Hdmi over Ethernet/IP advice

gazo7000 · 17 Dec 2013 at 19:20

Hey guys,

I'm looking to get a hdmi over Ethernet/IP that works on a network.

Each room has two cat6 ports that's connected to a gigabit network switch.

At first I just need something that can go from one room to another over the network which also has infra red for the remote, but I would like it to be a kit that could be expanded later on to all rooms.

Can anyone suggest some products with various price ranges? Also anyone got feedback on the products they've had that I should stay away from?

Cheers

gazo7000 · 20 Dec 2013 at 15:42

Anyone?

picnic · 20 Dec 2013 at 15:48

The solutions I've seen that use CAT5/6 cable use Baluns (?) there is no IP involved.

visibleman · 20 Dec 2013 at 18:34

As Picnic mentions, the usual method is to use HDMI baluns (point-to-point connection) and then if you need to do switching you can add a matrix to the setup - Gefen are pretty big in this area, prices to match though.

I've never really looked into it but there are a few HDMI-over-IP solutions like the proprietary Just Add Power or the protocol HDBaseT (still in it's infancy but there's already a handful of manufacturers that have started to support this - Pioneer/Panasonic etc, Comm-Tec do a system).

lucid · 21 Dec 2013 at 02:24

Ebay for cheap IP video product. You will need to keep the the IP video signals separate from IP data signals though. This means two network switches rather than all traffic through one. So if you have only a single data cable to each room then they're not a good solution.

For good gear have a look at HD Anywhere. If you buy their network switch then it will handle both video and data IP on the same network. The tail-end devices convert back to HDMI and have control back, so you can "talk to" Sky boxes or other live TV devices, Blu-ray players, amps etc. It also integrates well with control systems such as Control 4.

Avalon · 23 Dec 2013 at 19:10

1) Buy shielded solid core cable, not CCA - run it direct, no breaks, no switch/hub/patch panel.
2) Pull more feeds than you actually need, it's easier to pull an extra feed at the same time so you have redundancy or the option to add data at a later date.
3) Powered or high quality balunes are better than passive ones - I forget the brand i'm running but the first no name ones were rubbish and anything over 10m wouldn't work.

I went with the budget option, I got an inexpensive matrix from the bay and ran my own shielded Cat5e and pulled through some coax for the IR path. It works perfectly and the cheapo matrix I use has been faultless, it's also got the option to run a feed to a PJ if I ever get round to it.

covenantuk · 24 Dec 2013 at 08:36

lucid said:
Ebay for cheap IP video product. You will need to keep the the IP video signals separate from IP data signals though. This means two network switches rather than all traffic through one. So if you have only a single data cable to each room then they're not a good solution.

For good gear have a look at HD Anywhere. If you buy their network switch then it will handle both video and data IP on the same network. The tail-end devices convert back to HDMI and have control back, so you can "talk to" Sky boxes or other live TV devices, Blu-ray players, amps etc. It also integrates well with control systems such as Control 4.

Can you not use managed switches and VLANs to manage video/data segregation? Or do the products not support VLAN tagging?

Caged · 24 Dec 2013 at 12:22

The stuff I've seen that uses IP as opposed to just the cable tends to keep itself to itself on the multicast IPs and doesn't get in the way of anything else.

And if you have a managed switch then it doesn't matter if the kit you're plugging in understands VLANs or not, because it doesn't need to. You just untag the VLAN for your video on the ports that you've connected the HDMI kit to.