audio and video over CAT 5

[Jd925]

Hi i saw today a leviton quickport device that used one entire cat 5 cable for video or left or right audio.

So for example i want to run video and audio into my bathroom. I have a new master bath where there will be a small flat panel TV. I want to put DVD off of the whole house ent. system. So leviton says run 3 cat 5 wires on for video. one left audio and one for right. They each use all the pairs. What do you all think of this product. Any other suggestions. The wire that we ran in the begiing when the system was fist put in was very expensive and only available in 1000 feet rools. I only need about 1oo feet as i have cat5 already on a wall next to the wall where the TV will be going. Any other sugestions? Thanks Jake

 

[AvayaNovice]

A) Obviously the CATV plant is not 1.5MHz, you already corrected yourself on that one, no harm done.
B) Most systems are not even close to that, unless a rebuild was completed -- I'd say they're at about 700 or 750MHz maximum. The newest systems go up to 1GHz, and we're working on rebuilding again to 1.5MHz. 2GHz exists, and will be here probably by 2010 (which is when we'll be throwing out most stuff on HDTV).
C) Digital to analog conversions are indeed only a representation, and yes, some loss does occur (much like an MP3) because data that is either redudant, or beyond the spectrum of visual recognition to the human eye (or machine recognition). That data is then stripped to allow more compression into a single data carrier. And in a way, it is compression, perhaps not true compression, because we're digitizing multiple channels and throwing them over a data carrier.
D) The larger TV's are a poor example to make, as the inherent resolution difference ruins the entire argument.

I'm going to talk with a bunch of guys at the headend today and get some more info. I'm not doubting you, nor am I trying to argue, but I work for several cable companies... and I've balanced plenty of channels before, and I've seen HDTV, and I've seen how many HDTV channels we can get in there, and it's moreso based on the headend equipment than it is on the plant, or the type of cable itself.

And fiber was made as an example of cable type, obviously darkfiber or fiber to the home is not yet very popular. HFC systems are (hybrid fiber coax).

 

[wires]

I realize this is getting very far afield of the original question but I found this very informative on the HDTV/cable discussion.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-20-2004/0002091889&EDATE=

Essentially it says that Adelphia has deployed Terayon's Network CherryPicker technology that allows 3 (rather than 2) HDTV signals to "fit" on one 6Mhz channel. This is in line with the 3X "compression" that at DBS operators achieve for SDTV (12 channels on one transponder * 6Mhz original bandwidth / 24Mhz transponder bandwidth = 3X "compression&quot.

So if you ditch all other services (analog cable, internet...) and use 750Mhz for HDTV you get a maximum of 375 channels.

More realistically after you remove bandwidth for 100 analog channels (750-600=150) and internet and other stuff (approx 50) you have room for around 33 HDTV signals. Currently you would be hard pressed to find 33 HDTV signals to air so the issue is somewhat moot.

I feel that large TVs are exactly the point to make since they are the future. You would not be seeing 4 big plasma displays available at Sams Club if they were not selling.