HDMI or SDI over cat5/6 cable

[Andy Dolph]

What are folks using for HDMI or SDI with embedded audio over standard cat cable that's reliable?  

I don't need it to go over a network - just existing cat cable...

Thanks.

Andy

[Alexander (Mailing List) Taylor]

The Muxlab SDI over Cat5 baluns are a nice idea, but aren't stable.  I use the Ocean Matrix HDMI over IP TX/RX pairs quite extensively.  Will only give you 720p though.

Alexander

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[Paul Gotch]

On 7 Mar 2017, at 19:58, Alexander (Mailing List) Taylor <ataylo...@orcsd.org> wrote:
>
> The Muxlab SDI over Cat5 baluns are a nice idea, but aren't stable. I use the Ocean Matrix HDMI over IP TX/RX pairs quite extensively. Will only give you 720p though.

Isn't HDBaseT the answer to this question?

-p

[Andy Dolph]

That's one of my questions - is HDBaseT workable on standard cable now?  is it reliable?

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[MattM]

Hi Andy -- I'm using KanexPro's line of HDBaseT extenders:

http://www.kanexpro.com/item/?id=HDBASE70POE

They're good up to 4K, so that's a huge plus.  The distance is rated at 70 meters, although that's assuming you're using CAT6 cable.  With CAT5e cable they're fairly stable at 50 meters, but I have a couple of units that occasionally get a little wonky at that distance & need to be rebooted.  If you're looking for a way to extend that's a little shorter than that, though, they give a good solid picture & I can't say I've noticed any problems.

The baluns use POE, so they're extremely easy to wire.  One CAT6 cable going in for video & power, one HDMI cable going out to the monitor.

The other thing I really like about Kanex Pro's lineup is that they make a line of matrixed switchers (an 8x8 and a 4x4) that have the transmitting baluns built in.  So if you're looking to, say, drive a couple of projectors around the room, you can have all the switching & transmitter gear in a single rackmount box, and then it's just a matter of running a CAT6 cable to each projector.

All that said (and this is a big red flag to be aware of), Kanex's firmware is very, VERY quirky.  I discovered this the hard way a couple weeks ago.  I was setting up for a gig using my 4x4 matrix switcher, and about 2 hours before the event, I looked down & realized the unit appeared to be dead.  Nothing on the display, unit won't light up, nothing but the power light flashing slowly.  In a full-blown panic I went back to my studio, pulled out a drill & yanked my 8x8 from the rack.  When I got it back to the venue & plugged it in -- amazingly, the same thing!  I was incredibly pissed & started yanking the CAT6 cables out of the unit without turning the power off.  When I pulled the 3rd cable out, all of a sudden the unit came back to life.  Apparently the unit has some sort of a PROTECT mode it goes into when there's a cable it doesn't like, where it appears you've bricked the unit.  When I took out the offending cable & replaced it, everything was fine.  But this "feature" isn't even mentioned in the manual and it was only when I called Kanex Pro's tech support that they confirmed that this is how the unit protects itself from shorts.  Things that would have been helpful to know YESTERDAY...hehe

Anyway, I haven't had the greatest experience with their firmware, so I can't glowingly recommend them, but when they're working, they're stable. 

[Scott McGlynn]

Andy,

I just did a show using a pair of AGPtEK HDBaseT Extenders sending to a pair of Canon WUX450 projectors (with HDBaseT inputs) over 20 meters of Cat 6e cable. They were solid with one exception: about 1 out of every 10 curtain close/open actions, one of the two signals would drop to zero for a moment and occasionally black out the screen. I have signal strength meters in those projectors and was able to watch the signal drop to zero on startup of the motor for the curtain and pop back to normal a second later even when the motor kept running. Since it only happened on one side it could be as simple as a bad cable or a bad sender. I never had time to troubleshoot it down (too many bigger fires to dowse). Regardless, other than that, these rather inexpensive senders worked well. I think they were about $100 a pair (sender + receiver) and will do 4k with a length limit of 70 meters (I sent 1980 x 1200 over each one)

However, even just a 1 meter section of Cat 5 cable didn't work AT ALL (no signal whatsoever). It had to be Cat6 to function (apparently 5e will work but I didn't have any to try). So, what's your existing cable? If it has metal shielding on the ends, you should be okay..unless someone put Cat 6+ connectors on some Cat 5 cable.

Scott McGlynn

[Eric McFall]

I asked a similar question a few months back and was pointed toward KeyDigital. We ended up with three of their X611-ProK units. Ran a projector at 1080p over 300' of questionable sketchy cat6 cable without a single problem. Their long-range mode really saved by back-end when I had to move the QLab setup from on-stage to FOH. Cable path was less-than-ideal to stay within fire code. They are between model revisions of that particular series at the moment and don't have stock just yet. If you need to go a long-haul and can wait, I would suggest their X611-ProK unit, or whatever they call their next revision. If you are going a short distance they have a number of other models in-stock that have varying degrees of options. I can privately shoot you my contact at KeyDigital that has been immensely helpful if anyone would like it.

- Eric McFall

email) Er...@LVMcFall.com

cell) 702-379-9033, home) 702-987-0323

snail mail) 7480 Emerald Glow St, Las Vegas, NV 89123

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