Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Reliable hdmi extenders (via cat6) which will work with ims2000/Barco

This is topic Reliable hdmi extenders (via cat6) which will work with ims2000/Barco in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michal Matys (Member # 8614) on 10-07-2017, 04:20 PM:

Hello,

We have a connection with cat6 from the auditorium to the booth. I am trying to find a reliable hdmi extender to use those cat6 with. Our setup is barco with ims 2000, i would like to use the hdmi input on ims. I found some extender from premium cord which was causing just interference when I selected the hdmi input on ims, but no picture. Sound was not playing as well.

Anyone have experience with some of those? Is it reliable?

Thank you
Michal

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-07-2017, 05:11 PM:

Affordable extenders are very dependent on cable length and quality. The most solid technology is HDBaseT, but you will probably need to spent at least 250-300€. We have solid results with 50€ extenders (single cable) up to 40-50 metres. No experience with IMS2000. While it adds complexity, you could also add a splitter/switcher between extender and IMS input to have an additional level of buffering. A switcher will allow a safer swap of input sources compared to cable plugging. Some companies offer extender/switcher combos.

Are you absolutely sure that this cat6 cable has good (braid+foil) shielding? It's frightening how many CAT6 cables are sold without ANY shielding, even in europe.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-07-2017, 08:07 PM:

Extending most A/V signals, including HDMI really needs sheilding. It is more important than higher CAT numbrers. In fact, I've yet to find that CAT6 buys one much of anything over CAT5e.

HDBaseT is a reasonably decent "standard" that will allow one to choose brands that they prefer or may be more available. I've had good results from Atlona, for instance. I'm also a proponant of Extron's DP and XTP series of extenders. They are VERY good but they are significantly more expensive. More and more, Extron is making their DP/XTP stuff HDBaseT compatible too.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 10-08-2017, 11:29 AM:

Our experience is that the single or dual cat5/6 HDMI extenders found on ebay or amazon are not reliable.
We have been using Kramer single CAT6 STP extenders with no issues. We have used the Kramer "premium" CAT6 cable on really long run installations (150 foot or so) just because they guarantee performance when that's used, but other shorter run installations using premade 50' CAT6 STP jumpers have worked just fine. This is with the Kramer PT571 and PT572+ ... one feature is that only one of the two needs a power supply, the other is powered through the cable. We haven't needed the models with serial and contact closure also carried but I can imagine situations where they would be useful.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-08-2017, 12:07 PM:

Definitely avoid the dual CAT cable extenders.
A few of the 50€ range single cable converters work nicely if you don't stretch it.

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-08-2017, 04:30 PM:

I agree, most of the dual RJ45 HDMI extenders are rather crappy, some even have the tendency to blow up HDMI ports, you don't want this to happen in your projector. I always put a device in front of those, sometimes just a HDMI switch or a Dr. HDMI device for example.

Still, there is one particular dual RJ45 HDMI extender which has worked pretty well for me for distances < ~50m / ~150ft: The ATEN VE810, which is also a bit more expensive than the average dual RJ45 extender.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 10-08-2017, 04:55 PM:

Actually I believe that the ATEN VE810 technically is a single cable extender, with the second cable being used only for the bidirectional IR and remote power, so, it would not be one of those cheap 1:1 wire transmitters as most dual cable extenders.

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-08-2017, 05:18 PM:

I've just checked the device, but the ports are labeled TMDS and DDC, like most of those crappy 2-port extenders. [Smile]

I guess they manage to encode the IR signal into the low-bandwidth DDC part.