Sky HD to another room using Homeplug?

paonessa

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Hi, apologies as I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find any recent comments.

I want to send sky high def to my upstairs tv but can't use wireless senders as it's 2 floors up. Don't want to run new cables outside the house so am wondering whether I can use an HDMI to CAt 5 convertor into a homeplug and then back thorugh a convertor and into a sky box at the other end?

If so do I need an AV homplug rather than a "normal" one?

Cheers
 
Thanks for both your replies. Not sure what you mena by a single Cat 5 but the plug socket upstairs is a double plug if that helps?
 
In fact there's no cat 5 cable that's why I wanted to use mains. I'll have to run a CAt 5 outside the house to get it upstairs. The hdmi to cat 5 convertor I saw runs 2 cables for one signal.
 
With compression plus the unknown of what your home mains will support!

HomePlug in our house is OK for PC connectivity in some bits of the house but not others - its an old house that's been extended twice in the distant past!

Joe
 
If you have no Cat5 or coax cable already installed and can't or won't install cable it still seems a viable option.

You are of course right it won't work in every case and CAt5/6 cable(s) would always be better but sometimes it may be the only solution.
 
of course if you have a coax cable running then there are now HDMI over coax solutions
 
Can anybody tell me if using video baluns with the cat 5 cables still apply in this situation, i.e. when you folks are using Homeplug?
 
HDMI over Twisted Pair (CAT5 or CAT6) solutions are not compatible with HomePlug.

Joe
 
The HDJuiceBox uses PowerLine (HomePlug) technology to transmit TV signals but actually has no need for CAt5 cables.

Can I ask what you are trying to do and why you are asking about Baluns. As Joe has said, though there are HDMI over CAT5 solutions they are not interchangable with HomePlug as it is 2 completely seperate transmission methods.
 
Hi Guys,

Please bear with me, but I'm confused....

I'm also looking to do what the OP is describing, just get (ideally) HD telly up to the bedroom TV.

I'm currently getting the feed using co-ax run directly from the RF output at the back of the SkyHD box, outside the house, into the loft and then into the bedroom, then using a Magic Eye to control the IR.

I've got as far as buying a couple of "baluns" and an HDMI splitter (powered)...1 to go to the AV Amp, the other to a balun.

I haven't got as far as buying any powerlink/power networking gear.....I then stumbled upon this thread, which has confused me (I'm a simple soul!!)

I thought the latest 200Mbps and 500Mbps (and Belkins 1Gbps) kit was designed to stream HD content throughout the house...how would you do this, if HD over Cat5 isn't "do-able"?

The Devolo site, for their 500Mbps kit, state applications including HD streaming:

dLAN® 500 AVplus ... Application examples ... devolo AG

What am I missing?

Would a better way to do this be to use a pair of Netgear Universal Wi-Fi Adapters (WNCE2001)?

i.e., SkyHD > HDMI Splitter > Balun Cat5 converter (#1) > Netgear WiFi Adapter > Home WiFi Network > Netgear Wifi Adapter > Balun (#2) > HDMI into the TV

I believe the latest Sky router I'm now using is 801.1n rather than just "g".

(Willing to retain the coax and Magic eye for just the IR control)

Please help, my head hurts!
Spencer.

ETA - the above mentioned solutions (Juicebox, etc) are far more than I wanted to spend, this is just a case of trying to improve upon the RF feed I have that looks like early 1980's US quality broadcasts!
 
Last edited:
Devolo and others are being ‘creative’ with the wording!

You can ‘stream’ files from a central storage drive to your Networked HD capable media player (PS3, Xbox etc.) over the HomePlug! The Media Player then has to decode the files and Output an HD video/audio signal to your Display/AVR.

HDMI over Twisted Pair extenders are dealing with decoded video that’s not packetized and requires bandwidths HomePlug cannot cope with.

The HDMI over Twisted Pair solution simply use the same cable as the Transport medium (CAT5 or CAT6) everything else is not compatible with your computer ‘Network’.

Joe
 
Hi

As Joe says it's a common confusion that because a router and most IP networks use CAt5/6 cable then people assume that HDMi over CAt5 is interoperable. However they are totally diffent methodologies.

Your other option is to use HDMI over Coax which also send IR as well, but still around £360.

SO as I see it your options are

1. Stick with Rf Quality signal
2. Run 2 new CAt5/6 cables to the 2nd location and use HDMI over Cat5/6 Baluns
3. Use a HDMi Over Coax kit
4. Use HDJuicebox over PowerLine (homePlug)
5. Get another SKy subscription and use Sky MultiRoom
 
Thanks guys, that does indeed make it clearer...b****y marketeers...grrr!

