Audio/Video cable advice requested

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2006-12-01 08:44pm

Some of you folks were good enough to give me some advice about speaker wire to run in my (soon-to-be-renovated) rec room, and I appreciate it. I have another question for the audio/videophiles, if there is any inclination to answer it.

My eventual plan is to have a HDTV with a decent home theatre system at the one end of a 20' long room, and my computer set-up at the other end. From time to time I might want to have the audio or video output from the computer sent to the TV, and to that end I'd like to ask opinions for what sort of audio and video cable to run over that distance, before I close in the walls. I ask this without knowing what sort of set-up I'll have a few years from now -- for now I have a crappy analog TV with a crappy little home theatre system -- so I need to hear from people who are a little more attuned with the way things are going in this particular area.

Thanks in advance.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2006-12-01 09:02pm

My personal preference is not to run cable through the walls, but to run some PVC conduit (say, 3/4"), so you can relace bad cable or upgrade in the future. As for what to run through the conduit (or what to run through the wall if the conduit idea doesn't work for you), I'd run optical toslink for audio as optical is better than coax for long runs. I'd run DVI for video; it's better than component, it's compatible with more video cards and you only need to run 1 cable instread of 3.

If you go with somewhere like monoprice.com, you can get a decent 30-35 foot optical toslink for under 10 bucks ($US) and DVI for about 40-50 (terminated).

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2006-12-01 09:18pm

Actually, now that I think about it, at 35 feet it's probably a toss-up between optical or 75-ohm coax for audio. You might need some sort of adapter, in either case, depending on your sound card.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-12-01 09:35pm

Run conduit. That way you can change it later if need be.

Post by **Dalton** » 2006-12-02 11:50am

What kind of inputs/outputs do you have?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2006-12-02 03:11pm

Dalton wrote:What kind of inputs/outputs do you have?

See, that's the thing: I'm doing this not for what I have now, but for what I'll have in the years to come. I'm trying to get a sense from people who are more plugged in than I am about what the standards are moving towards.

Running PVC or ABS pipe up the wall and into the drop-ceiling void (on both ends) makes a lot of sense, and I might just do that, thanks.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-12-02 03:50pm

SCRawl wrote:
Dalton wrote:What kind of inputs/outputs do you have?
See, that's the thing: I'm doing this not for what I have now, but for what I'll have in the years to come. I'm trying to get a sense from people who are more plugged in than I am about what the standards are moving towards.

Running PVC or ABS pipe up the wall and into the drop-ceiling void (on both ends) makes a lot of sense, and I might just do that, thanks.

In that case, I'd suggest running an HDMI cable and optical digital audio cable. If you're video card doesn't support HDMI, its easy enough to get an DVI-to-HDMI connector (or DVI to HDMI cable to run the whole length), and all modern HDTVs support HDMI. The HDMI cable would also be easy to run, but its expensive (a 3' foot cable set me back $60, and that was for an open package generic).

The optical audio cable is supported by every receiver, and most built-in audio solutions in mid to high end motherboards support the connection. Creative has a cheap adapter for its X-Fi cards, if you don't have one of the expensive models with the drive bay box. Also, HDMI does carry audio, but I'm not aware of any HDMI equipped video cards that output sound over HDMI.

BTW, when you get a new receiver, I'd make sure it has three (at least two) HDMI inputs, and the ability to convert component, s-video and composite to HDMI as well. I know a lot of mid-range receivers have this feature, and currently run $1000 to $3500. I would expect lower end receivers to start doing this soon, if they don't already (its been a few months since I looked at receivers).

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2006-12-02 03:50pm

Toslink/SPDIF audio and DVI video will be safe for a number of years to come. HDMI for both is the up-and-coming thing, but the standards are still changing and will be slow to catch on for PCs, where the sound and video come from separate hardware.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-12-02 05:08pm

Arrow wrote:In that case, I'd suggest running an HDMI cable and optical digital audio cable. If you're video card doesn't support HDMI, its easy enough to get an DVI-to-HDMI connector (or DVI to HDMI cable to run the whole length), and all modern HDTVs support HDMI. The HDMI cable would also be easy to run, but its expensive (a 3' foot cable set me back $60, and that was for an open package generic).

You mean a cable like this?

Or perhaps this?

I think you got ripped off, dude.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-12-02 05:11pm

Uraniun235 wrote:You mean a cable like this?

Or perhaps this?

I think you got ripped off, dude.

Yeah, it was BestBuy. I never think to order cables off the net.