# Boosted HDMI Cable



## Hunter.tech (Apr 9, 2018)

Hello,

I need to buy 2 HDMI cables that are approximately 100' long each. After doing research I found out that the cables need to be boosted since they are so long. Does anyone know of a reliable website that I'd be able to purchase these cables with fairly quick shipping?

Any advice you could provide would be more than appreciated.


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## josh88 (Apr 9, 2018)

Or buy a distribution amp and shorten the runs with it to extend it. Even with a "boosted" cable I wouldn't run hdmi 100'


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## rsmentele (Apr 9, 2018)

A couple of options exist these days.

You can use a cat 5 extender
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/226416-Gefen-Inc-GTB-HDBT-POL-BLACK

HDMI over fiber
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/506872-Kramer-CP-AOCH-XL

Or a booster
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/533653-Kramer-PT-3H2


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## Amiers (Apr 9, 2018)

Don’t do that. You will spend a ton of money and hate yourself. 

2 black magic boxes HDMI to SDI and SDI to HDMI 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EIOP0QC/?tag=controlbooth-20


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EIOW9TI/?tag=controlbooth-20

150’ of SDI cable. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=...’+SDI+&crid=1JWWYSZII47E8&tag=controlbooth-20



Price tag around 350-400$.


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## ruinexplorer (Apr 9, 2018)

Amiers said:


> Don’t do that. You will spend a ton of money and hate yourself.
> 
> 2 black magic boxes HDMI to SDI and SDI to HDMI
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EIOP0QC/?tag=controlbooth-20
> ...



Two things about that. SDI does not support HDCP, so if the converter is HDMI compliant, then your signal will not be converted to SDI (if HDCP is present). Second, with SDI, you are limited in resolutions available, so unless you are going with a broadcast resolution (1080p for wide aspect for instance), you might not have as clean an image as you would like. Otherwise, SDI is nice as it offers longer signal distances with commonly available cable.


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## Amiers (Apr 9, 2018)

Forgot to mention that. 

You will need a switcher on the control side to turn off HDCP. Easily rented for cheap.


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## Jay Ashworth (Apr 10, 2018)

You can also get HDMI to Cat5/6 baluns which can pass HDCP, I believe.


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## mikefellh (Apr 10, 2018)

Jay Ashworth said:


> You can also get HDMI to Cat5/6 baluns which can pass HDCP, I believe.



You mean "extenders" don't you (already mentioned above)? We had this discussion in another thread that "balun" is the wrong term for these devices, that even the manufacturers call them "extenders":
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/extenders-being-wrongly-called-baluns.43262/


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## TheaterEd (Apr 10, 2018)

These have worked great for me. What is the video being used for. How much latency is acceptable?


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## Jay Ashworth (Apr 10, 2018)

mikefellh said:


> You mean "extenders" don't you (already mentioned above)? We had this discussion in another thread that "balun" is the wrong term for these devices, that even the manufacturers call them "extenders":
> https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/extenders-being-wrongly-called-baluns.43262/



Well, HDMI signals are balanced, but it happens the vendor we bought ours from does call them that. I'd missed that thread, though.


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## Tanner Winchester (Apr 18, 2018)

We have had excellent success with the SlimRun cables from Monoprice. They are directional, so be careful not to install them backward.......especially in the ceiling (we've done that...) https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13702


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## teqniqal (Apr 19, 2018)

Search 'HDMI over Fiber' and you'll get a lot of good solutions that are easy to manage, and some are surprisingly inexpensive if you only need to go 100'.


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## soundtech193746 (Apr 23, 2018)

Even if you somehow find a way to boost the signal of the HDMI cable, I still wouldn't recommend it. What I'd do instead of this risky solution would be to use a HDMI Over Ethernet system. One I've used before was this one on Amazon


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## MNicolai (Apr 23, 2018)

baileypl said:


> Even if you somehow find a way to boost the signal of the HDMI cable, I still wouldn't recommend it. What I'd do instead of this risky solution would be to use a HDMI Over Ethernet system. One I've used before was this one on Amazon



To be clear, this is not HDMI over Ethernet, which would be converting the video to Ethernet-based network traffic you could pass through your network switches. This is HDMI over CATx cabling which is strictly point-to-point. Reading some of the reviews though, you can get a good sense that you get what you pay for. If you go cheap, read the reviews first. Only safe-ish way to know what you're getting.



> Question:
> is this item HDCP compliance?
> 
> Answer:
> ...




