Considering how much its been talked about on the podcast, I was expecting to find quite a few threads about this, but wasn't able to find any. Feel free to link me to one and ignore this if its been answered elsewhere.
I want to play my PC games on the TV in the living room. I did some measurements and the path I'm gonna run the cables along is gonna be about 65ft from the computer to the TV. I'm planning on sending video and audio along HDMI and using a converter to get USB to the living room and then hooking up a wired Xbox 360 controller. Here's the products I found on Amazon that I am planning on using.
I'm planning on running 2 ethernet cables to the living room (already know I can't run the USB extender through a switch). Has anyone tried this or something similar? Here are my current concerns. Any input will be welcomed.
I would assume that the fact you cna buy a 75FT cable, means that it works... but that's a complete assumption.
USB I have no idea... max distance of a USB cable is 5FT, but I think that's the point of the extender you're buying... one thing to note is that product page mentions that power isn't run through the cable... does the XBox controller need power? What's the range on the Xbox wireless controller adapter? You might have better luck with that.
With the HDMI cable, I'm sure I'll be able to get some kind of signal through it, but it sounds like it might not be able to handle 1080p60 at that length.
I'm not sure if the 360 controller needs power, since its a single input device I would think its the same as plugging in something like a mouse or keyboard. Worse case scenario I can put a powered USB hub at the end of the extender.
I used to have a wireless dongle to use 360 accessories on my PC, but that decided to randomly die and I'm not too keen to pick up one of the grey market ones that seem to be the only ones available. I'm also not fond of 360 wireless controllers since I got burnt on the official battery packs. I had 3, all of them stopped holding a charge after a few months. I was stuck keeping the controllers plugged in with the cable from the Play and Charge kit.
I've run an 18m (59-60ft) HDMI cable and the signal that came through at the other end was not a clean one not to mention occasional signal loss, it might have been better with a higher quality cable but considering you'll be running an even longer one it would need to be a pretty damn good cable. USB at that length would be unusable, from my personal experience anything over 5-6m will be useless, anything 3-4m has been usable for me but not for gaming (mouse cursor stuttering and keyboard not registering inputs). I believe there are devices you can get which will allow you to extend further but do not know anything about them, have only heard about them.
Why not HDMI over ethernet and a wireless PC adapater for your xbox controller + some rechargeable battery packs? i use them for both my PC and my xbox (i have 4 in rotation) and only have to charge them once every few months. Sorry you had a bad experience!
@YoThatLimp, do you have any experience with the HDMI extenders? I was looking at those original but was concerned about latency, also the ones I was looking at were closer to 200$.
I got my order today. I went with the USB adapter I linked as well as 4 of the ethernet cables (2 for hdmi, 1 for usb, 1 for internet). The USB extender worked great and I had no issues with lag. Was able to hookup a 360 controller directly to it without a powered hub. I might pick one up anyways tho, so so that I can have access to a keyboard and mouse in the living room.
I picked up the HDMI extender that YoThatLimp linked. It works with shorter 6ft cables that I have lying around just fine with no lag. I couldn't get a signal with the longer cables though, not even 480i. I'm currently looking around for a local store that I can get some CAT6 STP to see if that's my problem since the back of the package says "Transmission distance can be up to 30 meters for 1080p using CAT-6 cable".
Edit (May 12th, 2012): Couldn't find a local place to pick up CAT6 cable, shielded or otherwise, so I ordered some online. I'll check back in when they arrive in about 2 weeks.
Edit: Boo! Nothing I typed after the link got submitted!
I got my cables in today. I ended up ordering these, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005L6IJO2/. I tried out my notebook first and was able to mirror fine at 1366x768, but wasn't able to use it as a standalone display. I hooked up my desktop next and wasn't able to mirror at any resolution. As a standalone display I was only able to get 1024x768 to work. Last, I tried my PS3 and again was only able to get 480p. Any time I tried 1080p my TV showed no signal. When I did get a signal, sound was coming through find and I saw no noticeable latency.
No 1080p is kind of a deal breaker. I was looking through the packaging for the HDMI extender and could find nothing about who makes it, so no hopes of contacting the manufacturer to find out what I'm doing wrong. The manual does specifically say that it supports 1080p at 30 meters when using UTP with cross stand inside. I don't see why the CAT6A STP cable I bought wouldn't be able to do it. Does anyone have suggestions on where I should go from here?
DMVinokur, what distance are you going with that setup?
