how to splice HDMI cable

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Rikkitic

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#265416 20-Jan-2020 17:15

I have an interesting problem. I want to run a long HDMI cable under the floor of an old house, but I do not want to create the horrendous holes that would be necessary to fit the connectors through. I also do not want to use HDMI over CAT6, which is overkill for this. Is there any way to do this, either by splicing the cable or finding a magical joiner that is no thicker than the cable itself?

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#2402562 20-Jan-2020 17:23

You would need to be particularly good at soldering to achieve this. Buy HDMI connectors and solder the plugs on.

Whats the problem with drilling holes? To do it nicely, you would cut in a flush box, drill inside the wall cavity and throw the cable down it - you don't see the hole at all that way. PDL have HDMI mechs for their plates now so it all looks nice.

What's the distance? Can recommend the 'fibre optic' HDMI cables for distances over 10m. The heads are no bigger than a normal HDMI cable, but the cable is significantly thinner.

Rikkitic

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#2402567 20-Jan-2020 17:41

Holes would be in floor next to wall but shouldn't be wider than absolutely necessary, preferably cable thickness. Length is under 10 metres. Micro-soldering is out of the question. I am utterly hopeless at things like that and have already destroyed more electronics than I like to think of.

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#2402581 20-Jan-2020 17:54

Rikkitic:

Holes would be in floor next to wall but shouldn't be wider than absolutely necessary, preferably cable thickness. Length is under 10 metres. Micro-soldering is out of the question. I am utterly hopeless at things like that and have already destroyed more electronics than I like to think of.

pretty much down to either paying someone or drilling the hole.

could use micro HDMI connectors with micro to standard hdmi converters

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#2402646 20-Jan-2020 19:07

Holes thru the floor is a pretty crap way to do things, but you could always put a box ontop with a blank plate, and notch the side of the plate to just the size of the cable to get it thru that, and the box and plate would cover the hole up.

Richard rich.ms

Rikkitic

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#2402650 20-Jan-2020 19:20

Thanks for the replies. This is an old weatherboard farmhouse and modern faceplates would look out of place anyway. Going straight through the floor is much simpler in this case. I just want to keep the hole as small as possible and up against the wall it is nearly invisible. I have done this for other cables but HDMI is less flexible in this regard. I was hoping for an easy answer but of course I was not expecting one.

Edit: Microconnectors is not a bad idea. I may go with that.

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elpenguino

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#2402651 20-Jan-2020 19:22

richms:

Holes thru the floor is a pretty crap way to do things,

Indeed.

Another way, alluded to earlier, is to drill at the bottom of the wall but actually inside the wall - then you can drill as large as you wish and it wont be seen (but it will allow drafts up your wall if you don't seal it).

There usually isn't a dwang until some distance off the floor.

That makes it easy to cut a hole in the gib and fish the cable out, fit a flush box and face plate as normal.

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richms

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#2402654 20-Jan-2020 19:26

I got some wall plates from bunnings a while back that snap in half, so you can attach them around the cable. I used them for the xbox and playstation camera cables from the shelf over the TV and another behind the cabinet that the consoles are in, since those cant be terminated any other way.

Richard rich.ms

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#2402708 20-Jan-2020 21:03

Another way, alluded to earlier, is to drill at the bottom of the wall but actually inside the wall - then you can drill as large as you wish and it wont be seen (but it will allow drafts up your wall if you don't seal it)

And vermin - steel wool around the hole will stop them.

John

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Rikkitic

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#2402721 20-Jan-2020 21:48

Drilling into the wall doesn't really solve the problem. I still have just as big a hole from the wall into the room. So then I have to cover that with a faceplate, which is even bigger than the hole. I'm sorry, but I don't quite get what this achieves.

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elpenguino

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#2402722 20-Jan-2020 21:53

Rikkitic:

Drilling into the wall doesn't really solve the problem. I still have just as big a hole from the wall into the room. So then I have to cover that with a faceplate, which is even bigger than the hole. I'm sorry, but I don't quite get what this achieves.

It means you can drill big holes and that means you can install a pre-made cable.

This plan does assume you can get face plates which are female to female. If those are available, no soldering or termination is required, as you requested.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

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#2402726 20-Jan-2020 22:02

Rikkitic:

Drilling into the wall doesn't really solve the problem. I still have just as big a hole from the wall into the room. So then I have to cover that with a faceplate, which is even bigger than the hole. I'm sorry, but I don't quite get what this achieves.

It doesn't look like a bloody great hole in the floor but like something that was done by somebody competent and who cared. Having cables through floor penetrations looks like it was a bodge home handy person job.

You can also fill the penetration and stop drafts etc in a practical way.

Up to you whether you care.

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Rikkitic

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#2402732 20-Jan-2020 22:24

Not sure I do that much. It is an old house. And there are already bodge cables coming up through the floor. I just don't want to make it worse than I have to.

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#2402738 20-Jan-2020 23:50

I think you're really overthinking at this point.

To summarise:

1. No you cant chop an HDMI cable. The smallest you will go is micro HDMI but I suspect you wont find those connectors on many "long" cables.

Realistically, the head of an HDMI cable is maybe 20mm-odd. The cable thickness for long cables is easily 12-15mm perhaps? So really, what's the difference if there are already cables going through the floor.

2. To do it properly, you cut in a flush box in to the wall. Drill down the bottom plate to under the floor, run the cable, and then fit off the flush box with a proper wall plate.

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#2402762 21-Jan-2020 08:19

If it’s for sending a 1080p signal you could go wireless and use a video sender ? I use the Benq wireless unit and for HD it’s fine.

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#2402780 21-Jan-2020 09:16

would you consider hdmi over ethernet. i've never personally used them, but the one at work to connect to a ceiling-mounted projector works well enough.

you'd only have to drill for a CAT6 cable.

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