1. >
2. Knowledge Catalog >

Advisor HDMI cable 10m - 3 tips for long cables

Too long cables in the 21st century? HDMI cable with 10m as the highest of all feelings? It's hard to imagine that such old-fashioned problems still exist in this digital era.

And yet, at the latest since the introduction of Ultra HD TVs, complaints about inadequacies have been adding up. Roughly summarized: up to five meters in length, everything is usually okay with HDMI cables. Especially if you play it safe and explicitly choose a premium certified HDMI cable. With increasing length up to and over 10 meters, however, an efficient and safe data transfer becomes more difficult. 10m HDMI cables are already particularly demanding, especially if the HDMI cable is to support 4k.

HDMI cable 10m length
In the past, before televisions with Ultra-HD resolution conquered the market, everything was much simpler. There was simply the much more powerful, yet downright delicate looking HDMI cable as a replacement for the established Scart cables.

This worked fine and no one cared about cable designations such as HDMI 1.4a. Until Ultra HD TVs suddenly started to "play hard to get". A picture with 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution, 10-bit Deep Color at 60 Hz with a color subsampling of 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 could not be reproduced - the capacity of 10.3 Gbps (Gigabit per second) was not enough for four times more sharpness at the back and front.

In 2014, the announcement of HDMI 2.0 promised a remedy: 18 Gbps instead of 10 Gbps - that sounded "future-proof" and many manufacturers gave their devices the corresponding inputs and outputs.

HDMI cable 10m often brings problems - especially with 4k / UltraHD.
Nevertheless, there was still a lot of suffering, troubles and plagues of the clientele to read on the net. Especially with 10m HDMI cables, the screen not infrequently remained black or "fluttered" and gave angry owners stomach ulcers, because they made him or his feed players as the root of all evil.


Artifacts / display errors with an HDMI cable of 10m length

A short digression on this: In Burosch's Praxisbuch der Medientechnik (Practical Book of Media Technology), one can read that the quality requirements for HDMI cables increase disproportionately with increasing length. If one wants to use HDMI 2.0 with 50Hz/60Hz, the cross-section of the inner conductor cables plays the decisive role. According to the experts, the connectors should also be of high quality.

It is difficult to check the cable from the outside, because the thickness of the cable does not provide any information about what it looks like on the inside, i.e. how the cable is constructed. Burosch comments:

"Neither a particular brand nor the price of the cable determines whether it "works" or "doesn't work."

A true seal of approval is now slowly gaining acceptance in 2018. The Premium Label program, issued by the HDMI Licensing Organization, identifies HDMI cables with guaranteed working HDMI 2.0 support. To earn the Premium Label, a cable must pass various functional tests - in every cable length advertised with the Premium Label.

And that's why there are so few, if any, Premium HDMI cables with lengths over 5m. Because even in top quality regions, dropouts, jerks or picture failures can cloud the enjoyment when it comes to the critical lengths of five to ten meters and beyond. Those who have purchased a certified cable with a warranty are quickly out of the woods! An exchange or return is then only a formality.

Long strings only with HDMI 2.1?
Of course, customers and manufacturers want to eradicate the problem with the "long lines" - and at the latest when HDMI 2.1 cables are likely to be introduced from 2019, a bright light will shine at the end of the tunnel.

The higher bandwidth alone of 48 GBit/s instead of the previous 18 GBit/s with HDMI 2.0 speaks volumes. Another advantage is the transmission of dynamic HDR content.

But before you start to despair because you fear that you will soon have to dispose of your recently purchased UHD TV or Ultra HD Blu-ray player, we advise you to remain calm.

It will certainly take a few more years until HDMI 2.0 is no longer "standard" and HDMI 2.1 dominates even 8K TVs. Besides, smart cable manufacturers have long been working on chipsets and repeaters for "normal" premium-certified Ultra High Speed cables to fix the length issue.

So what now? 3 tips for HDMI cable 10m
If it can not be avoided, and you inevitably rely on a long cord, then we give you here a few helpful tips for the use of 10m HDMI cables.

Tip 1: Buy HDMI cable 10m from accommodating dealers
If you absolutely need a 10m HDMI cable at the moment, follow the rule of thumb: "Can work, but doesn't have to". Errors can also occur with changing the components and are not always necessarily due to the cable. Therefore: Look for an accommodating retailer that promises a problem-free exchange or warranty. Corresponding reviews on online portals will give you good hints.

Tip 2: Try a repeater
If a simple 10m HDMI cable doesn't work, it can be worthwhile to "split" a 10m cable into two 5m cables. Premium certified HDMI cables up to 5m ensure that at least the partial distances are guaranteed to work. And a corresponding repeater connects the two cables and amplifies the signal at the same time.

Tip 3: Go for professional equipment
OK, so you don't feel like compromising and trial and error? Of course there is a solution, but it comes at a price. Specialist suppliers such as GROBI.TV have recently started offering a "homemade" active HDMI cable for maximum Ultra HD bandwidth in lengths of ten, 15, 20 or even 25 meters. "Active" means that amplifiers are built into the plugs, which guarantee that the signals that are fed in "at the back" also arrive "at the front" fresh and lively. The whole thing doesn't come cheap, though: the 10-meter roll of 4K UHD HDMI 2.0a Poweractive cable up to 2,160p/60 Hz comes in at 169 euros. If you order 25 meters, you'll have to pay 279 Euros - but then the long cable will work.

Connect Macbook to TV via HDMI
Tutorial: Extracting HDMI sound using the PS4 Slim as an example
PS4 Pro HDR - Problems with older HDMI cables
HDMI HDR - All information about the new standard HDR 10 and Dolby Vision
HDMI ARC: How the Audio Return Channel works
Which HDMI cable for Ultra HD? It all depends on the bandwidth!
HDMI 2.1 - Who benefits from new cables?
Advantages of HDMI fiber extender
AOC active HDMI fiber cable