Mini Displayport Extension cable now avaiable at monoprice!

[Greenhoe]

Finally I didn't want to pay $25 for one of these from another vendor when I knew monoprice was going to be a lot cheaper and they are finally here. Good thing too since i just received my second dual 24 ACD.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024602&p_id=5501&seq=1&format=2

 

[Raptor007]

Probably fine for most applications, but they only offer 3-foot and 6-foot though. If you want longer Mini-DisplayPort extensions, you'll still need to go elsewhere. I don't think stringing multiple low-cost extension cables is going to give you a decent signal.

 

[MovieCutter]

Bout damn time. Took them long enough.

 

[JasonR]

Probably fine for most applications, but they only offer 3-foot and 6-foot though. If you want longer Mini-DisplayPort extensions, you'll still need to go elsewhere. I don't think stringing multiple low-cost extension cables is going to give you a decent signal.

Monoprice cables are top-notch. Don't let the price fool you. I installed my parent's home theater and 2 TV wall mount setups with Monoprice cables. Their cables are VERY nice. I have never had ONE problem with anything from Monoprice.

I doubt most people would need an extension longer than 6 ft...

 

[Objectivist-C]

I don't think stringing multiple low-cost extension cables is going to give you a decent signal.

Yeah mang those ones and zeros get all fuzzy, you'll need ceramic cable lifts for sure.

 

[Raptor007]

Monoprice cables are top-notch. Don't let the price fool you. I installed my parent's home theater and 2 TV wall mount setups with Monoprice cables. Their cables are VERY nice. I have never had ONE problem with anything from Monoprice.

I doubt most people would need an extension longer than 6 ft...

Yeah mang those ones and zeros get all fuzzy, you'll need ceramic cable lifts for sure.

I'm talking about longer-distance runs here, not about buying premium vs cheap cables. And there are definitely people who need more than 6 feet of cable.

Short cables tend to use thinner wire than longer ones, because it's more flexible, less expensive to produce, and the additional thickness just isn't necessary at short distances (especially in a digital signal). So, if you chain a bunch of 6-foot extension cables together, not only are you adding additional connections to the chain, you're using a gauge of wire that was not likely intended to carry the signal that far. Both of these factors can reduce the signal strength and allow high levels of noise onto the line.

And yes, ones and zeros can in fact get "fuzzy" when the signal is not strong enough to be easily separated from the noise, and the receiving end cannot properly interpret the bits being sent. Of course, this doesn't result in a fuzzy picture like it would in an analog signal, but you can see artifacts (generally sparkles) in the picture, or worse: no picture at all!

 

[AndrewLang]

I'm talking about longer-distance runs here, not about buying premium vs cheap cables. And there are definitely people who need more than 6 feet of cable.

Short cables tend to use thinner wire than longer ones, because it's more flexible, less expensive to produce, and the additional thickness just isn't necessary at short distances (especially in a digital signal). So, if you chain a bunch of 6-foot extension cables together, not only are you adding additional connections to the chain, you're using a gauge of wire that was not likely intended to carry the signal that far. Both of these factors can reduce the signal strength and allow high levels of noise onto the line.

And yes, ones and zeros can in fact get "fuzzy" when the signal is not strong enough to be easily separated from the noise, and the receiving end cannot properly interpret the bits being sent. Of course, this doesn't result in a fuzzy picture like it would in an analog signal, but you can see artifacts (generally sparkles) in the picture, or worse: no picture at all!

Raptor is quite right about this. In my experience with the mini displayport extension cables we have found that our 32 AWG Mini Displayport extension cables are good up to about 8 meters or 25 feet. We don't like to sell them in this length anymore because conditions need to be quite good (free of EMI) for the signal to make it.

Since we knew there were a lot of people who needed to extend this connection beyond the 15 foot length we decided to go ahead and make a thicker gauge (24AWG) "Long Haul Mini Displayport Extension Cable". 24 AWG turns out to be quite a fat cable when you are talking about all the conductors in a Mini DP cable, as a result we had to create new overmolds and PCB boards to solder the large wires onto the male and female mini DP connectors on each side. So, we ended up with a pretty hefty cable, but this was really the only way to make that signal travel for lengths up to 50 feet without making 500 dollar cables made of fiber optic like some of our competitors. We knew that these cables just would not be cost effective for our customers.

Since the male side of the cable has to plug into the side or back of computers we also decided to add a dongle option available. The dongle is basically a short 32AWG mini displayport male to female cable that can come off your computer and plug into the larger gauge cable. We found that adding this cable did not significantly effect the signal quality even at the 50 foot length.

 

[zinka]

Sounds good, but unfortunately this cable is a total piece of crap. Using the 3' version, I get TONS of pixel dropouts on dark pixels. Like hundreds per second. It's like watching a meteor shower on my screen.