> Question:
> Will this carry 1080p and Dolby 5.1 from source to TV over Cat5e? I use my TV's Optical passthrough for surround sound due to my old receiver.
> 
> Answer:
> ...


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## eadler (Apr 23, 2018)

I know I'm late to the party but HDbaseT is amazing for long runs of "HDMI". You can get converters with "POC" (power over cable) and plug just one end in. My 75' delicately run projector feed with active balancing amp in line is getting replaced as soon as we get a lift in that can reach it comfortably).


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## MNicolai (Apr 23, 2018)

By the way, there is a robust used market for Crestron/AMX gear. Lot of equipment out there in the wild, and now that 4K has come into full swing there's plenty of perfectly good condition 1080p equipment going for pennies on eBay that was worth $1200 new. There are a bunch of 1080p presentation switchers even that were $12,000 new that are going for $175.

Just want to be careful to steer clear of equipment that needs special programming unless you have a buddy with access to the programming software who can do that for you.


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## Jay Ashworth (Apr 23, 2018)

That's *all* Crestron gear, is it not?

And my understanding is they're even pickier about you helping your buddy for free than the cops are about you helping your PI buddy by 'unofficially' running a tag for him...


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## MNicolai (Apr 23, 2018)

Can't say I've encountered that. Nobody much cares what an independent programmer or dealer does with their spare time, and for this level of product the only issue is if you buy a separate TX and RX, and there's a wide enough gap between their firmware to cause issues like if the TX has firmware for an older version of HDCP support than the RX does.

Crestron's not unlike ETC when it comes to Paradigm systems. They'll provide plenty of support but they will do their best not to open everything up to whomever and offer enough rope with which they could hang themselves. That would just end up being an expensive amount of troubleshooting time for everyone involved.


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## mikefellh (Apr 23, 2018)

I have used a "Portta" brand VGA over Cat5, and I'm not too impressed with it.

My favorite (of the lower priced devices) is by "AV Access"...their devices use a power connector that screws on.


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## mikefellh (Apr 24, 2018)

eadler said:


> I know I'm late to the party but HDbaseT is amazing for long runs of "HDMI". You can get converters with "POC" (power over cable) and plug just one end in.



The StarTech HDMI Extender I own does use the HDbaseT protocol, and yes you only have to power only one end (StarTech gives you the option whether you want to power the receiver or the transmitter, depending on which is more convenient for you).

However because it does use the HDbaseT protocol you have the option of using the included StarTech receiver, or plugging directly into an HDbaseT device, in my case an Epson G6900WU projector. Of course in plugging directly to the projector you have to power the transmitter.


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## rwhealey (Apr 27, 2018)

As you have discovered, 100' is too long for a typical HDMI cable.

You can get an HDMI Pro/100 cable from Extron that is certified for 1080p standard HDMI. They recommend using the HD 4K 101 Plus equalizer with a cable that long, however. This solution is fairly expensive.

You can use a pro-level HDBaseT solution - Crestron DM, Extron DTP, or AMX DXLink. You would need a dealer for these, but there shouldn't be much, if any, programming. There are also lower-cost HDBaseT solutions that should provide adequate performance, like Kramer, Gefen, Hall Research, and Atlona. You can buy the lower-cost HDBaseT transmitters and receivers from Full Compass or B&H. A bonus is that HDBaseT can also extend RS-232, IR, and even IP control signals depending on the TX/RX pair you select.

You can get HDMI cables that use fiber optics and active technology. This may be your best bet if you only need HDMI and the cables are installed. My experience is that these work well but are not suitable for portable applications. FSR is one manufacturer: bhttps://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1063192-REG/fsr_dr_pcb_h30m_hdmi_digital_ribbon.html

Finally, there are now a lot of video over IP solutions. SVSI (AMX), Just Add Power, Aurora, Atlona, Crestron, and ClearOne, among others, have various schemes, including minimal compression, JPEG2000 compression, and h.264 compression that all have varying bandwidth requirements and latency.

We have switched many of our designs to IP-based solutions. The nice thing is that you don't need a matrix switch, the systems scale seamlessly until you get to quantities rarely seen in performance spaces, and adding a new input and output involves simply dropping an end point at any network jack. The downsides are that programming is more complex, and you either need to have a dedicated AV network (and know how to configure a network) or become very good friends with your IT guy. The higher bandwith solutions also require much higher performance network switches, like the Cisco 3650 series.


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## Jay Ashworth (Apr 30, 2018)

"any network jack"

"add a faster switch".

Yeah; knowing when you're transitioning from one to the other is a good reason to make friends with your IT guy.


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