Long S Video cable => Sinal degradation?

digitaldr

I will be taking delivery of 17 inch LCD monitor with composite and S-Video inputs soon which I plan to use in the bedroom. I plan to run a cable from the Sky+ box in the sitting room (immediately below the bedroom) but read somewhere on the net that S Video signals degrade pretty badly over more than 2 metres is this true? If this isn't the case what kind of wire would I need to make one up?

If it is the case I'll probably go with a composite cable as I don't think they suffer from signal degradation quite as badly. I could always go the digisender route but I think I'll get a better picture with a cable link - I already have a remote extender.

John R

I have a 10m s-video cable that I use occasionally to link 2 vcrs across a room and I haven't noticed any degredation.

Lump

Well if you can buy a cable that long it'll be fine. Get a high quality one.


John

digitaldr

Thanks lads! Where did you get your 10m cable John R?

robbie1876

digitaldr, you're best bet if you need more than 10 metres is to send the S-video over CAT5 cable. CAT5 is well known for its signal integrity over long distances, and is as cheap as chips!

A good 10m S-video lead could set you back upwards of €50-€60, much more if you want a good branded one by Straightwire, QED etc. Wheras S-Video to CAT5 converters such as these ones can be picked up online fairly cheap.

It is true that S-Video degrades badly over distance when using regular S-Video leads. Normally you notice a drop after 20-25 feet, so a 10m lead is just about at the edge of what you might get away with, but a cheap 10m lead will be no good to you.

robbie1876

Oh yeah nearly forgot to mention that you need to consider sending audio too, cos S-Video just carries picture information, no sound. A second CAT5 would see you straight on this, and again expect pretty much no loss of sound up to about 1000 feet.

You should avoid the digisender route at all costs. They are nowhere near as good as composite video.

You are right in saying composite doesn't degrade as much as S-Video over distance, but 2 things to note: The picture quality is obviously much worse than S-Video, and for a 17" LCD I don't think you'd be happy with the results. Secondly, composite video cable unless its properly shielded can pick up a lot more interference then S-Video cable. So make sure not to run your cables parallel to any mains cabling. This is a good practice for whatever method you decide to use in the end.

digitaldr

Thanks robbie will have monitor on Saturday and it'll probably be a few weeks before I get around to sorting out the SVideo/cat5 setup.

digitaldr

Another question Robbie - I'd never even heard of cat 5 before - would cheap unscreened cat 5 do - like you can get in Maplin or would i have to be screened. I assume the audio could be sent unaltered via the 2nd cat 5 cable?
Thanks

robbie1876

Cheap unscreend CAT5e will do fine. Screened CAT5 is no good unless its earthed, which it won't be in this setup. The ends need to be terminated with RJ45s to connect into one of those S-Video to CAT5 converters. PM me when you are nearly ready to put the cable in, cos I have a good bit of CAT5 left over, and I have some RJ45s and the tools to terminate the stuff. Let me know how long the cable needs to be and I'll make it up for you, way cheaper than you'll get out of Maplins.

Also, regarding audio, there is actually another similar device on that site that sends S-Video and L/R audio down a single CAT5, so thats probably the one to get.

digitaldr

Thanks for all that robert but I've already bought a 100ft long S-Video cable from the site you mentioned. According to them it's very good quality and I shouldn't experience any signal loss. They recommend it as the most cost effective solution for this distance. I'll probably run a separate audio wire or use the video sender (audio only!)

Thanks again

robbie1876

Ah glad to hear you're sorted. 100ft S-video sounds a bit ambitious to me, maybe you can let me know what its like when you have it up and running.

Cheers,
Robbie