Extend HDMI With Ethernet Cables Up To 330 ft

[Guest]

Gefen is offering a range extender for HDMI using CAT-5 Ethernet cables.

Extend HDMI With Ethernet Cables Up To 330 ft : Read more

 

[kinggraves]

Too bad thanks to "content protection" we have to involve HDMI in it at all when the signal could've just traveled through CAT5. Well at least HDMI has put an end to bootlegging forever...

wait....

 

[jbart1981]

Really? Cause I can see a ton of applications for this. In fact 330ft might be way to short for a lot of applications. First thing that comes to mind is schools with a central media center where content is stored in a central location and distributed to classrooms over a network. Heck fifteen years a go my HS had similar capability with SD content. Each room had just a TV and remote and all of the video players, laser disc players etc. were located in a room next to the library. The librarian loaded content into each player - I think there were about 50 - at the beginning of the day. And they were available remotely for teachers whenever they needed them. It kept the media secure and centrally located. What about sports facilities and other large places like bars and restaurants that want to have central control over their content delivery? Perhaps their are better alternatives in the professional space I am unaware of but I think this is a great product with lots of applications.

 

[Taylor422]

If you're paying $150 for 100 meters of CAT5 you need to shop around.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Still no comment about how it might just be cheaper to use a HTPC and stream over that network cable? I'm sure you can build a pretty damn good HTPC for under 1200$

 

[oxxfatelostxxo]

So... why would they use CAT5? we have CAT6 already. Then what was ever the point of creating HDMI when CAT cables could already do the same thing at a much cheaper price..

 

[ansemx324]

For $1200 I could buy two new dedicated HTPCs for my other TVs! Ill definitely be using this money saving logic when discussing the idea with my gf. I would say it might have been a typo, but those don't happen at Toms

 

[jbart1981]

@ xbeater -but then you need a decoding piece of hardware at the TV end right?

This is for people that don't want that added complexity. I could see this being used by traveling presenters for remote video to different parts of the audience or people like mobile DJ's who setup at a different place every gig and never know how far it will be from their setup point to where they need a monitor for things like karaoke and displaying music videos or live streaming video of the dance floor.

 

[ansemx324]

[citation][nom]xbeater[/nom]Still no comment about how it might just be cheaper to use a HTPC and stream over that network cable? I'm sure you can build a pretty damn good HTPC for under 1200$[/citation]

Xbeater I was right on that, I was writing my comment when there was only 1 other one on the article, you just beat me to it!

 

[jn77]

Why are people still using 10/100/1000 and Cat 5 or 5e...... 10,000 (10GBit) is available on Cat 7/7E

 

[jhansonxi]

[citation][nom]kinggraves[/nom]Too bad thanks to "content protection" we have to involve HDMI in it at all when the signal could've just traveled through CAT5. Well at least HDMI has put an end to bootlegging forever...wait....[/citation]That problem was solved months ago.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]jn77[/nom]Why are people still using 10/100/1000 and Cat 5 or 5e...... 10,000 (10GBit) is available on Cat 7/7E[/citation]

Because even my recent Asus P8P67 Pro mobo doesn't support that. And that's high-end; an average home PC doesn't even have gigabit LAN.

 

[maddy143ded]

Tom's is really going to dumps by providing irrelevant news like this.

and I am pretty sure that if someone tries they can actually build a HDMI range extender for a fraction of this money. and also i remember seeing HDMI cables upto the length of 100ft on sale in ebay.......

 

[irh_1974]

[citation][nom]Taylor422[/nom]If you're paying $150 for 100 meters of CAT5 you need to shop around.[/citation]
Got that right, I bought 305m (1000ft) of CAT6 for £80 (£120)
And these extenders are massively overpriced, I already have some that cost me £18 ($27).
Good tech story, stupid pricing, what was the point?

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

4UDNL-TELTP-KUTGJ-8UCNK-AU9R9-5NATDhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/300-CAT-7-S...557?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5df3c02d

LOL, CyberLink MediaEspresso serial key detected Next time, be careful with CTRL+V :lol:

 

[victorintelr]

[citation][nom]jbart1981[/nom]Really? Cause I can see a ton of applications for this. In fact 330ft might be way to short for a lot of applications. First thing that comes to mind is schools with a central media center where content is stored in a central location and distributed to classrooms over a network. Heck fifteen years a go my HS had similar capability with SD content. Each room had just a TV and remote and all of the video players, laser disc players etc. were located in a room next to the library. The librarian loaded content into each player - I think there were about 50 - at the beginning of the day. And they were available remotely for teachers whenever they needed them. It kept the media secure and centrally located. What about sports facilities and other large places like bars and restaurants that want to have central control over their content delivery? Perhaps their are better alternatives in the professional space I am unaware of but I think this is a great product with lots of applications.[/citation]
There are other alternatives much cheaper, but they are mainly used by construction companies, and the converter connects to a 120v like any other appliance, and the connection is like any plug but with HDMI.

 

[jimmysmitty]

[citation][nom]Taylor422[/nom]If you're paying $150 for 100 meters of CAT5 you need to shop around.[/citation]

I was going to say, my work has 1000 foot spools of CAT 5 and CAT 6 for $89.

And I think 300FT is like $60ish.

 

[Guest]

Wow what a bargain! Check smarthome and they have had this forever and they have 100ft ones for $50 and 300ft ones for $375...

 

[Chrys]

Others have existed for a while that are way less expensive. Yes at the same distances, the price for this one is getting into the HDMI over fiber realm.

 

[mcd023]

[citation][nom]irh_1974[/nom]Got that right, I bought 305m (1000ft) of CAT6 for £80 (£120)And these extenders are massively overpriced, I already have some that cost me £18 ($27).Good tech story, stupid pricing, what was the point?[/citation]
I bought 100' of Cat5e for a few bucks.

 

[ProDigit10]

A single cat5 cable can pass multiple HD video streams at the same time!
Think a gigabit network (maximum theoretical bandwidth equals ~100MB/s) Blueray HD movie bandwidth does generally not exceed 50Mbits; encoded in MP4 it generally does not exceed 10Mbits (peak). Most of the time HD video has ~8Mbits of data that needs to be transferred. THey should think about transferring the encoded material, to be decoded at the receiving part, instead of trying to force the decoded (raw) data through a cat5 cable!

 

[upgrade_1977]

LOL, you can get a wireless extender for cheaper then that.. $1200!!! Really?!?!?

 

[Jerky_san]

Guess no one realizes you can get this from monoprice already? Its only 30 dollars..

 

[jivdis1x]

There are hdmi to cat5e adapter on amazon for under $100. The range is the same but instead of one cat5e you need 2. Cat5e is only less $.25per foot at the home improvement store; crimp you own connector. Forget about affordable, is $1200 even reasonable?

 

[techguy911]

Waste of money why bother running long distance cables just buy a boxee box plug it to your tv (hdmi only) setup the wireless or ethernet and stream video from your pc,external media or the boxee box for $199.99 that includes netflix,youtube,vudoo and hulu plus local tv stations and music.

If you are on a budget you could buy a ruku 2 for $59.99 and still have more features then all that wire and extenders.