Component Cables and RCA adapters from HD300

[pthomas745]

I am attempting to clean up the component cable(s) from my HD-300 to my back room. I have a nice Frankensteined component cable patched together from several cables, using lots of the RCA female to female adapters. It works just fine.

I bought a single 50 foot Component cable. About 15 feet more than I really need, and it is not as "thick" as some of the Frankenstein cable I put together. I used one set of RCA female-female adapters to connect the cable to the HD 300 breakout cable, and the other end of the cable to the TV in the back room. And got nothing. No signal reaches the TV from these cables whenever an RCA adapter is introduced into the circuit. I've run through several combinations of tests. I know the new cable is good, and I know the HD-300 breakout cable is good.

Does anyone know why this new cable will not work with the RCA adapters?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by pthomas745

I am attempting to clean up the component cable(s) from my HD-300 to my back room. I have a nice Frankensteined component cable patched together from several cables, using lots of the RCA female to female adapters. It works just fine.

I bought a single 50 foot Component cable. About 15 feet more than I really need, and it is not as "thick" as some of the Frankenstein cable I put together. I used one set of RCA female-female adapters to connect the cable to the HD 300 breakout cable, and the other end of the cable to the TV in the back room. And got nothing. No signal reaches the TV from these cables whenever an RCA adapter is introduced into the circuit. I've run through several combinations of tests. I know the new cable is good, and I know the HD-300 breakout cable is good.

Does anyone know why this new cable will not work with the RCA adapters?

It likely has to do with the gauge and/or quality of the cable. If the qauge is too low, the resistance will be too high and the signal will never make it. I ran into something kind of like this with VGA and the culprit was that there was too much resistance in the cables. If the cable quality is bad, you'll have synchronization problems on the other end because the signals for the YCbCr channels will be arriving too far out of sync.

Edit: It's also possible that one of the wires is making very weak contact or no contact in the cable itself. I've had that happen to me before too.

Edit2: The signal should be synchronizing on the green jacks, so try to focus on just getting a picture from the green RCA on the HD300 side to the green RCA on your TV. You can cycled through all of the colors on the cable to try and figure out what line is the problem if it's just one of them.

[KeithAbbott]

Surely there must be a reason why you are running 35+ feet of component cable when you could run 35+ feet of cat5e instead? Are you sharing one HD300 on multiple TVs?

[pthomas745]

Yes, one HD 300 for two TV's. I live in a small place, and I want to have the playback be the same on both TV's as I move from room to room. I've done it this way for years, upgrading from composite to component as the TVs changed. The old Sage HD200 had the component outputs hard wired on the back, compared to the awkward "breakout cable" the HD300 uses.

Speaking of the breakout cable, are there any more of these available anywhere? What is it called in case I ever want a new one?

Thanks for the help!

And, I can't resist: Don't call me Shirley!

Edit: I searched the forums for the breakout cable, and discovered they are basically unobtainable, unless someone has an unused one from an HD300.

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by pthomas745

No signal reaches the TV from these cables whenever an RCA adapter is introduced into the circuit.

It's unclear what you're referring to as an "RCA adapter". Attempting to use a simple RCA "Y" cable to feed 2 TVs from a component output is pretty iffy, even when there are short component cables involved. Component outputs are designed to drive only a single device.

Assuming both TVs have HDMI inputs, an alternate (and likely more reliable) way to do this would be to connect the HD200/300's HDMI output to an official HDMI splitter (which is an active device) and then use HDMI cabling to each TV. Side benefit: less of a rats-nest of cables, since the HDMI cable is smaller diameter.

[pthomas745]

Here is what I'm talking about, not a splitter.

https://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-294128.../dp/B000V1PB48

I played with these cables again this morning. I did manage to get the green jack working, but plugging in the other blue/red jacks didn't get me anywhere.

EnterNoEscape's explanation of the gauge/shielding of the new cable not being adequate probably explains what is happening. The "Frankenstiened" cable I've been using is a heavier gauge, and even with several cables coupled together it works pretty well.

The HDMI splitter solution came to me last night. And, sure enough, I started to shop for a newer TV for the back room with 2 HDMI inputs. Its amazing how as soon as you start futzing with your setup......stuff happens!

But thanks for all the help for what is basically not a Sage issue.......

[mgpaulus]

I've used BlackBox for high quality cables in the past, but I see that they seem to only carry a 25' Component cable, which wouldn't be any better than what you probably have today, since you would need to splice/couple 2 of them together.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by JustFred

It's unclear what you're referring to as an "RCA adapter". Attempting to use a simple RCA "Y" cable to feed 2 TVs from a component output is pretty iffy, even when there are short component cables involved. Component outputs are designed to drive only a single device.

Assuming both TVs have HDMI inputs, an alternate (and likely more reliable) way to do this would be to connect the HD200/300's HDMI output to an official HDMI splitter (which is an active device) and then use HDMI cabling to each TV. Side benefit: less of a rats-nest of cables, since the HDMI cable is smaller diameter.

Bear in mind that there are length restrictions with HDMI cables too. For really long HDMI runs there are special cables that convert to Ethernet (CAT5) and back.

[drvnbysound]

I've used 100' HDMI cables from Monoprice without issue.

Having said that, that's the route I would go too... HDMI with a HDMI splitter. This would net better picture quality as component will only run up to 1080i/720p.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

This would net better picture quality as component will only run up to 1080i/720p.

says who?
both my TV and projector support 1080P over component... and the HDx00 support it also...

are you saying I have to stop doing 1080P over component just because some unnamed "they" says so?

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

says who?
both my TV and projector support 1080P over component... and the HDx00 support it also...

are you saying I have to stop doing 1080P over component just because some unnamed "they" says so?

Which makes and models?

I argued [for] this many years ago on the AVS forum I believe, because theoretically, component can support 1080p... the issue that I ran into was finding manufacturers who actually built equipment that supported 1080p over it.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by drvnbysound

Which makes and models?

I argued [for] this many years ago on the AVS forum I believe, because theoretically, component can support 1080p... the issue that I ran into was finding manufacturers who actually built equipment that supported 1080p over it.

old Westinghouse LCD (crap by today's standards, but hey it still works after all these years, so that has to count for something)
the somewhat newer LCD (forgot brand, maybe samsug? might be another Westinghouse) on my patio
the newish samsung in my bedroom
BenQ current model projector HT1075 (I think? it is similar to the old one that was popular)


while most equipment only advertises they support 1080i, as that is technically the written spec, most, if you feed them a 1080P signal and then go to their info/display options/wherever menu will in fact show that they are receiving it and displaying it just fine...

the only device I have come across so far that really would not display 1080P/component was my old infocus X1 projector from back in the stone ages... but then, it could barely handle 1080i anyway...

even my previous infocus in72 would display 1080P (well, downscaled, as it was only a 480P projector) just fine...

[SomeWhatLost]

fwiw, it is easy enough to test for yourself if you have an HDx00 ...
it just works... cycle through the different modes till you get to 1080P (assuming you have that one enabled on the HDx00) and see if your display will lock on...


of course, no reason not to run HDMI from HDx00 to TV if you can... digital is nice too...
just in one of my cases, due to switching between projector & TV, plus length of cable run, component was cheaper/easier...

[pthomas745]

Thanks to everyone in the thread who helped with the answer: I bought a heavier duty cable from Monoprice:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=5358

And it worked with no issues right out of the box.

And, a big thanks to the three people who offered me their extra "breakout cables". I rummaged around in my garage and discovered an extra HD-300 that I bought as a backup several years ago, so another one was not necessary.

Again, just great help from the Sage community.