December 19, 2007

Honeywell's New Product Allows Us to Transmit HDMI Over Cat5

Well we see another example of companies seeing a problem and stepping in with a good solution. Honeywell has added another product to the new segment of allowing us to transmit HDMI over standard Cat5 cable. We reviewed a product from Tributaries in the past that did something similar, but it used an external device to do all the conversion. What makes this product really cool is that it is an in wall setup. If you are one of the lucky ones that has Cat5 running throughout your house already this could be the perfect solution. Using a standard wall plate mount this will fit right in with the rest of your network drops around the house. Behind each plate is where the Cat5 will plug into and on the outside of the plate is the actual HDMI connector port.

We love the idea of having the ability to stream HD content anywhere we have a network drop without lost of quality, assuming of course if we stay in the ~200 foot range of the source. Devices like these are what is going to transform our living rooms into complete media experiences. Soon the days of having all of your equipment in one area, crammed together because they all need to be directly connected will be gone. You can have your TV on the wall in front of the main couch, your stereo on the other side of the room near the listening chair and speakers wherever the hell you want them. Between piggybacking on existing cabling( Cat5 and power ) and using wireless technology the entertainment center of tomorrow will be a lot more flexible and all encompassing then what we have today. With wireless HDMI around the corner we will be seeing a complete decoupling of your media equipment.

There has been no price set on this yet, but it should be launching any day now. We will update you when we hear about this actually being sold.

via ehomeupgrade