HDMI Distribution over your Home Network? Low-Cost HDMI Matrix using IP-Based Hardware
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Published 2022-12-08
Traditional video distribution methods which support many-to-many configurations usually require expensive matrix switches, either for HDMI or HDBaseT. With lower cost IP-based equipment, we can use the network infrastructure we already have in our home networks to send HDMI video across the network, at the cost of video compression. If you can tolerate 1080P/60 video for your application, this is far cheaper than other alternatives in a many-to-many configuration.
I've tried running a thicc HDMI cable through the wall at my house. This will work, but over a limited distance (and the workable distance gets shorter with the higher bitrates of each HDMI spec). You can't repair an HDMI cable realistically, so if you break it you're going back in the wall or attic. I have a few places in my house with floating TVs (I absolutely hate cable cluttter) and running HDMI from the TV down to a media cabinet is as far as I'd go with a physical cable.
There are also solutions like active optical cables and HDBaseT which are suitable for higher bitrate uncompressed applications like home theaters, but I'm primarily concerned with workstation tasks which aren't as demanding of the video stream. These are also point to point solutions, not many-to-many matrices. However, these solutions might be right for you in your application.
Follow-up video answering a lot of the questions from this video:
• Answering YOUR questions about HDMI o...
Link to the product I showed in this video:
TESmart HKE12MMA20 KVM over IP - www.tesmart.com/products/hke120-eh23?variant=37641…
Or on Amazon: amzn.to/3IZe8VT
While this is limited to 16 transmitters and 253 receivers (which is *A LOT*) and control via the front panel button, IR remote, and keyboard hotkeys, I'm working on an IP-based solution to 'tune' each receiver from Home Assistant and allow even more transmitters, in case your use case works better with that sort of automation. Stay tuned for that video.
If you find my content useful and would like to support me, feel free to here: ko-fi.com/apalrd
Blog post which really just sums up the video:
www.apalrd.net/posts/2022/hdmi_ip/
My Discord Server, where you can carry on the discussion or suggest future topics:
discord.gg/xJsaEukAr4
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:42 - HDMI over Long Distances
05:44 - HDMI over IP Hardware
08:42 - Basic Setup
11:27 - IP Snooping / Multicast
15:05 - Gaming Test
17:32 - Multipoint Test
21:15 - My Use Cases
Some links to products may be affiliate links, which may earn a commission for me.
#hdmi #networking #video
All Comments (21)
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I made an update video answering YOUR QUESTIONS! https://youtu.be/5n-hQ29qWh4
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i friggin love how unpolished these videos are, straight to the point. we get the info we want without too much fluff
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What a great video. I legit did not think I would sit through 20 minutes straight. I wasn't even looking for this video. Nice work. You seem to know how to make videos for people with a low attention span like me.
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suggested vid that I will never search for in my entire life but I've watched it all and learned something new. Thank you
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I used little HDMI to IP converter boxes like the ones featured in this video to drive several displays from a single media computer at a church about 8 years ago. They had several TVs spread around their building that they wanted to display their announcements and various other things on and already had ethernet to most of the rooms where these TVs were located so we thought that this would be a good solution for them. What we found out was that the converter boxes that we used got extremely hot while they were in use and ended up cooking themselves to death after a couple of months. We ended up coming back in and putting a low powered computer at each screen instead that could be managed via a VNC connection if anything needed to be updated. I haven't given these converters another thought after that job as we had a 100% failure rate on them in less than a year. I don't know if anything has changed since then but I feel like that is definitely something everyone should be aware of before buying into this solution.
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Thank you for making these videos. Been watching you for only a few months but I've seen every video and I'm always excited to see what you put out next. No matter what it is I know it'll be incredible.
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I have literally been researching this the past two days and ended up just temporary putting a PC behind the TV until I could find a solution that was guaranteed to work without breaking the bank. Can’t believe I just came across this video that you were making at the same time I’ve been researching it myself. Definitely going to try this.
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I just found your channel last night. I love how no frills, to the point and information packed your content is.
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I've been searching for something like this for a while, and I didn't know this existed or what to search for exactly. It's 5am, and now I can rest. Thank you for this video!
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I literally listened to this on my way home from a robotics competition, heard your comment about scoring displays, and now I want to try this at one of the ones I run. Thank you for the idea!
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You are a badass dude. Teaching using mikrotik, explaining multicast perfectly, explaining the unique behavior of the product. very cool!
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BRO, THIS IS LITERRRRRREALLLLLYYYY WHAT I HAVE BEEN LOKING FOR SINCE 2020
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The bank I was working for did something like this in 2009. They pulled in a fiber line then to our network stack. From there they had cat 6 running out. A few of those lines went to the display TVs we had. There would be an HDMI cable out from the TV to a box about the same size here that had both Ethernet and HDMI connections. We get news and promotions played on it during the day. It was a solid solution for us.
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What a great video. You can really tell how much thought and work went into it while watching. Thank you! :)
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Good to see Michael Falk is doing fine and doing tech videos!
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I'm currently using NDI for video-over-IP in a large live production setup. It works flawlessly over the existing network, and since it's software-based, we don't need additional hardware on the transmitter side — the machine is already connected to the network anyway, so it just sends it. On the receiving sides we use a mix of thin clients (raspberry pis) and hardware solutions (e.g. the $150 Birddog Play, which is super convenient) I was initially drawn to NDI because it's both low-latency and high-fidelity. The one cost is bandwidth — but for a hardwired gigabit network, you can afford a much higher bitrate than would ever make sense over the internet. Another lovely aspect of NDI is that there's a good amount of existing management software to handle its network connections, so you get pretty good visibility.
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This is a really great video. I subscribed to you a while back, but I haven't tuned into your channel in a while. I think I'm going to change that now. I've been wanting to send HDMI over my network for a while. I'm so happy that you put this together before I purchased anything.
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Wow! This is pretty cool. A type of solution that I wasn't aware of for distributing media. Thanks for another rad video! You are awesome!
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had a few of these laying around that I forgot about an never looked up what they did, thanks for making this now Ive gotta dig those back out and put them to use
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Dude! This is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do! So glad you made this, you got a sub!
