Long Run of HDMI

WillPS · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 09.25

We've just bought a load of new furniture for our bedroom, and I'm considering replacing the seriously bad telly we have with an LCD or maybe even LED panel on the wall.

Currently, the telly is hooked up to a Sky+HD box with around 20-25m of coaxial and a magic eye. This suffices for the crap telly, but will just make our nice new telly look like crap (if it even works at all; do modern £100-200 tellys still come with Analogue tuners?).

For this reason, I intend to leave the RF intact for the magic eye (and feeding the terrestrial signal in), and also run a length of HDMI over the same course (using the presently unused HDMI output on our STB).

Problem is, reports vary over whether HDMI actually works over anything longer than 10m - there are several affordable 20m cables on ebay, but will they actually work or would I need to buy 3 x 8m lengths and repeaters?

I'm happy to settle for 720p if that makes things any easier.

Gavin Scott · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 10.01

WillPS wrote:We've just bought a load of new furniture for our bedroom, and I'm considering replacing the seriously bad telly we have with an LCD or maybe even LED panel on the wall.

Currently, the telly is hooked up to a Sky+HD box with around 20-25m of coaxial and a magic eye. This suffices for the crap telly, but will just make our nice new telly look like crap (if it even works at all; do modern £100-200 tellys still come with Analogue tuners?).

For this reason, I intend to leave the RF intact for the magic eye (and feeding the terrestrial signal in), and also run a length of HDMI over the same course (using the presently unused HDMI output on our STB).

Problem is, reports vary over whether HDMI actually works over anything longer than 10m - there are several affordable 20m cables on ebay, but will they actually work or would I need to buy 3 x 8m lengths and repeaters?

I'm happy to settle for 720p if that makes things any easier.

All flat panels (other than plasma, obviously) are LCD screens. The LED refers only to the backlight which illuminates the screen - they're thinner, draw less power, and tend to have better contrast than conventional fluorescent backlit LCD panels. But for a bedroom where you're only using it for limited hours I wouldn't go to the expense of an LED flavour.

Modern flat panels will still have analogue tuners as well as digital ones.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/produ ... e=googleps

One of those plus 2 x 20m cables would be worth a punt. I don't think I'd do double repeaters myself.

WillPS · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 10.48

Well recently we've been spending more time in our room than anywhere else in the house - sounds sad but our heating isn't really sufficient and in order to get the living room comfortable I have to light a fire which is a massive amount of faff after work. It's only the two of us (and a house rabbit) most of the time out in the middle of nowhere with no transport of our own and a bus service that only runs daytime hours Monday - Saturday. It's a bit of a bloody nightmare for somebody who's been a metropolitan all their life but it's only another 6 months before I can move back to Sheffield (there's no place like home, there's no place like home...). I figure that if I buy a ~22" now it could become the living room telly when we move back, and get a 19" standard Samsung jobby for our room there.

Cheers for the technical information. When it comes to stuff like screens my knowledge isn't best.

Gavin Scott · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 11.11

I can sympathise. My old rented shack was awful - no heating, but for an oil-filled radiator on a long extension cord. Easy to get used to sitting in one warm spot!

Well, if its going to get the use, LED backlit TVs really do make a difference to the dynamic range of the picture. Some cheaper LCD TVs can look a little washed out - especially with poor analogue feeds. There's also a significant difference in the power consumption - my 42" LCD is drawing over 700w in use - and I haven't factored what the 42" plasma will run that's in my second living room (I have a "formal" living room - no mess allowed, and a more relaxed "entertainment" room).

God I love my new flat.

dosxuk · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 12.15

We have a 25m piece of HDMI at work, supplied by Sky as part of an HD upgrade kit (but never needed for that), which we use on all sorts of random events. It's quite chunky (nearly 1cm diameter), but never had a problem with getting a signal down it.

Sput · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 13.57

Gavin Scott wrote: (I have a "formal" living room - no mess allowed, and a more relaxed "entertainment" room).

You are Hymagumba and I claim my Scottish £5 note.

Pete · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 14.21

Sput wrote:
Gavin Scott wrote: (I have a "formal" living room - no mess allowed, and a more relaxed "entertainment" room).
You are Hymagumba and I claim my Scottish £5 note.

Incorrect. My entertaining is done in the formal room where everyone is relaxed so long as they don't make a mess. Which they don't, out of fear.

As has been said before, coming for tea at mine is like Elizabeth going for coffee at Hyacynth's.

Gavin Scott · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 14.45

VERY incorrect. The "no mess" rule is for me. Guests can do what they will - within reason (which doesn't extend to thievery - you know who you are, asshole).

I do get cross when people use lager cans as ashtrays when I have cut glass vessels for their detritus; but we digress.

WillPS · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 15.50

dosxuk wrote:We have a 25m piece of HDMI at work, supplied by Sky as part of an HD upgrade kit (but never needed for that), which we use on all sorts of random events. It's quite chunky (nearly 1cm diameter), but never had a problem with getting a signal down it.

Hmmm, 1cm diameter wouldn't be ideal as I was hoping to pin it to the skirting, but that's something.

I have seen 20cm ones for sale on ebay - if they don't work then surely they're unfit for purpose?

Gavin Scott · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 16.05

WillPS wrote:
dosxuk wrote:We have a 25m piece of HDMI at work, supplied by Sky as part of an HD upgrade kit (but never needed for that), which we use on all sorts of random events. It's quite chunky (nearly 1cm diameter), but never had a problem with getting a signal down it.
Hmmm, 1cm diameter wouldn't be ideal as I was hoping to pin it to the skirting, but that's something.

I have seen 20cm ones for sale on ebay - if they don't work then surely they're unfit for purpose?

I think you mean metre. They will work - but they'll have to be sufficiently heavy cored to stop there being a degradation in the signal - probably the thickness that dosxuk mentioned.

You'd be lucky to find a cable clip big enough to tack that anywhere, but you can run 1" double-sided carpet tape (not the "sellotape" version) along the floor where the skirting meets the floor, then press the cable into the corner - and it should hold for a good while.

I've got a coax running down my staircase at the moment. Not good when pals who are installation engineers come round and scoff at my sloppy work, but nuts to them I say.

WillPS · Tue 18 Jan, 2011 16.37

Doesn't degradation of signal effectively mean no signal with HDMI?

I'm leaning more towards the 2 x 12m + repeater option. Now just need to convince the other half that it'd be a worthwhile investment