I've been speaking with the seller on Amazon for the HDMI extender, they suggested that the extender might be defective. I'm gonna go ahead and do a return and try this one instead, http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Extender-over-Cat5e-Cables/dp/B004GX0DEA/. Probably the same thing, but hopefully no problems with this one.
In other news, I got a powered USB hub with this last order and hooked up a keyboard, mouse, and controller and had no issues. The hub didn't work without the power (normally it would work with low power devices), so a powered hub is required with the USB extender.
More bad news, the powered extender can't do 1080p either. Again, I was able to do 720p and 1080i. I also notice I wasn't getting sound with 1080i, or it was cutting in and out frequently. I contacted the seller and so far they haven't been much help. They suggested that something must be wrong with the settings on my mini-DP to HDMI adapter that I'm using on my Macbook Air. I let them know that that wasn't really a thing and that I'm also having the same issue with my desktop and Playstation 3.
So I ordered another adapter. I decided to skip the one i linked last time and look for a more incremental jump in price. I decided to go with this one, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004878EQS. Awesome features this has:
Power on both the transmitting and receiving end
Equalization tuning on receiving end
Local output in addition to remote output
I started testing with a short 6' CAT5e cable. 1080p showed up, but was having some weird grainy artifacting. After playing around with the equalization knob, I was able to get a clean picture with sound. I went ahead and hooked it using the 75' CAT6a cables I purchased before and...
The Results
IT WORKS! After playing with the equalization settings I was able to get a clean picture with sound. I went ahead moved the source from my notebook to my computer and hooked up my USB extender. Did some latency tests that a friend suggested using a PS2 controller and calculated ~30ms latency caused by the HDMI extender, which I consider very reasonable. So over all it works! The local output on this should also be very useful to anyone else doing a similar setup. With it you don't need to do any mirroring on your computer assuming you use a 1080p monitor.
The final list of items I used to get this to work is as follows:
@ddaydj: Thanks a ton for posting and letting us know what works. There is certainly not a lot of information, and follow-ups like these should certainly help strays find their way when they're Googling about HDMI extenders.
Also, on the $600HDMI cable...
It is something that can work. However, the longer the distance you're running, the more conductors you need to carry the signal without loss. What this means is that you'll buy a 50' cable as thick as your thumb. It'll work without any signal amplifier, but it's certainly not elegant. Such bulky/heavy/thick cables become especially difficult to maneuver.
Well, bad news. I ran the cables I was using for testing and now I'm not able to get a 1080p60 signal working. I was careful when doing the run along the perimeter of the house to avoid sharp turns and not pinch the cables. But something seems to have gone wrong. I have 4 of the CAT6a cables running into the living room and none of them are able to get a 1080p60 signal from the extender. The USB extender and the switch I have in the living room both have no problems with signal. I don't have any way to test the throughput of the cables though since they support up to 10Gbit/s and my computers are only gigabit (1080p60 should be using around 3Gbit/s). I'm kind of tempted to try a different HDMI extender. Even when I had the cables laying all over the living room when doing my testing, there were a few instances where I would not get a signal. I'm hesitant to replace the cables because they feel pretty well made. They're also now attached to my house and I'm outside the return window. I'll look around and see what my options are and check back in if I find a better solution. :(
Is it possible that you're picking up interference from nearby power cabling? Keep cat6 1 foot away when running parallel to power, and always cross at 90deg. angles when possible
The CAT6 cables are running along the baseboard of the house and around a door frame. There are 3 areas where it passes by or near an outlet. All of my walls (even the perimeter) are single wall so there are no cables in the wall itself. They could be running behind the baseboard, but most likely I would say it is running underneath the floor. So I would think only interaction with power lines would be where it comes near an outlet
Considering how much its been talked about on the podcast, I was expecting to find quite a few threads about this, but wasn't able to find any. Feel free to link me to one and ignore this if its been answered elsewhere.
I want to play my PC games on the TV in the living room. I did some measurements and the path I'm gonna run the cables along is gonna be about 65ft from the computer to the TV. I'm planning on sending video and audio along HDMI and using a converter to get USB to the living room and then hooking up a wired Xbox 360 controller. Here's the products I found on Amazon that I am planning on using.
I'm planning on running 2 ethernet cables to the living room (already know I can't run the USB extender through a switch). Has anyone tried this or something similar? Here are my current concerns. Any input will be welcomed.
I would assume that the fact you cna buy a 75FT cable, means that it works... but that's a complete assumption.
