Running Coax Signal Through Ethernet Cable

[Juice Box]

At work today I noticed that in the back of the TVs, there is an ethernet to coax adapter (ethernet line running to the adapter, then the adapter converts it to the coax that the TV takes) I was talking with an IT guy about it and he was explaining that you can run your coax signal through ethernet....I wondered if there was a guide or something about this technology, as I found it very interesting!

 

[Gibson486]

I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

like I said, I dont know the details, only that it was an RJ45 to Coax adapter, he said they were really expensive, but its possible

 

[DaiShan]

Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

well what I am more surprised about is that the TV signal is running through the network? is that to say that any active RJ45jack on the network has the TV signal as part of it?

 

[newParadigm]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

Also, aren't like four of the wires in an Ethernet cable unused by the computer? So couldn't you just hook up the cox to two fo those wires (sheild might be an issue though, STP cables could be run as opposed to UTP?)

 

[HyTekJosh]

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

well what I am more surprised about is that the TV signal is running through the network? is that to say that any active RJ45jack on the network has the TV signal as part of it?

TVoIP ?

 

[DaiShan]

That would probably be more work than its worth, convert traditional cable to ethernet packets then back to what ever format the cable is? Why not just run the coax directly to the TV? It has a longer maximum run length than cat5 anyways...

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
That would probably be more work than its worth, convert traditional cable to ethernet packets then back to what ever format the cable is? Why not just run the coax directly to the TV? It has a longer maximum run length than cat5 anyways...

well if you have a pre-networked house or office building...would be easier than running coax to where the TVs are, versus simply plugging a TV into one of the many open RJ45 jacks. I guess you would just have to patch it for TV, I dunno...😕

 

[eelw]

Never tried to run coax, but I do run composite AV signals between two DVD recorders in the house over cat5. Yes, the quality ain't great, but it does the job.

 

[shekondar]

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

like I said, I dont know the details, only that it was an RJ45 to Coax adapter, he said they were really expensive, but its possible

They're not that expensive. Jameco sells them starting at about $20. The adapter is basically a transformer to change the impedance of the Cat5 to match the impedance of coax cable (you would need an adapter at each end of the Cat5 cable). The video is still being sent as an analog signal - the adapter doesn't do any translation of the actual signal.

 

[Aves]

You can get baluns to run all sorts of audio/video stuff over Cat5. It's actually a pretty popular idea.

 

[ScottMac]

It's a Balun and impedence matching device.

Structured cabling ("Cat{3, 4, 5, 5e, 6 -and others-}") was developed to handle many / most / all signaling, not just networking.

Before structured cabling, you need different cables for terminals (rs232, rs485, Rg62 for 3270, twinax for 5250), rg58 for "thin" ethernet, RG8 for "thick" ethernet, rf over twinlead or rg59 or rg6 coax ...)

The idea was to have a single (somewhat) universal cable plant, then use adapters at the ends to match the signal to the media.

You can get adapters for serial (most any kind), 5250, 3270, token-ring networking, RGB video, baseband video, RF (antenna|cable TV), line-level audio ... nearly anything.

There are a few vendors. You can look up some of the adapters at places like www.anixter.com, greybar.com .... and, of course, Google.

I use my structured cabling system to distribute baseband video + stereo audio to a couple locations from a central amp. It works pretty well, and the adapters were ~29.00 each.

I also use them for video from the CCTV cameras for the security system. No problems.

You would *not* want to transmit Ethernet through the same cable as anything else, it's out of spec and is asking for a world of "glitch" in your data.

FWIW

Scott

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

Coax is not "a copper wire with a BNC connector on the end"

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

like I said, I dont know the details, only that it was an RJ45 to Coax adapter, he said they were really expensive, but its possible

If its that expensive....then why do it that way?

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: newParadigm

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Cate 5e is just a copper wire with an rj45 connector on the end. Coax is just copper wire with a BNC connector on the end. Notice that cat5e is not ethernet, that is a networking protocol.

Also, aren't like four of the wires in an Ethernet cable unused by the computer? So couldn't you just hook up the cox to two fo those wires (sheild might be an issue though, STP cables could be run as opposed to UTP?)

not by gigabit ethernet.

 

[Pepsi90919]

and ethernet is not a type of cable

 

[eelw]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

like I said, I dont know the details, only that it was an RJ45 to Coax adapter, he said they were really expensive, but its possible

If its that expensive....then why do it that way?

A run of cat5 is far cheaper than the same length of coax.

 

[doze]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: Juice Box

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I didn't even think you could do that with out some big block translating......

like I said, I dont know the details, only that it was an RJ45 to Coax adapter, he said they were really expensive, but its possible

If its that expensive....then why do it that way?

Video Baluns are not that expensive, they are used in pairs and retail for about $50-60 per pair. They are commonly used for security camera runs because you only need 1 pair of cat5 wire to run a video signal therefore you can run 4 video feeds over 1 CAT5 which takes up much less space than 4 coax cables. Baluns also allow you to run video over longer distances than coax with no amplifier.