Digital coax audio over cat6

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Hi,

I want to output the sound from my TV to an 5.1 amp that is situated under the stairs. I've run cat6 throughout my house, so was wondering if I can bridge the coax output from my TV to the coax input on my amp via the cat6 cables.
 
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Steven
Yes you can do it, but audio quality will suffer as these simply take your Audio signal and pass them down your CAT5/6 cable - so there will be some noise pickup (hummmm).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...d=m570.l1313&_nkw=audio+to+cat+cable&_sacat=0

and this one has reviews from people who have done the same as you are looking for (note that they did not experience any hum, but did experience a bass droppoff):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/RELPER-2Pa...4262196&sr=1-4&keywords=audio+to+cat+extender

Some of these have might have audio A to D conversion in them, perhaps reducing any Audio noise pickup (but I have never used):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=audio+to+cat+extender&rh=n:560798,k:audio+to+cat+extender

So you can do it, but might sound terrible. Suggest you buy cheapest and see if Audio quality okay for you.
SFK
 
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If you're talking about bodging a couple of RCA phono plugs on to the ends of some Cat6 then the answer is no. The digital coax S/PDIF signal is designed to run in a shielded 75 Ohm coax cable. Cat cables are neither shielded nor 75 Ohm, so the results won't be what you're hoping for.

Cat Baluns are the way. However, you'll need something substantially better than the stereo analogue (red & white) to Cat baluns. The problem is bandwidth - or how much information the pipeline will take.

If we stay with the pipes analogy for a second, stereo audio could be thought of as needing the flow you might get through a drinking straw. By comparison, digital audio needs something about the size of the plumbing pipes under your kitchen sink. Even with compression, there can be a lot of information travelling via coaxial digital audio connection compared to basic analogue stereo.

Here we come to our second hurdle.... Availability and price.

There aren't many companies making consumer-level baluns to convert digital coaxial audio (S/PDIF) to travel over Cat cable. That's partly due to a lack of demand, and partly a technical limit because a poorly designed balun can introduce jitter which can wreck the signal. The Muxlab baluns (£35 ea, £70 for a pair) should work fine and are about the cheapest branded product I've seen. Decent bandwidth spec too at 25MHz. There's also the marginally cheaper unbranded baluns at £61/pair. These will also carry video as well as digital coaxial audio, but whether you use that feature is entirely up to you.

Other than some Niles baluns (good gear) that are used and for sale from the States, I haven't seen anything in the right category from Ebay. Some chancer is advertising the Muxlab baluns at £67 each :eek: on Amazon. There's nothing else suitable oming up with a quick search, but you may turn up some options if you have time to browser about.

Now comes the final hurdle... Basic baluns don't work with your network switch.

The signal might be carried by Cat cable, but what's actually going down those strands of wire isn't a data signal. For that reason, you can't mix balun signals with data signals. It doesn't work.

The sort of baluns under discussion here turn an unbalanced signal in to a balance signal so that any noise picked up in the unshielded Cat cable during its journey can be neutralised in the unbalancing process. What this conversion process doesn't do is convert consumer audio and video signals in to the sort of TCP/IP data packets that your network is expecting to see.

If that wasn't disappointing enough, baluns are only really happy (read as: Reliable) when there are no joins in the Cat cable going from A to B. That means that even if you unhook the cat cable at the hub and connect the lounge socket to the cable tail coming in to your comms cupboard, then the fact that there's a joiner in place might be enough to upset the passively-powered balun signal.

There is a technology called HDBaseT which will work with some network switches; not all though. And it's recommended to have a separate AV balun network completely segregated from the data network. Oh, the other thing, HDBaseT ain't cheap.

Sorry this isn't better news, but trying to make stereo audio baluns carry digital audio - especially bitstream digital audio for 5.1 - isn't ever going to end well so you might as well hear it upfront.


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I want to output the sound from my TV to an 5.1 amp that is situated under the stairs. I've run cat6 throughout my house, so was wondering if I can bridge the coax output from my TV to the coax input on my amp via the cat6 cables.
Can you describe your setup a little better?

I assume you have an AVR and your sources (DVD player, Sky box etc) in a cupboard with a HDMI linking the AVR to the TV and then speaker cable going to the various speakers around the room?

