2 high speed HDMIs w/ equalizer vs. 1 longer standard speed HDMI vs. Redmere??

if you are going to spend 133 bucks on the cable, i would buy a 40' series 1 cable from blue jeans cable...

if anything will work, that will...

How easy is it to replace the cable later?

^^^

one word... "conduit"... the only way to truly make sure you are future proof...

i'm a big proponent of monoprice (i should be, i've bought enough stuff there), and it's safe to say i don't buy into cable magic... that being said, the bjc s1 cable is without a doubt the best passive cable out there... i wouldn't spend the money on one for a short run, but when i needed a 40' run, that is the one i bought...

Would you still recommend their (BJC) Series-FE cable for short runs then?

^^^

for short runs (up to 10 feet), i currently like the 28 gauge tartan cables (bjc's "budget" line) over the monoprice ones since they do not have ferrites...

for a medium run (15-25 feet), it's a toss up... i like the series fe ones for this distance personally, simply because the smaller gauge cable (vs. a 24 gauge "budget" cable) is a lot easier to work with, and imo, worth the price premium...

Any cable with built-in electronics is going to be a potential future problem vs. a passive HDMI cable or 2x CAT6.

You can add a powered Extender to a Passive cable and change out the Extender if you have future Compatibility problems - same goes with 2x CAT6 you can easily swap out the HDMI over twisted pair Extenders if required.

Joe

Thanks for that. Since I'm looking into a couple of HDMI cables in the 3 to 7 foot range, I needed know if the Series-FE cables were worth the price premium over their competitors at that size.

Plus, I wasn't too familiar with BJC's Tartan brand and how it compared to Monoprice or even the HDMI cables that come bundled with my Dish Network HD set-top boxes. Although, I'm confused as to why Monoprice puts those ferrites on their 28 gauge cables and whether they're worth it.

Sorry for hijacking your thread as well .Capstone!

I'd have to second that recommendation. The problem with electrical adapters are HDMI are that you have to hope that the adapter is still compatible with whatever option gets added next to the HDMI list. If HDMI puts an option in to allow two audio tracks to be sent out at the same time, would a today's converter know what to do with that?

The disadvantage of the passive cable is that the signal may degrade as it gets faster.

It's really hard to predict the future until it is the past (profound, eh?).

And besides conduit, make sure you test before putting the cable in the wall (or ceiling). Conduit is my #1 through #10 recommendation. Testing your cable sounds like an easy thing to remember, but many people don't do it. Also watch out for any wall work afterwards. Many a cable has been ruined by a sheetrockers nail going into it.

A 25' high speed HDMI cable connected to a 12' high speed HDMI cable does not equal a 37' high speed HDMI cable. At best it is equivalent to a 37' standard HDMI cable of the same construction, and more likely a little less reliable because of two extra connections.

A 40' monoprice standard HDMI cable should have just enough bandwidth to handle 1080p60 with DeepColor at 36 bits. If you need a guarantee of full high speed performance, you need to go with something else, an active cable or an extender product of sufficient bandwidth.

The big problem with small conduit and HDMI cables is the size of the plugs. You may be able to get one into a 1" conduit, but if you have any right angle turns you are SOL. The plug likely won't go through. Think sweeps instead of elbows. Make sure the plug will go though everything before you bury it in the wall. In general, the bigger the better. But there are limits on how big you can go in a load bearing wall. You need to think sweeps instead of elbows for a second reason. The cables themselves have minimum bend radius that must be observed to avoid damaging the cable. Of course, the first isn't really a problem if the solution you choose uses Cat 5e/6 cable and you terminate it after it is installed. But the second is.

I'm in a very similar situation and have been battling this for awhile. I have a difficult 50 foot run that I don't even know how to do yet. I want to future proof it because of the difficulty, and I'd like the Monoprice redmere cables, but they aren't out yet.

Regarding this:

"Everyone seems to think the advantage of Redmere (built in electronics) may actually turn out to be not so advantageous?"

