Extending Terrestial Digital Over Cat5 to Multiple TVs/Receivers

Bit of a newbie question this.

I have multiple TVs around the house, all with built-in digital
receivers.

What do I need to split the incoming digital signal from the aerial
and extend it over Cat5e cabling (house is floord-wired with Cat5e) to
the TVs?

Seems to me I need something to split the signal (1:6 would be good),
possibly amplify it, convert from co-ax to Cat5 physical format, and
then convert back again at the TV/receiver end. Presumably this will
need 2 or 3 devices in-line.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Nigel

wrote:
...
I have multiple TVs around the house, all with built-in digital
receivers.

What do I need to split the incoming digital signal from the aerial
and extend it over Cat5e cabling ...
What, you want to split the UHF signal and feed it down twisted pairs
designed for 100MHz? umm..

Put simply, it won't work. If the installers were any good, they left "pull
ropes" so that new cables can be run through the conduits used to run the
cables. put some CT100 through and do this the "traditional" way.

Umm, on second thoughts they may not have left "pull ropes" as pulling Cat5e
is bad for the cable and frowned upon. Perhaps you can feed the CT100
through carefully if the conduit is carefully routed.

Paul DS.

wrote:

I have multiple TVs around the house, all with built-in digital
receivers.

What do I need to split the incoming digital signal from the aerial
and extend it over Cat5e cabling (house is floord-wired with Cat5e)
to the TVs?

Dunno about the splitting part, but for relaying RF signals over CAT5e,
see this product, for example:
http://www.cyberselect.co.uk/product/438.

Keywords for further Google searches: "cat5e", "rf", "balun".

--
znark

Jukka Aho wrote:
.....
Dunno about the splitting part, but for relaying RF signals over CAT5e,
see this product, for example: http://www.cyberselect.co.uk/product/438.
...

Even if it works for UK DTB, which I doubt, it could work out quite
expensive.

Paul D.Smith wrote:
...pulling Cat5e is bad for the cable and frowned upon. ..
Good job I didn't know that when I recently pulled 60m of cat5e through
a friend's duct.
We did use the special lubricant they provide with the duct though.

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:33:50 +0100, "Paul D.Smith"
mused:

Put simply, it won't work. If the installers were any good, they left "pull
ropes" so that new cables can be run through the conduits used to run the
cables.

No, if they were any good they would have installed enough cat5e
points for it's intended use, which is what they di by the sound of
it. Whoever wanted the TV distribution would have had CT100 installed
alongside the cat5e.

Where exactly would you leave these 'pull ropes', assuming this is a
domestic install?

Umm, on second thoughts they may not have left "pull ropes" as pulling Cat5e
is bad for the cable and frowned upon.

Erm, how exactly do you install cat5e then? Gently lay it in it's
final position by completely demolishing homes and offices so you can
gain access to 100% of every cable run?

Also means I'm slightly screwed when running cat5e through ducting.
Gonna have to start using 7' dia ducts now so I can gently carry the
cat5e through and carefully lay it in.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:33:48 -0700, "
mused:

Bit of a newbie question this.

I have multiple TVs around the house, all with built-in digital
receivers.

What do I need to split the incoming digital signal from the aerial
and extend it over Cat5e cabling (house is floord-wired with Cat5e) to
the TVs?

Seems to me I need something to split the signal (1:6 would be good),
possibly amplify it, convert from co-ax to Cat5 physical format, and
then convert back again at the TV/receiver end. Presumably this will
need 2 or 3 devices in-line.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

What you could do is fit a load of STB's near the patch panel and send
the CVBS over the cat5e using baluns. You could then also use RF
extenders and distribution kits to control the STB's etc... from each
location.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

....snip...
No, if they were any good they would have installed enough cat5e
points for it's intended use, which is what they di by the sound of
it. Whoever wanted the TV distribution would have had CT100 installed
alongside the cat5e.

Where exactly would you leave these 'pull ropes', assuming this is a
domestic install?

Well Cat5e is already becoming obsolete (Cat6 and GB Ethernet) so personally
I'd have left a nylon rope within the conduit - until I remembered about
pulling). And even than I'd probably leave one for possible "guiding".

Umm, on second thoughts they may not have left "pull ropes" as pulling
Cat5e
is bad for the cable and frowned upon.

Erm, how exactly do you install cat5e then? Gently lay it in it's
final position by completely demolishing homes and offices so you can
gain access to 100% of every cable run?


It's a very good question. I believe you have to "push" it through as
you're installing the conduit, assuming that you can't get to the conduit
later. This is clearly less of an issue in offices where, for example, the
cable is laid under a false floor (as I'm sitting on at the moment) but more
difficult in a home.

The issue is that Cat5e is quite fine wire and easily damaged. You'll
probably still get a connection but depending on the damage, crosstalk etc.
result in far lower that 100Mbps that you expect. This is an issue for high
bandwidth applications like media (video) serving.

Also means I'm slightly screwed when running cat5e through ducting.
Gonna have to start using 7' dia ducts now so I can gently carry the
cat5e through and carefully lay it in.

Make nice gentle curves (as is recommended anyway) and make sure you have
regular inspection points so you only have relatively short distances to
push the cable through. Solid core Cat5e is stiff enough for that normally.

With someone pushing, you're probably OK with someone "guiding" (pulling
just enough to maintain the correct direction of travel) rather than
actually dragging the cable thorough.

I'd be interested to see some actual measurements of Cat5e performance on
good and bad installs but sadly few "installers" actually carry the tools to
do such measurements so unless something goes wrong, you never find out.

However its worth pointing out that video etc. requires very high bandwidth
so media servers will be far more sensitive to cabling issues than data
servers.

Paul DS

Lurch wrote:
Can anyone point me in the right direction?

What you could do is fit a load of STB's near the patch panel and send
the CVBS over the cat5e using baluns. You could then also use RF
extenders and distribution kits to control the STB's etc... from each
location.

Similarly, you could use MythTV or some other PVR system that supports
streaming over ethernet to multiple clients simultaneously...


Kim.