Choosing an HDMI Cable

[itschris]

I have to go inwall about 15ft to my tv wall, where there will eventually be a wallplate.

I'm concerned about the quality of HDMI cables... which ones are geared towards futur proofing etc. I'm looking at these two:

http://www2.dvigear.com/hdlowcoca.html
and
http://www.lenexpo-electronics.com/5M-16FT-ATLONA-FLAT-HDMI-CABLE-BLACK-COLOR-.-HDMI-1.3b-Certified-p-16709.html

It's not altoghter easy to compare. Does it even matter?

 

[rnatalli]

Don't waste your money on expensive cables. Monoprice cables are excellent and dirt cheap. Blue Jeans is also an excellent pick.

 

[itschris]

I know that's essentially true for speaker cables, but there are some quality concerns with HDMI being able to transmit full bandwidth at full speed over distance. I think unlike speaker cables, there is something to buying better HDMI cables.

Am I totally wrong on this.?

 

[Hdude]

I know that's essentially true for speaker cables, but there are some quality concerns with HDMI being able to transmit full bandwidth at full speed over distance. I think unlike speaker cables, there is something to buying better HDMI cables.

Am I totally wrong on this.?

I understand your concern. Most cables within 40 feet work fine. DVI gear also recommends/provides cable connector on there 41 feet and longer cables. I think you'll be just fine using monoprice or bluejeans cables. I myself am using a 25 ft from monoprice.

 

[PhillyDan1969]

Blue Jean Cable's makes an HDMI cable specifically for long runs I believe!!!

 

[itschris]

I looked at that, but after talking to them, it's way to rigid. I have to go in wall around a corner than 90 degees through the wall. Not gonna work. The two other cables I posted have a lot more flexibilty, but can still have longish runs of 20-30 ft

 

[markw]

One thing you can count on is that the longer the run, the thicker the individual conductors should be. As the laws of physics seem to indicate that the thicker the individual conductors are, the stiffer the aggregate wire will be.

Fifteen feet ain't no big thang, though.

 

[bandphan]

I looked at that, but after talking to them, it's way to rigid. I have to go in wall around a corner than 90 degees through the wall. Not gonna work. The two other cables I posted have a lot more flexibilty, but can still have longish runs of 20-30 ft

are you running the cable horizontel?

 

[itschris]

I've got the guys coming Friday to figure the cable path out. My equipement is on the side wall, it has to go around the corner to the adjacent wall. I'm hoping they can just go sideways and around the corner which would only be about 15ft or so vs up through the ceiling then back down which would be an additional 20ft for more because we have really high ceilings in the room.

Does it matter?

 

[markw]

I've got the guys coming Friday to figure the cable path out. My equipement is on the side wall, it has to go around the corner to the adjacent wall. I'm hoping they can just go sideways and around the corner which would only be about 15ft or so vs up through the ceiling then back down which would be an additional 20ft for more because we have really high ceilings in the room.

Does it matter?

If you're talking about an additional 20 feet on top of the original fifteen, then yes, it could make a major difference. You will want the thickest conductors you can find and hopefully you won't need a repeater.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I've got the guys coming Friday to figure the cable path out. My equipement is on the side wall, it has to go around the corner to the adjacent wall. I'm hoping they can just go sideways and around the corner which would only be about 15ft or so vs up through the ceiling then back down which would be an additional 20ft for more because we have really high ceilings in the room.

Does it matter?

The DVI cable you linked indicates 22ga wire used and the other is 26ga.
If you can keep you run to 15ft, that 26ga should be fine, or Monoprice has 24ga HDMI cable

 

[BMXTRIX]

I recently tried to use a Monoprice HDMI repeater inline with a 50' and 35' HDMI cable without any luck at all. It could have been the cabling, but I guessed it was more likely the repeater. So, I then tried a basic HDMI F/F connector and put the 2 cables together again - SUCCESS! These are the two better HDMI cables at 50' and 35' that Monoprice offers - 85' of 1080i over HDMI. I didn't try 1080p because my current TV wasn't cool with it.

I did get to try the 50' cable with 1080p via a PS3 and Blu-ray without any issue at all.

Yet, if you aren't sure how the cable run is going to work in the first place, I wouldn't bet on them being able to run the cable down a wall filled with studs. It doesn't really work like that. Wish you luck on it though.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I recently tried to use a Monoprice HDMI repeater inline with a 50' and 35' HDMI cable without any luck at all. It could have been the cabling, but I guessed it was more likely the repeater. So, I then tried a basic HDMI F/F connector and put the 2 cables together again - SUCCESS! These are the two better HDMI cables at 50' and 35' that Monoprice offers - 85' of 1080i over HDMI. I didn't try 1080p because my current TV wasn't cool with it.

I did get to try the 50' cable with 1080p via a PS3 and Blu-ray without any issue at all.

Yet, if you aren't sure how the cable run is going to work in the first place, I wouldn't bet on them being able to run the cable down a wall filled with studs. It doesn't really work like that. Wish you luck on it though.

That is an interesting experiment. The 85ft worked without the repeater and with 1080i only; 1080p was not accepted then?
Where did you have the repeater, between the two cables or at the beginning, out of curiosity. That is a good distance though

 

[BMXTRIX]

That is an interesting experiment.

Less of an experiment and more of a necessity. I have a client (of a client) that is having issues with electrically induced (dimmers) lines going up the screen and lifting ground hasn't resolved the issue, so we need to go digital... I think. It's about 70' from the rack to the display, so I needed to make sure I could cover the distance for testing.

The 85ft worked without the repeater and with 1080i only; 1080p was not accepted then?

The TV I used did not accept 1080p at all, so I was unable to test 1080p, only 1080i.

NOTHING connected to the repeater worked at all. I ended up using a standard HDMI coupler like this one:

Where did you have the repeater, between the two cables or at the beginning, out of curiosity. That is a good distance though

The coupler was between the two cables. I had the 35' cable first, then the coupler, then the 50' cable. I saw no performance drop that I could detect via Blu-ray output from my PS3 on this test. I did not have time to test other sources, such as my A2, but wouldn't expect much different in the way of results.

Eventually I'm going to need to run a bunch of HDMI in my home, but I'm not quite there yet.