Long HDMI Cable or CAT5e?

[Swans1912]

Hi All,

Hope this is the right place... It was suggested by the Home Cinema section I post in here!

My SKY+ HD box feeds the big telly downstairs and feeds the TV upstairs via the RF2 and magic eye output. Since upgrading the TV in the bedroom to a bigger screen the picture is now just below what I am comfortable watching.

I now want to replace the RF2 feed with HDMI via either CAT5e cable or a 10 to 15m HDMI cable. The cable will need to go outside to the house if that makes any difference.

For information, the current RF cable actually goes outside and while the picture is not perfect it is just below OK! I am not looking for perfection... just a reasonable HD picture from the SKY+ HD box without any sounds issues.

Any views?

 

[Jamie]

Well Sky is "only" 1080i max with stereo sound so a 10M cable should be OK (with no guarantees with HDMI at longer lengths)

Your route of going outside though might be a problem, a decent longer HDMI cables will be fairly thick and unwieldy so it will be tricky both to get it through the wall and it wont bend that easily. Plus I'm not aware of any cables that are designed for this.

If you do go with a cable then the standard advice is to also run 2 cat5/6 anyway as a backup. Then if you later get problems you can always add an extender.

Cat5/6 I believe can be had in outside grades, although I've had a standard cat 5 cable running outside for about 5 years now with no issues, if anything its UV that will cause any issues and mine runs behind a drain pipe so its a little protected. I'd probably still recommend some conduit to protect it though.

 

[VAMOS DAN]

Well Sky is "only" 1080i max with stereo sound so a 10M cable should be OK (with no guarantees with HDMI at longer lengths)

Your route of going outside though might be a problem, a decent longer HDMI cables will be fairly thick and unwieldy so it will be tricky both to get it through the wall and it wont bend that easily. Plus I'm not aware of any cables that are designed for this.

If you do go with a cable then the standard advice is to also run 2 cat5/6 anyway as a backup. Then if you later get problems you can always add an extender.

Cat5/6 I believe can be had in outside grades, although I've had a standard cat 5 cable running outside for about 5 years now with no issues, if anything its UV that will cause any issues and mine runs behind a drain pipe so its a little protected. I'd probably still recommend some conduit to protect it though.

im in the exact same boat as you, so would be grateful to hear what your going to do

i was just looking at putting a splitter on my SKY HD box, then feeding a 10m HDMI cable, up the outside wall and back into the bedroom