Industrial > Video

To ensure the best video resolution, it’s important to match your video extension device with a compatible grade of cable. Some multimedia extenders are not designed to transmit video across cable that’s higher than CAT5. In fact, with these extenders, the higher-grade cable may actually degrade video.

The problem is with the cable twists of CAT5e and CAT6 cables. To reduce signaling crosstalk, these higher-grade cables have tighter twists—and more of them—than CAT5 cable does. For this reason, the wire distance that an electrical signal has to travel is different for each pair. This doesn’t normally cause a problem with data, but if you’re sending higher-resolution analog video signals across long cables, you may see color separation caused by the video signals arriving at different times.

To avoid this, you could use only the lower-grade cable with the extenders. But what if you already have CAT5e or higher cable installed in your building, or you simply want the latest and greatest copper wiring? Order an extender receiver that features built-in skew compensation so it can work properly with higher cable grades at longer distances.

In data communications applications, using products that exceed required capacities is usually not a problem. For example, if a 28.8K modem is required, a 33.6K or 56K model will work just fine.

But sometimes, more isn’t better. Take KVM extenders designed to expect CAT5 and only CAT5 cable. You’d expect that Category 3 cable wouldn’t be effective with these products, and you would be right.

But you may also assume that if Category 5 cable works fine, Category 5e, Category 6, and other higher-capacity cables would work even better. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and here’s why:

KVM extenders from many manufacturers, including ServSwitch CAT5 KVM Extenders, are designed specifically for the Category 5 specs defined by the TIA/EIA standard. Higher-level cables, such as Category 5e, have different characteristics and specifications. Although differences—specifically twist ratios—might seem small, they can have a negative impact on these extenders, which are expecting a true Category 5 transmission.

So with ServSwitch CAT5 KVM Extenders, you can think big with CAT5—just don’t think bigger.