DVI kramer pico tools cat5 extender on AMD HD5870 Eyefinity

[glulab]

Probably, but not powered from the DVI output, a separate power supply most likely have to be used.

 

Hi,

I used my pc with eyefinity 5870 with active mdp to DVI (i have tested several active mdp to DVI) and DVI kramer pico tools cat5 extender.. and it works just with very short cables (5 mt).

 

Do you have some suggestions?

 

thanks

Emanuele

[Jonas Dannert]

Hi,

 

are you using their recommended STP Cat5e cable and a separate power supply per extender?

 

From Kramer website:

 

Cable

-

Requires STP (shielded twisted pair) cable. For optimum range and performance, use Kramer's BC−DGKat524, BC−DGKat623 or BC−DGKat7a23 cables.

Note that the transmission range depends on the signal resolution, graphics card and display used.

The distance using non−Kramer CAT 5, CAT 6, and CAT 7 cables may not reach these ranges.

 

/jonas

[Brian]

This line scares me:

 

Note that the transmission range depends on the signal resolution, graphics card and display used

Distance should be independent of the graphics card and display, especially with DVI. Its a digital signal between two converters, the graphics card and display are invisible to the cable. Different resolutions require different bandwidth and there fore will greatly effect the distance, but the Kramer boxes don't care what makes the signal as long as its clean and strong enough to retransmit, and they don't care what its attached to on the other end, it simply outputs a signal to what ever is there. Even with EDID pass through, which is a nice feature, the Kramer boxes shouldn't care what is generating and what is receiving the signal. I would call them out on that if I was talking to them directly. Gefen used to do this and it was a forced sale for their over priced in-house cables. Kramer claiming you have to use their cables is something I always shy away from.

My experience with DVI over CAT5 is limited. I have a few Gefen DVI>Cat5 boxes and they won't carry a signal very far.

I use DVI>Cat5/6 for runs under 100 feet (approx 30m). Using Cat5, Cat6, shielded, unshielded, doesn't seem to make a difference.

Anything over 100 feet (30m) we use Fiber Optic. This may seem like an expensive option but we've had great luck with the Gefen DVI FM 100. These un-marry the fiber cable from the ends so you can easily replace the fiber itself. And if I don't care about the color I can find good fiber suplus for inexpensive. Biggest problem is just making sure you have the proper connectors and cables as there are many flavors of fiber. For extreme lengths that out distance your CAT setup you could always rent fiber if its too expensive of an option. In the USA we rent a lot of fiber from the big rental houses... quality is hit and miss (on the rental stock), and fiber can be picky to abuse and fail for seemingly silly reasons, so rent spares!

[Walter]

Another point of view : besides various fiber solutions (purelink/extron), all with separate ST fiber connectors, using a four-core flexible and milspec fiber (so always spare lines available or less cables to feed to the rig), we recently bought a bunch of Extron dvi cat5 sets. With the cheapest cat5 cable, over 130 meter is no problem @ wuxga/60. (didn't test more). Since we're a rental company, we need to use flexible and durable Belden cable (I think it's belden1305a, not at hand to check) on a drum, and with this we had to cut back from 100mtrs, leaving 85meter with success. So for these sets we use 75mtr drums.

Though very fond of fiber, I'm more than happy with this new and affordable solution.

Hope this contributes.

[Jonas Dannert]

Hi Walter,

I think it could be good to mention the Extron model number, too.

They, as well as Kramer, Gefen etc has a lot to choose from, not all working well...

 

thanks/jonas

 

/jonas

[Walter]

Hi Walter,

I think it could be good to mention the Extron model number, too.

They, as well as Kramer, Gefen etc has a lot to choose from, not all working well...

 

thanks/jonas

 

/jonas

 

You're right Jonas. But in this case, Extron only has 1 type of DVI-extender that is long distance (other three types only 30 mtrs.)

Click = DTP DVI 301

Note that it's optimized for standard cat5 cable... By the way, I wouldn't recommend the extron VGA tp-extenders (over cat5), but then again, I've never been satisfied with any (high-res) TP-extender for analog signals... Always a drift you have to compensate... Love the cliff-effect of digital signals...

[glulab]

Hi,

 

are you using their recommended STP Cat5e cable and a separate power supply per extender?

 

From Kramer website:

 

Cable

-

Requires STP (shielded twisted pair) cable. For optimum range and performance, use Kramer's BC−DGKat524, BC−DGKat623 or BC−DGKat7a23 cables.

Note that the transmission range depends on the signal resolution, graphics card and display used.

The distance using non−Kramer CAT 5, CAT 6, and CAT 7 cables may not reach these ranges.

 

/jonas

 

Hi Jonas,

I actually used a CAT6 cable and not CAT5 kramer cable. I used a power supply, but only on the transmitter (the receiver don't have a power supply).

Now i have solved with video Cables To Go TruLink 89037 - 1 x 1 - UXGA - 50 m (http://www.dgstore.it/connettoreprolunga-video-cables-trulink-89037-uxga-p-334955.html?cPath=0_90160_10769) it's cheaper and transport the signal with 2 different CAT5, 1 for the DCC and another one for the video.

 

thank for your suggestion

 

Emanuele