HDMI cable length...how long is too long ?

If you are going to use wall plates, I recommend using those which convert HDMI to Cat5/6E.

HDMI cables aren't the most robust for traversing distances and IMHO having more male/female adaptor connectors in between is likely to cause even more things to go wrong.

A friend of mine experimented by soldering HDMI cables directly to the AVR and projector (some old sets) and found that by removing the connectors and soldering directly, he was able to get a long HDMI cable run to work where using the connectors failed to establish a sync.

I have used Wireworld 5 series up to 12m and NuForce up to 15m and they work up for HDMI 1.4 1080p24FP video.

I attended a seminar on HDMI given my Jeff Boccaccio at RMAF and from what he told us that length of cable should not really exceed a 15 foot run. However he indicated that if you need to employ a longer run that the quality of cable to assure time delivery is a strong consideration. Take a look at:
www.hdmiuncensored.com he offers a book and I believe even free advice if you call or e-mail him.

Saki,

Food for thought as I use two very long cable runs -- 25 feet for one and 98 feet for the other.

I use a BlueJeans Series 1 certified HDMI cable for the 25 foot run. It works great. It's HDMI 1.3 certified to 45 feet.

For my longer run, I use a powered HDMI balun that uses 2 Cat5 or 6 cables. It works great. So you can indeed do longer runs without too many major issues but here is what I recommend to you:

1) Run multiple cables and options. I suggest running the following: 2 HDMI cables and 4 Cat6 Cables if you can afford it. For the Cat6 cables, they MUST be the same length and not go through a patch panel or a wall plate and cannot be cut in any way. They won't work through a patch panel and you will have intermittent issues likely with a wall plate. They must be "home run" point to point. So your best bet is to get pre-terminated 25-foot cables. Get them in different colors to make pairing easy. For the HDMI cables, I suggest getting a Monoprice HDMI cable with Redmere. They are DIRECTIONAL, so be careful, but they are designed for longer runs and have a special amplifier built-in. The second HDMI cable I'd recommend is a BlueJeans Series 1. It's stiffer but it's a superb-build quality and certified.

2) I don't recommend going X feet with one cable then going to a plate and then plugging in a second HDMI cable that goes another Y feet. HDMI is truly a terrible connector. it's so fussy and it's a pain to work with; however, it is what it is. So save yourself potential headaches and do not, I repeat, do not try two different cables. Home run the connection point to point.

3) If you have no choice but to split the HDMI cables, then the BALUN may be your best bet. However, I'd also try the same configuration with quality HDMI cables.

So this is what I would do in my ideal world. I'd setup HDMI and BALUN redundant systems. The benefit of the BALUN is future-proofing. Change the hardware on either side of the Cat6 cabling and you can upgrade with the specs as they change.

Thank you for the info .

It appears that a good quality HDMI cable may suffice for the distance that I need .
Given the above info...I would like to know the opinion of using a 25' to 30' cable with wall plates . Will the wall plates and additional short HDMI cables on each end denegrate the signal . Will this set up suffice for 1080p
and 3D ?
Lastly , the Bluejean Series 1 cables have been recommended , these run in the low $100 range . Is there a better cable for less than $200 ?

Thank you

MonoPrice.com sells their Redmere HDMI cables that are specifically for longer runs, 25+ ft. I have heard nothing but good things about these cables and I recommend them for longer runs. A 50 ft. Redmere cable will cost you about $68 + shipping...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=redmere

-RW-