HDMI Signal Difficulties

[bjn1981]

I have run into a wall and am out of ideas. Maybe you have an answer!
Here is my scenario: I am trying to install a multi-display announcement board in a church. I am running the video announcements from an AppleTV to (at present) 2 TVs. One TV is about 150ft from the source. Here is my set up: Apple TV (source) to 2 to 4 powered HDMI Splitter. One line out goes directly to a TV that is about 5 feet away. Line 2 runs through a Cat5 balun to the second TV. This TV does not receive the signal.
However, if I skip the splitter the signal carries the distance with no difficulty.
I have tried upgrading the splitter and the baluns to no avail. Can anybody provide some insight?

[Sydney]

However, if I skip the splitter the signal carries the distance with no difficulty.

Offhand ( short of actually testing the signal strength ) I would speculate that there is insertion-loss incurred by the splitter.
In which case a booster or repeater might work.

[jallerding]

What brand/model of HDMI splitter and baluns are you using? What kind of display? More than likely it is a handshaking issue between your devices causing the problem, not a signal strength problem.

[emilime75]

Welcome to the horrid world of HDMI. As an installer, man, do I hate it. As a consumer...meh.

First off, are you using single or dual CAT5/6 extenders(baluns)? The 2 wire type are notorious for being flaky. The HDMI over a single CAT5/6 wire are much, much better. They utilize a technology called HDBaseT or sometimes 10BaseT. The founders and promoters of HDBaseT are trying to make it the HDMI replacement, I hope they succeed. A good single CAT5/6 HDMI extender will be about $3-400. Gefen and Atlona are a couple we have had success with. Good splitters are very costly.

Anyway, the previous mention of signal loss is probably correct and more likely than a hand shake issue, although it is also possible. Finding a guaranteed solution is a crap shoot. There is really no way of telling which combination of source/splitter/extender/cable distance/display will work. There are some better units out there, but a stable and reliable HDMI splitter/extender will cost several thousand dollars.

Are you outputting a 1080p signal from the Apple TV? You might have better luck with a 1080i or a 720p source. Or, if it's the original Apple TV, you can use the component video output and get a component splitter/extender. Component is much, much more stable than HDMI and you are most likely not going to have these issues with it.

[bjn1981]

thank you for your replies. My best guess is that the issue is handshake problems. Since it is a new apple tv, there is no option for for output besides hdmi. I think it may be much more cost effective to simply get a second apple tv and sync them.