Can Someone Please Help a DIYer with a Problem?

Hello to all. Glad to find this forum and hope I can find an answer here for my problem.
For background I serve as a Youth and Children's Minister at a Baptist Church and since I am fairly tech savvy I am the go to guy for most things tech around here. What I don't know I learn on the fly ( you can find anything on google right?). Our church wanted to get a screen/ projection system but since we are small and not very modern (and cheap) they did not want to invest the 16 grand they were quoted by the professionals. So I did some research and got them a basic budget set up to run some video on and some powerpoint slides and installed it myself.

To do this I decided to try to set the system up the way the pro explained how he would do it and use CAT5. This was my first experience with CAT5 in this type of application so I read up and thought I had gotten what I needed. Unfortunately something isn't right.

The projectors work beautifully and after some initial loose connections we got the display to finally come up and I thought we were ready to go. So I launched a presentation and to my dismay the display became grossly distorted and washed out. The extended desktop was fine with nothing else displayed but if I try to project anything more than a background image I get this super bright washed out effect. I have played with resolution and color settings on the projector but to no avail. I have switched out the CAT5 cables and gotten the same results. I climbed up and connected the laptop directly to the projector via VGA and it works fine.

I am starting to think I have the wrong equipment but just don't know and don't want to spend money that I don't have to. Here is what I am running/using

Computer: HP Pavilion G7 1150us 640 Hard Drive 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM
Intel Core i3-370M 2.4GHZ
Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Projector: Epson VS400 Projector (specs- Epson VS400 XGA Multimedia Projector V11H326020 B&H Photo Video )
Connections: Tripp Lite b130-101 VGA over CAT5 extender (specs- Amazon.com: Tripp Lite B130-101 VGA over Cat5 Extender 1 Local, 1 Remote Port: Electronics )


Any advice/ solutions? Cause I have no ideas left.

How far is the run? A good 50' or 100' VGA cable isn't that expensive....

It is around 100' or just over. VGA is my next option but I really don't want to rerun cables and cut holes again. Was hoping it would be a simple setting or a "adapter"
change out

The Tripp Lite extender has gain and equalization controls that need to be adjusted. They are there to compensate for cable losses.

Since you have already adjusted the projector, I suggest connecting the computer directly with a short VGA cable. Then, adjust the projector for a good picture.

Next, connect the system using the extenders. Adjust the gain and EQ controls of the extenders. With 100' of any kind of cable, you won't get a perfect picture like you had with a short VGA connection, but you should be able to acheive acceptable results.

With a cheap extender, you should have better results with low skew cable. Skew looks like the colors are not lining up. Skew happens because in normal cable, each of the pairs is a slightly different length due to how much the wires are twisted together. Some expensive extenders have skew compensation.

C-HDTP/HDTP-100 | Search Results | Full Compass

Ok I remember seeing those but didn't mess with them. thanks for the tip

RFBCNextGen said:

Hello to all. Glad to find this forum and hope I can find an answer here for my problem.
For background I serve as a Youth and Children's Minister at a Baptist Church and since I am fairly tech savvy I am the go to guy for most things tech around here. What I don't know I learn on the fly ( you can find anything on google right?). Our church wanted to get a screen/ projection system but since we are small and not very modern (and cheap) they did not want to invest the 16 grand they were quoted by the professionals. So I did some research and got them a basic budget set up to run some video on and some powerpoint slides and installed it myself.

To do this I decided to try to set the system up the way the pro explained how he would do it and use CAT5. This was my first experience with CAT5 in this type of application so I read up and thought I had gotten what I needed. Unfortunately something isn't right.

The projectors work beautifully and after some initial loose connections we got the display to finally come up and I thought we were ready to go. So I launched a presentation and to my dismay the display became grossly distorted and washed out. The extended desktop was fine with nothing else displayed but if I try to project anything more than a background image I get this super bright washed out effect. I have played with resolution and color settings on the projector but to no avail. I have switched out the CAT5 cables and gotten the same results. I climbed up and connected the laptop directly to the projector via VGA and it works fine.

Click to expand...

Not only can't you learn everything from Google but it can also lead to 'learning' from poor or erroneous sources.

I can't resist...I am very aware of the financial situations of many churches. But the reality is that you had a pro come in and invest their time and expertise only to get nothing for their effort. You apparently subsequently used some of the information they provided without their receiving any compensation for it. Now something isn't working right and you want others to help you, also without compensation. Just understand why pros might be hesitant to offer much help.

What I would do is:

1. Inspect the projector mounting and verify that the cable is appropriate for the use. If the installation appears unsafe or in violation of code I would stop right there and ask you to let me know when you had it corrected.
2. Check the cabling and connections, making sure the connections are secure and preprly terminated. According to Tripp-Lite, the product linked can work with standard 24AWG CAT5e/CAT6 cable up to 500' and above that needs low or no skew cable, so for a 100' run CAT5/5e/6 should be fine, unless it uses smaller (higher number) gage conductors. By the way, if the product links provided are to the manufacturer's product data rather than to retailers then that often helps others find any related technical information and manuals without their having to search for them.
3. Make sure the CAT5 extenders are powered at both ends as described in the Owners Manual (http://www.tripplite.com/shared/techdoc/Owners-Manual/933064.pdf).
4. The resolution and refresh rate shouldn't be an issue since you can connect directly to the projector and it works fine, but I since it is the projector's native resolution and should be easily handled by the Tripp-Lite extender, I would go ahead and set the computer for 1024x768/60Hz.
5. Reboot the computer with the CAT5 extenders and projector connected and powered.
6. Try adjusting the EQ and gain controls on the CAT5 extender as described in the Owners Manual (it's the last step listed).
7. Let us know how that goes.

Thanks everyone! It was the EQ and Gain controls on the extenders. They were maxed on both units after adjusting them all the way down the projections are perfect. I never would have looked at those!