Preferred HDMI cables for in wall installation / longevity

[ipswich78]

I guess I’m adding to this everlong debate...

I’m in the process of installing cables etc in walls & the ceiling. I’m nearly ready to push the button on a new HDMI cable, like many whilst none of us have a crystal ball I wanted to future proof myself for as long as possible. I need a 6m cable run and have identified the following two options:

RUIPRO HDMI Fiber Cable Light High Speed Support 18.2 Gbps 4K at 60Hz HDMI 2.0 Subsampling 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:2:0 Slim and Flexible With Optic Technology (7m)

RUIPRO 8K HDMI Fibre Optic Cable 6m HDMI 2.1 48Gbps [email protected] [email protected] Dynamic HDR/eARC/HDCP 2.2 / 3D Slim Flexible for HDTV/Projector/Home Theatre/TV Box/Gaming Box

Ruipro seems to be well thought of on the forum from some of the reading I was doing last night.

Woukd anybody be able to offer any insight or alternatives?

 

[Joe Fernand]

Conduit is the only future proofing you can install for HDMI.

Solid core, non-CCA/CCS CAT6 as a backup (or unterminated Fibre).

The RuiPro4K is more tried and tested - the RuiPro8K may stay relevant for longer in terms of capabilities, that all depends on the kit you have abs how often you like to make changes.

Joe

 

[ipswich78]

@

Conduit is the only future proofing you can install for HDMI.

Solid core, non-CCA/CCS CAT6 as a backup (or unterminated Fibre).

The RuiPro4K is more tried and tested - the RuiPro8K may stay relevant for longer in terms of capabilities, that all depends on the kit you have abs how often you like to make changes.

Joe

Thanks for your response, yes agreed ref conduit but unfortunately not an option. The cable will be in a place where I can get to it - not without a lot of mess but if it last 4/5 years then i'll be happy.

CAT6 is being put in as well.

Would a sensible safety measure be to put in one of each of the cables? (one x RuiPro4K & one x RuiPro8K?). Money is far from bottomless but I would rather spend another £150 now than regret it in a couple of years.

 

[Joe Fernand]

CAT6 (solid core, non-CCA/CCS) - is a good backup.

HDMI cables - the issues you can hit with an installed cable are:
Damage - the connector gets pulled off of the cable or the in-wall cable is hit by a nail, screw etc.
Failure - of any active component (active chip set)
Obsolescence - the active chip sets falls behind the capabilities of your Source or Sink).

Pre-install - ideally you have the ability to test the system before you 'install' everything, not always possible on a staged self build.

Joe

 

[DaddyR]

Hi there - I've done lots of searching through the forums so I think I know enough to ask a question on the same topic as this, but I don't know enough to understand all of the similar previous answers!

The plasterboard is about to go up in the home cinema room project so I have to think about the cabling going from the AVR (not bought yet, almost certainly will be the Denon AVC-X3700H) to the projector (also not bought yet, probably the Optoma UHD51 as it fits my budget and throw distance).

The run is between 12m to 15m.

Having researched lots I can either risk getting a 4k capable fibre optic HDMI cable that I probably won't be able to test until after it's installed (so it might not work with the kit I get) and will eventually be surpassed by 8k OR install ethernet cable with HDMI ethernet extenders at either end. There are at least two 90 degree angles to get round the room / pillars so I'm not sure that a conduit / pull string will help me massively. Here are my questions:

• (possibly impossible to answer) - how likely is it that the HDMI cable won't work? The kit I'm looking at is relatively mainstream.
• Is it worth using Cat7 instead of Cat6? Does that future proof things at all?
• I've seen the reference to not using pre-terminated ethernet cables. Why? I'm not great at terminating ethernet, although I have done it before (and if I was doing it I would avoid Cat7).

Any other thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

 

[lee1980]

We put a I think it was 10m long decent HDMI 2.0 cable in ceiling of extension and a socket high up for future projector set up, but can now see it being out of date already with 2.1, and will depend on projector type to as 4k at the mo is to pricy. Can see me just getting a bigger OLED next time hehe!

 

[Joe Fernand]

lee1980 - no HDMI cables are ‘Version’ compliant and no cable longer than 8m is High Speed, Premium High Speed or Ultra High Speed so at best you have a Standard HDMI cable, which will usually be good for 1080p but struggle with 2160p.

DaddyR - the latest HDBT Extenders (Ver3.0) support uncompressed 4KUHD the cast majority of HDBT Extenders currently available (Ver2.0) support Compressed 4K UHD.

Hybrid Fibre HDMI, such as RuiPro4K, support all current video format without compression.

Conduit - is the only way to fully future proof your system.

90 degree bends - are not going to work no matter what you go with, time to rethink the cable routing.

Joe

 

[lee1980]

Thanks, ah ok no worries as said probably never use, was advised at the time 4k would be possible over distance i had but I guess only way would be test it.

 

[DaddyR]

I am a victim of "traditional lounge thinking" where all of the sources are under the TV. I am installing a projector and I have a cupboard on the same wall so I can house the sources there and they're only 3m or so from the projector and I can install a conduit pipe with pull string. I am no longer a victim!