video wiring upgrade?

[JimM68]

It's time to look into upgrading my audio/video in the main cabin.

Coach is a 2008 monaco knight 40skq.
It's a reversed layout front kitchen model.
The TV is on the back wall, above a fireplace.

Sat receiver and DVD/surround sound player are up front over the drivers seat in the overhead console.

I have 2 sets of RGB/LR component RCA cables going from the front to the TV.
I'd really really like to have HDMI...

Does anyone have a clue where Monaco ran these cables?
And how much coach has to be taken apart to get at them?
I can see that bundle of coax as thick as my arm vanishing down into the cabinet that the fireplace is in...
The raised rail frame area in the basement is completely sealed off...

[JimM68]

in the house, I have this new vizio 50" 4k TV, the picture is amazing from any source.
primary source is a dish hopper 3.
Yesterday I connected my laptop (15" 4k screen, able to output to 2) to it, and it gave an amazing 4000 x 2000 dpi combined screen.

My hopper 3 gives a crystal clear HD picture on that big 50". Maybe not 4k, but still amazing.

The picture on that old Sharp Aquos 38" in the RV is just not great (using the same hopper 3 now connected with rgb/lr) and watching Nascar it is truly horrible.
With the laptop, it's worse. TV only delivers 480p from the laptop. It is so coarse it is not useable (I'm trying to display stock market scanners and tickers, nothing on this TV is readable)

So bottom line is I need to transmit a pair of 4k, 2116p, 350 mgz digital video signal from over the dash to the back wall, probably 40' with ups and downs. Affordably hopefully.

Will any of the suggestions above (or any others) do that?

[MrWizard]

hdmi is digital signal nothing more, nothing less

usb same thing, and shielded RGB is better cable / wiring than you will find in an hdmi cable

and its only the length of the RV

as long as it is a 'break out' cable with no conversion, it will work

electrically it is no different but better shielded than slicing open the rubber jacket around the hdmi cable and spreading out the wires

the analogy to highways is way off, since we are NOT talking about power carrying wire, only passing signals 40ft or less

[DrewE]

MrWizard wrote:
Any cable is nothing but wire
Any signal that is not RF and radiate a broadcast signal can be sent over any wire
USB cables, Ethernet cable, phone line, HDMI cable, it is just wire
You just need the correct number of wires
Why do you think there are hdmi over Ethernet cable adapters
Of which a link has been posted with the suggesting to pull Ethernet cable in the RV
No difference using rgb cable
In fact rgb should have less loss and less possible interference, because each cable is a shielded wire larger guage than hdmi or Ethernet

Suggesting that all wires are more or less equivalent is like suggesting that all roads are equivalently suitable for any driving. A forest service road and a multilane superhighway may be about equal for some uses (it's not much more difficult to walk the dog along either one, assuming there's no traffic), but for driving a convoy of semi trucks at 65 mph only one would work properly.

Similarly, there are significant differences in wire types for high speed data (be it analog or digital), and video certainly qualifies. HDMI is very different electrically from analog component video; it's digital signaling well in the GHz range, and impedance mismatches from inappropriate cables will cause reflections etc. that will absolutely render the signal unusable. Furthermore, it uses balanced differential signaling, so each of the main video signals is a twisted pair of wires, while analog component video is typically unbalanced. Many wires would have excessive capacitance that would attenuate such high-frequency signals unacceptably. (HDMI is also rather sensitive to small differences in length between the various wires, and hence skew between the signals sent over the wire. A few inches difference in the total length between the various wires is quite sufficient to make things not work.)

HDMI over ethernet adapter are not merely connecting the wires of one to the other. Rather, they have a video encoder (compressor) chip that converts the raw digital video data from the HDMI signal into compressed video and sends that over ethernet, with a decoder at the other end. The resulting video is not bit-for-bit identical to the input in general, though it's rare that you would be able to notice the differences visually.

Similarly, running (twisted-pair) ethernet over a set of coaxial cables would generally not work very well. There were 10 Mbit coax ethernet systems that were popular at one time, with a single coaxial cable connecting all the computers together, but that system isn't really used anymore and doesn't support 100 Mbit or faster ethernet.

