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chances are that when you're putting together your new pc battle station or

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home theater one of the last things you're thinking about is cable length i

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mean obviously you want to make sure that you can get from a to b

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but other than that how much does it really matter especially in an age when

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most things are digital and the usual

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mantra of enthusiasts when it comes to cables is

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it either works or it doesn't just coil up the excess and throw it in a corner

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right well let's start by discussing things

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that are still analog cables such as speaker wires vga

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cables you might still be using for older monitors and rca cables for

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connecting av equipment that doesn't have digital jacks like HDMI or toslink

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i have to take this sorry one moment

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line is speaking analog signals depend on small

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continuous changes in an electrical waveform you can learn more about that

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here but the gist of it is that because analog signals rely on precise

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variations in voltage they're susceptible to interference as well as

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degradation the longer they have to travel the worse

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this gets so then for this reason

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shorter cables are better as well as

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thicker ones since they have less electrical impedance which keeps your

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signal from traveling as far as it needs

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to this can result in an actual improvement in picture or audio

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quality but if you've moved off of analog cables and gone completely

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digital you might be a little surprised to know that length can still matter for

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reasons other than not wanting to have a huge tangled mess of wires behind your

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setup let's start with HDMI the common wisdom

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about HDMI cables is that fancy thousand

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dollar cables like this one from wire world

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are basically pure snake oil and one two

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spec HDMI cable is generally as good as

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another which by the way you can learn more about here

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but that doesn't mean that length is

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irrelevant digital signals are much less

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susceptible to interference because information is being sent in discrete

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binary chunks rather than a continuous waveform so over short distances this

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means that the wisdom is true

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if the signal works it works and no

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fancy cable or shorter cable will make your colors brighter or your sounds

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clearer but HDMI runs longer than 50 feet or 15

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meters can result in blocky artifacts or

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signal drops unless you use a repeater

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or an active cable with built-in electronics that boost the signal but it

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isn't just av cables that have issues with signal strength i bet you didn't

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know that usb cables also have a maximum

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recommended length 5 meters for usb 2 a

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mere 3 meters for 3 and anecdotal evidence would suggest

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that more than a meter is tough for usb 3.1 10 gigabit

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this is due to electrical reflections that can happen if there's not enough of

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a delay between each bit of information

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being sent down the pipe apparently this can even cause damage to

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the cable or port go figure so it's this delay that limits how long

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the cable can be while still transmitting data effectively

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but again the solution is pretty simple and an active cable or a powered usb hub

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that acts as a repeater can bridge the gap though if you're a diy kind of

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person you can even connect a pair of usb controllers with an Ethernet cable

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since both cat5 and cat6 cables can reach a hundred meters before signal

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losses and interference with other circuits called crosstalk start to

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become a problem but so far we've only talked about

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traditional copper cabling what if you're using an optical cable instead

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something like toslink for surround sound or an optical Thunderbolt cable

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well optical cables use light which can be

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attenuated if the cable isn't constructed well meaning that it loses

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intensity at range along with its ability to carry information

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think about how a flashlight or the headlamps on your car visibly get less

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powerful the further away you are this is a common problem in toslink

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cables which tend to be constructed with cheap plastic fiber limiting their range

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to 10 meters at the most on the other hand the more premium Thunderbolt cables

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are often made of data grade glass fibers which can reflect a light beam

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down the pipe with far less attenuation meaning you can get them in lengths up

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to 60 meters at least for Thunderbolt 2.

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no word yet on optical cables for Thunderbolt 3.

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so keep these tips in mind if you find yourself needing a long cable run it's

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one of those few times in life where longer doesn't necessarily mean better

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