HDMI over Ethernet is supposed to be easy!

hey so one of the questions I get is how do I get  audio from a TV or video to a TV from somewhere   else in the house or from a central location so  this TV outside um actually has speakers above   me and they are powered by a Sonos amp down in  the basement there's TV doesn't have an HDMI   cable that runs down there we only have ethernet  between this TV and the basement so we have a lot   of we want us we send HDMI over ethernet and  I want to show you how we do that today and   conveniently it's actually currently broken it's  not working so we're actually going to take some   steps through of what an HDMI balance is and how  we send HDMI over ethernet to an amp and then how   the audio goes back up to the speakers above  us here this is what's called an HDMI balance   this little black box here I'll put a link  in the video to uh to Amazon there's a bunch   of different brands but this is the one I chose  in the end and the main reason I chose this one   is because for those that are aware HDMI has this  protocol called Arc which is audio return Channel   so this can send video from the basement to here  then it can send audio from the TV back down to   the basement so that's what happens is we send  audio back down this into the solar samp and then   sort of sample sends audio to the speakers above  me um so there's two of these this is the the   receiver because it receives the video signal even  though it sends audio backwards um and you see in   the front here you can actually also you can do  Arc but you can also send like the optical or the   um the final connection back down there as well  power these things are Poe but not the traditional   Poe so one of these balance has to be plugged in  either end doesn't matter and then it'll power the   other one so the one down in the basement is  plugged into the power and then this one gets   powered by that via the ethernet cable which is  nice so this just has an HDMI cable an ethernet   cable plug to the Mac a bit so here we have power  we have status the status is trying to say it's   trying to create connection and this link light  should be lit up green now we have one in in the   b-roll we have one that is to our bedroom and the  link like a screen which means it's created stable   connection so this was working so sometime between  last season and this season it stopped working   um now as you can see here this is a waterproof  enclosure again just find one on Amazon or a   local local retailer and then on there here  we have these grommets of an HDMI grommet   waterproof grommets so it creates a weather  Tight Seal between the two and then we just   have another weatherproof grommet so I can send  the ethernet cable and this is an IR cable so I   can send IR signals down to the basement in case  I need to as well which is what this little uh   this little thing here is um so let's start some  troubleshooting steps I'm guessing it's going to   be ethernet related so we're going to probably  create reduce some links in the chain to try and   create a collection so this goes into the wall up  here so this is Eric still and then and then this   goes down to the basement what we're going to  try and do is probably I'm going to start with   the basement because in the recent video we redid  the connections down there so I'm going to guess   maybe adding one to minute cables is creating a  link issue and hopefully that's it this is where   the ethernet cable and the HDMI cable and then  the speakers all come down to here so we have our   Sonos amps here which is this is the patio on here  so this is on and working I can send audio up to   the speakers fine so I know this isn't the issue  so I can just play music at it not a big deal so   down here we have our two HDMI bands and I was  talking earlier about see how this is flashing   a stairs light and this is a green link symbol  this goes to our premium bedroom TV and this   one here is the patio TV so it's trying to create  connection but there's no Link light which is bad   so what we need to do is work out why this is not  create a link like so when we did our patching   this is the patio ethernet cables and the H here  is the HDMI ballon which comes down to the the   transceiver down here so I'm guessing either this  patch panel or this cable or something between is   causing the issue because previously we used to  just plug the cable from the back of this patch   panel into the balance it worked so what we're  going to do is we're going to unclip that cable   and then plug it straight to the back of the  the band so one thing occurred to me whilst I   was doing this was checking that I unplugged the  right cable so I just came back out here to check   the power went off when I unplugged that cable  just to make sure we've got the right one I'm   going to undo my neat cabling unfortunately HDMI  cable comes at the back of that so fingers crossed   can see that fingers first plug it in and it  starts working but if not then we have a step   two plug directly into the patch cable into the  cable that comes straight from outside and now I   have a green Link light perfect exactly what I  want to see but my amount of Interest going to   try putting a coupler in here with that cable  to see if that if that's the same issue apart   my little experiment I wanted to see where the  fault lies so what we did is I took that same   cable I took to the same ethernet cable to get  the back of the patch front of the patch panel   and then I ran it from the back of the unit  this black cable this black ethernet cable   and then it's still looped into my my um rack so  I don't want to unwire it and then it comes out   and then into this coupler into this and we  still have a green link signal so that means   the my patch panel is unfortunately must create  enough interference or a bad enough connection   that it doesn't let the signal come through  plot thickens a little bit I actually just   plugged everything back in and I used a different  port on my rack there I went one over this time   um and into the front here again so it's one over  so we were in this one so it makes me wonder if   this maybe this port is faulty um and the the  reason why it's mostly surprised is because   um our bedroom this one