For all of us that hate cable clutter, a new coalition of consumer electronics manufacturers have created the HDbaseT standard using common Category 5e or 6 Ethernet cables.  The new standard can carry up to HDMI, 100BASE-TX Ethernet, control signals, and even power.  Furthermore, the standard can operate at up to 100 meters or over 300 feet which dwarfs HDMI cable lengths.  The Thinq.co.uk article mentions that the new standard can handle HDMI 1.4 and USB though I didn’t see specific mention of that in the HDbaseT announcement.  Upon hearing this news, I think it’s time to run that Cat 5e/6 cable under the house that I’ve been putting off for quite some time.

How much power the HDbaseT standard can carry wasn’t specified either, but the current 802.3af standard for Ethernet cables is 15.4 watts and the 802.3at standard can go up to 25.5 watts.  If we assume 25.5 watts for HDbaseT, this is enough to power some energy efficient Set Top Boxes (STBs) but not enough for many Blu-ray players and definitely not enough for video game consoles which peak in the 150 to 250 watt range.  Still, it’s more than enough power for most devices which is excellent news.  This is the future of a the whole-house broadband connected era.  Now we just need to solve those jitter problems with science based policies.

UPDATE 9:15 – This comparison chart talks indicates 100W over Cat 5e/6 for HDbaseT.  That’s a really impressive amount of power and it would be usable for just about everything short of an XBOX 360 or PS3 game console.  It would probably be enough to power an HDTV less than 36″.  This would indicate to me that the HDbaseT standard likely uses a much higher voltage than 802.3af or 802.3at.

On a parting note, Thinq.co.uk warned us to be on the lookout for rip-off 200 quid monster Ethernet cables in the near future.  Good advice, but they’re a bit late on the warning as Denon has already produced the $500 rip-off monster Ethernet cable two years ago.  Then again, I learned the futility of trying to talk a lady out of paying $260 for two monster cables.