HDMI through right-angled pipe

[kylienut]

Hello fellow videophiles.

Problem; when I had my lounge re-plastered, I asked my builders to install a pipe in the (now disfunctional) chimney breast through which the cables for my TV could be passed. This worked fine on my older 32" LCD TV with RGB phono cables, but when I recently installed a 40" Sony and tried to connect it using HDMI, I was amazed that the idiot builders had put a right-angle in the pipe and I can't get the QED HDMI cable round the angle.

Has anyone got any suggestions - without drilling another hole - how I can get the cable round the corner?

Thanks

Dave

[EddyHorn]

Try a different HDMI cable, the QED ones have particularly large connectors and thick unflexible cable. Also may sound obvious but try the HDMI cable without any other cables in there if you haven't already.

[kylienut]

Thanks, Eddy, but I would really like to stick with the QED cable if can.

The only other cable I have in the pipe is a power cable, which has got me thinking that I should perhaps have a second hole/pipe to separate the signal and power cables; is this necessary, I've never had problems in the past?

Thinking out loud, it's probably easier all round if I do have a separate hole for feeding the HDMI cable, I'll dig out my drill tonight

[paulyoung666]

they should be seperated i believe , althought the shielding on good cables would make this less of a worry i would have thought

[shrollski]

HDMI is digital though, so not as picky about inductive interference from power cables.. (or indeed OFC cables, gold connectors or other marketing type garbage..)

[neilball]

Can you use another length of cable to pull the HDMI cable through the empty duct i.e. before adding any other cables?

[kylienut]

Originally Posted by shrollski

HDMI is digital though, so not as picky about inductive interference from power cables.. (or indeed OFC cables, gold connectors or other marketing type garbage..)

You sound just like my dad LOL

Thanks anyway

[kylienut]

Originally Posted by neilball

Can you use another length of cable to pull the HDMI cable through the empty duct i.e. before adding any other cables?

Thought about this, I already have a power lead running through the duct and I don't want to run the risk of using this to pull the cable through in case it doesn't work and I am unable to get it back in.

I think I'll just make another hole

Thanks anyway

[MitsiTurbo]

How long is the cable length? Any less than 4-5m then get that QED on ebay, get your money back and buy a £5-£10 cable and stick that in. Then spend the left overs on a couple of new films and some beer.

I would seriously recommend reading up about HDMI leads in the Cables and Interconnects forum dude, you arent gaining anything using the QED unless the run is over 5m and even then its nothing to do with quality.

[kylienut]

Interesting idea; I'll have a read

Thanks

[MarkP80]

How about trying this -
Fasten your HDMI cable AND a length of flexible pull cable to the end of your power cable (securely!).
Pull both the HDMI and pullcable through using your power cable.
Disconnect the HDMI, and pull your power cable back using the pull cable.

Cheers,
MarkP

[Ital71]

Do you know the size of pipe the builders used ?
You state you only have power through pipe, what i would do is what Markp suggested but i would do it this way attach cable to the power cable and pull through 1.5mm t&e most people have some lying around. So just having the t&e in the pipe then i would attach the power lead again at the other end (securly) and then attach the hdmi cable lower down the power cable as so to not have a bulb effect on the cable ie staggered.
If the cable is tight when pulling through try using a little washing up liquid to ease them through.
Hope that helps

[kylienut]

Thanks for everyone's advice, but I think we're all going a bit overboard now

I've already thought about using the power cable as a pull-through, but have decided against it.

I did have many other cables through this pipe at one point; Component video cables, Stereo Audio Phonos, etc. When I removed these, I tried using them, unsuccessfully, as pull-throughs so I'm not going to risk pulling-out my power cable and not being able to get it back.

I believe the pipe is 2" diameter but, as the hole will be hidden behind the TV anyway, I think I might just drill another.

I'm also considering drilling a hole in the pipe before the right-angle, feeding the cable through that (i have rods) and then back into the pipe at the other end before the second (more obtuse) bend.

I'm going to post some pics of my set up, if you're interested; this was all done before I found "AVFORUMS" and I'd do so much of it a lot different having seen some of the excellent work on here.

Thanks again for all of your input.

[thatitalian]

Mate, the best thing to do is get a piece of string and tie something slightly heavy but very small to one end.

Then feed this string down the pipe from the top. Make sure the string is longer than the pipe and get someone to hold the string from the top.

Now attach/tie the hdmi cable to the bottom of the string. The person at the top just has to pull it up and it should do the trick!!!

Make sure you use some good STRING and NOT THREAD as this will snap!

Give it a whirl, you won't lose anything!

Hope this helps!

[binbag]

If you've taken that many cables out of the pipe and it is the size you say then it should go, bend or not. When I've had to do this I tie or tape the pulling line to the cable behind the plug and then put it in a plastic bag and tape over the whole thing to smooth out its profile but not so tight that it won't bend.

Something else to recommended a cheaper cable is the fact that they don't make them thick to justify the money that you've shelled out which makes them easier to get round tight bends. If you are having difficulty getting it around this bend, can you be sure it'll do the final turns into its socket? (This can be a real problem with backward facing sockets and flush brackets.)