[freddyuk]

I have wired up Cat5 from various rooms to a central location not knowing quite how it would all work but having to cable up before building was complete!2lengths of Cat
5e to each outlet. I also ran Coax but only one cable to each location.

I want a Plasma/LCD in each room (3 at the moment ) using magic eye without skybox and DVD etc stacked up underneath each. One Plasma will be 50 inch. I will have one box for each Plasma.
I have a quad LNB so one Sky+ and two ordinary Sky boxes.

I know Scart is the best option to connect Plasma to Skyboxes if i want stereo etc. but a long lead loses signal and i need to run about 30 - 40 feet to the central box location. Also scart plugs need big holes!
I also know that i can use baluns at each end of Cat5 to convert signals as an alternative but these cost about £60 each.
I could be talking rubbish but what is the advice - pay out for baluns and use the preinstalled Cat5 or run long lengths of scart?
What would i need to best connect the DVD remotely to the Plasmas?

Is the Cat5 and Baluns reasonably future proof?

[Nigel Goodwin]

I've recently been involved in installing multiple LCD's in a house that was been 'rebuilt' to a high standard. The AV system within the house was installed by a specialist company, and comprised CAT5 and a single coax cable to each TV point. They all fed back to a central distribution point, which included a Sky HD box (which we also supplied) and the distribution unit (which I never saw). The CAT5 supplied HD to each TV point via a balun to Component sockets, and the coaxial cable was used to feed remote control signals back to the distribution unit.

It was all a bit flash really, with internal menus and options for viewing external security cameras, plus an MP3 jukebox acessed from the TV screen, with DD5.1 in all rooms.

So CAT5 and coax is perhaps all you need?, but bear in mind the sound was completely separate.