Display Cables Over Long Distances

[Robin]

I possibly need to run a VGA, DVI and/or HDMI cable from my computer to a screen about 10-15m away. I would also love to run a cable approx 30-40m to a TV.

I have seen these adaptors that convert HDMI into ethernet so you can use those cables, has anyone had experience of these?

Would I be better off with long dedicated cables instead and is there any terrible lag on a 15m distance (for gaming etc)?

It's surprising that in 2014 we still don't have a proper wireless display standard, many have been proposed but never become mainstream... I guess the bandwidth needed is too high.

Thanks

 

[sesselpupser]

I have a 15m HDMI cable without the Cat5 extender things, it works fine from my PC but my PS3 didn't enjoy it so much. It's got built-in repeater circuitry, I believe, as it's not bidirectional; one end is marked 'source' and the other is 'display'. I couldn't discern any latency with the HDMI cable myself but streaming has gotten so good that half the time I just use my Ouya to play PC games on my TV now as it's less hassle than changing the output settings on my PC!

As for wireless display, I guess the necessity isn't really there but there are optioins: If you're gaming, take a look at Steam's home streaming - if you have a laptop you could plug into the TV, that is - or you could also try a Raspberry Pi, Ouya (I chose this over a tablet because of price and the built-in Ethernet) or high-ish end Android tablet running Limelight (which I love) or, if you're in the market for a new Android tablet anyway and have a bit of cash to spare, an Nvidia Shield tablet for genuine Shield streaming... Oh and you'll need a recent Nvidia graphics card to stream from!

If it's for media, you can get cheap set top boxes that can stream from your PC or the internet, PS3s do it too, as do Ouyas and Raspberry Pis (the latter two can have XBMC installed), but you already know that.

Actually I think I'll try Limelight-Pi tonight, I don't expect it to work particularly well but it might. Setting up a controller though... Ugh.

 

[Robin]

Thanks for the reply @neema_t Good to hear that someone has had experience with those ethernet converters and I think they will do fine getting to the computer monitor. As for getting to the TV on the other side of the house that might be tricky.

Ideally I would like to do that without wires but it needs to be suitable for gaming. Looking at Chromecast which does screen streaming but might not be up to PC gaming use as it's suited to streaming games from a phone. I'l have a look into the other suggestions you mentioned, cheers.

 

[DG_Silva]

I have a 10m cable that runs from my PC to the TV, and I can't say I've noticed any discernable lag. However, my tolerance for slight delays is quite high, so some people may find it perceivable.

 

[wfooshee]

Lag isn't the problem with long cables. After all, you're not affecting much with the speed of light..... The problem is keeping the signal alive over the distance. Voltage drop, crosstalk, things like that affect the signal if you try to carry it too far.

 

[TB]

I have a 15m HDMI cable [SNIP] it's not bidirectional; one end is marked 'source' and the other is 'display'.

I have a 40' RedMere HDMI cable that I'm using in the theater room that has the same 'source' and 'display' ends and it's been working flawlessly with my old PS3 that I'm using as a BR/Netflix player. It looks like the RedMeres will run 50' but any further than that and you'll have to resort to something like the Cat extenders.

If it's for media, you can get cheap set top boxes that can stream from your PC or the internet, PS3s do it too

Once I got the PS3 and PC hardwired instead of both being wireless, PS3 Media Server has been awesome. Before being hardwired, I could make it about 2 minutes into a movie before the 200meg buffer was gone.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Lag isn't the problem with long cables. After all, you're not affecting much with the speed of light..... The problem is keeping the signal alive over the distance. Voltage drop, crosstalk, things like that affect the signal if you try to carry it too far.

Yup, exactly.

And don't be fooled by gold HDMI cables either, they're worse than steel (but always gold for analogue cables )

 

[turbolefty78]

At my work we've got a digital monitor display up in the break room that's being fed a corporate feed for the employees. It's just a revolving info feed. But the data is being sent to it from a pc about 50-75m away. We use the same HDMI to Cat5(might be 6) back to HDMI converters and they, so far, have been working out great. Lag is a non-issue, but signal strength seems to be good for this application.