I have had great luck with Audio Authority, Muxlab, CE Labs and Xantech. Bad experiences with Binary, Vanco and WirePath.

What issues and/or good luck have you guys had with these and other brands?

What about HDMI baluns? What are your go-to and stay-away-from products?

I just installed a pair of passive muxlab baluns for a composite CCTV camera. Cat5e is 1300 feet with a splice point in the middle. Clients electrician pulled the Cat5 thru an existing conduit using his truck. They work perfectly.

Thats the only extreme scenario i have ever dealt with. eslan & muxlab are the only baluns i use. Both always work fine.

I havent used HDMI baluns yet. We only use HDMI in a theater/surround zone where we have a local HDMI switcher and short runs. All the projects coming up will be using crestron products for HDMI distribution.

Many plain old video baluns aren't baluns at all, but just adaptors that connect the hot to one lead of a CAT pair, and ground to the other one. Any such "balun" shows zero resistance from ground to ground.

The whole idea "bal-un" is to convert from a BALanced signal to an UNbalanced signal, hence the name (and hence not pronounced baylun). The simplest method of doing this is to use a transformer; suddenly ground isolation is probably built in, as it's easier to make a transformer with separate primary and secondary windings.

Which of the baluns you've used give you ground isolation? This is a really worthwhile thing to know, as having ground isolation means fewer possibilities of ground loops.

Forgot to mention.. ETS always takes really good care of us. A couple of times i needed something specific they made it for me.

I have used Atlona baluns many times with no issues, HDMI, component with and without audio, composite, etc. Works as described, so if it is HDMI 1.2, do not expect it to work with a 1.3 device. Just ordered a Binary single cat HDMI balun for a small job, we'll see how it works. I have used Niles with no issues, Knoll powered baluns with some issues, wouldn't recommend them. Muxlab and SecoLarm passive CCTV baluns have been outstanding.

I have had success with the KDS HDMI baluns, pricey, but no repeat calls or problems, so I guess its worth it.

Muxlab for just about anything else.

Zektor SoloCATs (or Rx ends off of a Prowler) if there is the budget for it, Binary if it's a budget job. Haven't used the new single-Cat baluns yet, but the older ones worked great. The new ones share a ground, which I'm not a big fan of...

David, what Binary (Snap AV) baluns have you had issues with? Have never had one fail, component or HDMI (although have only used HDMI's twice)

Key digital passive component video baluns are great! The have a ground lift for each jack so you can eliminate bars etc. Rock solid IMO

I have had great luck with Audio Control. Pricey though

On a (component video) job with a 100 ft run of Cat5e we tried two different sets of Binary and an older set of WirePath and all three sets created horizontal lines (not rolling as in video hum bars) in the image. Popped in a pair of Audio Authority and the picture was perfect.

There were two spare Cat5e's. Tried all three pairs and got the same results with each.

The Binary and the WirePath were passive and the Audio Authority was active.

Oh, and the Binary ones were component video with STEREO analog audio over ONE cat5e. (How does that even work? Do they sum the audio? Share grounds? Is it magic?)

On another job we had a pair of Vanco HDMI baluns bad out of the box.

[Link: snapav.com]

What has worked for me: Ethereal and Muxlab

What hasn't worked for me: original Key Digital that needed shielded Cat5, what a PITA. You can't run a signal for a remote antenna, such as a RTI RM-433, beside this cable without having interference problems on the HDMI signal. I have used several Key Digital HDMI products, but I'll never use their baluns again.

If anybody would like some of these Key Digital baluns I have several available, cheap.