How far can you run RCA cables?

[NightRyder]

Here is a link to the receiver comparison chart on the Echostar Knowledge Base. It lists the 322 RF output as mono.




http://ekb.dbstalk.com/101

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NightRyder

[Pepper]

Regardless of whether the box provides MTS stereo over coax (it does!), you will get better quality by using the RCA connections.

I ran about 60 feet of category 5 (ethernet cable) between den and bedroom with a standard 8-pin ethernet jack on the wallplate at each end (long ago swapped everything for the modular wallplates). I then made up two patch cables with one end as a standard ethernet connector and the other end as RCA connectors on each pair (one is left over). Works like a champ, and if I ever decide I need ethernet between those two locations, just swap the patch cables. The single unshielded twisted pair cable was a heck of a lot easier to get there than anything else I could think of.

I think (don't hold me to this, I haven't done the research yet) that all the outer edges of the RCA connectors are ground (bonded together), so I could probably get by with four actual wires for the three RCA connections, leaving five available for other uses - ethernet for example uses only four wires so with some creative crimping and multiple plugs at each end there are more possibilities - or there'd be enough left for an S-video connection as well. Or two devices fed from one room to the other.

[TuxCoder]

Pepper, I tried that same approach a year ago and couldn't get the signals to be very good. You didn't need to use any baluns then?

[DaveP]

A 20ft RCA cable run shouldn't be a problem. I'd just make sure you have a high quality cable. Look for one that has a thicker video cable. If you have the option, use s-video. A while back I picked up some nice 25ft S-video w/ stereo audio cables from ebay for about $20 - dunno what's out there now. If you want the ultimate in quality, you could run 3 pieces of coax (or at least one for the video) and put RCA ends on the coax (or use F-to-RCA adapters) - that approach is a bit more costly and harder to work with, though.

The electrical engineers among us may speak of capacitance issues with long A/V runs - I'll leave it to them to elaborate. I have a 100ft run in my house with no apparent issues.

[Pepper]

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Baluns: no, I guess I bypassed that by just soldering the connectors directly to the cat-5 cable.

Quality: it looks and sounds fine to me, at least it's noticably better than the signal coming from the RF connection. I did make sure I used the matched pairs though, not just any two randomly picked wires from the eight. Maybe that made a difference.

[SimpleSimon]

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Baluns would be the "right" method, but for short runs, you're OK without it.

I don't think I would try not grounding one side of a given twisted pair, tho. I think that would be asking for interference even more than the idea already is.