Cat5/Ethernet problem

[highrisen]

Help! I was trying to hook up Netflix to Panasonic BluRay player thru a 50' Cat 5 cable.



First cable was a cheap $5 from ebay then upgraded to $38 cable from Best Buy. The BluRay was on a tv in a different room - I ran the cable over/under the hardwood floor to test. Each cable had signal distortion resulting in constant freezing of the picture during the movie.



I moved the bluray in to the room with the router and hooked up to the tv there, ran the cheap cable around the room so it wouldn't be coiled - picture was fine. So I set the BluRay back up in the other room and disconnected the other ethernet cables from the router (in attempt to strengthen the signal to one cable) and the original problem persisted.



I have to assume it takes a significant amount of interference given that contractors run 12 strands of cat 5 through 1" conduit and they do not crosstalk even then.



What could possibly be the reason for the problems with the cable stretched and encountering no other sources of interference?

 

[Tmagic650]

You could buy a USB wireless adapter for the BLU-Ray player and run it wirelessly

 

[lchu12]

If you are finding problems with interference, you can try buying Shielded Cat5e. Pretty expensive though...

 

[Leeky]

How close a proximity is the cabling running to main electric wiring under the floor?
Also, are you creating any really tight bends running it under the floor?

In my experience you will get interference if you run it close to mains electric wiring unless its shielded (STP) cat 5e. I have runs far in excess of 50' connecting most rooms in my home with standard FTP and its fine as long as you keep it away from the mains wiring.

STP Cat 5e might be worthwhile considering.

 

[highrisen]

You could buy a USB wireless adapter for the BLU-Ray player and run it wirelessly

Why didn't I think of that?

If you are finding problems with interference, you can try buying Shielded Cat5e. Pretty expensive though...

Compared to standard Cat5 it cost more but still not too expensive (as low as $16 on ebay)...or even better shielded Cat6. Thanks for the suggestions. As for which one I will try first, I don't know yet but will post results.

 

[Leeky]

A top quality Cat5e is more than capable of Gigabit ethernet installations. There is no need to run Cat 6 and I would recommend against it for a home installation.

Wireless is another option well worth considering as well.

 

[tonylukac]

Do they have usb ports or only ethernet ports? I'm doing a similar project and will check it out.

 

[tonylukac]

My brother's player has a usb port. In further digging tho, only certain wireless usb adapters, some notably from the manufacturer of the player, are supported, so be careful. I don't have a spare wireless n adapter to try it.

 

[SNGX1275]

You could buy a USB wireless adapter for the BLU-Ray player and run it wirelessly

That may be tougher than it seems, I know at least Samsung bluray players require samsung specific WLAN adapters.

A top quality Cat5e is more than capable of Gigabit ethernet installations. There is no need to run Cat 6 and I would recommend against it for a home installation.

Why? I just bought 75' of Cat 6 to wire my Mac Mini (which is connected to my main TV as a media center pc) and it works great. But then I remembered I had some old wireless routers, so I disabled wireless and DHCP to turn them into a switch and put that by the tv and then wired in my Mac Mini and a Sony Bluray player. Have had it that way for a week now and its been fantastic.