Cat5?

[UKCamaroSS]

Hi,

I am wondering what the quality is like when viewing and listening to TV/DVD etc that has been sent through Cat5.....

Currently I have the following:
DVD - Arcam DVD27+
Amp - Arcam AVR250 (Looking to upgrade to something supporting HD)
Speakers - Kef 2005 (Upgarding soon, but will use these speakers around the house potentially)
Sharp LCD

These are linked with Chord, QED and Black Rhodium cables.

I would like to add a projector to the living room and then distribute the audio and video around the house (I also have an HTPC which stores music / DVd's etc) - I was thinking about using the cat5 cables and associated hardware (Although I haven't a clue what I'd need) So, is the cat5 quality good - is this the best way to distribute av?

Cheers,

[md1542]

I have my laptop connected to my xbox via Cat5, and I use it to send DVD's/TV/Music I've stored. The xbox then displays on the TV. The quality is as good as the source.

Cat5 over my 10/100 network can handle 100mbps, more than enough to send full HD content across the wire.

[clunesy]

Hi there, a few points.

1) If you haven't already run the cable, run CAT7, no one uses CAT5. You can get it for 40p a metre, and then you're future-proofed up to 10 gigs connectivity later on, if you leave enough slack to cut off connectors and re-terminate with future hardware.

2) You will waste a fortune on audio / video baluns for distribution over twisted cabling, and it will never be that great. (but CAT7 would give you teh greatest run lengths).

3) It's 2008 - we send digits on cables, not audio / video
Get a NAS (use any old clunker of a pc with a big hard drive). Get a half-decent one-gig switch and run your cables all back to a central location.
Hey presto - audio / video / text / pictures / pdfs / whatever you want available everywhere. [Use a cheap media streamer in each room like Showcentre 250 or the D-link / Netgear things]. Sonos is very good for high quality audio

hope this helps !

[md1542]

hey, I STILL use cat5!!!

but I'm all for future-proofing. Sounds like Cat7 is the way to go....

[ben.bayliss]

CAT7 is actually not such a great idea. It's not an official standard yet, and is waaaaay overkill for anything we'd want to do at home. Heck, most people even advise against CAT6 as CAT5e is fine for GigE.

Personally I'd use CAT6, certainly nothing more.

edit: Seems it's also unbelievably expensive:

CAT5 - £30-40 per 305m box.
CAT6 - £75-90 per box
CAT7 - £400 per box!