VGA Baluns (VGA Extenders)

[Quu]

I don't have allot of experience with baluns, something that will change in the future. But considering the varied amount of people on this board, someone else might know the answers to some questions I have.

Can a normal VGA over Cat5/6 balun use a hub/switch to multiply its signal?
For example this balun from Monoprice is a simple point to point balun. Could I buy a second kit, and run the source module to a hub (I would assume a switch would break things as it tries to be smart) and then two receiver modules from that hub?

The main reason I ask, is that another company sells a "special hub" for their own balun, and the prices are much more extreme. (I am guessing the special hub is just a normal 5 port hub with one port hard fixed to "up link" or cross over.) For example, this kit, this hub, and these additional receivers are all made to work with each other. The only thing that stands out, to me, about this setup is that the hub specifically has grounded ports to support STP cables and plugs.

[ngsilver]

I've never been able to personally test and use any baluns yet, but I do know that at the very least an HDMI balun will work with a standard ethernet switch. I forget the reporters name, but he is one of the guys who helps with HD Nation (revision3 podcast) who uses monoprice baluns in his house to send HDMI video through his in-house network to other TVs from his satellite receiver. Supposedly he also splits the signal doing this as well.

I'm unsure if a VGA balun would do the same, but I would expect it would. The only thing I am curious about is the fact that HDMI actually has spec built into it for ethernet over HDMI as well as HDMI over ethernet. So in the end it may just be due to the HDMI spec that it is able to be switched and routed just like any other ethernet signal. But just using my understanding of how a balun works I would believe that it would be fine to split the signal by throwing it through a Hub. The only caveat I can see is the bandwidth of the hub itself. With HDMI over ethernet you need gigabit, so I would expect you would probably need a 100Mb hub at least in order to transfer the proper video data.

[Quu]

i contacted monoprice about the vga balun, if i could use a switch or a hub. They say I can not.

I think the more expensive one I saw used a custom hub made for it. of course, given the costs involved, it is cheaper just to get a 1:4 vga distro amp, and 4 monoprice baluns than the one with the hub

[BasharOfTheAges]

According my friend that runs tech for AAC, standard VGA baluns simply use the Cat5 as a transmission medium. Nothing is transformed into Ethernet frames or packets, which would be the minimum you'd need to use a hub or switch respectively. Those expensive ones must either packetize the data or otherwise do some sort of conversion.

[Quu]

from further research... the more expansive VGA baluns only work with their own "hub" and don't work with generic hubs. apparently the internal circuitry of the hub simply decodes copies, then re encodes back out to the external ports... the equivalent of going from balunDisplay->vga splitter->BalunSourcesx4 but with a smaller form factor and probably some optimizations.