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Installer's mistake causing me headaches - HDMI over CAT5 advice?

post #1 of 9
12/27/12 at 7:48pm
Thread Starter 
Hello,

Short story: I have 2 runs of CAT5 from my bluray player to my projector and am currently using baluns (http://www.knollsystems.com/prod-ubw-hdmi.htm) to transit video to the projector. These baluns do not support HDMI 1.4a so my new 3D projector cannot play 3D blurays. I'm wondering if anyone has a good solution?

Longer story:

I recently built a home and included a small home theatre in the basement. When I first moved in I noticed that the HDMI cable to the projector (ceiling mounted) did not work. Turns out that the HDMI cable was directional (an amplified cable for long runs, I believe) but installed backwards - so of no use to me at all. The installer had also included 2 CAT5 ethernet runs to the same location luckily and installed a powered "balun" or HDMI extender over CAT5 as a solution. This was fine until recently when I replaced my projector with a 3D capable device. The baluns do not support HDMI 1.4a so I cannot play 3D blu-ray content. I am looking for advice solutions.

Ideally, I'll be able to find a similar HDMI extender that supports HDMI 1.4+ (and is also compatible with my older gear), and is also of "wall-plate" type design since the projector is ceiling mounted. I've searched the internet and can't find what I am looking for. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help.
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post #2 of 9
12/27/12 at 8:05pm
Calrad makes one that supports 3D but it isn't the wall plate style (~$100). I've heard 1080p 3D can pass through the cheaper Monoprice wall plate baluns, but never got a chance to confirm it for myself. That's a bummer about the directional cable.

EDIT: I just realized you have Cat5 runs...are you sure they aren't Cat5e or Cat6?

EDIT 2: I completely forgot about the HDbaseT, those devices can handle 3D no problem.
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post #3 of 9
12/27/12 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
Apologies, they are in fact CAT5e runs, so thanks for those suggestions, I'll look into them. Also, what's HDbaseT (I'm googling that now)?
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post #4 of 9
12/27/12 at 8:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wueric View Post

These baluns do not support HDMI 1.4a so my new 3D projector cannot play 3D blurays
If they will support 1080p60 2D they will support 1080p24 3D. They don't need to be labelled 1.4a. They don't know a thing about whether the signal is 2D or 3D. All that is important is the bit rate they will support at the length you are running.
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post #5 of 9
12/27/12 at 8:56pm
Thread Starter 
Hmm. My experience is when I try to use the existing balun connection, my bluray player (PS3) gives me an error message saying that I require a 3D capable TV and player. When I bypass the connection (and use HDMI directly), everything works fine. The existing balun connection is fine for non-3D content, bluray or otherwise. Does that help clarify?
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post #6 of 9
12/27/12 at 9:51pm
Cheapest HDBaseT solution is from Monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011012&p_id=8122&seq=1&format=2

But for a short-ish run, there are probably cheaper solutions that will work, especially since you have two cat5e cables to work with...
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post #7 of 9
12/28/12 at 3:10am
Look for ‘Feature’ support rather than Version numbers – you don’t require a 1.4 chip set to support all current Consumer 3D variants.

Where supplying power at the Sink (Display) end of the cable run is problematic an HDMI over Twisted Pair with PoC support is a good option – the PoC Zone Receiver is small enough to be hidden ‘In-wall’ if required and bring the HDMI cable out via a ‘Brush’ style faceplate.

http://www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20ethernet%20converters.html

Joe
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post #8 of 9
1/20/13 at 3:18am
Thread Starter 
Thought I should close the loop on this. My installer responded to the issue with a new set of 3D capable baluns. The new baluns appear to be working well. I've experienced a couple minor dropouts but overall I am satisfied.

Thanks for your help.
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post #9 of 9
1/20/13 at 3:42pm
You shouldn't get any dropouts unless caused by the source material or handshaking. At best the number of dropouts stay the same over a given time. At worst they'll increase with time. Very rarely do they get better with time.

I'd check because something doesn't seem right if you are getting dropouts.-
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