Pre-wiring for an Xbox?

Question

Anyone ever heard of using Cat5 to pre-wire for an Xbox? I've always used HDMI, so you can get full 1080p. Some other company told me that they use Cat5 to wire an Xbox.

Answer 1

You can easily use CAT5e to make component cables but you can't make HDMI cables. The ends are very hard to find and normally you have to order in bulk. There are also too many small wires that require soldering to the connector and if not done with precision it would result in signal degradation. You can get a special device that you can hook CAT5e cables in to so that you can run the HDMI signal over greater distances. They are pretty expensive though.

Your best bet is to just use HDMI cables and use signal regenerators if the distance is over 25 feet. If you are worried about cost http://www.monoprice.com has good 25' HDMI cables for under $30.

Answer 2

I've never heard of using cat5 for component video signal.  I don't think the physical characteristics of cat5 would allow for this.

Anyways, component video is capable of carrying a 1080p video signal - and the 360 is capable of putting out 1080p over the component video connection, HOWEVER, most 1080p TVs will ONLY accept 1080p via HDMI.  Their component video connection only supports up to 1080i.

I do not know about using cat5 for HDMI, either.  You would need 3 separate cat5 cables for one HDMI cable since HDMI has 19 separate wires inside of it, whereas cat5 only has 8.

It's not so important to use HDMI for the Xbox anyways.  Most of its games are only in 720p, which the console then upscale if you tell it to use 1080p.Only a few of its downloadable arcade games are in 1080p.