Re: Whole house wiring - revisted HDTV

["Robert L Bass" <no-sales-spam@bassburglaralarms>]

> I wired my whole house to a media closet about
> 5 yrs ago using RG6 and CAT5. Now I am looking
> to use HDMI outputs from a PC and DVD to
> distibute to LCD and Plasma tvs.  Is there a
> reasonably cost effective way to do this?  I have
> seen CAT5 to HDMI converter for $500, but that
> is way to expensive in my opinion.  I have 2 RG6
> and 1 CAT5 to work with.

HDMI is good for up to 10 meters.  Beyond that you
may need an amplifier or repeater.  It is not the cable
of choice for whole-house distribution.

> What are people using these days for whole
> house video?

There is at least one company offering a whole-home
audio/video distribution system that carries HD and
audio over CAT5 cable.  I have not tested their system
(it was at the prototype stage when I saw it at the EH
Expo) so I can't attest to its quality.  Also, it is outside
the range of your stated budget.

The simplest approach (if you ran 2 x CAT5e) would
be to use baluns at each end.  Knoll System and
Audio Control both offer baluns for the purpose.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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