on the end here is HD this  one our bedroom here is the HDMI and that does the   same thing we use a coupler then we go down into  the bottom there admittedly this is a cat6a cable   so this is shielded um so the I would hope there's  less interference um but yeah this one works fine   which is why I'm surprised that this one doesn't  work so it makes you wonder if this is a faulty   a faulty coupler on the rack so you see on the  back of that now we have our power the status   and our Link light which is what we want so  let's turn on the TV and I'll show you what   we get make sure you pair up your TV and then  make sure that even though the balance says   it's making a link we actually want to make sure  everything works cool and that for anyone that's   not aware is the Sonos screen saver so then now  we can go in and what you'll see on here it will   should detect it so you see on the right  here you have your receiver HDMI so you   have default you have a TV speaker and because  this is an e-arc it's going to send the audio   down to what's called receiver or in our case  this is the Sonos amp which takes uh an arc   return signal so we're going to pick that a  bit of crab Rave which is a DRM free music   so I don't just come over the speakers but it  is the audio is actually breaking up which means   the link actually still isn't that good so that  means there is still a poor connection somewhere   plugged the cable directly into the back of the  transceiver downstairs instead of going through   the patch panel almost it's a little less choppy  but not perfect and what I noticed downstairs is   that the link locks actually flashing so it's and  also you notice here how it's getting this hdcp   um it's trying to do something which I guess it  doesn't quite support so I think there's still   a faulted cable somewhere or potentially one of  these units is faulty all right so we've done   a couple more things we changed out this is an  outdoor rated unify Ubiquiti cable it's a little   less choppy with us to also took out this patch  cable the cable from the TV is going straight into   the back of this ballon now so at this point I'm  a little lost far as the cable tester is concerned   maybe a publication all the cables although we've  got one to eight on every single pin so there's no   connection issue change the cables we're actually  using a different port and a different Uplink   cable that goes down to the basement doesn't help  new cable from HDMI and on the basement side or   actually I have a different transmitter that goes  up to our primary bedroom and they still have   the same issue and still audio choppy audio video  works fine all right one step closer it looks like   so this is a different ballon but I don't actually  think this is from our bedroom and they're both   so this is the workings I know this system works  but it looks like it may be not related to that   um I think it's these HDMI cables potentially  which is odd because they were working   um the thing that made the most difference is I  changed the HDMI cable into the Sonos downstairs   and now it's working it's not perfect it's still  a little choppy but like compared to what it was   there's a big difference so I'm going to try  a completely different brand new HDMI cable   and see if that makes a difference on both  ends unfortunately I have tested changed out   every single component of this uh different Uplink  cable uh different patch cables different couplers   different HDMI cables and this was working last  year so I sometime between now and then read   the patching in my server and the mechanical room  downstairs I must have caused more signal issues   so what I'm going to do actually I mean the good  news is that looks like my HDMI Balan works fine   so that's good um the bad news is I'm guessing  I'm going to have to I'm going to try a different   brand or a higher quality one of these and then  see if that fixes it I'm just guessing there's   just not enough signal Integrity going back down  to the basement all right it's been a couple of   weeks since where we left up from um of trying  to work out why this wasn't working but what I've   done is I have rma's the units so I thankfully um  what's the company uh AV access which you can get   from Amazon they even though technically a little  bit our warranty they sent me a new set of the   same the same HDMI balance I swapped them out  straight away and it worked perfectly so what I   don't understand is I'm wondering if there must be  an age component to them of where constantly being   on and constantly being plugged in the trans the  capacitors or something like that start to fade   out after a year which is a little worrying  but that said my primary bedroom still works   regardless of being plugged in constantly almost  for a year and a half at this point so there must   have been something odd going on where maybe this  is a slightly longer cable run or the router takes   is almost interference sensitive where the brand  new set works better so unfortunately in the end   all my cabling was fine we re-terminated cables  we re-terminated you know checked or we changed   all HDMI cables we change the ethernet cables  we change we choose different paths from here   to the basement and at the end of the day it was  by the sounds of it just these balance the two   older balance just weren't strong enough to send  signal the way back but now it's working perfectly   with these two brand new units what I did notice  is it in the Box here this is a slight different   box to what I've sent so I'm wondering if they've  refreshed the electronics ever so slightly in this   generation the the numbers are the same important  they sent me from my previous boxes but the   the stuff inside of his ever so slightly  different um so maybe and the stickers on   this are ever so slightly different so it makes  me wonder if they have changed some Electronics   which is maybe why maybe the Signal's a bit  stronger now but anyway thanks for joining   me thanks for joining on this journey and uh I  hope you can like And subscribe see you next one thank you

Channel: JenxTech

Views: 8,159

Keywords: Ethernet, HDMI, TV, BALUN

Id: c_ZD9g3eTSo

Length: 11min 53sec (713 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023