[billytkid]

Hi all,

I'm just completing a full house rewire and as part of that I've had all of the speaker cables on my 6.1 system chased, and a component and HDMI cable (both 15M) installed from the celllar (which will be my node zero) to behind the TV.

Until today I was under the impression that as HDMI is digital it'll either work or it wont, however I've been reading today that in HDMI there is error correction and you can get signal degredation especially on 10ft or longer HDMI cables.

The cable I bought is a 1.3 spec and shielded.

So my question is, might there be a drop in quality compared to a short HDMI cable, and is there a way to check the signal quality (im using a Toshiba TV and Sky HD)?

Any input gratefully received

thx

[NW3]

I don't know about checking the signal but if you still can I would lay some Cat 5e...I think if you run two cables you can send an HDMI signal over it. You can also send 1080p over Component.

[billytkid]

Yep already done As part of the rewire I've had my sparky run CAT5 to each room, including the cellar and loft - just incase I decided to stick some storage up there at a later stage.

In the front room hes used over 75m of audio cable, this place is a maze of wires!

I'm just hoping the HDMI cable will work well as it is, I've got the component and CAT5 as backup, however ideally I want to use only the HDMI and switch everything in the cellar between the different inputs

cheers

Will

[MarkTaylor]

Don't worry about it.

If the cable is dropping enough bits to cause a problem you will see visual artefacts or full picture drop out.

What you will not see is some sort of degradation in general quality.

[billytkid]

Yea that was what I'd originally thought, howvever some of the av mags say digital is there or not, but others purvey the splendidness of stupidly expensive hdmi cables, so I'm a bit torn in both ways

I'd be I retested to know what the various throughput limitations do to the picture and quality.

If it was tcp/ip (guaranteed delivery) I'd be happy, but as it's in effect udp (one way none guaranteed) type traffic i don't know the error correction and margin

[Joe Fernand]

Hello billytkid

There is no error correction within the HDMI signal bus - it either all gets across or some of it gets lost on the way.

With long signal runs you potentially run into signal drop that results in either image problems (obvious video break-up, sparkles or random colour issues) or HDCP/EDID errors (flashing image, intermittent signal, green screen, no signal report, no HDCP report).

Some long length HDMI cables will tend to work every time (Media Factory - Bettercables HIgh Speed CAT2 HDMI cables, 1m to 12m.) - others are less reliable.

If you run into problems you can either add a signal extender at the far end of a problematic signal run (Media Factory - Octava HDE-UK, HDMI cable extender) or as others have suggested revert to HDMI over CAT5 extenders (Media Factory - Octava HDOCAT, HDMI + Optical 5.1 over CAT5 Extender inc. IR Passthru).

Its impossible to predict what will happen in your system until you actually bolt everything in place.

The install industry is dealing with HDMI issues on a daily basis - HDMI Corner: Listing of HDMI Corner Stories - CE Pro

Joe

[ithorne]

Originally Posted by billytkid

Hi all,

I'm just completing a full house rewire and as part of that I've had all of the speaker cables on my 6.1 system chased, and a component and HDMI cable (both 15M) installed from the celllar (which will be my node zero) to behind the TV.

Until today I was under the impression that as HDMI is digital it'll either work or it wont, however I've been reading today that in HDMI there is error correction and you can get signal degredation especially on 10ft or longer HDMI cables.

The cable I bought is a 1.3 spec and shielded.

So my question is, might there be a drop in quality compared to a short HDMI cable, and is there a way to check the signal quality (im using a Toshiba TV and Sky HD)?

Any input gratefully received

thx

I found this article very useful on what can go wrong and what cable to use.

(Mod - not intending to troll - I just thought this was relevant to this thread as well...)
Evaluation of Results and Final Conclusions — Reviews and News from Audioholics

[billytkid]

Ian THANK YOU!!! You've just made my day!

I've been looking long and hard for a definition of what happens when cables arent up to the job, I was thinking there would be gentle degradation of the signal, therefore I'd need to do a like for like test - aka a ball ache - but as it'll be clear if its got issues or not I'm happy!

thanks again to all

Now back to completing the wiring.. I've had the sparkies in for 2 and half weeks now, they were meant to be done last Saturday...they are back in again tomorrow, grrrr!

cheers

Will

[ithorne]

Originally Posted by billytkid

Ian THANK YOU!!! You've just made my day!

I've been looking long and hard for a definition of what happens when cables arent up to the job, I was thinking there would be gentle degradation of the signal, therefore I'd need to do a like for like test - aka a ball ache - but as it'll be clear if its got issues or not I'm happy!

thanks again to all

Now back to completing the wiring.. I've had the sparkies in for 2 and half weeks now, they were meant to be done last Saturday...they are back in again tomorrow, grrrr!

cheers

Will

Rule of builders - quote a time and take double....

[billytkid]

\yep, glad I've got them on a fixed price contract