Would any of you use this or what do you use to certify your cables?

[Link: bytebros.com]

TIA

Not only would I, I do.   It's reasonably priced and easy to use.  Here's the knock on it.  It certifies slower than some of the other brands.  

Most places that require certification have a lot of outlets installed.  So take that into consideration.  

It gives you the ability to save and print the report(s) to an excel format and email to client.  

The $500 price is a considerably easier pill to swallow than the $6-7000 other units.  So if you don't require mapping and certification on every installation, this is a perfect unit for you.  If you're certifying and mapping every installation with a lot of outlets, than the Fluke is the way to go. 

Great! I don't really need to certify but, I need to know in some cases what speed the cable is giving me.

Thanks for your reply.

This unit is currently on speacial at ADI for 384$.

I'm bying it right now!

I could see it coming into play when having issues with baluns and all the tech support will do is blame it on the wiring, unless you can test it!

As I mentionned above, I bought it and, I love it.

For the price, this new tools is great!

It will in fact be handy for any balun troubles.

Thanks for the update...I have been eyeing that one for a while.

i have the same one, it works fine.

This would be helpful.
But........ remember it is a gigabit tester and HDMI is just shy of 2 gigabit per Video channel (1.65 = 1080P), also it most likely does not test ALL pairs for speed (HDMI baluns use ALL pairs network does not).

Brent,

What would 4k resolution spec out in the above measurement?

4K will take you close to the 10.2 G (3.65 G per channel).
Now current HDBaseT will handle the 10.2 G requirement, what we so not yet know is if the current products will support the codec.

Hate to bring up old posts but is there a good network tester that can measure bandwidth across all pairs to better prepare and measure for systems like HDBaseT, without breaking the bank?

Breaking the bank is a subjective term.  I guess it just depends on how big your piggy is.....The unit that the OP posted about will let you know if you've got Gig speeds coming down the line if that's what you're looking for.   

As I recall, It's moderately priced at approx. $500.
 

Here's the abridged, 1:30 AM version...

- The product you listed hits the price point by utilizing off-the-shelf 1000BaseT circuitry to run a Bit Error Rate Test (BERT) at the 1000Mbps rate. This does not mean that the cable is frequency swept to 1Ghz. This is a very similar scheme to the Fluke CableIQ qualifier, and the JDSU Validator. (note that neither of them say "certifier", and that the product listed is a "real world certifier")

- 1000BaseT crams all the bits on the wire by modulating the signal. The data is coded using a scheme called five level pulse amplitude modulation or PAM-5.

- The bandpass frequency of a channel is determined by a combination of the Nyquist Theorem and the Shannon Law. The Limitation determined by signal bandwidth is expressed as R=2Wlog2M, where R is the rate of data transmission, W is the maximum frequency and M is the number of levels of encoding

- Plugging in the formula for the specs for 1000BaseT Ethernet...

This is a four level encoding so M=4 (5th Level is for synchronization only)
Therefore the bandwidth (W) = R / log24 * 2 which gives 62.5MHz (R = 250Mbits/s)

- Old school two-cat extenders do little more than pre-equalize for expected cable losses over a specified cable type. This is the reason for the limited distances, skew equalization circuitry, fuss over which cable pairs are used, length rotary switches, shielded cable, et cetera. They aren't coding the data at all. They require a MUCH higher bandpass bandwidth, on the order of what Brent has explained already - 829Mbps per channel for 1080i, per channel. In this scenario, you would want a certification tester that would sweep test the cable itself for full passband bandwidth.

- HDBaseT utilizes a coding scheme very similar (trade secret squirrel sauce) to PAM-5 to send the bits down the wire. 62.5Mhz per pair, for 1080p / 24 / 8 bit color is what was verbally stated by an engineer-in-the-know. Nobody can tell for sure, because the chip vendor won't publish specs and nobody I know has access to the test equipment needed to confirm. I'd still personally want a sweep test of the cable, but the product listed by the OP will *probably* do just fine for guaranteeing 720p/1080i. 1080p is a lot of bandwidth. You definitely want to sweep test with a proper tester.

- Breaking the bank is 100% relative. I've got a Fluke DTX-1800, which is one of only a handful of testers which actually, truly, literally sweep test the cable up to the bandwidth rated by the device, 500MHz. My kit, including SM and MM fiber optics kits was around $10k. For $500, and a warm-fuzzy feeling, this product is worth the money, given that you understand the limitations and don't come back to the board claiming that "I CERTIFIED THE CABLE1!@", because you really didn't...

Light reading:

example fluke dtx certification report: [Link: taiko-net.com.tr]

Ethernet coding:

[Link: dell.com]

[Link: cisco.com]

[Link: myaccount.flukenetworks.com]

Mike, I'm impressed that you were able to produce that at 0130.
If you typed that off the cuff and not copy/pasted the details... well, that would be scary.

Mike,

This is most likely the closet product to what is needed. We want to be able to certify for up to 10G with the new 4K resolution upon us, it is all but necessary. It appears that without the fiber testing, these kits run around 8500. Do you find you have made your money back with this product in up charging for complete certification or is it more peace of mind? I really wish there was a certifier that was solely designed for HDBaseT and tested accordingly.