USB I have no idea... max distance of a USB cable is 5FT, but I think that's the point of the extender you're buying... one thing to note is that product page mentions that power isn't run through the cable... does the XBox controller need power? What's the range on the Xbox wireless controller adapter? You might have better luck with that.
With the HDMI cable, I'm sure I'll be able to get some kind of signal through it, but it sounds like it might not be able to handle 1080p60 at that length.
I'm not sure if the 360 controller needs power, since its a single input device I would think its the same as plugging in something like a mouse or keyboard. Worse case scenario I can put a powered USB hub at the end of the extender.
I used to have a wireless dongle to use 360 accessories on my PC, but that decided to randomly die and I'm not too keen to pick up one of the grey market ones that seem to be the only ones available. I'm also not fond of 360 wireless controllers since I got burnt on the official battery packs. I had 3, all of them stopped holding a charge after a few months. I was stuck keeping the controllers plugged in with the cable from the Play and Charge kit.
I've run an 18m (59-60ft) HDMI cable and the signal that came through at the other end was not a clean one not to mention occasional signal loss, it might have been better with a higher quality cable but considering you'll be running an even longer one it would need to be a pretty damn good cable. USB at that length would be unusable, from my personal experience anything over 5-6m will be useless, anything 3-4m has been usable for me but not for gaming (mouse cursor stuttering and keyboard not registering inputs). I believe there are devices you can get which will allow you to extend further but do not know anything about them, have only heard about them.
65 feet is kind of nuts.
Why not HDMI over ethernet and a wireless PC adapater for your xbox controller + some rechargeable battery packs? i use them for both my PC and my xbox (i have 4 in rotation) and only have to charge them once every few months. Sorry you had a bad experience!
http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Extender-over-Cat5e-Cables/dp/B003LZA95W/ref=pd_cp_e_0
@YoThatLimp, do you have any experience with the HDMI extenders? I was looking at those original but was concerned about latency, also the ones I was looking at were closer to 200$.
I got my order today. I went with the USB adapter I linked as well as 4 of the ethernet cables (2 for hdmi, 1 for usb, 1 for internet). The USB extender worked great and I had no issues with lag. Was able to hookup a 360 controller directly to it without a powered hub. I might pick one up anyways tho, so so that I can have access to a keyboard and mouse in the living room.
I picked up the HDMI extender that YoThatLimp linked. It works with shorter 6ft cables that I have lying around just fine with no lag. I couldn't get a signal with the longer cables though, not even 480i. I'm currently looking around for a local store that I can get some CAT6 STP to see if that's my problem since the back of the package says "Transmission distance can be up to 30 meters for 1080p using CAT-6 cable".
Edit (May 12th, 2012): Couldn't find a local place to pick up CAT6 cable, shielded or otherwise, so I ordered some online. I'll check back in when they arrive in about 2 weeks.
Great news :)
Keep us updated.
dd,
I recently went through the same transition and moved my HTPC up to the 2nd floor where my home office is. My setup is as follows:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10425&cs_id=1042501&p_id=8008&seq=1&format=2
http://www.amazon.com/Azend-MediaGate-GP-IR01BK-1-Channel-Receiver/dp/B0028N6XDA/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_2
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Controller-Windows/dp/B004QRKWKQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1337117259&sr=1-1
http://www.adesso.com/en/home/keyboards/89-wkb-4000us.html
Everything works well and no signal dropout issues with the peripherals or the TV (after I replaced a faulty HDMI cable)
Edit: Boo! Nothing I typed after the link got submitted!
I got my cables in today. I ended up ordering these, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005L6IJO2/. I tried out my notebook first and was able to mirror fine at 1366x768, but wasn't able to use it as a standalone display. I hooked up my desktop next and wasn't able to mirror at any resolution. As a standalone display I was only able to get 1024x768 to work. Last, I tried my PS3 and again was only able to get 480p. Any time I tried 1080p my TV showed no signal. When I did get a signal, sound was coming through find and I saw no noticeable latency.
No 1080p is kind of a deal breaker. I was looking through the packaging for the HDMI extender and could find nothing about who makes it, so no hopes of contacting the manufacturer to find out what I'm doing wrong. The manual does specifically say that it supports 1080p at 30 meters when using UTP with cross stand inside. I don't see why the CAT6A STP cable I bought wouldn't be able to do it. Does anyone have suggestions on where I should go from here?
DMVinokur, what distance are you going with that setup?
I've been speaking with the seller on Amazon for the HDMI extender, they suggested that the extender might be defective. I'm gonna go ahead and do a return and try this one instead, http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Extender-over-Cat5e-Cables/dp/B004GX0DEA/. Probably the same thing, but hopefully no problems with this one.
