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robzee67

why video baluns ?

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They are on the market for a reason but this is an experiment i tried lately.

I took 1000' cat5e, connected to a color camera direclty at the video wires (no bnc connector) to cat5 wires and to a monitor. i swear the pic is clearer then with a balun hooked up. I know the picture deteriorates with distance and the need for active baluns. What do you think?

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I'm not 100% sure about the connection. Did you just stick the wires into the bnc output port? Or was there two terminals to hook to? What about the monitor side? Same thing? Was the wire coiled up in the box still? I'm wondering if it was just in the box how it would look actually run through a ceiling? (Just playing devil's advocate) Coax is really just a two conductor, and I know the shape helps when you're carrying multiple RF signals down it (TV), I'm not sure about how it's needed for composite video, since there's only one signal that doesn't really need RF modulation. It would be neat to see controlled experiments using two conductor wire, twisted and untwisted, shielded and unshielded, to see if there is an appreciated difference. Heck, when I first saw a balun I thought it was just an adapter to let you use two conductor and connect it to a BNC output.

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Baluns arent that great anyway, good for short distance and budget jobs, for higher quality, interference rejection and ground loop protection .. NVT active hardware.

 

As for robzee67 issue, i think you were just lucky .. ive had horible quality at only 150' with passive baluns and cat5.

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The cat5 was still in a box and the camera was connected directly to bare wires and the other end was to a cut bnc patch cord to a monitor. I am sure the baluns as to filter something but until i run into one, I would never know. Maybe somebody here had any experiences good or bad.

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All the balun does is seperate the center conductor from the outer copper unless you get one with ground loop isolators or surge/conditioning chips or something to that effect. I am sure Rory has straight soldered cameras before. I know back when Atari and then Nintendo first came out I had all kinds of stuff soldered or heck just duct taped so I could play pong or mario brothers.

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