Help needed: Long lenght of HDMI and component video cables.

[john.michael]

I am building my hometheater right now and I am about a week from placing the conduits that will take my video cables. I want to have the cables installed during the construction phase. I will need about 50 ft for each cable, so I have three questions:

1 - Which HDMI and component cables should I use for such a long run?
2 - Prices seem to vary alot (from US$ 50 to US$ 600 for the HDMI 50ft). Is there any REAL reason for that (i.e. it is digital, so it seems that as long as the bits arrive it should be OK, right?)?
3 - Any pitfalls that I should be aware before hand concerning the HDMI and/or component cables?

For all that its worth, the DVD is a Denon 3910 (connected directly to the projector via HDMI). The component cable will connect a lexicon MC8b processor to the projector.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Audioholics]

50' is around the theoretical limit for 1080p over HDMI/DVI right now. And you can bet that a cheaply made cable may not even pass 720p/1080i that far.

We'll be working up some of these issues into a white paper shortly to address this. When running cables, you need to make sure they are tested and will perform as needed. I don't think you'll want to re-run them afterwords. 1080p is around the corner so you want to get cables that will pass that if possible - and minimize the run length to ensure its not a problem.

 

[Sleestack]

I use a 50 ft run of Impact Acoustics Sonicwave component cables to run my HDTV cable box to the LCD on my desk. No problems at all. Very well made cable. I picked up a 30 ft DVI cable from DVIgear.com. I will be using it to run the HDMI signal from a Denon 3910 to my desktop LCD. The cable arrived yesterday and looks like it is very well made.

I have used quite a few of the Impact Acoustics cables for the long SPDIF, components and RCA runs I have between the A/V components that are next to the large screen in my home office and the components that are next to my desktop LCD TV. I am very happy with their cables and wish I had used them for my main cables (rather than ignorantly spend $3500 on Monster M cables).

 

[BMXTRIX]

I used a 75 foot run of coaxial cable that I got at Home Depot for my component feeds to my projector. Works great. I also used it for the S-Video, PC hookup, and composite feed, as well as audio. Depends on what you need.

 

[Privateer]

Just click the link.http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi/index.htm

 

[Joe Cornwall]

Long HDMI

HDMI and, by extension DVI, tends to become difficult to control over long distances. That said I tested a 20 meter DVI-D cable last night with 1080i, 720p and 480p signals and found there was no signal degradation what-so-ever. As important as the cable design, and maybe more so, is the design of the HDMI source and receiver circuitry. So long as you are using high quality components you shouldn't have any issues with a 50' run of HDMI/DVI. Impact Acoustics will have 15 meter SonicWave HDMI and DVI (and HDMI-to-DVI) cables in stock in the next 60 days or so. The price will be under $250 MSRP (and you'll get a 20% discount as an Audioholics reader, of course).

As for component video, 50' isn't an issue with any high quality cable.


Hope this helps.

Joe C.

 

[Audioholics]

And then there's the issue of... Oh my gosh, did you say $3500 on Monster cables????

 

[jaxvon]

Well, at least it wasn't $35k on Transparent cables...

 

[john.michael]

Is fiber optic$ the answer

Clint,

What about going to fiber optics? Except for the OUTRAGEOUS prices, it seems like the best solution. I could have a 66ft cable with no worry about EMI from the electrical system.

(See, I am running all the speaker cables through conduits on the floor and the electricity on the ceiling. The only "info" cable up there will be the projector's)

However, I am having lots of trouble getting info on quality and I want to be %$#% sure of what I am doing before I spend that much!

 

[Sleestack]

And then there's the issue of... Oh my gosh, did you say $3500 on Monster cables????

Yes, unfortunately I only found this site after I spent about $4500 on cables ($3500 of which were spent on Monster M Series cables). They work just fine, but I gather I could have spent about $4000 less and achieved the same results. At least they are pretty. I'm chalking it up as a life lesson and will be sure to spend more wisely when I build the system in my living room.

At least I didn't screw up on the rest of the components for my office: Def. Tech BP70001SCs, 3000CLR and BPVXs, Denon 3910 and B&K 507S2.

 

[Joe Cornwall]

Clint,

What about going to fiber optics? Except for the OUTRAGEOUS prices, it seems like the best solution. I could have a 66ft cable with no worry about EMI from the electrical system.

(See, I am running all the speaker cables through conduits on the floor and the electricity on the ceiling. The only "info" cable up there will be the projector's)

However, I am having lots of trouble getting info on quality and I want to be %$#% sure of what I am doing before I spend that much!

I recently tested an optical DVI/HDMI solution. One thing to keep in mind is that the less expensive solutions from this camp (which run to about $1.5K for 100') is that there is still copper from one end to the other to power the transciever. There are separate transceivers available for use with multimode fiber but the cost is entirely out of line for a consumer application. This copper *can* cause ground loops or RFI. Also, the solution I tested was quite flaky and wouldn't work with a 720P HDCP source! Use care with optical solutions designed for computer applications, they may not be appropriate for A/V use. YMMV

Joe C.

 

[john.michael]

I was considering the Gefen HDMI solution with one receiver and one transmiter (distance around 66 ft). I do not know if this has a full length copper cable along with the fiber optics one. Another possibilirty is a Gefen DVI fiber opticas cable, which doenst seem to have any copper.

Which brand/model were you using?

Thanks

 

[Joe Cornwall]

I've not tested the Gefen solutions but I can guess that any solution that has a transceiver at both ends that requires power probably doesn't have power in the cable itself - no copper. The unit I tested is not on the market (prototype) and required power at one end only - hence the copper along with the multi-mode fiber.

Joe C.