A Look at Buying HDMI Cables: Do Longer HDMI Cables Lose Quality?

You’ve probably heard about the fact that most standard, low-cost HDMI cables fail to produce the necessary quality for crystal clear projection or display, if the cable is too long. This is because signal degradation happens, so that the signal is no longer delivered properly to the device that the cable connects to – such as your smart TV, a large HD screen or a projector.

Most experts will tell you that static HDMI cables have a limit of about 25 feet. This means any cable that gets close to or exceeds that length will be a nightmare to deal with, since the signal will no longer be of good enough quality. One way to work around this is to use an adapter or an extender. Long HDMI cable extenders are the best solution, as they can boost the signal to support a distance of up to 300 feet. That is usually enough for most applications.

Another option – albeit typically considered more costly and less practical – is to buy a more expensive active optical HDMI cable with support for HDMI 2.0 and a fire-rated cable jacket. This type of cable is less accessible, but it’s a great option if you don’t want to use an extender, since it can still maintain a good enough signal quality at lengths of up to about 100 feet. Using them becomes mandatory when you want to deliver the signal to more than 300 feet by cable, unless you’re thinking about using a greater number of signal extenders.

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