I’m curious if anyone has experience using extenders to send your camera’s HDMI signal back to your computer via a Cat6 ethernet cable. I’m looking to extend the range of the camera by about 150-200 feet and was considering this product: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z9OW6DQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A1GL48MCCW80M9&psc=1
Will this work without any lag or quality loss?
Any thoughts would be welcome.
@alternativeplan We used to use HDMI Ethernet Extenders but it was a hassle. I would now recommend to use HDMI to SDI converters, run SDI cables and use an SDI capture device at the Mac end.
Cat6 extenders work with less lag than your video input into the computer. Agree with Oliver they can be a hassle. More electronics and more wall-wart power units… These are generally to route video to a display, not to preserve a pristine camera signal in studio production (although tbh, I’ve seen worse image degradation on pro-sumer video gear designed to “enhance” the video). The video signal is already digital and these units just push the signal across a different type of wire. They don’t process the picture in any way, but naturally everytime you add another device in-line there could be potential issues.
I’ve not tried the brand you linked to but it is “budget priced”. I’ve bought several from Monoprice(dot)com (cheap) and Gefen (expensive), usually I got what I paid for. I never noticed any quality loss but bad cable and distance can cause problems (interference, noise) so spend a little more on quality Cat6 if this is not a permanent installation so the cable can take some abuse. Typically when they fail they just go dead or the power fails.
Personally, I wouldn’t use a cheap HDMI extender. I like the Gefen brand. If you want to go HDMI to SDI, these micro converters from Blackmagic Design are affordable. https://www.dvestore.com/blackmagic-design-convcmic-hs-micro-converter-hdmi-to-sdi/
Thank you for this feedback. Looks like that BM HDMI to SDI is the way to go. Much appreciated!