can I switch between cat5 and hdmi willy-nilly?

[abender]

I am setting up an hdmi matrix to be able to send sources to different TVs, some of my sources are live feed cameras (cat5) and others are cable boxes (hdmi). What I was wondering was if at the cable box I could convert to cat5 - run the cat5 to the HDMI matrix ( which is all hdmi inputs) and then convert back to hdmi before I plugged into the matrix.

 

[jsmithepa]

There is a thing called a HDMI over CAT5.

 

[americanaudiophile]

I assume you want to do this because you can't place the cable box close to the HDMI matrix switcher?
If you can't get the cable box input to the central locations then I guess that would be OK. I would suggest you get 10Base-T or 100Base-T converters. They are not all equal. I would run 2 CAT6 in case.
A good switcher will allow you to control the cable box via IR without an additional cables. Or you could use the cable box app to control it over Wifi. Or you could use an RF remote. Or you could use IR extenders