Need to Connect Media Room Receiver to Family Room Receiver

[hannahsdad]

So, here is my situation. I "want" to connect my upstairs media room receiver to my downstairs family room receiver. Both receivers are Sony STR-ZA5000ES's. The problem is, they are about 100' apart (cable run wise) and too far for a single HDMI cable. The entire house is hardwire with Cat-6 ethernet cable, but at each primary room, it goes through an eight port Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switch. I do NOT want to run a separate 100' cable for this, it is too hard to get to the back wall where the receiver / TV are.

So, what I would like to do is find an HDMI to Ethernet converter that uses DHCP. I have looked at many online and they all require a dedicated Ethernet connection between the transmitter and the receiver. Somehow, I need the transmitter / receiver to tie into my existing network and get their respective addresses from the DHCP server.

Does anyone know of such an animal? I cannot say that cost is not an issue, but I can say that I simply cannot run another cable at this point. The media room is built and there simply is no way to get another cable back there.

I do look forward to hearing what solutions you guys might have for me. So far, my Google searches have all come up with systems requiring dedicated wires.

Thanks in advance.

Scott

[Cornucopia]

The problem with going HDMI-->HDbaseT (hdmi over ethernet)-->HDMI is twofold:
1. It requires high bandwidth & dedicated switch (if not point-to-point), NOT normal consumer switch (such as your Netgear)
2. It introduces a small amount of latency

#2 might be ok for you unless you need precise synchronization, but #1 is probably a deal breaker. DHCP is not a problem for many pro-sumer or pro devices. Those are not cheap though, either.

You might try an Active HDMI cable (~75 - 100 footer). However, Active HDMI (which uses custom EQ'd amplification pre-emphasis+de-emphasis built-in for noise reduction) MUST be run in only 1 direction. Maybe you can explain how you intend to use these, but most runs are for Source to Display, not amp to amp (ARC?)

<edit>I am betting you want to do Multi-Zone? If so, I think Active HDMI should work. Or Point-to-Point HDBaseT (but decent ones would be more expensive than Active HDMI).


(also)
Scott

[hannahsdad]

Thanks for the reply.

I think #1 is probably ok. I am using Netgear GS108s (gigabit ethernet switches). So, there "should" be sufficient bandwidth. #2 is really not much of an issue, either. I'll explain.

What I am attempting to do is a one way connection from my media room to my family room for when we entertain. I would like to have a game on upstairs and have it in-sync (or darn close to it) in the downstairs family room. It is strictly one way. We utilize FireCubes for our streaming, but those are NEVER in sync, no matter how hard you try. This way, if I re-wind upstairs, downstairs sees the same thing. If we are talking about low single digit milliseconds for delays in the network, that is no deal breaker.

I would be interested in the Active HDMI, but again, that requires me to run another cable from the rear of the room (which backs up to the outside wall of the house). There is a tiny bit of room to get back there and I HATED doing it that the first time and now that the TV is mounted and the wall is sealed back off, I would prefer NOT to run another cable. Hence the desire to run it over my current network.

So, if you are aware of a one way transmitter / receiver combo that would fit my needs, I am more than willing to give it a try.

I hope this clarifies things.

Scott

[Cornucopia]

Sorry, I don't think I made myself clear on that point: HDbaseT is INCOMPATIBLE with standard consumer routers/switches, it needs corporate routers/switches that can be reconfigured to support different packet types.
MIGHT it work, anyway? Possibly, but very inconsistently from what I have seen.

You may also want to consider low latency wireless HDMI, but "low latency" there usually equates to 40ms-600ms, depending. At the higher end, you WOULD notice the delay (if you have a way to compare original to delayed).
For wireless HDMI, low end is $200-250 (I don't trust them), to low/mid $400-500 (workable most of the time) to mid/high $800-1200 (solid).

Scott

[hannahsdad]

So, yes, I definitely misunderstood. I assumed that a true gigabit network would be capable of handling that traffic. I mean, it handles the incoming stream, I would have thought it would handle the HDMI conversion stream as well.

So, it sounds like me getting all the way back behind my media center wall and "fishing" either an "amplified" HDMI cable OR a new Cat-6 dedicated cable is what it it going to take.

I see you are in Texas. It has finally started to cool (mid-90's) here in Dallas, but I think I will wait until Fall or Winter to tackle this project.

I truly appreciate your assistance in answering my questions. You have been a big time saver and no doubt, money saver as well. Take care.

Scott

[Cornucopia]

With the exception of new HDMI DSC compressed streams, the best an HDbaseT system can do is some proprietary lossless compression (point-to-point, usually ~2:1), so assuming a 1080p60 8bit 4:2:0 signal, we're talking:

[H rez] x [V rez] x Fps x Bit/Pixel / Sub-sampling / Compression
1920 x 1080 x 60 x 24bit / 2 / 2 (plus a little more for audio, etc) = ~750Mbps

This means, a consistently-reliable 1Gbps network is the MINIMUM capability to be able to pass an HD stream (and UHD could be 4x that requirement), PER STREAM.

Let us know if you need more info.


Austin is about the same. I'm glad it's getting a LITTLE better.


Scott