RE: [KAT5] Kat5 versus balun versus component coax

["Keith Doxey" <kat5users@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jez

First off, KAT5 units are Baluns.

A Balun is a unit that converts signals from BAL(anced) to UN(balanced) and
vice versa.

There are two sorts of Baluns

PASSIVE which are essentially just transformers and are less than 100%
efficient because of losses in the transformers although generally this is
not significant enough to notice.

ACTIVE (KAT5 are Active) which contains electronic circuitry to balance and
unbalance the signal. Because there are electronic they can overcome any
losses in the signal.

Another advantage of an Active balun is that you can distribute a signal to
more than one place.

Using either Active or Passive baluns over CAT5 cable will give you the
most
flexible option.

COAX - Essentially there is nothing wrong with using Coax but for S-Video,
Component Video, RGBS and RGBHV you are carrying 2,3,4 or 5 signals
respectivly and these must all arrive at the same time. This menas that the
cables must all be the same length (within a reasonable tolerance) because
if one cable was significantly shorter or longer is would cause errors in
the picture. This is easily overcome by using something like VanDamme
MultiCore coax available in 4 or 5 core varieties but a arounf £5 per metre
it wouldnt take much cable to add up to the cost of a set of KAT5's and the
cable would only have that one purpose in life because it would have to run
from A to B on cost grounds. A to Node0 and B to Node0 would cost a
fortune!
When SWMBO decides the Plasma needs to go on a different wall you have a
mojor problem :-(

At the end of the day, the choice is entirely yours but many Passive Baluns
are seriously overpriced for what they contain. KAT5 provides a high
quality, flexible and cost effective solution to AV distribution as many
people will agree.

Hope that helps and I hope I dont appear too biased towards KAT5 :-)

Keith

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Aston [mailto:jeremyaston@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 11 December 2004 11:35
> To: kat5-users@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [KAT5] Kat5 versus balun versus component coax
>
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I really like the idea of using cat 5 to distribute my a/v - I've
> flood wired my place and have plenty of cable to do it with!  I am not
> an electronics expert however and other installers have suggested
> using baluns to achieve the same thing.  I don't know why that might
> be a better solution.
>
> The question is - if I wanted to distribute component video from my
> dvd to my (as yet unbought) 42" plasma am I better running three
high
> quality coax cable plus audio feed (I still have the boards up to do
> it), or using Kat5 hardware or using a component video balun and cat5e
> cable.  I appreciate that the response here may be skewed towards kat5
> but hopefully Keith or someone else will have some argumentation that
> will explain what the differences are and what the pros/cons of each
> method are.
>
> I have posted a similar msg on ukha_d and someone suggested a Kat5
> module but did not explain why it would be the best choice.
>
> Many thanks in advance
>
> Jez
>
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>
> Searchable KAT5 archive can be found at
> http://www.ukha-archive.com/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
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