For short distances and lower bandwidth signals, you can often get away with less than ideal wiring. As the distances increase and the baud rates go up, the specifics of the cabling become very much more important.

[MrWizard]

Any cable is nothing but wire
Any signal that is not RF and radiate a broadcast signal can be sent over any wire
USB cables, Ethernet cable, phone line, HDMI cable, it is just wire
You just need the correct number of wires
Why do you think there are hdmi over Ethernet cable adapters
Of which a link has been posted with the suggesting to pull Ethernet cable in the RV
No difference using rgb cable
In fact rgb should have less loss and less possible interference, because each cable is a shielded wire larger guage than hdmi or Ethernet

[GordonThree]

JimM68 wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Guess I'm confused... what's the problem with the RGB/LR?

OP here.

My biggest problem with RGB/LR is that I need 2, and current TV's are lucky to have one.

RF remote switch boxes are not very expensive.

[GordonThree]

MrWizard: Cite your source that one can transport HDMI over a component video cable using a $4 fanout at both ends. RFC # and page would be great.

[MrWizard]

There are many differing break out cables available for many different things

What you must realize about a break out cable, video , audio, lan , what ever
IS they do not convert signals they simply split the signals off to be carried by a different set of wires, sometimes for testing purposes, sometimes so you can use existing cabling wiring, without pulling new cable ( just like the adapters people use When replacing the rearview camera system , new system old oem cable , new adapters for mating things together )

New HDMI signal at source end, new hdmi tv at the receiving end rgb cable in the ceiling
Break out cable adapter on each end, let's the old cable carry the new HDMI signal to the new tv using the old existing rgb cable in the ceiling

This will Not convert hdmi to component rgb for an old tv

There are conversion boxes that do that, but not this break out cable
(2) break out cables and some rca barrel connectors for coupling and a new tv
Ready to go , no new cable pull in, under, or thru the RV

[JimM68]

Ivylog wrote:
Guess I'm confused... what's the problem with the RGB/LR?

OP here.

My biggest problem with RGB/LR is that I need 2, and current TV's are lucky to have one.

[-Gramps-]

no loss hdmi splitter

[Ivylog]

Ivylog wrote:
Guess I'm confused... what's the problem with the RGB/LR?

The OP has component cables plus stereo audio to his TV... 1080i/stereo sound. What do you think is inside of a hdmi cable? OK, maybe a hdmi is shielded better.

He does not need the adapter cable I posted... it was to show what's inside of a hdmi cable so he does not need to run new hdmi cables. He will not gain anything.

[-Gramps-]

CA Traveler wrote:
Gramps,

Do you know if those converters will be OK with RG 59U coax?

I have that coax to a kitchen TV and converting to HD would be nice for DW. I would also need a HDMI splitter - any suggestions for one?

The converters should work, you will need a couple of these to connect to an F connector which most Motorhomes use.
bnc to f adapter

[GordonThree]

Omg don't believe it and buy that junk cable, it's a SCAM

HDMI is a DIGITAL interface standard.

HD video is a broadcast standard.

You don't need HDMI for HD, anyone that says otherwise, provide your proofs.

[CA_Traveler]

Gramps,

Do you know if those converters will be OK with RG 59U coax?

I have that coax to a kitchen TV and converting to HD would be nice for DW. I would also need a HDMI splitter - any suggestions for one?

[-Gramps-]

CA Traveler wrote:
Nice post lvylog. That would do the job for most of us. From the little I've read the composite cables may be just a little less sharp than HDMI but the difference may require a much larger TV than RVs have.

This cable by itself transmits only one way, HDMI out to Componet In but not the other way around. By itself it is not compatible with Blu Ray or DVD players or any other digital device. I don't think it will work all that well in this situation. Check this out on Amazon, first.

Diagram for componet/hdmi cable

[-Gramps-]

CA Traveler wrote:
Nice post lvylog. That would do the job for most of us. From the little I've read the composite cables may be just a little less sharp than HDMI but the difference may require a much larger TV than RVs have.

To go from HDMI to HDMI connection you will need two of these cables with gender changers (barrels) for each end as well. This will not work from Hdmi source (example upconvert DVD or Blu Ray) to Componet in on an older TV.

Edited this to clarify.