# hdmi extender through 2 x cat 5e via ballun....Problems !!!!!!



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Hi all

Iam wondering if anyone can shed any light on the situation. Iam trying to route a HD picture from a sky + HD box through to another room upstairs via a hdmi Ballun to cat5e adapter.

Ive installed the 2 cat 5e cables and terminated each connector to the standard wire diagram and tested with a tester.

Got to wire everything up so gone as follows:

Hdmi from sky box into Transmitter Ballun > connected 2 Cat5e from transmitter > (now upstairs) connected the two cat5 e cables into the receiver Ballun > then hdmi from ballun into the tv > added the power supply into the receiver Ballun. All Light are on and working.

Now ive done this before from a virgin tivo box to a projector in another property which went fine and now for some reason iam getting a black screen and no picture at all from the sky box with this job.

Ive done some research and people are saying the Balluns are a waste of time and too many problems can occur to cause the picture to be either poor quality or no picture at all.

Ive also completely taken out the my cat 5 e cables and run shop bought cat 5 cables and still no picture. Also replaced all hdmi.

The other option is to route an extra long hdmi cable from the sky box to the upstairs tv and get some IR connector so you can still change the channels.
I am aware of the RF 9v our via coaxial cable but the person iam doing this for wants the HD.

Any help would be brill.

Rob


----------



## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

You'll probably find issues with HDCP as some of these aren't compliant and some boxes are really fussy about HDCP.


----------



## A210 AMG (Nov 8, 2008)

Hello

I use cat 5 balums from my Sky HD, but I use the spare scart socket on the Sky box as the TV in the breakfast room has not got HDMI.

so Its Scart balum out or SKY HD, cat 5 into that, through the wall round the house and back in to the second TV with a scart balum and the cat 5. Worked straight away and picture superb?

We made up the cat 5 cable ourselves (helps working in IT) have you tried a differnt patch lead? or even a TV closer to the one you are trying to get the signal to?

Mine are these, bought from CPC









We already have it hard wired from the RF2 output of the box to an upstairs bedroom using a magic eye so I was told this is the best way of getting it to another TV.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

OvlovMike said:


> You'll probably find issues with HDCP as some of these aren't compliant and some boxes are really fussy about HDCP.


interesting. That would make sense as the work i did for the projector the other month from a virgin Tivo box probably didnt have the hdcp as it was a cheap projector ordered from japan. But the work we are doing now is going from a sky plus HD box to a panasonic tv which will have the hdcp issue. Is there anyway of bypassing this?


----------



## Steve916 (Apr 29, 2012)

If you get stuck and want to try a long hdmi lead, I have a 15m one sitting in a drawer doing nothing


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

A210 AMG said:


> Hello
> 
> I use cat 5 balums from my Sky HD, but I use the spare scart socket on the Sky box as the TV in the breakfast room has not got HDMI.
> 
> ...


Yeah ive seen these before but the customer is after hd viewing through a hdmi socket in the back of his tv plus i guess that way is a great way of getting a spot on picture rather than an analog signal through the rf2 out.

As to your solution. Did you not think of just running a standard coaxail cable from the Rf2 9v supply at the back of the sky box through to the tv in the dining room and then run a tv eye to change the channels on the tv (once the installer menu has turned on the 9v supply).

edit: sorry just read your post properly.

You could still get a picture from your sky box with just using a standard coaxial cable in the spare RF2 out socket that isnt 9v supply at the back of the sky box. You wouldnt get the tv eye though unless you got a distribustion amp that can power upto 4 rooms off the sky box so you can use tv eyes using the 9v out rf supply socket. Further more if you plugged an aerial into the back of the sky box and then tuned your digi box or freeview tv in you would get freeview as well as a sky picture through the rf2 9v out or rf 2 out. One tunes into the digi and as you know the sky is fed from the analog side of the tuner of the tv.


----------



## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

A quick google and the Ballun adapters on Amazon say they are HDCP compliant. It wouldnt be anything to do with the wiring of the cat5 i.e. crossover instead of straight through?


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Steve916 said:


> If you get stuck and want to try a long hdmi lead, I have a 15m one sitting in a drawer doing nothing


brilliant ill let you know. how much?


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Will_G said:


> A quick google and the Ballun adapters on Amazon say they are HDCP compliant. It wouldnt be anything to do with the wiring of the cat5 i.e. crossover instead of straight through?


thanks for that. I have the proper tester for doing cat5e cables and all is ok. Plus that chap has used his computer through both wires and had not one issue. The wierdest thing is we changed everything, got two sealed cat5e calbes, two different hdmi leads and tried to run it and still no picture. Even tried it at my house and still the same. Even new balluns have been used and still no picture.

Something is wrong. It could be a handshake issue with the tv and the box but we have tried every consievable way and still no picture.


----------



## cactusbob (Jul 3, 2006)

I had no end of problems using one of these dual cable ones. In the end I got a single cable one HDMI Extender over SINGLE Cat5 / Cat5e / Cat6: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

It's working over about 25m transmitting Sky HD at full resolution. That 25m is via wall sockets and a patch panel.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

cactusbob said:


> I had no end of problems using one of these dual cable ones. In the end I got a single cable one HDMI Extender over SINGLE Cat5 / Cat5e / Cat6: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
> 
> It's working over about 25m transmitting Sky HD at full resolution. That 25m is via wall sockets and a patch panel.


