HDMI Mark Grant longer length = Quality Diff?

[kultschar]

I am new to this Home Theatre game however will shortly require my cables to be installed from wall mounted LCD to corner of room.

Now im not 100% sure how much HDMI cable I will need (my internal walls aint up yet) - I would say maybe 10m but of course do not want to fall short! Due to HDMI prices and the fact I want the best 1080P poss I do not want any degradation in signal!! After reading reviews etc I think I am going to pull the trigger on Mark Grants cables as they seem to have exceptional build quality however I see he offers 10m, 12m and 15m

My dilemma is should I go for the longest or will I be sacrificing audio/visual quality of some kind? I read about Cat 1 and 2 etc and it can all get a little confusing!

Any tips or advice would be appreciated!

PS - is it also best to keep one HDMI cable direct from LCD thru wall and direct to Reciever i.e. avoid face plates and other HDMI cables inbetween the two sources. What do you guys do??

 

[MarkTaylor]

I'm sure Mark Grant will be along to answer for himself before long, but in brief, avoid going any longer than you need, if you can, just to improve the chances in the future that the same cable will work happily at higher resolutions/bit-rates than you use now and to give you more head-room above the minimum signal quality needed to work correctly.

Don't worry too much about gradual signal degradation as that tends not to be the case with HDMI, if it isn't working the nature of the errors are such that they will be visually obvious like sparkles or picture drop out, not subtle changes in colour or detail.

Technically there are no Cat2 certified 15m cables right now but you are right that you should look for Cat2 whenever possible for the highest bandwidth handling.

I expect Mark will confirm that he individually tests all the HDMI cables he sells so that helps mitigate the lack of Cat2 availability at that length.

Do avoid adding extra joins, wall plates etc. if you can, not that they will make the picture look any different but they will cumulatively reduce the spare head room I mentioned earlier betwewen working and not working.

 

[kultschar]

Many thanks Mark for the helpful reply!

I cannot see on Grants websites what are cat 1 , 2 etc but it looks like he puts them individually through 1080P tests which i guess will be good enough for me!! I just need to figure out my length!

I think i will get one of those brush gang faceplates then so that the cable goes direct from TV into Receiver nice and neatly without the need for additional cables/joints!

Cheers!!

 

[Detto]

I brought a 15m hdmi from mark grant and i love it.lovely cable.

 

[kultschar]

I brought a 15m hdmi from mark grant and i love it.lovely cable.

Cheers Dazman!! What do you use it for - 1080P etc??

Im a little confused as I see on mark grants website the 12m is the same as the 15m hence not sure whether to go for the 15m for the extra slack or not

 

[Detto]

i send sky hd , a dvd player and a ps3 with 3m hdmi cables into an octava 4x2 switch then have a mark grant 7m hdmi to tv and 15m mark grant to pj, all works fantastic. pj is only 720p but does 180p24 and pj says its recieving that.picture is fantastic. ps3 signal is also being split into two- 1 to amp for sound and 1 to octava switch for video. Amp was giving me issues WITH HDMI on anything over ten meters , hence the splitting of ps3 .. from ps3 i have a total of 19m of hdmi going through a passive splitter and a powered switch. perfect picture.
I'd brought other cables from mark grant and loved the quality. Plenty of people selling cheaper hdmi cables on here but i went with what i know and was happy to pay £100 quid for a 15m cable, cable is lovely and thick and nice tight plugs. Mark is very helpfull and fast delivery.
I would buy longer than you need, you never know when you might need a bit extra lenght

This might be obvious but check cable works before installing it, then if no good you can send back ! . If the walls aint up yet fit some trunking that will easily accept the cable and plug and give you means to maybe upgrade at a later date