Can I use Cat 6 cable with CCTV camera for video output

Can I use the 8 cables inside the Cat 6 cable to get the video from 4 CCTV cameras. I find it very bulky to have one big wire for every camera.

I thought if its possible to use 4 pairs to tranfer video via Cat 6 cable.

user1315279

Posted 2012-06-05T10:35:59.277

Reputation: 141

Answers

Probably, with the right adapters, ones that convert unbalanced coax to/from balanced pairs and do the proper impedance conversion. Quality might suffer a hair, but probably not too much. In theory something like this would work, though I'd prefer "active" devices.

Daniel R Hicks

Posted 2012-06-05T10:35:59.277

Reputation: 5 783

In theory it's possible by I would be worried about signal degradation. In standard coaxial cable, the sheathing (wiring wrapped around the inner wire) protects the signal from electromagnetic noise. You may not get that with cat6 cabling. It is true that twisted pair cat5/6 cabling is designed to minimize electromagnetic noise by the frequency it is protecting is much higher than those used by CCTV cameras. With that said, it may work or it may not. – wbeard52 – 2015-01-13T01:27:10.493

Also can i use the pairs fro carrying power as well. I mean in one cable i will use 1 pair for power and other pair for video. so 2 cameras per one cat6 cable. is it possible – user1315279 – 2012-06-05T11:51:45.227

So long as the power is low voltage and current-limited (and not terribly noisy) you should be able to use a pair for that too. I would expect that places that deal a lot in security camera stuff would have all the parts. – Daniel R Hicks – 2012-06-05T20:07:28.060

Yes, you can. We do it all the time.

Note that you will need power separately or you will need to use one pair on the CAT for power and one pair for video. Length of cable will matter but quality CAT cable up to about 100'should be no issue. The adapters you want look like these: http://www.amazon.com/Pairs-Passive-Video-Power-Transceiver/dp/B0063XSLB8 (note, never used those, just first hit I found on google. Also note they are BNC connector. Most cameras are, just telling you to double check..)

JoelAZ

Posted 2012-06-05T10:35:59.277

Reputation: 537