Just learned most HDMI cables over 15 feet are actually fiber optic now

I was helping a buddy run cable for his home theater last weekend and his 25 foot cable felt way too light. I looked it up and found out any HDMI 2.1 cable longer than 15 feet uses fiber instead of copper wire. Blew my mind, I spent like $80 on a copper one 2 years ago that barely worked. Has anyone else run into this or know what brand holds up best for long runs?

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2 Comments

williams.amy25d ago

My buddy tried running a 20 foot copper HDMI to his projector last year and it would drop signal every 15 minutes during movies. He ended up swapping it for a fiber optic one from Monoprice and it worked perfectly first try. Now he tells everyone the fiber cables are actually easier to hide because they're so thin and flexible. He even loops the extra cable behind his media cabinet without any issues. Kinda wild how much better the tech got in just a few years.

taylor.mary25d ago

Yeah my buddy works in AV installs and he said the super long fiber ones actually have a direction to them for signal flow, so you gotta plug them in the right way or they just don't work at all. Kinda annoying but at least the price has come down a ton on those 2.1 cables lately.