OTHER TECH

Q. I'm about to buy a whole-house video and audio distribution system, and I'm being told that I can tranfer HD video around the house using double Cat-5e connections without loss of picture quality. It sounds too good to be true. Is it? Kapil Wadhwani via email

A: JOHN CHANCE, Owner, The Home Theater Connection (THTConnection.com), Staten Island, NY, says: Yes, it's true. It's accomplished by using what's called a video balun, and it can support HDTV (720p, 1080i/p) transmission via component video converted to Cat-5e with wire runs up to 1,000 feet.

Video baluns convert unbalanced video into a balanced signal format that is more immune to noise and interference and can be transmitted over long lengths of Cat-5e with very little signal loss. Two-piece systems, with a transmitter on one end and a receiver on the other, are available from companies such as Knoll Systems (knollsystems.com) and AudioControl (audiocontrol.com). These typically include connections for transferring audio as well, hence the double Cat-5e you mention.

Of course, once you have video in your remote rooms, how will you turn your source components on and off or change channels? Radio frequency (RF) remote controls or IR repeaters (see How to Install an IR Repeater) will do the trick. But that's a whole other topic!

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