125 foot HDMI Run (1 Viewer)

[George LL]

[SIZE= larger]Hello all. I have all of my equipment in a remote location in my 7.1 channel home theater. When I designed my home, I didn't want any components in plain view so I wired it all to a closet and I control it all via an infrared sensor/repeater system over CAT5. The only thing visible is my 55" plasma... a clean install... just like I had envisioned......then along comes HDMI and Blu Ray. The long runs are not a problem for my component video connections... but now I want to run HDMI from my components to my TV. Blue Jean Cable claims to have a wire that can do it... but I want your collective expertise. Is it possible to successfully run about 125 feet of HDMI? I have mapped a route for the wire and I can do it... just want to make sure it is not futile. [/SIZE]

 

[Jim Mcc]

It should be doable. There are also HDMI repeaters for long runs.

 

[Leo Kerr]

Uhm. It might work. It also might not. HDMI is a bit of a cludge to begin with, unfortunately.

A solution that also might work -- and the might is because I don't know what happens with the HDCP copy protection -- would be to convert the HDMI to something else, like HD-SDI, and then back again. Put an Aja HA5 at one end, and an HI5 at the other, and run one good piece of 75ohm coax between 'em, and you can put them about 1000 feet apart, no problems. The two converters would run you about $800 total, from B+H Photo Video.

Crap. Checking the spec sheet, it explicitly warns that HDCP is NOT supported.

Oh, well. There might be other solutions that would work, but me, I think I'd be wary of trying to run a plain and simple HDMI cable 125 feet. It might be fine, but it'd make me nervous.

Leo

 

[SethH]

Check out Firefold. They sell cables with repeaters or equalizers built-in. They are expensive, but should work for your purposes.