I'd like to connect my PC to an HDTV using an HDMI-HDMI cable. The distance between them is about 8 m; is the length going to be an issue? I'm worried the signal might deteriorate over such a distance.
Also, does price have any major impact on the signal quality? I'd like to buy an 8-10 m cable for somewhere around 20$. Would such a cheap cable be good for what I want?
I just installed a hdmi cable over a distance of 20 meters. At first I bought the cheapest 20m cable I could find -> 50€. Somehow it didn't really work. It worked for my tv, but not for my work lcd (which was the primary target). I then bought a cable for 100€ (again 20m) and that one is high speed certified (whatever that means) and has a build in repeater. The second cable worked just fine. It can transmit sound and video in full hd resolution - can't test any higher resolution.
I have a similar experience with dvi cable. Which tough me one thing: If in doubt, buy a reasonable cheap cable. Non cable is worth a fortune, but the cheapest one never works.
There is no definitive max length specified in the HDMI specification. I'm using a 5m cable myself to transmit 720p without issue.
There's usually not any difference in quality between cheap and expensive cables. I would go for the cheapest cable I can find at the length you want.
According to these Gizmodo articles (The truth about Monster cable, Part I, Part II & Part III), for a short 2m run practically any cable will do, but for 10m runs to 1080p you might run into problems with lower quality cables. They suggest trying a cheap cable to start with and if you have problems look for a certified HDMI 1.3a "Highspeed" cable.
The Monoprice 35ft ($35.17) and 50ft ($53.64) cables they tried both failed the 1080p lab tests though the 35ft cable passed the real-world test when connected to a TV (rather than a signal analyzer), possibly due to error correction built in to the TV. So that cable might be a good one to try.
I recall a study where cable quality only matter when the length is insane, like 50m+. Sadly, I can't find the study/review right now.
If I were you I wouldn't be worried and I'd run right over to monoprice.com
A tale has been drifting around the Internet for some time to the effect that the DVI and HDMI specs give a maximum distance of 15 feet. This isn't actually true. The HDMI spec, in fact, gives no length limit explicitly at all, but the requirements of the spec implicitly give rise to some length limitations for "compliant" cables. A cable isn't permitted to degrade the signal past a certain point--that point is a bit hard to put one's finger on, because a cable is deemed spec compliant if it meets either of two tests: an "eye-pattern" test which measures the overall shape of the HDMI waveform at the cable output, or a set of parametric tests which measure the attenuation and other losses in the signal.
from http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/how-long-can-hdmi-run.htm
The cable will be rated for your distance and bandwidth. Then price doesn't matter.
Any HDMI cable of any length will be rated either Standard (2.25 Gbps) or High-Speed (5 Gbps).
If you need Full HD (1080p60+) you require a High-Speed cable, if you only need 720p60/1080i60 a Standard cable is enough. In reality, the Standard rating is almost useless today and I see some answers here indicating someone tried a Standard cable for Full HD, which will usually fail.
Passive cables of up to 10 meters are common and cheap for High-Speed and at 15-20 meters the active cables are also common and relatively cheap. Brand doesn't really matter.
Be aware that active cables only works in one direction and the markings might be confusing and instructions might not even mention this, so if unsure - try reversing the long cable.
I've seen many HDMI installations where a long cable is only rated standard and I get no image unless I manually turn down the resolution or refresh rate to fit the maximum bitrate (or connect a device that only runs at a lower resolution).
And of course, some shorter runs of Standard rated cables can actually managed High-Speed throughput, based on luck and so fourth. But I recommend against it.
