HDMI cable & signal repeater

no On the one hand, the assignment of the cable can be different. A fully loaded HDMI cable has 19+1 contacts (19 inner conductors + ground). In principle, any HDMI signal can be transmitted with such an HDMI cable, at least over a short distance. Cheap or older HDMI cables use 14+1 contacts - then image and sound can also be transmitted from one source to the screen. But CEC control commands or ARC (Audio Return Channel) cannot be used with it. This is rarely visible from the outside. Furthermore, the cables differ in quality. Signals with a high data rate can only be transmitted with the best copper conductors. The longer the cable, the better the quality needs to be for reliable transmission. Fiber optic hybrid cables are now used for lengths of more than 5 m. The sensitive audio-video signal is converted into light and transmitted with very little loss. The remaining data (control commands, power, audio return channel) are transported via conventional electrical conductors. A fiber optic hybrid cable therefore has no advantage when connecting the sound system and television. It is ideal for connecting a video projector, where the cable runs are often long.

In principle, the HDMI cable should be as short as possible. The lower the data rate of the video signal, the longer the HDMI cable can be. Full HD video resolution works up to a length of 10 m, with Ultra HD 4K 60Hz it is approx. 5 m and with Ultra HD 8K 120Hz or 8K only 3 m. Longer distances can be bridged with fiber optic hybrid cables. We recommend only using a fully equipped HDMI cable (19 + 1 pinout). This is usually not recognizable from the outside and sometimes poorly described. All the more annoying when a partially assembled HDMI cable causes problems in the signal chain.

The HDMI repeater increases the signal level and thus counteracts the attenuation caused by the cable routes. The signal is boosted so that the TV gets the level it needs. The HDMI signal is equalized: the higher frequencies, which are more strongly attenuated by the cable route, are amplified more than the lower ones. Unfortunately, an HDMI repeater cannot do magic. But in many cases the use of long HDMI connections is made possible. An alternative to this is the use of converters that convert the HDMI signal for transmission. Transmission via glass fiber (fiber) or CAT6/7 network cable is ideal here.