Paul Wu

Just wondering, how long a run can component cable be before losing signal? Just curious. I was thinking whenever I get a RPTV, I may have my equipment rack behind our seating area, so that means I would need a long run of component cable. So I'm thinking at least 15ft to make a nice hidden run. I'd probably need the same length for composite as well, but since that's just for VCR viewing it's not that important. Also, how much would that be? I know short lenghts of 3-6ft run anywhere from $50-$100, depending on brand.

Oh, I'm sitting down, so as to not get floored by sticker shock.




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

Lexman

Paul, people have differing opinions in this area, but technically speaking, it's a 75 ohm signal, nothing more, nothing less. You should be fine up to about 12-14 meters anyway.

But what I dislike from a speaker perspective, is that if all your equipment is in the back, the speaker runs to the mains become much longer than I personally like. I like to maintain shorter runs for all cables possible. For rear projection, that means the equipment rack in the front. Now, if you have front projection, you could split your audio and video and have video in the back of the room and run 75 ohm coax for the digital audio connection to the front of the room. This means that your main speaker wires are minimized. Personally, I like maintaining less than 3 meter speaker length for all the front 3. The surrounds, being less important are the ones that get the long cable run.

Also Paul, don't be fooled into thinking you have to spend big bucks on cables. I think as long as a cable is 75 ohm, it can carry that video signal no problem. Of course for shorter runs, you can imcrease the quality of the wire. So, for rear projection, your right back to the front-

To me, that's what makes sense. Your milege may vary.

Lex