7 meter long cables

[Vancouver]

I have heard with digital cables i.e. HDMI if they are over 1 meter you can loose picture quality. Is there quality out there that is good enough to buy one that is 7 meters long and not loose pic quality? I have the same question for a VGA cable.

thanks

 

[hopjohn]

HDMI doesn't specify a max length in their spec, but can be expected to go to 15 meters and possibly longer lengths without issues. Any loss you experience at 7m should be minimal with a well made cable.

For VGA is it is going to depend on the resolution you are using. I've read estimations that 1024x768 @60hz should go no longer than 10M, but that you can safely go longer at lower resolutions.

In terms of actual loss, well I'll leave that to the experts.

 

[Vancouver]

After the quick research I did I found that you will loose signal over a cable longer then 1 meter, but as a solution you can get fiber optic HDMI cables. Anyone have one? or is anyone using a DVI or HDMI cable 8-10 meters long?

 

[SacKen]

I haven't seen any mainstream shops selling fiber-optic HDMIs. However, bluejeanscable.com talks about this stuff on their HDMI/DVI page when explaining the reasoning of why they chose a certain type of cable. They state, "We've tested the AVLink DVI-D cables at 1080i and 720p resolutions, all the way out to 50 feet, and have observed no signal degradation at all."

Not sure what test method they used, but I have come to trust their quality opinions. I'm sure if you fired off an email they would be more than happy to provide more info of how they tested the cables. Since it is all digital, it seems like it would be very easy to check if you had the time and equipment.

 

[HookedOnSound]

I have heard with digital cables i.e. HDMI if they are over 1 meter you can loose picture quality. Is there quality out there that is good enough to buy one that is 7 meters long and not loose pic quality? I have the same question for a VGA cable.

HDMI relies on digital signal transfer and should not be overly affected by interference when compared to analog signaling schemes because there are mechanisms of data integrity checking that occur during transmission. HDMI (copper) can go as much as 15 meters (45 ft.).

Since this technology is farely new, I would suspect not a whole lot of cable manufacturers have the proper test equip. ($$) to make cables of 15 meter length (copper) and test them adequately.

Choice might be limited for now but they do exist.

VGA cable on the other hand gets transmitted via an analog method which makes them very susceptible to noise but with a good cable you can easily reach 50-75ft but I would avoid this unless necessary because these cables are bulky and to hard to work with (especially if you want to conceal it inside a wall)

Good luck,