Reader Justin wrote in to Ask-a-Pro:

I have a PlayStaton 3 I want to leave in the basement, so I’m going from the basement up about 20 feet with double Cat-5 to a closet. In that closet I have my receiver for Dish Network. Then another 50-feet run of double Cat-5 line to a TV. I also have cables for a remote eye to control everything from that room. I want to be able to run the PS3(from the basement) as well as the Dish (upstairs closet) with an HDMI switch. I can get signal the 50-feet with the dish using some cat5 video baluns, but when i hook the PS3 up from downstairs I must be losing signal and I can’t get a picture?

So I’m looking for some kind of HDMI booster that I can put in the closet between the basement and the TV that I will be able to switch from the TV room using the HDMI switch, and it has to be able to boost the HDMI through the double Cat-5 lines. I hope this makes sense.

CE Pro’s Robert Archer says:
Most of the HDMI amplification solutions on the market involve using a hybrid Cat-5/HDMI type of connection that enables the long transmission lengths.

There are also active HDMI cables from companies like Atlona and Honeywell that have built-in electronics to maintain and boost the signal over long distances.

Before buying an active cable or some type of balun-based, hybrid solution try trouble shooting your system to make sure you don’t have a bad cable or it’s a sync issue between the display and the PS3. HDMI can be very buggy and you may find it’s an issue with the cables or PS3.

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