5 metre cable for second 'duplicate display' fails

[[U]ber|Noob]

I have a main monitor (with a normal short cable) but I also want to connect a second monitor to duplicate the display so a second person can view the screen.

I am trying to use a 5m hdmi or dvi cable for the second display and both cables fail (the hdmi one works at first sometimes, then cuts out after a while and the dvi one just doesn't work). Am I expecting too much from the gtx970 sending a signal 5 metres for a second monitor?

Unfortunately I can only seem to find 3m cables or 5m cables, no 4m ones so I can't try a slightly shorter one that might just reach. Will I have to reorganise the room to use a 3m cable for the second display?

 

[Mr Evil]

Are you sure it's the cable? If you switch the cables around (5m->main monitor, short->second monitor), does the problem switch around too?

HDMI should work ok at 5m as long as the cable is of good quality (you can't really tell the quality by looking, but a rule of thumb is that thicker cables are better). If you really can't get any cable to work then you might try an active cable.

 

[[U]ber|Noob]

Thanks, yes the cables are both very thick. Yeah, I tried switching them around, the long cable doesn't seem to work (or only works for a while/sometimes) no matter which socket it is connected to.

 

[Richard Jones]

I think under 10ft/3m you should make sure it's 1.4 'high speed'.

Then active for 33ft/10m or longer.

 

[[U]ber|Noob]

Hello,

I've had both the cables for a while the dvi one I have had for about 7 years.
Would the dvi one be obsolete in that time?

I'm not sure what specs the hdmi cable has but they are both quite thick.

The signal to be sent is only 1080p so would 'high speed' (not sure if I have it or not) be necessary?

Update: the dvi one is working again after I tightened the scews (I'm sure I had them tightened before but I only loosened them when I was about to disconnect it), so I'll see if it continues to work and make sure they are as tight as they can be).

So maybe the long thick hdmi cable (with no tightening screws) just has too much tension to stay connected properly and the dvi one wasn't 100% tightened, I'll see.