Splitting and reattaching optical HDMI - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: zzattack
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2021, 09:34:38 pm
content: I've tried some ways of hooking up a computer in one room to a TV in another in various ways that use video encoding/streaming, and while nvidia does a great job, there's still some latency that I'd like to eliminate. One way of doing so could be to use an optical HDMI cable since the distance to cover is about 40m.I would have to route such a cable through some 5/8" (16mm) pipes, so the HDMI connector needs to be separated from the cable on one end. So I'm looking for either a fully detachable connector, or I'd have to chop up the cable and reattach the insides. Guessing that with the transceiver electronics inside the connector, the former likely doesn't exist.I do own a (cheap, Chinese) fusion splicer, which does standard single and multimode perfectly fine, so if I find a cable that uses fiber with similar diameters, this seems viable. No idea how many fibers I'd be looking at, but this isn't a big concern at the moment.Anyone here have some experience with fusion splicing optical HDMI cables?

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2021, 10:05:24 pm
content: Have you considered extenders that send HDMI over CAT6? Would probably be far cheaper than fiber.

author: spostma
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2021, 11:26:39 pm
content: search for detachable (micro) HDMI AOC (Active Optical Cable) likehttps://www.activeopticalcable.com/hdmi/d-hdmi2.0-aoc/aoc-hdmi20-d-dhttp://www.opticis.com/en/product/view.asp?idx=44&page=1&catecode=15452981480&search=0&searchstr=These cables usually are POF rather than glass.Also ones with LC fibre connectors exist, but are more expensive

author: zzattack
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 09:53:41 am
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on April 08, 2021, 10:05:24 pmI don't see them doing 48gbps, which ideally is what I'm targeting to be future proof.Quote from: spostma on April 08, 2021, 11:26:39 pmEven with the smaller connector, I wouldn't want to risk pulling on those to get them through a 16mm conduit with bends.After some more searching, I found these RUIPRO ones that seemingly cover full HDMI 2.1 spec at significant lengths. Hard to find precise info, but some of their info graphics state that they use 4 fibers and 7 copper conductors.. I'm guessing the 4 fibers correspond to the 4 TDMS signals, and the remaining 7 copper ones are used for 5V/GND and the (very) low speed CEC and DDC signals. If these fibers are glass then I don't think there should be any issue in cutting off one end and reattaching the fibers by fusion splice and the copper ones by soldering after routing the cable through the conduits. But first I'll have to find some confirmation on the type of fiber used in this cable.

author: spostma
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 10:53:08 am
content: APAC Opto makes wonderful stuff,even HDMI over a simplex LC fibre:https://www.apacoe.com.tw/en/product-549767/Optical-Extender-HDMI-Extender.htmlhttps://www.apacoe.com.tw/files/AH-UD-200-MPO-XX_V1.pdf----By the way, an USB-over-ethernet device server with a USB graphical card would do the job also reliably using a CAT6 cable.I have good experience with EliteSilicon gigabit USB server chips and DisplayLink USB-to-HDMI graphical interfaces.

author: Lukas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 07:56:26 pm
content: You might as well take a look at HDMI/SDI converters. SDI uses standard 75 Ohm coax cable. If that's too big, SDI also comes in an optical variant that uses standard fibers.