Long run of HD video over DVI - Copper or Fibre?

[Solstace]

As per the title - I'm working on a system design that calls for one 1080p HD signal to be distributed around a building to several HD displays, with some runs up to 30m or more to get to them. We've so far only considered DVI over Fibre as being the right solution to reliably push out to those distances. One of my team is rather adamant from his previous broadcast infrastructure experience that there is nothing out there that can get this high a resolution over that distance by DVI over copper, without lossy artefacts.

 

So - can anyone out there prove us wrong on this, with hard experience rather as well as specs on paper? Is there anywhere we might be able to see this working in a real life situation.

 

I realise a demo with a supplier is probably a good way to go on this, but I'd like to get some friendly background knowledge on this so I can know more of what I'm looking for before I take the design to that stage...

 

Cheers,

 

C

[broadcast_techie]

How about converting to HD-SDI (or HDSDI....) and back again?

Conversion boxes may be slightly more expensive, but the cable is cheaper, (just found a 30m fibre DVI cable for about £700 where as SDI cable is about £3/m, possible even cheaper, I don't know).

 

As far as I'm aware HDSDI is the same spec. distance wise, 250m.

 

Kris

 

p.s. have a look here: http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=6119

[Dave]

The specified max length of a DVI cable is 5m. I don't think you'd get artefacts, it would be more likely just not to work at some indeterminate length. So your colleague is partly right.

 

However, you can get DVI repeaters or boosters that supposedly can extend standard DVI cables up to 60m or so. These would probably be the most cost-effective solution if they work. Try a google search on DVI repeater.

 

DVI fibre extenders are, as has been mentioned, rather expensive.

 

HD-SDI is definitely a superior system, and will go long distances depending on the quality (ie size) of the cable. I'm not sure about 250m, but you can certainly get 150m or so with coax that's about 10mm in diameter. But, even allowing for the reduced cable cost, the cost of the converters is likely to outweigh the cost of DVI repeaters and DVI cabling. However, if you can find a display with an HD-SDI input, that could tip the balance in its favour.

 

Hope this helps.