To guarantee the best 4K experience, we recommend looking for cables that are labelled “High Speed” and never get one longer than three meters. If you want to get the absolute best resolution, make sure the HDMI cable is no longer than necessary. The longer the cable, the lower the resolution. In some cases, the distance will be much shorter, around the one to two-meter mark. Since 4K requires a lot of bandwidth, most cables cannot transfer the resolution over distances of more than three meters. There are a few solutions to that problem. In short, if you’re planning to run an HDMI cable through your home, the end result might be either a completely blank screen, or a low-quality image. To push it further, you’ll need the help of extra tools and cables, which we’ll talk about in the next section.Īnother thing to keep in mind is that sharp bends can degrade the signal further. While there are many different types of HDMI cables, most of them start to encounter signal degradation around the 15-meter mark (50 feet). In simple terms: the further the signals have to travel, the weaker they get. It’s pushing through 1s and 0s but sometimes not all the packets can make it to the end-point. When you start encountering those issues, you can bet that the cable is running into issues.īasically, what happens is the cable sends the information that it can, which isn’t always the information that you’re expecting to receive. In some cases, a long cable will just be unreliable.Īn HDMI cable can still work over long distances, but you might run into graphical artefacts, a loss of brightness, input lag, a low refresh rate, and other issues. When it comes to cables, one of the most common mantras is, “It either works, or it doesn’t”. This is to prevent signal degradation which tends to occur around the 50-ft mark. Generally, when it comes to HDMI cables, the shorter, the better. In the next section, we’re going to breakdown what is the ideal length for these accessories, what resolution you can expect, and how to boost HDMI signals.

I found myself wondering what is the maximum distance I can run an HDMI cable without running into any issues. For lower resolutions, the reliable distance is much longer, with the most common being 15 meters (50 feet). After that distance, the signal can start to degrade. How Long Can an HDMI Cable Be?įor resolutions near 4K, it’s recommended to use an HDMI cable that is no longer than 3 meters (10 feet). But it’s not set in stone, and it also depends on the category of HDMI cable you use, as well as a couple of other factors, such as desired resolution. The truth is, since HDMI cables encounter signal degradation, there is a limit to HDMI cable length.

You might have heard that HDMI cables can lose picture quality at certain lengths.

Hdmi cable length limit 4k frame