- A fiber HDMI cable has gone viral on X as an impressive solution to a long cable run
- Tech enthusiast Ben Geskin points out, “What I really like is that it’s super thin and flexible, so it’s easy to hide in a clean setup.”
- It’s also easy to run behind walls, although it’s not cheap – and don’t get caught up in the super expensive short cables here either
Fancy HDMI cables have long been scorned for being a waste of money and a trap for the unwary, but there are expensive HDMI cables that make a difference, especially fiber optic products.
You pay through the nose for them, but the idea is that such products can be situationally useful, such as for very long cable runs.
Tom’s Hardware noticed that a post by Ben Geskin, a tech enthusiast and influencer on X, went viral with close to a million views. It shows a Ruipro 8K ‘full fiber optic armoured’ HDMI 2.1 cable, which impressed Geskin, who noted: “What I really like is that it’s super thin and flexible, so it’s easy to hide in a clean setup. It also has detachable connectors, which makes it much easier to route. And that’s because it’s more future-proof as a standard or an HDMI-proof. 2.2 instead of buying a brand new cable again.”
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The cable supports 8K at 60Hz and 4K at 120Hz, eARC and boasts a 48Gbps bandwidth. The main selling point, of course, is the use of fiber optics rather than copper wire.
This active fiber cable won’t see its signal degrade over longer distances like a traditional HDMI cable will, so if you want a very long run from your source to your screen, this is obviously a winning proposition. It’s also less prone to signal interference in some setups, as some Amazon reviewers point out.
The short Ruipro fiber HDMI cables are ridiculously expensive for what they are, but the longer lengths – which is really the whole point here – are better value, although still very expensive. A 100ft (30m) cable will set you back $170 in the US or £118 in the UK (at the time of writing).
Analysis: the long game
As mentioned, don’t pass up buying a short fiber optic HDMI cable because there won’t be any difference between it and a standard cable (apart from the amount you’ll pay, which will be way over the odds and then some). Only the long cables make sense here, whether from Ruipro or other manufacturers.
If you want to connect a gaming PC in your study, e.g. for a TV in the living room, with a long distance between these spaces, this is the kind of solution that could be ideal. The cable is made to easily run behind walls, where the connectors can be removed to make it much less difficult to run the cable through wherever it needs to go. As Geskin notes, it’s also thin and flexible, which again makes it easy to install (although I’d be careful about bending a fiber cable approx. also very, fair).
While you’re on the subject of caveats and the differences between a fiber and copper HDMI cable, note that with fiber you have to connect it the right way – one end is to the source, the other to the display. Also remember that you need an extra USB port at the screen end – a USB cable runs from the HDMI connector and is needed to power the Ruipro. It might not look quite as nice on the back of your TV, but the overall setup you can achieve with one of these cables is a tidy affair.
With HDMI 2.2 displays expected to arrive later this year, the ability to easily swap out the v2.1 connector for a new one will also be a definite boon (especially if you’ve routed this behind the walls). Should a connector also develop a fault, it is also easy to fix by simply replacing it.
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