If this is the case then checking if your AVR and TV both support ARC (Audio Return Channel) which allows the TV to pass back audio to the AVR down the same HDMI cable
 
Under stair rack will host an HDAnywhere 4x4 matrix hooked up to 4 sources, outputting to 4 TV’s around the house and will also have and 5.1 Amp

5.1 speakers only in one of the TV locations (living room) which will be connected to the Amp.

Not sure I can feed the sound from the matrix to the speakers via the AMP so that all sources are covered? Also have the problem of controlling the amp from the living room, but that’s less of a concern.
 
I've not used one of those matrix so not going to claim to be an expert but the Amazon advert for their mHub 2k 4x4 states it supports ARC. The manual mentions there is a digital out on the matrix that is for passing the ARC audio out and a switch to enable/disable it... not sure if this is the exact model you have but suggests that if it is then you don't need an ARC compatible amp even.
 
Historically, the audio out from TVs have been quite limited where the source signal is HDMI. This is changing very gradually, but the pattern for too many TVs is still that the audio in via any HDMI input is limited to basic stereo. For those of us with Sky or Virgin, passing the DD5.1 signal through the TV via a HDMI input resulted in losing discrete surround for the HD and movie channels.

What really sucks though is TV manufacturers camouflaged this important bit of info. You see, a lot of TVs with a Freeview HD tuner, and with media player features built in (USB file playback, Netflix), would quite happily pass DD5.1 from those sources; so that's what the manufacturers would shout about. I've lost count of the number of discussions I've had with customers who - quite rightly - saw the TV as a big switch and a way to simplify the routing of sound to their home cinema surround system.

The situation is starting to change, probably because of the attention that Dolby Atmos is getting, but it's a slow process. A few more TVs in each year's ranges will pass DD5.1 and maybe DTS in stereo (2.0) too, but it's a long way off being universal. It also leaves a yawning gap for HD Audio and DTS5.1 surround.

For all the above reasons, plus the potential difficulty getting coaxial or Optical audio to pass through a Balun system linked to a data network, then unless there's a compelling reason to do it I'd be tempted to look for an easier solution.

One such idea is a minor re-jig and simplification of the cable routing.

Take the matrix output that would have gone to the lounge TV, and fee it directly to the HDMI in of the audio system. Then, take the HDMI out from the audio system and feed that to the TV. In effect, you're inserting the surround system in-line between the maxtrix switch and TV.

Of course, this is only feasible if you're using a 5.1 AV receiver with HDMI in and out. Also, it would help if it has Audio Pass-Thru in Standby. (If you're not sure what that is, it means that when the amp is off, the sound from whatever source is heard on the TV speakers. When the amp is on then the TV speakers get no signal and it's the surround system that is heard instead.) Working in this way neatly solves the question about muting the TV speakers when the surround system is running.

The matrix still works as before, but wiring this way makes better use of the 5.1 amp's decoding abilities. Also, you don't lose a network connection, and it saves money on interfaces. There are a couple of caveats though.

For homes where there's no TV recorder/PVR serving the lounge i.e. live TV comes via the TV's in-built Freeview tuner, then this isn't going to work. Also, the same goes for where the home owner wants to make extensive use of any smart TV features or plug in Chromecast or a Firestick in to the TV directly. These aren't insurmountable problems: A decent AV receiver will have multiple inputs to host plug-in HDMI dongles, and it won't clash with the rest of the house. Also, Freeview HD PVRs aren't tremendously expensive and they allow for more flexibility when it comes to watching / pausing / recording off-air TV.


If this or any other posts helped you then pay the authors the compliment of hitting the thanks button. It shows your appreciation and marks the reply for those looking for answers in the future.
 
Historically, the audio out from TVs have been quite limited where the source signal is HDMI. This is changing very gradually, but the pattern for too many TVs is still that the audio in via any HDMI input is limited to basic stereo. For those of us with Sky or Virgin, passing the DD5.1 signal through the TV via a HDMI input resulted in losing discrete surround for the HD and movie channels.
This may have been true 8 years ago but ARC has been around since then and almost all implementations support up to Dolby Digital Plus (7.1). The new eARC that came out last year supports Dolby Digital TrueHD and Atmos so 7.1.4.

Like the OP however, for Sky & Virgin you connect these to your 5.1 (or 7.2.4) sound system and then that to your TV. Getting sound from the TV is for using anything thats built into it, so freeview, freesat, Netflix or any other apps etc and thats exactly what (e)ARC is designed for.
 

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