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bmorris

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
434
0
ATL
My living room Mac Mini is about 36 ft away from the bedroom TV.
I was thinking the cheapest thing to do would be to run an HDMI cable and a 3.5 mm audio cable.
But would the audio still be synced with the video at 36ft?
 
It would take cables wayyyyyyyyyyy longer than that (Think about it, you can speak to someone on the other end of the country without sync problem) to lose sync, so don't worry about that, you are safe to go!
 
It would take cables wayyyyyyyyyyy longer than that (Think about it, you can speak to someone on the other end of the country without sync problem) to lose sync, so don't worry about that, you are safe to go!

I've never thot about it before. But just wondering b/c some concerts the video is way ahead of the sound if your far away b/c light travels faster than sound. So with the video being HDMI and new and the sound being 3.5mm and analog, and it being 36ft, just wasn't sure.
 
You are right about light being faster thant sound, but in this case, both your HDMI and 3.5 audio cable are electrical signal :)

And I go to a lot of show/concerts, it's true that there are almost always big screen and that the the image is not alyways in sync, but it's normal because there is some processing (they add some special effect, ect...) that cause this small delay.
 
Even if you did get lag of some sort, you could probably resolve it by getting a signal booster (they might be snake oil for all I know, but they exist) OR just use a program like VLC and use an audio delay so that your signal is in sync.

When there is a will, there is a way.
 
which mac mini are you running? are you running it to a receiver or just to your tv? does your tv have vga inputs?

if you have VGA on your tv id say run VGA from the mini. itll cost alot cheaper for cabling and will also help avoid possible resolution issues. also if you needed audio there are a bunch of cables available on amazon that have VGA bundled with 1/8" so you would only have to run one cable with both video and audio instead of two separate.

as for HDMI runs.. i believe the max run before signal loss would be about 50" so you should be ok -- but each situation varies. I work in concert production and run about 150" vga for the video before it needs a video amplifier to avoid signal loss.

if you are worried about it being in sync, i do not see too much of a problem since you don't have much processing to go through, however, that long of a run with a 1/8" makes it more vulnerable to RF freqs. and what not (like when a cell phone goes off near a speaker, etc). but not knowing your full set up, running the 1/8" might be your only option.

are you sure there isnt a way you can make the mac mini move closer to your tv?
 
The HDMI won't begin to lose quality until about 100ft. If you use ethernet, then when it reaches the TV use a cable to convert it to HDMI you could even get 300ft without losing quality.
 
Get an AppleTV and use that in the bedroom, synced to the Mac mini. I would hate to have 36 feet of HDMI and audio cable running through my place. Not as cheap, but much prettier to look at.

Just my $0.02.
 
Yes the current minis do support audio over both HDMI and minidisplayport. I assume the OP has one of the older minis.
 
If you want HDMI cables on the cheap, and yes they are quality, go to monoprice.com. You can avoid the raping prices of best buy and other stores.
 
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