The one of the problem with connecting your PC up to a TV is having to have the PC located close to the TV, I know you can get long HDMI cables
but what if you want to have the PC located in another room or even on another floor? This is where HDMI Cat5 extenders come in, I must admit I was sceptical at first but having tested it today I can say it works and it works pretty well.
The principle is extending the HDMI cable over Ethernet cable, the unit I tested was a Octava HDMICAT-UK and consist of two boxes and two power supplies, one box that has a HDMI connector to connect to the TV and the other box has HDMI connector for a device like a PC or a Bluray player. To connect the two boxes together you need two Ethernet cables (CAT5/6) and as well as carrying the video it also carries the audio signal
It is not HDMI over IP as you don't connect the Ethernet cable to the network, it works by utilising the Ethernet wires and it needs two cat5 or cat6 cables to make it work. The documentation says it would support 1080i over 90 meters and 1080p over 45 meters
I connected a PC to the Ethernet cables via a patch panel and the LCD TV also connected to the patch panel, I estimate the total cable length I was using was around 30 meters.
Actually I first tested it just using two patch cables going from box to box and with the short cable connections I could run the TV at the PC’s maximum resolution of 1920x1080 which worked fine. I then patched it up using the 30 meter cable run via the patch panel and I found at 1920x1080 there was no video, so I dropped the video down to 1280 x 720 and that worked fine. There was no flicker or signal drop at all and the sound worked fine too, I test it with some HD WMV video in Windows Media Center and that just as expected
This TV is going to be installed in a reception area and the PC is going to be located in a server room on another floor in the building so this solution is going to work well, for a home install some kind or PC remote control would be needed either wireless or IR
The unit I used is a Octava HDMICAT-UK priced at £159.95
Posted
Mar 13 2009, 03:11 PM
by
Ian Dixon