At the moment I have a SCART cable running from the PVR in the sitting room to the TV in the kitchen, via a DA. Allows you to watch recorded things in the kitchen etc.
The kitchen TV is on its last legs and I'm thinking I may have to update things to HDMI. It would need a cable of about 16 metres length. Is this ok? There appear to be passive splitters for a few quid - are they any good? Pukka DAs seem to range from about 20 -350 quid. ;-)
15 metres is pushing the limits
Not all HDMI cables are equal - but price is no indication of quality.
I've got one 20 metre HDMI cable (study PC to living room TV) which seems fine - picture always locks when selected as fast as signals with shorter length cables. This 20M cable came from 7 day shop, for what it's worth.
I've noticed that as HDMI cables get longer they also get thicker - sequentially for the lengths I have of 2, 7, and 20M. It's unlikely that the currents involved are great enough to require larger conductors, so I presume that the internal core insulation has to be thicker on longer cables to keep the capacitance and inductance within limits.
No experience of HDMI DA's though...
Charles F
I have used DVI over about 20m and that's the same signals as HDMI. I can't see why HDMI wouldn't also work over that distance as long as its a good cable. IIRC the cable came from cable universe but it was a while ago.
The HDMI cable includes power supply so you can buy one that incliudes a tiny amplifier so increasing the distance you can transmit. Digital signalso no degradation.
CPC have HDMI over Cat 5e/6 apaptors for £15.62 until 10th January
Stock code AV1997102
2 cables needed, but they claim 30m operation
Last monitor I bought has what looks like an HDMI connector in the picture if you don't look closely, but is actually a Display Port connector, which won't quite mate with HDMI. Fortunately, it was the DVI connection I mostly needed, although HDMI would have been useful for a raspberry pi connection. (I only found this out about a year after buying the monitor, when I tried to connect a raspberry pi to it.)
HDMI has various data rates according to the resolution.
I would suspect a piece of string would work at 576i, but when it comes to 1080p I suspect many cables will fail over any distance.
The quality of HDMI cables is extremely variable.
Although not cheap, the Cat5e/Cat6 - HDMI extenders generally at least quote a performance. At least Ethernet cables are made to a specification.
You just need the Cat5e/6 cable, connectors and a set of pliers!!
That sounds like a good idea as I have plenty of Cat5 cable. Just hope it's suitable. ;-)
Don't suppose you know if a passive splitter would be ok?
On Tuesday 17 December 2013 12:44 Andrew Gabriel wrote in uk.d-i-y:
You can get HDMI-DisplayPort adaptors very cheaply - my laptop needs one.
For the HDMI? I don't think so, it's a sort of client/server system and the connected devices talk to each other to work out the best they have in common. There are also control signals for things like power down, volume etc.
No idea, all mine are just plain HDMI cables and I just had a recent CPC offer leaflet close to hand.
A passive splitter might cause problems with HDCP (protected content) BICBW
Yes I suppose so. Which makes you wonder why they are sold. I'll have to lash out for an active one, then.
There are certainly HDMI DAs around. Which must presumably remove some of those functions?
system
Donno, it's all a bit clever if you ask me. Mind you it seems pretty well thought out as "clever" systems go and more or less just works as one would expect. I don't know if the control side is a bus or something more akin to an ethernet LAN.
An HDMI to DVI converter costs pennies - HDMI is a superset of DVI, so ignoring HDCP content and audio, HDMI and DVI are directly compatible and simply need an adapter for the connectors. The only catch is whether your monitor can sync with the HDMI signal - one of mine (NEC multisync) does for my RPi, but the other (Sony) doesn't.
SteveW
Yes, the adaptors are really meant to work the other way around from what I would need.
I ordered these up with some other bits and they've arrived. Is it possible to fit a plug to CAT5 cable - or will I have to use the more normal outlets and ready made leads to go from the CAT5 to adaptor?
HDMI to DVI cables work both ways.
You can crimp plugs onto cat5 cable but you need different plugs for stranded cable and solid cable.
You can't really use IDC sockets with stranded cable if you want reliable connections.
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