HDBaseT is a consumer electronic (CE) and commercial connectivity standard for transmission of uncompressed ultra-high-definition video, digital audio, DC power, Ethernet, USB 2.0, and other control communication (such as RS-232 and Consumer IR) over a single category cable (Cat 5e or better) up to 100 m (328 ft) in length, terminated using 8P8C modular connectors.

The HDBaseT Alliance was incorporated on June 14, 2010 by Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, LG Electronics and Valens Semiconductor as the not-for-profit organization to promote the HDBaseT standard originally created by Valens.

Spec 2.0 maintains all the features of Spec 1.0, but also adds HDBaseT networking, switching, and control-point capabilities such as flexible and fully utilized mesh topology, distributed routing, and end-to-end error handling, enabling multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity and multi-streaming.

HDBaseT connects and networks commercial, industrial or CE devices such as set-top boxes, media streamers, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles, and AV receivers to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, multi-touch displays, digital televisions, and digital video projectors.

The five features of 5Play vary with each HDBaseT specification, but center around audiovisual (AV) media, Ethernet, USB, Control Signals, and Power-over-HDBaseT (PoH).

[16] As a point of comparison, a 60 Hz refresh rate means a full image is displayed after 16.67 ms.

[15] HDBaseT can provide a variation of Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) standard called power-over-HDBaseT (PoH).

The 5Play feature set of HDBaseT 1.0 delivers video, audio, Ethernet, control signals, and power over a single connection.

Additionally, version 2.0 specifies the HDBaseT network protocol, defining the required adaptations across all layers of the OSI model, to provide the optimized services for time-sensitive applications such as high throughput video and audio.

Cabling recommendations for HDBaseT 2.0 remained the same, but the enhanced digital signal processing (DSP) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) for retransmission capabilities increase the reliability and performance to achieve up to 100 metres (330 ft) at 1080p and 90 metres (300 ft) at UHD 4K video resolutions.

This extra upstream data rate capability enables Gigabit Ethernet support, and increases USB 2.0 speed to 350 Mbit/s.