HDMI Extender

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The HDMI Extender is a single or pair of active devices that are powered with an external power source or with the 5V DC power from the HDMI source. The HDMI cable, fiber optics, CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable, and wireless link^[1] are used to extend HDMI to longer distances up to tens of thousands of meters.

To use longer HDMI cable or cables, active boosters are necessary to compensate for losses and to remove the intersymbol interference. HDMI cable becomes thicker, stiffer and heavier with increasing cable length, however, making it difficult to use in many applications. Many companies developed the HDMI over UTP type extender to use CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable, which is much thiner, softer and lighter. Most extenders use two cables to extend the 4-pairs of TMDS signals for video, and two or three control signals for the DDC and HDCP. Some extenders use single CAT-5 or CAT-6 UTP, which is a better solution than two UTP extenders. To avoid EMI problems, most HDMI over UTP extenders require shielded or screened CAT-5 or CAT-6 cables.