Need very long RCA connection to watch DVD on distant TV

[trolltuning]

I would like to be able to pop a DVD in my computor and watch it on TV which is in another room. This way I can play things in slow motion and still hear the sound. My problem is that I need to build a cord about 20' long with RCA phono plugs. Will a cord that long work? If so what is the easiest way to make one or join sevral together?

[Gurm]

Sure. I have a couple laying around here that are that long. One is Monster, another is just Radio Shack Gold.

As for "making" one... it would need to be exceptionally well insulated, you will experience a LOT of signal loss over 20'.

[skebenin]

20 feet isn't that far for straight RCA cable. I wouldn't bother to make one. If you can't find a 20 footer, just buy two 12 footers and a female-female dongle (or a 12 footer and a 12 foot male/female extension). Probably cost less than making one, and with more professional results.

Beyond 30 or 40 feet, straight cabling would probably exibit signal degradation. I'd opt for building a cable using cat5e or cat6 network cable. It supposed to be amazingly resistant to interference despite the fact that it's unshielded. Technically you're supposed to use a balun, but baluns can be expensive, and I'm willing to bet it'd work pretty good without it - wouldn't cost much to try (if you already have cable lying around).

[jimmalenko]

I would like to be able to pop a DVD in my computor and watch it on TV which is in another room. This way I can play things in slow motion and still hear the sound.

Won't you need controls for the PC also to make it play in slo-mo, or are you going to walk between rooms every time ?

[samijubal]

I used RG6 coax with RCA connecters and ran my satellite signal 40+ feet and it works fine. RG6 has very low signal loss and is well insulated, I've never seen any interference.

[Gurm]

Cool, I'm glad to hear that I was mistaken. I think that if you just used standard coax though, that 20' would introduce substantial loss right?

[kupton]

A Standard coax (RG-59) would be fine for 20' but RG-6 isn't that much more expensive so might as well use it.

[ebenton]

This would certainly be more expensive than 20-foot cords, but have you considered going wireless and getting a wireless media adapter/box? Some of the newer ones (802.11g) don't do too bad of a job. I am not sure about Dolby Digital, etc. and the video quality, but it might be worth it. One of those wireless media thingies goes for anywhere from $90 to $200.

[samijubal]

I only paid about $18 for 100 feet of RG6 cable, so that's alot less than $90 to $200. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I tried one of those wireless things, it was crap.

[trolltuning]

Thanks to all of you- what great answers-practically a guide in itself.
@Jimmalenko For now I'll try running back and forth hopefully I can find a software player where I can repeat a section over and over without it resetting the play speed-unlike my DVD player does. (Why would they make it that way?)

[MaDmiZe]

Back when DVD players were real expensive (cheap ones were 500+) my bother had one on his computer...point is it was in his room and we wanted to watch stuff in great room probly 30 or 40 feet away on 27 inch TV...

His computer had TV out in form of RCA.....all we had was some four conductor (alarm wire, slighty thicker than phone) I soldered RCA ends on it and we rolled it down the hall when ever we wanted to watch a DVD and it worked great.

Point being just about anything will work....just depends on how much you want to spend... and how you want it to look (I'm assuming the object is to spend as little as possable, or you'd just go buy a stand alone DVD player)