[prbaxter]

Does anyone know if baluns, like these, are actually any good?
Component Video over Cat5e / Cat6 Balun Set Lindy 32525 Only £69.99 at TVCables

I want to distribute HD quality video from my DVD player and Virgin+ box

[Incksy]

Hi

Not sure if you have solved this problem yet but i have used these to send my Sky HD to the bedroom and use the magic eye over the coax to control the remote.

I also use a scart one out of the same HD box sending SD signals to the little TV in an other bedroom.

Both give great quality.

Try looking at CPC as thet seemed a lot cheaper there.

Good luck

[Boostrail]

This is very interesting. Something I dont know - Is the component output on the V+ box still active if you are using HDMI on your main TV?

Maybe I am being a bit thick here but since this appears to be an ethernet link can one not just use wireless networking or netplugs to distribute to the remote unit or is it just using CAT5 cable?

[mickevh]

It's not an "ethernet link," these baluns are a way of exploiting cat5/5e/6 UTP cabling to transmit an analogue (Component or RGB) signal plus digital audio (presumably SPDIF.)

In your head, differentiate between "cabling" and "ethenet." UTP cabling is just that, four pairs of copper wire in a plastic tube. Theoretically you could transmit anything along it that's within it's capabilities (frequency range, voltages, currents, interference tollerance, etc.)

It just so happens that one of the things you can transmit over UTP is digital data in the form of "ethernet." Since ethernet is what the vast majority of of UTP gets used for, we (in the IT business,) often get a bit lazy and just call it "ethernet" cable.

For example, I've used UTP to carry Token Ring (a different computer networking protocol) or analogue telephone signals in the past.

What these baluns do is essentially take your component video/audio signals and change the connector type from RCA phono jacks to RJ45 so you can connect them to a UTP cable & back again, (and looking at the price I'd guess there's probably a bit of clever electronics also to "condition" the signal so it's suitable for transmission over UTP. I'm guessing it has a bunch of "balanced" line drivers - a Lindy Tech chap contributes here sometimes, maybe he'll tell us.)

I very much doubt they are converting (digitising) the signals and turning them into "ethernet" and back again.

Thus you cannot extend onto wifi/homeplugs, because the signals are still analogue, RGB/component+SPDIF, not ethernet data networking packets.

Whatever you do - don't connect any UTP carrying such analogue signals to you data network (your hubs, switches, router, PC's, wifi access points, homeplugs, etc.) At best, it'll just "not work" - at worst, you could damage/kill your data networking gear.

If you want to "ethernetise" your video for transmission over a data network, you need something else.

[Chris Muriel]

Correct, the signal remains in analogue form.
You can see a block diagram of the concept by scrolling about 2 thirds of the way down the webpage here :
Analog Devices : Consumer ICs Solutions Bulletin (Volume 9, Issue 1)
(this is from my employer's website).