Ah, the upgrade dilemma—all that new wire and cabling you need to install when you want to bump up to high-def, add a Blu-ray player, pop an HD gaming console into your system.

And when you’re projector or display is nowhere near the rest of the A/V equipment rack, that can get tricky. Probably why Gefen’s created an HDMI extender for just about every occasion.

The latest rig is an HDMI over RGB Extender that lets you use work with your long legacy RGBHV cable to send high-definition audio and video with the v1.3 spec.

You just have to connect the sender and receiver units at the source and the extended display with standard HDMI cable, and use the 5BNC coaxial cables to link them, and you’ll be able to link your new Blu-ray player, set-top box, gaming console and such to your display.

You’ll still get the full 1080p video, 7.1 surround sound of the latest Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats, deep color, lip sync and everything else that comes along with HDMI.

Gefen says the extender works at distances up to 330 feet. It’ll run you $599 smackers, which gets you one sender unit, one receiver unit, a 6-foot HDMI cable, power supply and user manual.

Arlen Schweiger - Editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen writes about home technology installations and product news and reviews for electronichouse.com and Electronic House magazine.