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I am trying to connect an HDMI cable from my computer to my TV. The cable I currently have is about 3-4 feet too short. I have a friend who might let me have his five foot HDMI cable so I started thinking. If I used an adapter to put the two different cables together, that would prevent me from having to buy another cable.

I know each time a digital signal goes through something it loses quality, but if it is just going through an HDMI to HDMI adapter will it really degrade that much?

You're thinking of an analog signal. Digital signals don't lose quality, you either get a reliable signal or you don't. A HDMI cable is like a USB cable, if you add an extension you don't start losing pieces of your files.

I am trying to connect an HDMI cable from my computer to my TV. The cable I currently have is about 3-4 feet too short. I have a friend who might let me have his five foot HDMI cable so I started thinking. If I used an adapter to put the two different cables together, that would prevent me from having to buy another cable.

I know each time a digital signal goes through something it loses quality, but if it is just going through an HDMI to HDMI adapter will it really degrade that much?

How long will the cable be in total. with hdmi as the signal is digital, the signal degrades yes, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the data degrading. Proper hdmi cables should output the same signal the other end as they get in. The signal degradation you get with digital cables merely means you'll get a shorter range on the cables before the data signals get de-synced or lose to much definition to be properly decoded, and you'll get noticeable artifaction or total signal loss.

So if the adapter and cables is of good quality, you should be ok. if the total length of the cable is quite long though, you might consider getting a new single cable instead. or at least make sure the cables you have are of good quality.

Well, if the price of a longer cable is an issue, I'd get the adapter and just try. There is a difference though. Two shorter cables together is not necessarily the same as one long cable, because the short ones only have to be designed to keep noise to an acceptable level over that specific distance.

You're thinking of an analog signal. Digital signals don't lose quality, you either get a reliable signal or you don't. A HDMI cable is like a USB cable, if you add an extension you don't start losing pieces of your files.

No, HDMI is not like USB at all. HDMI transmits the elements of the video signals separately (i.e red, green and blue over separate wires in RGB mode) pixel by pixel with no error correction and no ability to retransmit in case of errors. USB or Ethernet on the other hand, have both of these so that they can pretty much still work over a piece of string. In other words, if there is too much noise on the connection, it can affect individual pixels (and even the individual elements of each pixel).

HDMI cables work up to 50 feet, if i'm not mistaken.

If they're made, tested and certified for it.

since there are multiple cables inside a HDMI cable, the sygnals in them can desync depending on cable quality and abuse of the cable.

Also he's talking about using an adapter, to connect to hdmi cables, any connectors add significant signal loss(in strength) compared to a plain copper cable.

Generally as long as he gets a picture it's ok. but if he gets bad blocking/artifacting (or any) or complete signal loss, then obviously things have gotten bad in the cable. the good thing is that digital signals usually works just fine until they break down completely, with a small gap of "blocking" in between.

The thign is that in a cable, a ditital, one and zero signal like this, _█_ doesn't come out like that, while it travels inthe cbale, it gets stretched out, the edges get rounded, eventually it looks like a sinus curve, no problem, it still works then. too long, the the peak get's to low and the lows get to high to the receiver to recognize the start and end of 1 and 0's. but before this happens, the difference in the individual signal cables inthe hdmi cables case the signals in them to degrade differently, and thus desync, resulting in data that can't be decoded.

I actually need something at least 18 feet. I'll start looking up adapters on Monoprice. I would be be looking for female to female correct?

Edit: This discussion has just been made mute. I have a friend who has a laptop HDMI connector and I will just use my existing cable and his laptop. Sorry for the trouble.

I actually need something at least 18 feet. I'll start looking up adapters on Monoprice. I would be be looking for female to female correct?

Edit: This discussion has just been made mute. I have a friend who has a laptop HDMI connector and I will just use my existing cable and his laptop. Sorry for the trouble.

Female to female coupler:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product....=1&format=2

You're thinking of an analog signal. Digital signals don't lose quality, you either get a reliable signal or you don't. A HDMI cable is like a USB cable, if you add an extension you don't start losing pieces of your files.

The signal itself, digital or not, will most likely suffer from the connector thing. But the signal is 100% "error free" (because of the digital modulation technique, error correction, etc) up to a certain level. And I doubt he will reach that level.

  • 2 years later...

Having issues when using hdmi connectors - signal does not work and trying to understand why

For 1 example 

Have 2 3m hdmi cables , i use each one seperately (ie connect lap top and it works fine)

Now if I want to put a female-female connector in between it does not work get no signal at TV

Do I need some type of hdmi crossover cable, can figure it out.

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