Cat5 vs VGA

[quiksilver8563]

We are a portable church, and currently run 4 via cables. 3 75ft's and 1 100ft to 4 screens. I am debating on switching over to cat5, but am wondering if its best in a portable situation.

The cable runs down the center aisle, so it is inevitably stepped on frequently. Do you think the VGA may hold up better than the cat5 in this case?

Also, these are the via -> cat5 converters I was looking at. Thoughts?

VGA/UXGA CAT5/RJ45 100 Meters Extender Kit - Balun (Self-Powered)
on mono price .c

[Brad Weber]

Ideally you might look at running VGA over fiber as you can get very durable fiber, but the interfaces are going to be more expensive.

UTP/CAT cable is going to be easier to run and you can probably get some covers for it that may not fit over multiple VGA cable runs. Some of the 'ruggedized' CAT cable available for stage use is also stranded conductors to make it more flexible, which typically means greater losses over the same distance than solid conductor UTP cable.

And since CAT cable is relatively cheap and takes up minimal space you could always carry a couple of spare 100' cables. You could even by the termination tools and connectors and just carry some bulk UTP cable with you, that way you could reterminate or make a new cable of any length as needed. Try doing that in the field with VGA cables.

[quiksilver8563]

Cat5 definitely seems the way to go. Any suggestions for vga to cat adapters? Coming out of 2 iMacs. I would prefer one adapter to be 1vga to 2 cat5 for our 2 side screens. Possible?

[DonS]

We went with Altinex DA1930CT and (2) DA1931CT. The system works great never had to adjust them, they went right to work. They can be daisy chained. Thats why we have 2 receivers. Check out Altinex . com under UTP/ CAT5 Extensions.