I don't really read that from peoples' posts. Why would it be a problem?

^^^

you should have read it from their posts...

any type of "built in" scheme, such as the redmere one, is inherently NOT future proof...

So what would be?

^^^

as noted earlier, conduit...

although other solutions are decidedly more futureproof... some of these have been outlined in this thread...

Why is conduit future proof? You mean the tube that the cables run in?

Well, as I said in the post you quoted, a good 40' standard HDMI cable should support 1080p60 with 36 bit Deep Color. Why you would want to run DeepColor I don't know. The only thing you would necessarily be giving up is 4K. HD audio, x.v.Color, ARC and Ethernet do not depend on the cable being high speed.

Yes, he means the tube that you put cables into.

The reason is then you can remove your HDMI cable if it isn't up to new standards and put a new HDMI cable into it. If you don't have conduit you are stuck with the cables you have put in the wall and if an HDMI cable gets damaged there is pretty much no way to fix it.

Now here's the real bottom line - You want someone to say this ____ is future-proof. It ain't gonna happen. No one will go out on a limb like that. HDMI standards change.

However, if you understand what standard speed and high speed really mean, then it might been good enough. High speed simply means that the cable is certified for the fastest speeds that the HDMI spec will handle. It does *not* mean there is any difference in the pin-outs or other parts of the cable. It just means that this cable is certified for the max speed.

So, a standard speed cable is anything below one that can be certified for the maximum speed. The key word is certified. The manufacturer spent the money to have a certified lab certify the cable to HDMI Org's standards.

Now there are long standard speed cables that can handle 1080p/60 with deep color. I have used a long 50' standard speed cable to send deep color-enabled 1080p/60 over 65 feet (with 50' in the standard speed cable and the rest in 2 high speed cables connected to wall plates. It works but I can tell the handshake is sometimes a problem due to errors but it works. Disable deep color and the handshake occurs without any problems.

I also have a 25' high speed cable with 2 6' high speed cables and that works with all combinations I've tried without problems. Both of the above are outside the high speed certification (combining three high speed cables is outside of the certification).

Will both combinations work with 4K? Don't know. I suspect the 37' run wlll and the 65' run won't. All in-wall cables are in 2" conduit. So, I'll likely get 10 years of use out of these cables and have to go to something else if/when 4K or 1080p/60 3D takes off, if ever. But that's as future proof as needed.

As for converters like discussed above, are any of them certified for 4K? If not, they certainly aren't future proofed. How about 1080p/60 3D which isn't even a standard yet (I believe)? Hard to believe that a converter that has to know where in the datastream the video is located would be able to handle those items today. That is why those are not considered future proof.

These are digital signals. It isn't just a matter of sending analog waveforms. There are smarts in the adapters and if they don't know the input, then they don't know how to place the bits in the output.

Good plan on the cable. Bad idea on the 1.5" conduit. We ran some 1" as well as the 2" and would never use 1" again. 2" really is the minimum for 2 reasons. The first is that you have to send the HDMI connector through the conduit and those are fat. The second reason is that most people decide they want to run other low voltage cables, too (an extra cat 6 maybe) later on. I really have wished I had run 2.5" at times.

Please let us know how your testing goes.

How do you install a conduit?

I'm having my place repainted before moving in. Is this something to be done by the painters/contractors?

Conduit is usually installed in-wall, so usually a painter won't be going in-wall.

There are quite a few choices. We used orange flexible tubes. It had some advantages but wires occasionally hung on the ribs. The other problem with the flexible is that people who were not experienced in it tried to put bends in it to get around difficult areas (until they were told 'no' and that it had to be straight).

Your choice, just make sure it is rated for in-wall and that you photograph it before closing-up the wall (true for any wiring). This way you'll know where it is when you want to put a nail/screw into the wall later.

I also meant to mention that the 22 gauge will be stiff at the connector. So plan for that with your wall plate. Someone (monoprice maybe?) sells wall plates with dongles attached so that you can handle a cable that won't bend at the connector.