Situation is I have miles of Cat5e and not an inch of Cat6.
Is Cat6 really needed to make this work proper or can I get away with Cat5e?
There will be two runs to seven locations.
All equipment will be rack mounted.

Only want to pull once.

Cat5e leaves little margin for error and usually shorter distance limitations.

Of course, neither can handle 4K or higher video quality.

Are you sure you don't have any Cat3 left over?? ;) Its been years since we have ever even purchased Cat5. I thought Cat6 was the standard these days and anything less is, well substandard. It's your name in the job...

Is this for a customer or your own home? Either way I'd pull at least cat6, especially if it's for a customer. Recycle the cat5 or save it for camera installs is what I would do.

I see no need to use cat6 in many locations: phones, cams, keypads, security, the list goes one. pretty much only need it for HDTV distribution IMO (even then, most of the time its not needed). There are more places to use cat5 than there are cat6. No?

There''s NOTHING wrong with putting your name on a cat5 install! Give the customer the option to upgrade to cat6. I personally dont see the need on a majoriy of wire pulls to use cat6. but the option is there if they want it.

I have left over boxes from a previous job. I was always on him about using cat6 but for his needs Cat5 did the job fine and so that's what we used.

I am all for the Cat6 at my expense if it is nessesary.

Then I wonder about the 4k extender situation and see junk like this and wonder if it is a reliable reality. I don't see any 4k offerings from Zektor or Ethereal.

[Link: amazon.com]

[Link: monoprice.com]

[Link: kvmgalore.com]

[Link: hdtvsupply.com]

[Link: startech.com]

I still run CAT5e for phones because it's easier/faster to terminate and is compatible with 110 and 66 stype punch blocks.  Everything for data has been CAT6 for at least 3-4 years and video get's shielded CAT6, but even that's not enough for 4K/60 so like many others I'm doing conduit and/or fiber to video locations.

do you terminate you own fiber or bring someone in?

So is there no solutions out there to distribute 4k reliably.

This is my own home and I really don't want equipment scattered all over the home.

So far my experience has been limited to Celerity Fiber which is pre-terminated.

I did a lot of fiber terminations starting back in the early 90's when it was still difficult (epoxy & polishing) so not intimidated by working with fiber, but haven't invested in current tools to work with the newer connectors yet.

Cat5 for relatively low bandwidth applications like phones, doorbells, keypads, CTRL, IP Cam, etc.
Video distribution gets Cat6 or fiber/conduit if budget allows.

I use Belden 1700a BONDED PAIR Cat 5e for normal residential gigabit links. This particular cable specs out as CAT 6 after installation for most residential length runs, but it's the diameter and stiffness of non-splined CAT5e. I've been using it for 7-8 years and have not yet run into an issue with bandwidth, noise or stability in any Gigabit residential implementation.

For HDBT runs, I run Belden 10GX, which is bonded pair, non-shielded CAT6a good for 10 Gigabit. Category shielding can cause ground loop issues...10GX foregoes the shield in exchange for H-Spline and bonded pairs, but still outperforms most shielded CAT6+ cable.

It's important to note that there are NO full 4K/60/4:4:4-capable HDBT transceivers [hopefully there will be some soon from Ethereal], so plan on a 20Gigabit data pipe [i.e. 2x 10GX runs] per source to display [or conduit, or fiber] wherever possible to be somewhat future-proofed for video runs.

We haven't used bonded pair wire for about 15 years, it is no longer needed and is a pain to work with. Belden 2412 CAT6 is not bonded, and I assume others are also not.

As for 4k, Crestron systems work just fine. You are supposed to use their CAT wire and connectors. In a pinch I have substituted regular CAT 6 which also works fine.

Bonded pair!!!!! So you are into S&M? LOL

We haven't purchased cat5 in years.