Introduction CAT-5 cable provides an enormous cost benefit over coax. The average cost of 100 meters of CAT-5 cable is $20 while the average cost of 100 meters of Coax cable could easily exceed $240. Furthermore, wiring is reduced from a bulky, hard-tomanage bundle of 3 cables to 1 easily-pulled cable. Additionally, CAT-5 cable has a 4th twisted pair available, which can be used for audio, timing or control signal transmission. This paper provides in-depth information on component video standards and amplifier characteristics necessary to achieve those standards. The trade-offs of differential line driver and receiver topologies are discussed in detail. This paper also presents an array of common video problems along with an explanation of the source and a suggested solution. This array includes: ghosting, color matching, common-mode noise, power-supply noise, mismatches in channel timing and equalization. With a focus on CAT-5, extra effort is spent in the discussion of video equalization techniques, an inevitable result of the lower bandwidth of the cables. While circuit specifics are presented, they involve manual tuning to compensate for the exact length of the cable used. Since manual tuning requires professional installation, two new systems based on automatic cable compensation are also presented.