HDMI extender over Cat5e single cable (Quick reply is very important,see below for more details )

jules1972

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OK new baby is on the way in a month, 2 year old's new bedroom needs to be sorted, Cat 5e cable runs under the floor in the 2 year old's room.

Now that i have that out the way, i am about to buy a Panasonic TXL42E6B to put in our bedroom. It will be connected up to a LAN network but i would like to access the Sky HD box downstairs in the living room. Whilst browsing this forum i came across a Neet® - HDMI EXTENDER - Baluns - 50m OVER CAT 5e / CAT 6. This needs two cat5e cables to connect to the first part of the unit along with the HDMI cable running from a splitter to the sky box. The two cat5e cables are then run up to a second unit were the TV is with another HDMI.

i currently have a single cable from a 5 port switch (will upgrade to an 8 port if this works) in the living room running upstairs to another 8 port switch which supplies network access to a couple of IP cameras and the TV.

would it be possible to run 2 x cat5e cable to the downstairs switch at the beginning of the extender then for the signal to run on a single cable up to the upstairs switch with another two cables to run to the final part of the extender to HDMI.

This sounds horribly confusing lol and i would so appreciate the help if you can as the master plan is that we have a Harmony Ultimate remote with Hub that can be accessed via a smartphone app allowing us to control the HD box from upstairs as well as the HDMI switch.

I really don't want to pay Sky for another box lol

Many thanks in advance for any helpful replies and answers to my conundrum :)







 
HDMI over CAT extenders (single or dual wire) are not compatible with your IP network - they simply happen to utilise the same type of physical cable to carry the HDMI signal.

There are devices which can run HD over a LAN though they have to compress the HD signal and that compression varies depending on what other traffic is running on the network.

Ideally you want dedicated CAT cables running to each TV from where your SKY box lives - we have a combined Distribution Amp/Extender solution with IR return from each 'extended' Zone.

Media Factory - Octava HD14CATDA-UK, 1x4 HDMI over CAT5 distribution amp.

Joe
 
Hi Joe thanks for your reply:)

I had a feeling that it wouldn't work that way and was just hoping that i didn't have to run yet more cable lol I have loads of Cat5e shielded cable so i suppose i could run two cables down the cavity of the wall to sort that out. Also this means i can do this all at a later stage after i get over the initial BOOM of having two little gremlins running round the house!

Is the Cat5e shielded good enough for this application or would the cat 6 be the best bet? (the latter would irritate my wife lol)
 
Ideally you want to use Solid Core CAT6 (just don’t tell the wife :D).

‘Gremlins’ can be handy when pulling cables through small spaces!

Ensure you plan out everything you may want and with so much technology going in to a house these days it’s good to have spare cables and or cable ways (conduit) for future updates.

Joe
 
The Cat5e is solid core and shielded and i have about 250 meter's of it lol I am hoping that this will be ok as i can see world war 3 erupting if i buy more!
 
On dual CAT extenders (esp. the lower cost kit) you run the risk of the CAT5 causing sparkles or signal dropout when running 1080p (never mind 2160p as we move forward) over CAT5.

Any grief now will be minimal vs. the grief you get with an unreliable connection!

Joe
 
If you are having issues please could you contact us as not had any problems with IR reported.
 
It doesn't bother me that much because I've already a separate wireless IR extender and only need the HDMI extender for its primary function. More curious as to why it may not be working?
 
The most common issue, and please dont take this this the wrong way, is ir emitter and receiver connected at the wrong end or in the wrong inputs.

The extender has IR passthru in both directions (ie from tx to RX and RX to TX) so quite easy to get confused.

The correct connection from Receiver (RX) to Transmitter (TX) is as follows

At RX end the larger IR part (IR Receiver) goes in the port labelled "RX"
at TX end the smaller Ir Part (IR Emitter) goies in the port labelled "TX"

We have just batch tested a few and all seem to work fine
 
Yep, that's how I've got it. The only other thing I can think of is how close must the emitter be to the device you wish to control? Will it work from a few inches away does it need to be close coupled?
 
That will depend on the device as they all have different pickup ranges and locations.

If Sky then it can also be tricky to locate the ir sensor on the box usually an inch to the left of the IR Green light that flashes when remote is pressed
 
I've tried testing with a VM TiVo and a Denon AV receiver, but no luck with either. If it needs to be closed coupled then it wouldn't serve my purposes anyway because I need to control several pieces of equipment. I'm currently using a PowerMid to do this, but will eventually buy one of Logitech's Ultimate Hub's and use an iPad wirelessly to control my kit located in the main room. Thanks for thee replies though :)
 
Use a Camera phone to test if the system is passing IR - point a Controller at the IR Receiver head and point the IR blaster at your Phone camera (you ought to see the IR flicker on the phone screen). Try pointing the Controller directly at your phone to begin with so you know what you are looking for.

Joe

PS An optional 4-head IR Blaster cable is what you need :)
 
We have used one in our test room to control Yamaha Amp, Sky box without being closed coupled. Though as Joe says a multiple headed remote is always best if more than one device is being controlled as positioning a single head can be tricky to trying to pick up multiple devices.
 
Just a heads up on Joes post about testing with a phone camera, id normally agree however we have discovered that on our device the emitter doesnt show up on the phone even though its working.

Thats one I will have to work on why it doesnt!!
 
‘on our device the emitter doesn’t show up’ – possibly the same reason the VM is not working!

You may need a wider bandwidth Receiver head and or ensure the IR pathway through the Extender covers a wide enough frequency range.

Joe

PS I'll want commission Seb :)
 
..... maybe but works with other devices including Denon Amplifier and with Virgin boxes elsewhere.

I am however making further enquiries
 
If you are having issues please could you contact us as not had any problems with IR reported.

Sorted.

For future reference, if you use the power supply at the receiver end then the IR extender works. It doesn't work for me if I power the base unit to which the emitter is connected.
 
less than 20m over cat6.
 
Only tested with the Denon AV receiver. The same receiver didn't repond prior to swopping over the PSU.
 

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