Q-Man Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 My first choise for an equipment rack location requires 30' of cable to reach the TV. Can I run 30' of S-Video cable without loosing signal strength. Receiver monitor out to TV. Also audio vidio cables from the TV to the receiver. Eventually componet vedeo cables from the receiver to the TV. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted October 26, 2002 Author Share Posted October 26, 2002 I may have answered my own question. I found some information that Tributaries puts out. They say any runs over 15' for S-Video are too long. They sell a couple of S-Video compensators for runs over 15'. They are some type of gain amplifiers. The price starts at $300.00 and goes up to $650.00 for these units. Now, to try to find a cheaper solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 Q-man, FWIW, the only time I ever tried to run single ended audio cables that far, I encountered a lot of hum and buzz. I wouldn't recommend running audio that far either, unless it's a balanced line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted October 27, 2002 Author Share Posted October 27, 2002 I guess I'll locate the rack closer. I don't need to be picking up any more noise or hum then I already am. This still puts me 20' of cable away from the TV. I found a S-video cable that takes another approach. It's called a break-out cable and made by Belden. It's like a "Y" spliter. It splits the S-video connector into two cables and then back into one. This gives you better shielding & transfer by using seperate thicker cables. There is no need for an amplifier and transformer. It comes in 1 meter increments up to 16 meters. I didn't find Beldens web site yet, but for those of you who are interested check out this item # 1381920822 on ebay. This is the cable and it has a link to this guys ebay store. Any thoughts about putting some long cable runs into a seperate PVC pipes for each cable? Will this help shield them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted October 27, 2002 Share Posted October 27, 2002 Q-Man - FWIW I bought a 25' s-video cable made by Acoustic Research, and was using it until I switched to component video. To my pedestrian eyes, it looked just fine. If the 30' length is what you would prefer to have, due to optimum equipment placement for you, I'd suggest getting a long s-video cable (or connecting 2 together) and try moving your source close enough to the TV to try both a 30' cable and a short (<15') cable in a sort of a/b test. My bet is your eyes won't tell the difference. DD EDIT: Also, it'd be interested to read what knowledgeable people say about the length of s-video runs that aren't also selling a $300+ widget to fix a "problem." (Sorry, slightly cynical there ). For the audio cable run, perhaps building cables out of RG6/59 coax would give you the shielding you need. You can buy F-RCA adapaters at Radio Shack for about $2 each, or you can order RCA connectors for RG59/RG6 from www.partsexpress.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted October 27, 2002 Author Share Posted October 27, 2002 DD, That's encouraging. Using two lengths of RG6 cable is the idea behind the Belden cables. The "Y" S-video dividers connect to two RG6 cables. I see that Tributaries also has S-Video dividers. I may try the 30' run. If it doesn't work then I'll move closer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted October 27, 2002 Share Posted October 27, 2002 just something to think about... we run a 50ft cable directly from the video out of the vcr into a projector towards the front of the room and we have no problems. then again, it's not s-video so i don't know if u will be able to notice a difference or not...i'm unable to detect a difference, but the projector is an old junky one anyway. we have another set up where we're running a 200ft video cord from a pc in the sound booth to a really nice projector in the back of the auditorium. the amp for this signal cost like $800! it did work without the booster, but the image shook and was outta proportion. 30ft is like 1/10th the distance and i think 1/10th the distortion wouldn't be that noticeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikjohn Posted October 28, 2002 Share Posted October 28, 2002 Q, I thought I saw a S-Video Amp at Radio Shack fro around $50. EJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted October 28, 2002 Share Posted October 28, 2002 Q My Svid cable is 35' long. It looks great. I bought mine from John at Cobalt Cable. If I remember, he guarentees his Svid cables not to loose any signal quality till 75 feet. Maybe it was 50', anyway it was a lot longer than the 35' I bought from him. I did run my svid and power to my projector in separate conduits to keep interferance down. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Man Posted October 28, 2002 Author Share Posted October 28, 2002 EJ, I don't want to add any little gain controls. I don't need any more noise adding transformers. JM, I'm now going to locate the rack some 20' cable length away. It turns out that this location will simplify a few other things as well. I'm also going to run about 6 or 7 of the cables and power in separate conduit lines. This will help in the furture to fish cables behind the false corners. I hope they will also eliminate some of the interference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkytype Posted October 28, 2002 Share Posted October 28, 2002 Q-Man, You should be able to run S-Video at least 100 feet without appreciable loss. This assumes the cable assembly is low loss and presents a true 75 ohm impedance to the luminance and chrominance signals. Try Markertek http://www.markertek.com for a good selection of S-video cables and--if you need it, S-Video line amps. Regards, Arkytype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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