Hi there! Let me give you a little background which may be of help. I have a dedicated home theater room, no windows, and will be replacing (hopefully next week) the existing JVC dla-rs4800 with a new Sony vpl 5000 4k projector. I’m using a Marantz av7706 that I wish to connect the Sony to via HDMI.
Yesterday I pulled the old HDMI cable (installed in 2012) disconnecting it from the jvc and marantz. The cable itself measures about 50 feet in length. It ran from the Marantz (which is housed in a mobile rack), to the back wall of the media room closet, up the wall behind the Sheetrock into the attic, through conduit along the attic floor, and then down through more conduit to a wall plate close to the projector. I marked the cable and measured the actual working cable length I would need assuming I followed the same route. - came out to be 37 feet.
Then I looked at cables which prompted a call to Audioquest. Their recommendation was to use a 12.5 meter Forrest active hdmi. After I picked myself up from the floor - I know cables can be expensive, but wAs unprepared for the price lol - I wondered if there may be another way. I also saw a statement on Audioquests site that read along the lines that their 48 hdmi cables are high speed up to - length of 10 meters - and standard speed for longer lengths. The idea behind this upgrade to the home theater is to “future proof” as best I can - but given the 12.5 meter length is in excess of 10 meters, seems like standard speed is the option.
So .. and thank you for bearing with me if you have read this far … then I had a thought. I don’t believe that I need to use the same path that the old cable took. That’s an awful lot of cable used in the routing between the walls. I thought that the HDMI cable could run vertically up the rack from the Marantz, through a hole I’ll drill in the ceiling of the mediaroom closet, along the attic floor and pop out by the projector thereby eliminating all of the between wall travel and perhaps need for an “active” cable. I’m not sure the length of cable needed - I’ll measure tomorrow - but I’d be surprised if it were over 15 feet.
Then I read about ln fiber optic hdmi cables- then I found this forum! Please let me know what thoughts you may have. I’m in the “buy once, cry once” camp but certainly don’t have unlimited funds.
thank you,
Ollie