video over UTP/cat5 cable

[sanaka]

Hi.

I'm building a new house and plan to run in-wall wiring to a projector location.

I found some cool RCA and S-Video modular wall jacks that terminate via 110 punchdown blocks. The idea being to directly run these signals on Cat cable.

But will this really work?

I know that video signals are run on UTP Cat cable in TV studios and so on, but I thought this required baluns on each end of the run to balance and impedance match the signal in to the Cat cable, then unbalance and match back to coax impedance going out.

I’d think ignoring all that and running directly on UTP would at least degrade the signal a bunch. My run is about 45'.

To get the best of both worlds, my idea is to run mini coax (22 ga. conductor, Canare V3-5CFB 5 channel, here ), and punch right into the 110 block slots. Sound crazy? :E Thanks.

Peace,
Sanaka

[Chris D]

I know for sure that S-video can be run over Cat 5. I have terminals for wall plates that use it. I don't know how long of cable runs will degrade the signal, though.

I've never heard of composite cable being run over Cat 5, but I don't see why not.

[Shane Martin]

If they can do HDMI via cat 5, i don't see why you couldn't accomplish what you seek.

[sanaka]

Thanks Chris and Shane.

I did order the 5 conductor mini coax already, so I will have some normal analog options available. Component plus s-video for example. I figured on running a couple Cat5's along with it just to have whatever options that provides available as well.

Then, since posting last night, I educated myself somewhat on HDMI, which I didn't know about. Short of downloading the entire spec from hdmi.org (for which you are supposed to pledge to become an 'adoptor') it seems as though while HDMI may prefer a standard 75ohm impedance on its wires, it can deal with pretty much whatever. So it makes sense that it can run on cat5. I wonder what connectors are available to do this though. At 19 channels, it would require 3 runs of Cat5. A future enhanced HDMI at 29 channels would require 4! Are there like HDMI wall jacks with 20 or 30 110 punchdowns, or what?

Maybe I better plan on some conduit to my projector location also eh?

Peace,
Sanaka

[ekkoville]

What are these 110 punch downs you are talking about? I would like to see one. Here is an interesting option http://www.audioauthority.com/ , but it depends on how many feed you want, but they can be connected for several feeds. The 9870 Series is the residential version.

[sanaka]

110 style punch down is a common way of terminating 'Cat5' (or Cat6 or CatWhatever) UTP cabling, as typically seen on a 'keystone' jack like this:



You use a spring loaded tool with a special blade that scooches the wire down into the little V shaped space, where metal on each edge of the wedge cuts through the insulation and makes contact with the conductor.

The jacks I mention in previous post are just like this keystone jack, but are RCA or S-Video on the outside instead of RJ-45.

That Audio Authority distribution stuff is a high class version of the baluns I was talking about. Plus probably some amplification to make really long runs. Pretty cool if you want to distribute your signal all over, which never fits any imagined scenario of my lifestyle personally. :huh:

Peace,
Sanaka