HDMI over Ethernet

[Dwaipayan]

Hello all,

I am planning to rewire my current home theater (5.1) setup for a more organized and clean looking room and looking for recommendations on HDMI over Ethernet (Cat6/Cat7) extender devices. Below are my requirements.

1. Length of HDMI cable I need is ~45-50 feet from projector (@rear, shelf mounted) to AVR (front of room).
2. Current projector is an Epson EH-TW5650 (1080p, 10 bit color support).
3. Current receiver is an ancient Yamaha RX-V475 (5.1). Max recommended HDMI cable length as per manual is < 15 feet.
4. Budget is around INR 5k for the pair (Rx & Tx) excluding the Ethernet cable.
5. I would prefer to have support up to 4k@60 with full 10-bit color support (for future upgrade path), but this is optional.
6. Not looking for HDMI 2.1 specs or fiber optic HDMI cables due to their high cost and mixed reviews on Amazon about cables going bad with no helpful after sales support.

Any inputs regarding this would be helpful, especially from someone who has experience with such a setup personally. Also, please feel free to highlight the downsides of this approach, if any, w.r.t my use case.

 

[Dwaipayan]

Anyone? Any alternative ideas for achieving my goals are also welcome...

 

[kvm]

Long ago I had used OREI HDMI extender over CAT6/7 (purchased from amazon.com) which had worked decently to extend my D2H STB output to the HT room. It was however prone to connectivity issues if the ethernet cable connectors are not proper - but once it was set right, it works.
At another point I had used Monoprice HDMI extenders/ repeater as well to directly extend HDMI cables. I still have the Monoprice (which am not using currently) but long sold the OREI.

 

[Dwaipayan]

So what do most people use for long stretches of HDMI connectivity? I believe 40-45 feet of wiring is not too long considering room lengths of 18-20 feet. As far as I know, active optical HDMI cables are somewhat of a newer technology.

 

[bornfi]

I have been using this for almost 2 years without any issues.

Amazon Basics High-Speed Fiber Optic HDMI Cable (18Gpbs, 4K/60Hz) - 50 Feet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X1KP66...t_i_AZ9P8ZARATV6MW11G3EH?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This replaced a German $300 cable and has a superior picture and sound quality.

 

[vinothmanick]

Hi,
FYI all the hdmi to lan cable wont work for media consumption it is for NVR/DVR(Security cameras) u need converter that supports HDMI HDCP which u wont get for your mentioned budget without HDCP if u use a converter you will only get a blank screen, there are only two manufacturers in the world who sells lan to hdmi with HDCP without any data loss they are cerston and extron (both a pair cost around 500 dollars).As fellow members suggested use fibre optic hdmi cable or gud budget cable like blue rigger will do the job (buy from amazon and return as not working if it doesn't suits u).Airtel STB will work sometimes as it doesn't need HDMI HDCP for all the channels that's y it worked for fellow members as posted.

 

[Dwaipayan]

Hi,
FYI all the hdmi to lan cable wont work for media consumption it is for NVR/DVR(Security cameras) u need converter that supports HDMI HDCP which u wont get for your mentioned budget without HDCP if u use a converter you will only get a blank screen, there are only two manufacturers in the world who sells lan to hdmi with HDCP without any data loss they are cerston and extron (both a pair cost around 500 dollars).As fellow members suggested use fibre optic hdmi cable or gud budget cable like blue rigger will do the job (buy from amazon and return as not working if it doesn't suits u).Airtel STB will work sometimes as it doesn't need HDMI HDCP for all the channels that's y it worked for fellow members as posted.

Thanks! You have actually highlighted an important aspect which I did not even think of.

I have been using this for almost 2 years without any issues.

Amazon Basics High-Speed Fiber Optic HDMI Cable (18Gpbs, 4K/60Hz) - 50 Feet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X1KP66...t_i_AZ9P8ZARATV6MW11G3EH?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This replaced a German $300 cable and has a superior picture and sound quality.

Thanks! Could you by any chance confirm if the same will also work for a PC or not? This may sound stupid, but I have recently seen cables being advertised as "Works with Nvidia RTX 3000 series", so assuming there may be some which does not (I do have an RTX 3000 series GPU).

Alternatively, they may be highlighting the HDMI 2.1 specs with higher bandwidth for 4k@120, but I'd still want to be sure before I spend.

 

[bornfi]

Could you by any chance confirm if the same will also work for a PC or not?

Checked with a Win11 laptop with no issues, works fine.

 

[Dwaipayan]

Checked with a Win11 laptop with no issues, works fine.

Thanks a lot! I guess I'll have to stretch my budget and get one of those optical cables.

 

[mail2sumanth]

I have been using this for almost 2 years without any issues.

Amazon Basics High-Speed Fiber Optic HDMI Cable (18Gpbs, 4K/60Hz) - 50 Feet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X1KP66...t_i_AZ9P8ZARATV6MW11G3EH?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This replaced a German $300 cable and has a superior picture and sound quality.

+1, Same experience. This is good enough. HDMI over Ethernet is an alternative when you don’t have any other option. I always recommend this optical cable and one Ethernet from your audio rack to projector. Use optical hdmi cable as primary, crimp the Ethernet cable and leave for future use. You can do this within your budget. Buy the Ethernet extenders only when required.

AmazonBasics High-Speed Fiber Optic HDMI Cable (18 Gpbs - 4k/60Hz), Supports Ethernet, 3D, 4K and ARC - 30-Foot https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07X4QHZHF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KCYM5BRTWR4Z01YY64WJ

 

[Shanmugam]

Take a look at this IOGEAR Wireless HD Plug and Play HDMI /TV/Projector Video Audio Extender Kit 10200 Mbps Wireless Router on Flipkart
https://dl.flipkart.com/dl/iogear-w...-a539-f2dc75a0235a.RTRG7HFUUMTZBFJF&_appId=MR

 

[Dwaipayan]

It is currently showing as out of stock.

Also, I am not too convinced about wireless tech as there is too much interference nowadays even on the 5G band. I did try running a pi4 over 5Ghz as a moonlight client to stream my PC desktop within the room and faced latency issues every few seconds. Replacing that with an Ethernet cable solved the problem.