connected into the HDMI -> Cat 5 converter.

This will make for an untidy job in my opinion, and I would much prefer to terminate the cat 5 on patch panels and RJ45 wall sockets, and use patch leads to connect to devices.

The first run from the lounge would be <10m, from an RJ45 socket to the patch panel, the second run to the master bedroom will again be <10m from patch panel to RJ45 socket. There will obviously be 3 short patch cables in the circuit too.

I'm happy to buy a better better grade of cable and patch panel etc. if that helps, but I'm just wondering if what I would like to achieve is realistic? Has one else done anything similar? Will a single run of cat 5 suffice, or do most converters use two runs of cable?

[Parker]

I use something like this at work for display screens around the office with all the PCs sat back in the server room for the content.

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tv...ender-30m.html

Need to run 2 cables per TV (we use Cat 6 rather than Cat 5) and the power is needed at the receiver end rather than transmitter. We do tend to get better performance on a straight cable run but we have a few installed which go via patch panels with no issues.

At those distances though couldn't you just run an HDMI cable?

[kev]

Before you start it might be worth checking out HDBaseT and running a few extra cables so you can connect devices to that in the future - remember to take into account that if you do introduce HDBaseT you may need to run it in parallel with your converters for a while. While wiring up the TV's it might also be worth baring in mind that Project Canvas looks to be getting into gear and HD Freeview (post Canvas launch) boxes will benefit from having Ethernet cables available to them.

Looks very promising - just need to hope it takes off!

[bryhhh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker

I use something like this at work for display screens around the office with all the PCs sat back in the server room for the content.

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tv...ender-30m.html

Need to run 2 cables per TV (we use Cat 6 rather than Cat 5) and the power is needed at the receiver end rather than transmitter. We do tend to get better performance on a straight cable run but we have a few installed which go via patch panels with no issues.

At those distances though couldn't you just run an HDMI cable?

Thanks for that. I'll probably spend a little extra then and get a box of Cat6 cable instead.

I'd not really thought about running a long HDMI cable to be honest. I think I'd prefer Cat5/6, just because it will give me greater flexibility. The other problem with running a HDMI cable, is I might struggle to route the cable down the cavity with the chunky plug on the end of the cable.

[bryhhh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kev

Looks very promising - just need to hope it takes off!

Indeed, it does look promising. fingers crossed!

I have also heard of devices that send HDMI over IP, but the converters needed are far in excess of the budget I have for this project.

[niall campbell]

can you just not have wirelss and run HDMI 1.4 ?

[bryhhh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niall campbell

can you just not have wirelss and run HDMI 1.4 ?

I currently have wireless throughout the house, and intend to keep it, but when I try to stream HD content over wifi, results are hit and miss.

Having a number of cat5/6 cables in each room going back to a central patch panel will give me the ultimate flexibility.

Also, being a bit of a geek, it's an interesting project for me.

[Pugwash69]

A run of HDMI capable of feeding 1080p60 costs considerably more than Cat6 doesn't it?
I know I have a box of Belkin Cat5e I picked up a whole lot cheaper than my HDMI cable to the projector.
The only reason I'd suggest avoiding putting the HDMI signal into the patch panel is to keep the sockets VERY separate. It would be a bad day to plug some networking gear into one.

[c4rv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niall campbell

can you just not have wirelss and run HDMI 1.4 ?

You can't run any sort of HDMI over wireless at the moment. It is coming but most likely range will be limited to a few meters.

[c4rv]

Please me aware that if you are running cat6 then the patch panel and connectors are different from cat5e plus the specification for crimping are a LOT tighter.

Also pugwash, I don't think the power involved would cause a harfware issue if miss-patched.

[grahamlthompson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

You can't run any sort of HDMI over wireless at the moment. It is coming but most likely range will be limited to a few meters.

There is if you have deep pockets

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/m...p?mycode=GV800

[grahamlthompson]

Found another one

http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/marmi...er-p-1370.html

[spiney2]

This is expensive, because the 3 video data streams are all approx 1 Ghz, so a limited distance over any wires, and the signal needs to be "re-created" at the far end.

It's much easier to distribute satellite or terrestrial antenna signals, then place receivers where wanted!

(HDMI was not designed for long distances! I'm not sure whether conveter boxes use an extra convolutional layer, like broadcasting).

[c4rv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

There is if you have deep pockets

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/m...p?mycode=GV800

Yeah, I have seen it before. 20m clear line of sight (and I bet that is under lab conditions). Not much use for distributing it around the house.

[MAW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

Please me aware that if you are running cat6 then the patch panel and connectors are different from cat5e plus the specification for crimping are a LOT tighter.

Also pugwash, I don't think the power involved would cause a harfware issue if miss-patched.

The only way to terminate cat6 in spec is to punch it to the patch at one end, and RJ45 cat6 sockets at the other. Then use machine crimped patch leads to cat6 spec. It's perfectly possible to hand crimp an RJ45 plug onto a cat6 cable, but it won't carry HDMI reliably. Trust me, I have been there. Tears before tea time lurk down that road.

[c4rv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAW

The only way to terminate cat6 in spec is to punch it to the patch at one end, and RJ45 cat6 sockets at the other. Then use machine crimped patch leads to cat6 spec. It's perfectly possible to hand crimp an RJ45 plug onto a cat6 cable, but it won't carry HDMI reliably. Trust me, I have been there. Tears before tea time lurk down that road.

Even terminating in a patch or socket, they have tighted up the amount of shielding that can be removed and how much untwisted cable you can have. Very fiddly and hard to test without the right equipment. As you probably found it, it all looks OK and probably works at low speed but ramp up the signal and you start getting intermittent faults.

[MAW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

Even terminating in a patch or socket, they have tighted up the amount of shielding that can be removed and how much untwisted cable you can have. Very fiddly and hard to test without the right equipment. As you probably found it, it all looks OK and probably works at low speed but ramp up the signal and you start getting intermittent faults.

That's controllable though, unlike the fitting of RJ45 plugs. Done correctly with the right tools, Cat6 can work well. But as you say, it needs testing, and fitting correctly in the first place.

[c4rv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAW

That's controllable though, unlike the fitting of RJ45 plugs. Done correctly with the right tools, Cat6 can work well. But as you say, it needs testing, and fitting correctly in the first place.

You can try crimping your own patch leads, but the crimper is a 100 quid to begin with. You can buy factory made leads for a quid or two, hardly worth doing it yourself.

Right now you can run gb over cat5e using all 4 pairs and that is also fine for HDMI. I am all for future proofing but right now I am not sold on cat6.

[MAW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

You can try crimping your own patch leads, but the crimper is a 100 quid to begin with. You can buy factory made leads for a quid or two, hardly worth doing it yourself.

Right now you can run gb over cat5e using all 4 pairs and that is also fine for HDMI. I am all for future proofing but right now I am not sold on cat6.

My conversion is recent, and I have the tools though It's now cheaper to implement cat6 than it used to be, and the HDMI devices for cat6 are noticeably cheaper. Not to mention the advantaged of bomb proof gigabit networking. On balance, I now feel that cat6 is the way forward. I have made the case for staying cat5 until the last few months, and I would still not suggest cat6 is right for everyone. I would suggest it to anyone hoping to do any more than a few point to point HDMI over cat baluns though.

[niall campbell]

http://www.av4home.co.uk/acatalog/HD...on_Plates.html

If its just to simply watch HD in bed from a HD box sky/ dvd etc then running HDMI 1.4 cable behind a wall is a cheap way of achieving this. At least HDMI 1.4 will allow some sort of internet capability of up 100 mb

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hec.aspx


just make sure it mentions internet connection