HDMI over CAT 6 / Testing network connection?

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
At the suggestion of someone on this forum, I went out and purchased one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/121963237711 to run HDMI long distance.

It says 90 feet. I doubt my lines are more than 60 ft and I am using CAT 6. The performance is sporadic at best. Both the audio and video go on and off. Has anyone actually used one of these things? It is a passive device so I was real skeptical that it would work. The do make an active device but it is a lot more expensive than the passive device.


I would like to make sure my wiring will hold up to high speed. I can use my wiring to get to a router. Would ping with the -t parameter be good enough for that or is there a better utility? What amount of errors should I expect in normal conditions.

P.S. Now I do have one CAT 5 patch cable I am using. The rest are Cat 5e. I plan to buy another CAT5e or maybe a couple of CAT6 to see if that does it.
 

kubeek

Joined Sep 20, 2005
5,794
The problem is that network cards (especially gigabit ones) have large amounts of adaptive circuitry and echo cancellation, so they can work well even with quite horrible cables. HDMI has nothing like that, only data and clock, so it is very susceptible to bad cables.
Are you sure you have the pairs in your cable set up properly? Also a shielded cable might give you better results.
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Please explain "properly". I have them wired to rg6 jacks. I tried to keep them twisted as much as possible right to the jack.
 

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I found a repeater online that gets you 25m over HDMI cable. Cb-h20a11-s1 from siig. Anyone know anything about siig? Are they reputable? Can I trust their specs? I find no reviews.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I found a repeater online that gets you 25m over HDMI cable. Cb-h20a11-s1 from siig. Anyone know anything about siig? Are they reputable? Can I trust their specs? I find no reviews.
You could go to best buy, costco or any place with a wall full of TVs displayed on the same channels and ask to see what kind of cables, amplifiers, repeaters they use to supply signals to the most distant TVs on the wall.
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
835
I don't know how far your running but, at our Uni we don't trust any passive devices, we purchase Extenders. After 18ft your losing your signal and drops dramatically, it's best to keep all the HDMI cables short and then just run the Cat6 to what ever length the spec is on the Extenders.

kv
 
Last edited:

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
I agree that you likely need to bite the bullet and buy an active CAT5/6 extender for that long distance, which generally have compensation for the signal degradation that occurs over a long cable run.
Passive extenders can't provide that compensation.
I've run video 25 feet using a high quality HDMI passive cable, but that's probably near the limit.

You can't run HDMI through a router, if that's what you are thinking.
 
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