Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “When Does Cable Length Matter?”.
Chances are that, when you’re putting together your new PC battle station or home theater, one of the last things you’re thinking about is cable length. I mean. Obviously you want to make sure that you can get from A to B, but other than that. How much does it really matter, especially in an age when most things are digital and the usual mantra of enthusiasts when it comes to cables, is it either works or it doesn’t just coil up the excess end, throw it in a corner right? Well, let’s start by discussing things that are still analog cables such as speaker wires, VGA cables – you might still be using for older monitors and RCA cables for connecting AV equipment that doesn’t have digital jacks like HDMI or a Toslink. I have to take this sorry.
One moment, speaking analog signals depend on small, continuous changes in an electrical waveform. You can learn more about that here, but the gist of it is that, because analog signals rely on precise variations in voltage, they’re susceptible to interference as well as degradation, the longer they have to travel the worse. This gets so then. For this reason, shorter cables are better as well as thicker ones, since they have less electrical impedance, which keeps your signal from traveling as far as it needs to.
This can result in an actual improvement in picture or audio quality, but if you’ve moved off of analog cables and gone completely digital, you might be a little surprised to know that lengths can still matter for reasons other than not wanting to have a huge tangled mess Of wires behind your setup, let’s start with HDMI the common wisdom about HDMI cables. Is that fancy thousand-dollar cables like this one from wire world are basically pure snake oil and one to spec? Hdmi, cable is generally as good as which, by the way, you can learn more about here, but that doesn’t mean that length is irrelevant. Digital signals are much less susceptible to interference, because information is being sent in discrete binary chunks rather than a continuous waveform. So over short distances, this means that the wisdom is true.
If the signal works, it works and no fancy, cable or shorter cable will make your colors brighter or your sounds clearer, but HDMI runs longer than 50 feet or 15 meters can result in blocky, artifacts or signal drops unless you use a repeater or an active cable With built-in electronics that boost the signal, but it isn’t just AV cables that have issues with signal strength. I bet you didn’t know that USB cables also have a maximum recommended length. 5 meters for USB to a mere 3 meters for USB 3 and anecdotal evidence would suggest that more than a meter is tough for USB 3.1 10 gigabit. This is due to electrical reflections that can happen if there’s not enough of a delay between each bit of information being sent down the pipe. Apparently, this can even cause damage to the cable or port go figure. So it’s this delay that limits how long the cable can be while still transmitting data effectively. But again, the solution is pretty simple and an active cable or a powered USB hub that acts as a repeater can bridge the gap. Though, if you’re a DIY kind of person, you can even connect a pair of USB controllers with an Ethernet cable, since both cat5 and cat6 cables can reach a hundred meters before signal losses and interference with other circuits called crosstalk start to become a problem. But so far, we’ve only talked about traditional copper cabling. What, if you’re using an optical cable instead, something like Toslink for surround sound or an optical Thunderbolt case? Well, optical cables use light, which can be attenuated if the cable isn’t constructed well, meaning that it loses intensity at range, along with its ability to carry information. Think about how a flashlight or the headlamps on your car visibly get less powerful the further away. You are, this is a common problem in Toslink cables, which tend to be constructed with cheap plastic fiber, limiting their range to 10 meters at the most.
On the other hand, the more premium Thunderbolt cables are often made of data grade glass fibers, which can reflect a light beam down the pipe with far less attenuation, meaning you can get them in lengths up to 60 meters, at least for Thunderbolt. 2. No word yet.
On optical cables, for Thunderbolt 3, so keep these tips in mind. If you find yourself needing a long cable run, it’s one of those few times in life where longer doesn’t necessarily mean better. Are you building a website check out Squarespace they’ve got tons of great templates that, whether you’re running your local sports team, whether you have a small business, that you want to promote online, whether you’ve got a blog, whether you want to create a beautiful portfolio to show People to get a job or whether your job is to create websites for people. Squarespace has something for you. It starts at only twelve bucks a month and comes with a ton of great features: the ability to easily and seamlessly edit your website through the cloud.
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