Need advice on going HDMI.

kuntasensei

I've been running component to my setup, but want to go HDMI to neaten up the mess of cabling (and potentially improve the picture), so I'm cruising Monoprice for my options. Here's the intended setup: Comcast HD DVR cable box, Panny S97 DVD (will eventually replace with Blu-ray... one day), and Xbox 360 going to Onkyo TX-SR705 then to Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p projector.

Distance from cable box and DVD to the 705 is about 5 ft., so 6 ft. cables should cover that. Distance from 360 to 705 is under 3 ft., so I'm good there. Where my issue arises is the run from the 705 in the front of the room to the Z2000 on the back wall. If I go wall plate to wall plate, I'm looking at a 30 ft. run to the projector.

So my questions are:
1) Am I gonna run into a signal degradation problem at that length?
2) If so, would an inline equalizer/extender (such as this) in the middle of two 15 ft. lengths in the attic do the trick?
3) The 705's manual says it has a "HDMI V1.3 repeater". Does that mean the AVR is already providing a boost on its output? Just wondering if that might help the 30 ft. cable run work okay without the equalizer/extender.
4) Is the "high speed" HDMI cable just hype or can I just stick with straight v1.3a cables? I don't have any sources pushing deep color at this point, but might eventually and don't want to half-**** it.

Any advice or personal experience with long runs to a projector would be appreciated.

LBrize

kuntasensei wrote: »

I've been running component to my setup, but want to go HDMI to neaten up the mess of cabling (and potentially improve the picture), so I'm cruising Monoprice for my options. Here's the intended setup: Comcast HD DVR cable box, Panny S97 DVD (will eventually replace with Blu-ray... one day), and Xbox 360 going to Onkyo TX-SR705 then to Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p projector.

Distance from cable box and DVD to the 705 is about 5 ft., so 6 ft. cables should cover that. Distance from 360 to 705 is under 3 ft., so I'm good there. Where my issue arises is the run from the 705 in the front of the room to the Z2000 on the back wall. If I go wall plate to wall plate, I'm looking at a 30 ft. run to the projector.

So my questions are:
1) Am I gonna run into a signal degradation problem at that length?
2) If so, would an inline equalizer/extender (such as this) in the middle of two 15 ft. lengths in the attic do the trick?
3) The 705's manual says it has a "HDMI V1.3 repeater". Does that mean the AVR is already providing a boost on its output? Just wondering if that might help the 30 ft. cable run work okay without the equalizer/extender.
4) Is the "high speed" HDMI cable just hype or can I just stick with straight v1.3a cables? I don't have any sources pushing deep color at this point, but might eventually and don't want to half-**** it.

Any advice or personal experience with long runs to a projector would be appreciated.

1. Generally, cable lengths longer than 25 ft. are subject to possible signal degradation.
2. Yes, that thing will work just fine.
3. It's according. A repeater may not mean amplifier. Give Onkyo Tech support a call and ask the recommended max. HDMI cable length, you may not need the signal amplifier. I frequently run a 25 ft HDMI cable with no amplification and it works fine.
4. I run all HD, including Blu Ray, HD DVD, Upconverting DVD player, using 1.3 HDMI cables, to 1080p projector, works just fine and dandy.

Hope this helps!

kuntasensei

Thanks for the quick answer. I ended up going with the high speed cable anyway, just in case (and because the price difference was minimal - might as well do it right the first time). I went ahead and got the amplifier/extender, but I also snagged a $3 coupler to just join the two 15' lengths together in case I end up not needing the amp (though I don't guess it will hurt to have it inline anyway).

kuntasensei

One other question: Once all this stuff is hooked up, in what order do the devices have to be turned on for all the HDMI handshaking to happen correctly? Would it be projector, then receiver, then source? I'm using a Harmony 880 so I can re-order the power on sequences as needed, but I wanted to go ahead and be ready for that.

LBrize

I've never had any issues with the order I turn stuff on. When I think about it, I guess I turn on my receiver, then projector, then the blu ray player/HD DVD player. The projector then searches for the signal, finds it, and I watch movies.
I don't know this 100%, but I don't think it matters a lot.

slowpolky

i read a review on gizmodo about hdmi cables, theres no signal degrading up to 35ft, the 2 cables tested were a cheap one from mono price and a 250 dollar from monster, tests concluded that both cables were identical and had no visual artifacts.I myself run a 25 ft hdmi 1.3 from monoprice to my projector and i see no difference on screen when comparing the 6 ft hdmi cable that i bought from sony for my ps3

Rodeo0530

I read somewhere on Cnet that they only use the cheapest HDMI cables for any of their tests because they were unable to tell any difference between high dollar/cheapie HDMI cables when previously compared. I think the most I've paid for an HDMI cable is about $6 or so and I've had no issues at all with them.

kuntasensei

I hooked it all up with the wires strung across the room to test if the length was a problem and the signal wasn't getting to the projector intact. 480p had sparkles, 720p was clean but dropped out, and 1080i/p wouldn't come on at all. As it turns out, removing the amplifier/extender fixed it. I guess I got a bad one, so I'm RMA'ing it. However, the good news is that I apparently didn't need it, as 1080p is surprisingly 100% stable with just the 38 ft. of cable from receiver to projector. I guess those high-speed 24AWG cables from Monoprice are just awesome! Either that or the Onkyo is giving it a boost.

Regardless, I'm happy so far. Going to swap out my DVR with Comcast for one with HDMI (mine's DVI only), and so long as that works okay, I'll run the wires into the walls tomorrow.

jinjuku

kuntasensei wrote: »

I hooked it all up with the wires strung across the room to test if the length was a problem and the signal wasn't getting to the projector intact. 480p had sparkles, 720p was clean but dropped out, and 1080i/p wouldn't come on at all. As it turns out, removing the amplifier/extender fixed it. I guess I got a bad one, so I'm RMA'ing it. However, the good news is that I apparently didn't need it, as 1080p is surprisingly 100% stable with just the 38 ft. of cable from receiver to projector. I guess those high-speed 24AWG cables from Monoprice are just awesome! Either that or the Onkyo is giving it a boost.

Regardless, I'm happy so far. Going to swap out my DVR with Comcast for one with HDMI (mine's DVI only), and so long as that works okay, I'll run the wires into the walls tomorrow.

Considering the low cost of the cable you may want to consider getting the 35ft Monoprice cable and get rid of what would be considered the weakest link (the HDMI coupler).

kuntasensei

Well, I have the 2 15' cables here already... and this weekend's the only time I'll have the help to run it. Besides, I'm cheating and dragging the wires UP through the wall by taping them to the component cables they're replacing and fishing them into the attic... so having two cables that I can couple is gonna make this WAY easier. :P

disneyjoe7

There is HDMI cables on the market that will go to 100' without loss or need for a repeater.

kuntasensei

Got the HDMI dual-tuner DVR box from Comcast, hooked everything up with all cable lengths strung across the room... Still rock solid. So at this point, I think it's safe to run in the walls without fear. Gonna be nice to just have one cable for each device, 'cause right now everything's component through a matrix switcher. Digital cable over HDMI isn't a vast improvement (though slightly sharper on some material), but the Xbox 360 is WAY sharper. Threw the 1920x1080 resolution sweep JPG at it, and it fully resolves 1080p when in Media Center (though the dashboard 360 picture viewer seems to scale the image slightly, resulting in some issues with very fine detail). Put some 1080p WMV-HD on it, and DAMN. Absolutely gorgeous.

I'm just glad that I can finally do wall plates right. My component cable behind the projector, I'm ashamed to say, is very ghetto. It's just sticking out of a hole in the wall. :P