Monoprice FTW.
The signal degradation is not directly related to the gauge of the wire. The signal degradation is controlled by the signal integrity of the cable, which is not directly related to the wire size itself.
In order for them to have the data rates necessary to carry the data without signal integrity issues, they need to have very fast rise times of the digital signals. As you increase the rise time of a digital signal, it
becomes more like an ideal square wave. The edges of the square waves look more like ideal step responses. If you look at the frequency spectrum of an ideal square wave/step, you'll see it has infinite frequency components.
Obviously this is never possible in real life. What does, happen, though, is that as you speed up rise times, the frequency content of the signal increases.
As you increase the frequency content of a signal, its wavelength shortens. When this signal has to travels distances that start to become comparable to its wavelength, all the simple and classical electrical models take a back seat to
electromagnetic theory. Suddenly, you need a grasp of transmission line theory to make things work properly anymore. If you do not start matching characteristic impedances, or usually in digital situations, matching terminations, the electromagnetic
waves will actually bounce or reflect when they reach the end of the line. Imagine this happens every time the line transitions from high to low or vice versa. Suddenly your signal integrity is shot. This is why it's pretty easy to get an HDMI cable to pass a certification at 6ft. But there are very few cables out there that can pass a Cat 2 HDMI1.3 certification beyond 40ft or so.
You can take it to the other extreme too. I'll just smack a series terminator in there and slow down the rise time after the cable. Works great for short distances. At long distances, though, the parasitic capacitance starts to make your nice edge look like a ramp. Bye bye signal integrity.
Check these guys out http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/hdmi-cables/hdmi-cable.htm
They are one of the few cable manufacturer's out there that actually rely on electrical theory, and not marketing hype.
Monoprice is the deal.....
Hope it works out for you, and if not, I hope they allow returns. It's been a while since I've done this, but with HDMI at that distance, you need to consider it as a "system", where the quality of the transmitters and receivers play a BIG part. I've seen a cheap cable work at distance between two, high-quality components just fine, but switch out either component with a different brand and the "system" failed.
From http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#44
Q. Does HDMI accommodate long cable lengths?
Yes. HDMI technology has been designed to use standard copper cable construction at long lengths. In order to allow cable manufacturers to improve their products through the use of new technologies, HDMI specifies the required performance of a cable but does not specify a maximum cable length. We have seen cables pass "Standard Cable" HDMI compliance testing at lengths of up to a maximum of 10 meters without the use of a repeater. It is not only the cable that factors into how long a cable can successfully carry an HDMI signal, the receiver chip inside the TV or projector also plays a major factor. Receiver chips that include a feature called "cable equalization" are able to compensate for weaker signals thereby extending the potential length of any cable that is used with that device.
With any long run of an HDMI cable, quality manufactured cables can play a significant role in successfully running HDMI over such longer distances.
Q. How do I run HDMI cables longer than 10 meters?
There are many HDMI Adopters working on HDMI solutions that extend a cables effective distance from the typical 10 meter range to much longer lengths. These companies manufacture a variety of solutions that include active cables (active electronics built into cables that boost and extend the cables signal), repeaters, amplifiers as well as CAT5/6 and fiber solutions.
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From http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#44
Q. Does HDMI accommodate long cable lengths?
Yes. HDMI technology has been designed to use standard copper cable construction at long lengths. In order to allow cable manufacturers to improve their products through the use of new technologies, HDMI specifies the required performance of a cable but does not specify a maximum cable length. We have seen cables pass "Standard Cable" HDMI compliance testing at lengths of up to a maximum of 10 meters without the use of a repeater. It is not only the cable that factors into how long a cable can successfully carry an HDMI signal, the receiver chip inside the TV or projector also plays a major factor. Receiver chips that include a feature called "cable equalization" are able to compensate for weaker signals thereby extending the potential length of any cable that is used with that device.
With any long run of an HDMI cable, quality manufactured cables can play a significant role in successfully running HDMI over such longer distances.
Q. How do I run HDMI cables longer than 10 meters?
There are many HDMI Adopters working on HDMI solutions that extend a cables effective distance from the typical 10 meter range to much longer lengths. These companies manufacture a variety of solutions that include active cables (active electronics built into cables that boost and extend the cables signal), repeaters, amplifiers as well as CAT5/6 and fiber solutions.
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