Checking in again. I got the new extender which turned out to be the exact same product I had gotten before. I was able to get it to do 720p and 1080i, but no 1080p. I'm now looking into powered extenders which might work better at longer ranges. Here is the one I am going to try first, http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-Extender-Certified-Bandwidth/dp/B003EE8OL6/. If that doesn't work out then my next choice is gonna be this one, http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Extender-support-HDBaseT/dp/B005H4Y6TA/. Hopefully the first one works cause I already over budget from upgrading to the CAT6 cables.
In other news, I got a powered USB hub with this last order and hooked up a keyboard, mouse, and controller and had no issues. The hub didn't work without the power (normally it would work with low power devices), so a powered hub is required with the USB extender.
Thanks for keeping us all updated, I hope you get it working!
More bad news, the powered extender can't do 1080p either. Again, I was able to do 720p and 1080i. I also notice I wasn't getting sound with 1080i, or it was cutting in and out frequently. I contacted the seller and so far they haven't been much help. They suggested that something must be wrong with the settings on my mini-DP to HDMI adapter that I'm using on my Macbook Air. I let them know that that wasn't really a thing and that I'm also having the same issue with my desktop and Playstation 3.
I stopped by Best Buy today. They had a wireless solution in store, but admitted that the lag would make gaming impossible. The solution they came up with was this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/AudioQuest+-+Cinnamon+65.6'+HDMI+Cable+-+Platinum+White/9892767.p?id=1218204606801&skuId=9892767&st=9892767&cp=1&lp=1. Doesn't seem like a very reasonable solution... I'm gonna see where my conversation with the seller goes. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has them. I'm getting really discouraged here :(
The Hype
So I ordered another adapter. I decided to skip the one i linked last time and look for a more incremental jump in price. I decided to go with this one, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004878EQS. Awesome features this has:
I started testing with a short 6' CAT5e cable. 1080p showed up, but was having some weird grainy artifacting. After playing around with the equalization knob, I was able to get a clean picture with sound. I went ahead and hooked it using the 75' CAT6a cables I purchased before and...
The Results
IT WORKS! After playing with the equalization settings I was able to get a clean picture with sound. I went ahead moved the source from my notebook to my computer and hooked up my USB extender. Did some latency tests that a friend suggested using a PS2 controller and calculated ~30ms latency caused by the HDMI extender, which I consider very reasonable. So over all it works! The local output on this should also be very useful to anyone else doing a similar setup. With it you don't need to do any mirroring on your computer assuming you use a 1080p monitor.
The final list of items I used to get this to work is as follows:
@ddaydj: Thanks a ton for posting and letting us know what works. There is certainly not a lot of information, and follow-ups like these should certainly help strays find their way when they're Googling about HDMI extenders.
Also, on the $600HDMI cable...
It is something that can work. However, the longer the distance you're running, the more conductors you need to carry the signal without loss. What this means is that you'll buy a 50' cable as thick as your thumb. It'll work without any signal amplifier, but it's certainly not elegant. Such bulky/heavy/thick cables become especially difficult to maneuver.
Well, bad news. I ran the cables I was using for testing and now I'm not able to get a 1080p60 signal working. I was careful when doing the run along the perimeter of the house to avoid sharp turns and not pinch the cables. But something seems to have gone wrong. I have 4 of the CAT6a cables running into the living room and none of them are able to get a 1080p60 signal from the extender. The USB extender and the switch I have in the living room both have no problems with signal. I don't have any way to test the throughput of the cables though since they support up to 10Gbit/s and my computers are only gigabit (1080p60 should be using around 3Gbit/s). I'm kind of tempted to try a different HDMI extender. Even when I had the cables laying all over the living room when doing my testing, there were a few instances where I would not get a signal. I'm hesitant to replace the cables because they feel pretty well made. They're also now attached to my house and I'm outside the return window. I'll look around and see what my options are and check back in if I find a better solution. :(
Is it possible that you're picking up interference from nearby power cabling? Keep cat6 1 foot away when running parallel to power, and always cross at 90deg. angles when possible
The CAT6 cables are running along the baseboard of the house and around a door frame. There are 3 areas where it passes by or near an outlet. All of my walls (even the perimeter) are single wall so there are no cables in the wall itself. They could be running behind the baseboard, but most likely I would say it is running underneath the floor. So I would think only interaction with power lines would be where it comes near an outlet
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sovw5oo144zslym/dEJwa2bSg5