Cable Lengths..... how long is too long? (1 Viewer)

[Dean T]

Hey all!!

Well after doing a search several times for something asking this, and not finding anything, I figured I would ask away, hehehe!!

Ok I've got the design of my HT room planned out now...EXCEPT for final placement of the DVD player and audio equipment. There are two possibilities.... next to the small TV that will be in the room for when the kiddies want to watch regular TV. This will be located on the same wall as the FP screen (it's actually more in the corner as the FP screen takes up the wall, hehehe). Or located on the back wall, closer to the FP location.

Speaker leads aren't really an issue.... with either way I go I know my speaker wire length will be long on some of the speakers so I plan on running 12 gauge speaker wire for all of the speakers for the system.

What my concern is is the length of the video cable to the FP unit.

If I place the A/V components towards the back wall the cable length to the FP will be relatively short, which is nice, but then I will have to run a longer length of cable line to my box since the cable jack is on the front wall. Then I'd have to run a return line to the regular TV from the box. And going under the carpeting isn't an option, which means I'm running cables over and across our cathedral ceiling which is around 14 feet tall and 13 feet wide. I'm also concerned about having the front speaker lines being longer than the rears.... can this cause the apparent "delay" that is normally created in the rear surrounds show up in the front speakers?

in the other option, having the A/V units on the front wall, it would leave me running a single line from the Video source (I'm putting in a unit specifically designed to minimize lines from multiple units into a single HD line...similar to what a standard recieve can do but with HD inputs all the way across rather than just one or two) to the FP unit. However I'm worried about signal degredation over the distance.... somewhere around 40+ feet? What cable would I see the best performance out of for that distance? I have TONS of coax in the garage.... "acquired" from the electricians when they built our house... I mean hey, they're charging me for the whole spool so I get whatever is left right?
With an adaptor, will standard coax cable do the job without loss of signal strength? And where exactly would I get an adaptor that goes from Coax to Component hookups?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!

Dean

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Hi Dean.


Uhhhhh my guess is that coax is designed for CATV signal or perhaps "Broadband Digital" signals. Analog video signals fall somewhere in-between.

Here is a link to Chris White's web site on how to make your own top-quality AV cables. It shows you exactly what coax to buy and what tools you need.

But... it might be easier to contact a custom cable site and have them build you a custom, 40 ft cable. Our Tweeks and Connections fourm has some custom-cable links at the top. They all have a good reputation and treat our members well.

Hope this helps.