Question Need advice for running long HDMI cables

mnahhas

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Hello,

So I have a wall cabinet (Picture attached) for my gaming room and while it looks good it seems it doesn't fit my av receiver so I positioning my AV receiver out and on the side of the cabinet.

The plan is to run multiple HDMI cables from below the TV where I will be hooking up my gaming consoles and one retuning cable from the AV receiver to the TV. So in summery it will look like this.
  • 5 HDMI cables for consoles and streaming devices from below the TV to the av receiver (each will be 5 meter/16.4 ft In length)
  • 1 HDMI cable from the av receiver to the TV (5.5 meter/18 ft in length)
I read online that longer cables might fry my AV receiver because it's too long (over 15ft). Is that true?. Do you recommend any solution or a specific type of HDMI cable? Any advice would help.

Thanks
 

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You posted the same question on another site. Here's my response to that site:

My rule of thumb is this: for cable runs under about 20' I'd recommend a Premium High Speed HDMI cable. They are passive cables certified by HDMI.org to meet all of the current HDMI 2.0 hardware specs and come with a QR label for authenticity. For runs over 20', I'd recommend a hybrid fiber cable from someone like Ruipro. They are expensive but do have very good reviews from actual users as far as reliability goes.

There is no truth that longer cables can fry a receiver. The hybrid fiber cables are active in that they draw a bit of power (very controlled) from the HDMI input. If a cable was to fry an avr, then it would be due to a power spike (faulty house wiring, lightening strike, etc) pushing a surge down the line.

Active cable should not be daisy chained. The best and most reliable HDMI connection, passive or active, is a single cable, source to sink with no extenders, adapters, wall plates, etc in-between. The ONLY way to future proof your cabling is run you cables in a conduit if you don't have easy access to them. Given the speed in which video standards are changing, you will more than likely be needing to upgrade your cabling again and with the use of a conduit, that make it so much easier and safer. The cable is just the data pipe. There are other factors involved with a successful cable connection like bend radius and strain on the HDMI input that also must be taken into consideration. The conduit, in conjunction with a pull string makes it very easy to fish the cable thru without pulling on the cable connectors (a very common problem which results in loss of reliability) and to control the bend radius.
 
Do all of your Source devices have to live below the TV?

One option to try and minimise cable numbers would be a 5x1 or 5x2 HDMI Switch below the TV and run a single cable Out to the AVR.

You don’t mention if you plan to use the TV as a Source (Tuner and or Streaming Apps) if you do that would be the AVR to TV HDMI cable (for ARC or eARC) or an Optical cable.

ARC can be problematic and eARC is not widely available as yet so a ‘spare’ Optical cable would be handy.

As Otto says HDMI cables do not ‘fry’ HDMI sockets - no matter how long the cable is.

Joe
 
You posted the same question on another site. Here's my response to that site:

My rule of thumb is this: for cable runs under about 20' I'd recommend a Premium High Speed HDMI cable. They are passive cables certified by HDMI.org to meet all of the current HDMI 2.0 hardware specs and come with a QR label for authenticity. For runs over 20', I'd recommend...

Thanks for the information I guess I will look into the fiber optical HDMI.

Do all of your Source devices have to live below the TV?

One option to try and minimise cable numbers would be a 5x1 or 5x2 HDMI Switch below the TV and run a single cable Out to the AVR.

You don’t mention if you plan to use the TV as a Source (Tuner and or Streaming Apps) if you do that would be the AVR to TV HDMI cable (for ARC or eARC) or an Optical cable.

ARC can be problematic and eARC is not widely available as yet so a ‘spare’ Optical cable would be handy.

As Otto says HDMI cables do not ‘fry’ HDMI sockets - no matter how long the cable is.

Joe

My devices need to be under the TV as you can see from the cabinet design including my streaming devices making my TV only used as a screen without the smart features, each box opening will be housing 1 device. I think the switcher option to the TV and an ARC or optical cable to the AVR would be the best option considering that any other option will require multiple long cables.

My TV includes an ARC and optical out which one do you recommend?
 
TV Audio - Optical is not reliant on CEC so is more universal when it comes to compatibility with other devices.

Source Audio - if you do not plan to use the TV Tuner or Smart Apps you could take the audio direct from a Dual Output (4x2 or 5x2) HDMI Switch and not worry about connecting up the TV Audio if that makes running cables any simpler.

Joe
 
FWIW - all of my components sit underneath my tv which sits on top of a media console. I don't use the SmartApps and prefer to use my ATV4k for all of my streaming needs. I don't bother or need ARC/CEC because I use my receiver as the hub of my system. An optical cable connects my tv to the receiver for network tv (local cable HDTV) audio only (DD 5.1). The cable box needs to be connected directly to the tv because its a 1080 only box so I need to disable Deep Color for that HDMI input only. I use a gigabit switch to connect my devices to the router downstairs (all of which is hardwired). So optical replaces ARC and a Harmony remote replaces CEC.
 

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