i'm setting up my plasma TV over my fireplace and we left one meteal pipe to run the power cord and hdmi calbe to my rack system on the side of the fireplace. will my TV image quality be impaired in any way because i am running them together? the distance they are run together is only 5ft before they split up? please advise. thanks

My instinct is to isolate data and power in separate conduits - it's "good practice" that is also very important with analog signals (both audio and video). I don't know if there would be a problem with HDMI's digital signal if it were run parallel to a power cord like this, though. Hullguy? Anybody else?

You could always bundle the two together outside the conduit for a brief test before you conceal them, especially since it's a short run and you could do it pretty readily before pulling them into the conduit.

i know ideally it is better if it run seperately, but has anyone noticed any difference in practice (especially with analog signal? also, is analog signal like cable TV that is not in HD? what exactly would be analog video and or audio? thanks for the replies.

An analog signal would suffer - noise, static, or other objectionable garbage is pretty much assured for both analog audio and analog video. Analog signals would include left/right audio, composite video, s-video, and component video. I'd also not run cable TV (the coax cable upstream of the cable box) in this manner. HDMI is purely a digital connection, so it is possible that the 1's and 0's would be OK, but it's also passing those 1's and 0's electrically. Short of first-hand experience saying that HDMI, DVI, and coaxial digital are OK run this way, the only cable I'd feel comfortable running in the same pipe as a power cord is optical, since the optical signal is going to be entirely unaffected by the power cord's EMI.

gonk the only other cable in the pipe would be an hdmi cable which is connected to my 970. the hdmi would be the only cable conneted to my pasma, so the cable signal from my cable box would pass through the hdmi cable. so correct me if i am wrong but some cable channel broadcast analog signal so those broadcasts would be effected where as a channel broadcsting in hd would not. is that right? thanks gonk.

If the signal is going down HDMI it is digital. It may be your cable box that is taking the standard digital and analog channels and converting them to HDMI so that you can switch them on the 970 and then send them to the Plasma. But since the HDMI cable itself is a digital signal it is more immune to interference than analog.

A purist would say don't use the same conduit. My personal experience with this sort of stuff (although I haven't done much HDMI I have a bit of digital experience) is that as long as you have appropriate quality cables you will be fine. I'm not saying you need insanely expensive cables, just ones that have good size conductors and proper shielding. Especially with just a 5' run.

Like gong said your best bet is to bundle them together before you put them in the wall to ensure you will have no issues.

Also, if you have analog cable, and you don't know if your cable box/satellite box/whatever box will pass the analog channels via the HDMI you might want to check on it just to be sure. To get them on the HDMI they have to be converted to digital at some point, and I'm very sure the 970 can't do that for you.

Shawn's right - HDMI doesn't carry analog data, it simply can't. An HD cable box will take analog channels and convert them to digital for the HDMI/DVI and coaxial/optical outputs. Even though the likelihood of trouble is low, I'd definitely test the waters before pulling my cable.

i can possiblely drill another hole through the side of the fireplace and run the hdmi wire down the side of the fireplace, and in doing so it would no longer run through the same conduit but it would 9in away from the power cord once they both come out of their respective conduits. is that distance ok? what distance is recomended? thanks again.

i can possiblely drill another hole through the side of the fireplace and run the hdmi wire down the side of the fireplace, and in doing so it would no longer run through the same conduit but it would 9in away from the power cord once they both come out of their respective conduits. is that distance ok? what distance is recomended? thanks again.

With the power cord inside a metal conduit, that nine inch separation should be fine.

9" is definitely enough, although since it is only 5' it probably is overkill. Like gonk suggested before, I would just get some cable ties or string and tie the two together outside the wall, plug them in and see what happens. It may save you a bit of work and trauma.

The problem with analog noise on a digital cable is the possibility of the noise voltage to be high enough to swamp the "0" portion of the signal.
I just did a quick Google search and it seems most HDMI cables are shielded. This shielding is to counteract any noise generated from other sources. Coax is well shielded also. I think it would be fine to pull thiese all together. Jim

one last note, the way its working out i have no choice but to run all the wire through the same pipe. all wires being, the plasma power cord, hdmi cable, and my center channel speaker wire. do you think there will be a noticeable sound quality difference for my center channel? should i buy shieled speaker wire for this run? would that help? right now i'm using 12 gauge aperion speaker wire. what do you guys think? like always i appreciate your expertise.

I would use the shielded speaker wire. Make sure you only ground 1 end of the shield. Jim

who makes shielded speaker wire?