HD TV to the bedroom using single DISH receiver and HDMI to RJ45 converters mod

JBoyerinAbq

Active Member
Wanted to share a mod I completed this weekend that may be useful to some - clearly not for everyone.

If you are like my wife and I, we only watch one tv at a time. The bedroom tv is only on at night (or early in the morning) for a short while, usually for the news. We have DISH with a single receiver and a Pathway X1 antenna. We did not want to change receivers or add another antenna, but we did want sat tv in the bedroom. Our solution to this is pretty simple and works amazingly well.

We have the DISH Wally receiver - with single HDMI output. We decided the answer was to split and extend the HDMI to our bedroom tv. To do that, we added a HDMI 1-to-4 amplified splitter in the living room entertainment center cabinetry. We then added a HDMI extender/adapter set that sends the HDMI signal over standard RJ45-Cat6 ethernet cable. The kit is simple - a transmitter and receiver and short length HDMI cable.

The project required getting the RJ45 cable from the entertainment center to the bedroom. I ran the cat 6 cable down the wall to the floor of the slide and out the original factory hole where the original cables come in. I ran the cable in the original cable loom all the way to the frame. At the frame, I ran the cable above the trailer skirting back to the area adjacent to the basement where all the electrical and plumbing is. From there, I again fed the cable through the existing cable raceway to the bedroom area and brought the cable up under the cabinet adjacent to the tv. I used a pre-made 100ft cable and had probably half to spare. Once the cable routing was completed, I installed the RJ45 transmitter in the living room entertainment cabinet and the receiver in the cabinet adjacent to the bedroom tv. In the living room entertainment cabinet, I split the HDMI signal coming out of the Wally receiver using a HDMI 1 to 4 splitter. One HDMI connected back to the living room tv and another to the HDMI transmitter box. In the bedroom, the cat 6 cable connects to the RJ45 receiver box and a short length of HDMI cable connects to the bedroom tv.

Then - powered the boxes on and after just seconds, the bedroom tv had the same HD picture that the living room had. We really like the Wally receiver because we were able to add a second (RF) remote so we can change channels without having to remember to bring the living room remote to bed.

This was a long-winded explanation but the end result was better than I expected. The HDMI 4 way splitter allowed me to also add a HDMI to the outside TV. Very pleased with the mod and all for under $100.

Now - in the interest of fairness, it was a day long job, crawling around the guts of and under the trailer. But - if you have the time to kill and are looking for a pretty straight forward solution, this may just be it.

The first picture shows the RJ45 box and a cable switch. The cable switch has nothing to do with this mod. I did not take a picture of the HDMI splitter - but we purchased it on Amazon and it works flawlessly. The second pic shows the receiver in the bedroom cabinet - showing its size next to the Wingard switch.

NOTE: This mod was completed on our 2016 Newport. I can't speak to other floorplans but assume similarity to all.

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