distant computer screen connected by cat5e

[topr8]

distant computer screen connected to main computer by cat5e
(even if a converter is needed each end of the cat5 cable)

is it possible?

if so what's the technology i should be searching on? not sure where to start.

any experiences? eg, if it's possible is it any good?

basically my scenario is i'd like to show slide shows on distant computer screens in the house, rather like a digital photo frame, but i want it connected to the computer or network so i have more comtrol over what i show and to be able to use my centralised library.

or given the scenario i want, should i be looking at this from anothe rangle anyway?

any input very much appreciated! thanks.

[LifeinAsia]

At first I was thinking that it can't be done. But then I remembered that we just got a KVM that works over cat5 cable. It's pretty expensive, so I think it's overkill for what you want. It's also in the opposite direction that you want (1 screen for multiple computers instead of 1 computer for multiple screens).

It seems like there must be something for that. Have you talked to your local home entertainment store? They probably have some solutions out of the box that could probably be modified fairly easily for your purpose.

[topr8]

funnily enough i have a home automation store nearby, and they do have a pre packaged solution that would work well ...

however it is very, very expensive, out of my league to be honest.

cat5 is good for me as this house is extremely well networked already with the cable, eg i have a lot of outlets and a central patch panel where i can patch stuff together.

... partly i did this in the belief that more and more stuff would be networkable as time went on!

i'm kinda hoping that what i want to do is in some way possible with the cable i already have, this is a toy for me so (within reason) spending money on adaptors is ok.

[Dabrowski]

Done a quick Google, there's a few good products out there (1T-VGA-CAT seems a good simple one), but expensive again!

[ytswy]

The keywords I would search for would be "VGA extender" and "DVI extender".

Low end video-only cat5 extenders seem to be around the USD 150 - 200 mark. There seem to be other solutions - signal boosters and repeaters - but I doubt they'd work out much cheaper when you include the cost of reasonable quality VGA or DVI cables.