HDMI/Optical Audio Setup Question

[GaleForce]

I am looking around on monoprice at the moment to purchase an HDMI cable but they offer quite a few. I know for a fact I don't need ethernet support nor do I need the cable to be CL2 (I believe). What I do need to know is if I need a higher speed cable or if I need a specific AWG. Also I know that high speed cables will support any format, according to monoprice, but obviously the only video formats I will be running from my PC to my TV would be avi, mp4, and mkv.

And just for some more information, I have separate speakers for my computer and for my TV. What I was planning on doing was getting an optical out sound card (just whatever cheap one I can find) so that I can run an optical audio cable from my PC to my TV's speakers. I don't want to use the audio over the HDMI because I assume that will only carry audio to the TV's built-in speakers (HDMI will hook up directly to the TV as I don't have a receiver).

Anyway I am basically just looking for a simple setup and don't mind running 2 cables.

Would this be sufficient: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024009&p_id=2529&seq=1&format=2

I'd even go with this, however I don't think the max cable length they offer for this product is enough for me to effectively run the cable without seeing it: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024008&p_id=3993&seq=1&format=2

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[rsq]

GaleForce,

HDMI is a digital connection. Your cable will either work, or it will not work. There are a lot of expensive cables out there which offer no advantage over cheap cables. If you are not using the highest bandwidth signals out there (4K resolution at 60Hz in 3d), you do not need special cables.

Buy the cheapest one you can find in the length you like.

Regarding the optical:
Keep in mind that TOSLINK optical and S/PDIF coax cables can only carry stereo audio in PCM format. If you want 5.1 sound, you will need to transfer the audio as bitstream to your receiver or amplifier.

Basically, for 5.1 audio over optical, you must transfer the audio in its compressed form (most commonly AC3) to the receiver, and the receiver will decode and play the audio. If your HTPC is decoding the audio, you are limited to stereo sound. The reason is that the optical link does not have the bandwidth available to send 5.1 audio uncompressed. (more detals in the s/pdif article on wikipedia)

You can however use analog wires for 5.1 audio. I use this at the moment and it works fine, but I agree that it is not cool

The best solution is to transport both audio and video over HDMI to your receiver, and then transport the video from your receiver to the screen. I don't know if that is possible for you.

 

[TESLA]

Stick to HDMI where possible.

As you noted, Monoprice is your friend here. Amazon Basics are also good, but their selection is more limited.

For short cable runs, any well built cable will do.

For longer runs, HDMI can be finicky. Not all devices will output a signal at the same strength. Some devices will have no problems handshaking with each other on long runs, others will fail due to signal attenuation over large distances.

15 feet is right at the borderline of where you want to really be careful about cable AWG.

28 AWG should carry you to around 5 meters, or ~16 feet. Beyond that, you should always use 24 AWG to avoid headaches, and for really long runs, > 40 - 50 feet, 2x CAT6 (Ethernet) cables are generally advised to guard against attenuation.

Custom installs in large commercial venues will even go so far as to use fiber, but you'd never have to worry about that.