So, in essence, HDMI routing uses "ethernet" (cabling) but does not make use of the TCP/IP stack or ISO transport model...the cabling is purely a conduit.

This was only really a tinkering "because I can" (or now can't) project, deffo not in the market for hundreds of ££'s...I'm rebuilding an engine for the "toy" at the moment, that takes priority, haha.

So, I think my favourite option from those above, is running a pair of Cat5e or Cat6 cables along the same route as the current RF cable.

I can try this easily by moving the bedroom tv downstairs and rigging up temporarily, then if successful, route longer cables...I think I'm within the limits of the baluns I've ordered. Just.

Cheers again,
S
 
Hi

It's the question we get asked a lot and a lot of confusion.

If you can run Cat6, and if you able and can afford run an extra one at the same time you can never have enough cables run!!

Which Baluns did you buy, and do they support IR as well down teh same Cat5/6 cable ?

Seb
 
Hi

Which Baluns did you buy, and do they support IR as well down teh same Cat5/6 cable ?

Seb

Ah this is the bit where I naval-stare in shame...in the name of experimentation, I went for some eBay cheap-n-cheerful ones...not arrived yet, only bought the other evening; they have the HDMI tail hard-wired, so that saves a couple of HDMI cables (inconvenience of mess more than anything, as the bedroom tv is "floating" with hidden wiring), and they have 2 x RJ45 ports. I wasn't worried whether IR was supported so didn't look closely at that in the spec, but really bought them to try and test the theory, if it worked, then spend £60-100 on some decent ones....as we know, it's proving not quite so straightforward...or rather...as I'd initially planned.
 
With compression plus the unknown of what your home mains will support!

HomePlug in our house is OK for PC connectivity in some bits of the house but not others - its an old house that's been extended twice in the distant past!

Joe

You'd use video baluns on both ends of your home mains to avoid signal loss if that's the case right? i.e. for HDJuiceBox transmission method.
 
Hi

Unfortunately I am not sure you have completely got the technicalities involved.

1. If you are using an existing HomePlug Solution you cannot use this for streaming from Sky, BluRay etc as this is an IP type network and used for streaming from exisiting network device such as PC, Xbox, media player.

2. If you are using HdJuiceBox this is seperate to an existing HomePlug you may have and if it will be suitable will be down to the bandwidth available on your Powerline. Adding baluns does not help as they are not interoperable. Any exisiting HomePlug will use up available bandwidth and could affect the performance of the HDJuiceBox.

Sorry if this is confusing but if you look above at my earlier post regarding the methods available it should help, as a rule of thumb the different methods do not work together and you should chose just one.
 
Hi
SO as I see it your options are

1. Stick with Rf Quality signal
2. Run 2 new CAt5/6 cables to the 2nd location and use HDMI over Cat5/6 Baluns
3. Use a HDMi Over Coax kit
4. Use HDJuicebox over PowerLine (homePlug)
5. Get another SKy subscription and use Sky MultiRoom

Thank you for your explanation. You're right, each method you've given above is really clear and straightforward. I better just choose one method and go with that entirely.
 
Ah this is the bit where I naval-stare in shame...in the name of experimentation, I went for some eBay cheap-n-cheerful ones...not arrived yet, only bought the other evening; they have the HDMI tail hard-wired, so that saves a couple of HDMI cables (inconvenience of mess more than anything, as the bedroom tv is "floating" with hidden wiring), and they have 2 x RJ45 ports. I wasn't worried whether IR was supported so didn't look closely at that in the spec, but really bought them to try and test the theory, if it worked, then spend £60-100 on some decent ones....as we know, it's proving not quite so straightforward...or rather...as I'd initially planned.

Evening guys,

Well, my cheap-n-cheerful baluns finally arrived from Hong Kong. Quickly unbolted the bedroom tv from its mount to bring it downstairs for some experimentation using some spare Cat5e cables.

After some initial head-scratching (feed from the AV amp worked but directly from the Sky HD box didn't), and a couple of power cycles, it worked really well, and I'm struggling to detect any picture quality drop on the Panny 50" with the HDMI splitter in place.

Have to be honest an say I'm amazed that HD content can be converted and piped down these baluns, and the picture quality of the Samsung isn't too shabby at all, 10x better than what I was used to with RF feed.

But..... I am getting "jittering" on the HD channels. Quite bad, every second or so.

Now, I'm not too disappointed or surprised, this *was* an experiment.....if I were to now invest in some pukka baluns, is this likely to remove the jittering, or is this a trait of any balun that's converting HD > Ethernet?

If not, then which brand of balun seems to be a good bet?

(I may also now try and simplify things by including IR control rather than retaining my "magic eye" RF cable run).

Thanks in advance fellas

Spencer.
 

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