I've heard they are not full 1080i hd though which is what this guy needs. Do you know why these cause problems with the two leads?


----------



## cactusbob (Jul 3, 2006)

Nope that one I linked to (the one I have) is Full HD. I don't know why those others have problems, I guess it's because they are passive and I think they have problems syncing up the signals. I was a bit wary getting the one I did because it was £70, but I was pleasantly suprised when it worked perfectly. My setup goes as follows:

Sky HD -> 4 way splitter (feeds living room TV, Amplifier, bedroom TV via 20m HDMI, and playroom TV)
4 way splitter -> cat5 extender (transmitter)
cat5 extender into network socket on wall
15m to patch panel
patched from one port to another
5 metres to network socket in playroom
cat5 extender (receiver)
Then into TV.

Works fine with all HD channels, some SBS 3D stuff I recorded works as well.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

cactusbob said:


> Nope that one I linked to (the one I have) is Full HD. I don't know why those others have problems, I guess it's because they are passive and I think they have problems syncing up the signals. I was a bit wary getting the one I did because it was £70, but I was pleasantly suprised when it worked perfectly. My setup goes as follows:
> 
> Sky HD -> 4 way splitter (feeds living room TV, Amplifier, bedroom TV via 20m HDMI, and playroom TV)
> 4 way splitter -> cat5 extender (transmitter)
> ...


interesting. Ill def look into that. Is there a plug on the adaptor to use an IR so you can change channels on the sky box from upstairs? thanks for the post.


----------



## cactusbob (Jul 3, 2006)

No there isn't but I already had an aerial feed to each TV fed from a Triax DDU112 Loft Box for Freeview anyway. It passes the Sky tvLink to all sockets so I just put an eye on the end to change the channels.

You could always get something from here to return the IR over your spare cat5


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

cactusbob said:


> No there isn't but I already had an aerial feed to each TV fed from a Triax DDU112 Loft Box for Freeview anyway. It passes the Sky tvLink to all sockets so I just put an eye on the end to change the channels.


yeah i suppose we could run a coaxial cable upto the same room via the RF2 9v supply socket plus like you run the aerial in there as well so he has the best of both worlds with freeview plus tv eye capablilty.

Thanks for your help.


----------



## cactusbob (Jul 3, 2006)

Anytime, I had a lot of time to think about this when building our extension (that houses my cinema ) I tried a lot of these things out, ideally I would run a quality HDMI cable to each room but it's not always easy to cable these into a previously finished area. Or even use one of those proper HDMI distribution things, but they are just silly money


----------



## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

I had no end of problems with mine which were quickly resolved by connecting and powering up the Tx and Rx in the exact order of the instructions. PITA but works a treat now.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Ns1980 said:


> I had no end of problems with mine which were quickly resolved by connecting and powering up the Tx and Rx in the exact order of the instructions. PITA but works a treat now.


What is the sequence mate as it just says plug n play basically.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

cactusbob said:


> Anytime, I had a lot of time to think about this when building our extension (that houses my cinema ) I tried a lot of these things out, ideally I would run a quality HDMI cable to each room but it's not always easy to cable these into a previously finished area. Or even use one of those proper HDMI distribution things, but they are just silly money


Yeah i do lots of installs n all the time I've done this its rare to see full wired systems on new builds or extensions


----------



## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

I've recently bought this:
http://www.hdcable.co.uk/1x4-hdmi-over-cat5-splitter-multiroom-hd-sky-remote.html
It gets great reviews on avforums, but as we're just starting house renovations it's not been set up yet.....


----------



## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Probably not what you're after, but what about something like a slingbox so you can watch it from anywhere on the network?


----------



## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

Paintmaster1982 said:


> What is the sequence mate as it just says plug n play basically.


I'll have to dig out the instructions....


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

NickP said:


> I've recently bought this:
> http://www.hdcable.co.uk/1x4-hdmi-over-cat5-splitter-multiroom-hd-sky-remote.html
> It gets great reviews on avforums, but as we're just starting house renovations it's not been set up yet.....


oddly apart from the colour them boxes look identical to the ones we have ordered in. We did have it working for about half hour then when we switched it off it decided not to work.


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Ns1980 said:


> I'll have to dig out the instructions....


thanks mate


----------



## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

Paintmaster1982 said:


> thanks mate


Here is the user manual for the kit I have. Whilst it may not be the same for yours it's worth a try?


----------



## Paintmaster1982 (Oct 23, 2007)

Ns1980 said:


> Here is the user manual for the kit I have. Whilst it may not be the same for yours it's worth a try?


nice one ill give that a try mate


----------



## Xploit (Nov 16, 2011)

Sounds a super ball ache!


----------



## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

Xploit said:


> Sounds a super ball ache!


You stick to metalwork and I'll do the technical stuff LOL


----------

