VGA over Ethernet Question

[mitchell1981]

Hi all,

 

We are in the process of installing a Plasma screen in our foyer. However, the PC to control the screen is going to be in an office on another floor.

 

We are planning to use VGA/Ethernet Baluns to send the signal across Cat5 cable.

 

There are existing network sockets near the display and in the office we are connecting to. My question is: Can we utilise this existing network structure (obviously not going through a switch, but patching one cable directly to another in the cabinet) or do we need to run, one continuous Cat5 cable?

 

It will be so much easier for us if we can use the existing cables, but I'm worried that the breaks in the cable may cause a reduction in picture quality. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[SYNACK]

Not sure about VGA over Ethernet but we have used AV over Ethernet (with a AV Amp) for runs of about 80m (using two pairs in the Ethernet cable) if your cable run is reasonably short and your pc has S-Video out you may be able to get away with this method. It does drop your signal quality down to AV level though.

[kylewilliamson]

All I can say is.. give it a shot and see what happens.

[torledo]

Hi all,

 

We are in the process of installing a Plasma screen in our foyer. However, the PC to control the screen is going to be in an office on another floor.

 

We are planning to use VGA/Ethernet Baluns to send the signal across Cat5 cable.

 

There are existing network sockets near the display and in the office we are connecting to. My question is: Can we utilise this existing network structure (obviously not going through a switch, but patching one cable directly to another in the cabinet) or do we need to run, one continuous Cat5 cable?

 

It will be so much easier for us if we can use the existing cables, but I'm worried that the breaks in the cable may cause a reduction in picture quality. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

As per the other two comments. Check what distance your baluns/extenders can manage. We've got a VGA over Cat5 extender that is powered at the source end and has a maximum cat5 cable distance of 60metres. Also suck it and see - so long as your straight through all the way and not crossing pairs at any point there's no reason I can see why it shouldn't work.

[FN-GM]

Is it possible to extend it distance if you use POE?

 

as kylewilliamson says just try it if it doesn't work you can always return the product.

[mitchell1981]

Thanks, will give it a try then then. We are planning to buy this one:

 

http://www.cyberselect.co.uk/range/442

 

There are two options, one with 50m range and one with 100m range. Going to go for the more powerful one.

 

Will see how it goes and let you know!

[plexer]

If it's powered at the source end i.e the pc then no need to use poe as power isn't required for the tv side balun.

 

I see no reason why patching one lead to another would cause you problems.

 

We do this to use cat5 to connect the reception pc to the led sign we have by the serial port.

 

Ben

[gwendes]

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/06/vga_over_cat5_c.html

 

Plan to do this when I move into my new house.

[Andrew_C]

Yes it should work. However, I'd be a bit wary of calling the 100m one the "more powerful". You may have timing issues that need the equipment to be matched to the distance to minimise.

[torledo]

Yes it should work. However, I'd be a bit wary of calling the 100m one the "more powerful". You may have timing issues that need the equipment to be matched to the distance to minimise.

 

could you expand on what you mean by matching the distance to the equipment being used ?

[Andrew_C]

The bit of kit we've got for using in disparate lecture venues has a switch to optimise for differing lengths of cable. Not quite sure what it alters, but I'm lead to believe that there can be timing issues with the different twists in the CAT5. I'll see if I can find the details, but I can't remember where I read it.

[crc-ict]

Yes it should work. However, I'd be a bit wary of calling the 100m one the "more powerful". You may have timing issues that need the equipment to be matched to the distance to minimise.

 

could you expand on what you mean by matching the distance to the equipment being used ?

 

He means use equipment with a specified distance near to the length of cable being used:

 

for example, he is suggesting that for a cable run of 45m, it may be better to use the 50m unit than the 100m unit.

[john]

I send VGA over Cat5 with remote VGA baluns over CAT5 and it works fine just patching the 2 ports together in the panel.

[Sylv3r]

We use the Duplicat product from here http://www.mauvesys.co.uk/ have have about 7 or 8 setup in school. Audio is also possible to send via the Cat5e also.