Extending my VGA monitors 50ft. ~Ughh~

[Wally Joe]

I just dumped $70 into 2 consumer-grade 50ft vga extensions. Wrong move! The display is wavy and I now have a big headache.

In browsing around, I've seen that Belkin makes a Premium grade professional 50 ft extension for about $100. At that price, I'm thinking it'd better work. But how can I know for sure? So ask you:

What is the best and cheapest way to extend a vga monitor about 30-50 ft and NOT lose any video quality? (Please avoid recommending the BlackBox booster -- it's 500 bucks.)

[jspartz]

Extron makes a P2/DA2 Plus VGA dist. amp that works really well. You can find out more at www.extron.com. We use them in out multimedia classrooms (part of the day job).

Jason

[putney]

My Dr Bott 50ft VGA are fine.

$35
http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=0150-VE50

VPI has 'em in white

$53
http://www.vpi.us/cgi-bin/vpi/scan/f...ml?id=ZyVmVFTw

[barefoot]

It could be that your video card(s) isn't so good at driving long cables. So, it might not work regardless of the cable quality. Maybe you can test your cables with a "high-end" card at a computer store? Depending on the result, you'll know whether it's the cables or your card.

Thomas

[doug_hti]

I got the geffen one. It's a bit expensive, but works really well, there may be others that work. I believe 9 times out of 10, it's the quality of the cable and not the card. I had a 6ft cabel extension from frys. It has all this nasting ghosting and was horrible. Now my 50ft is perfectly clear and it's passive...

[Wally Joe]

Originally posted by barefoot
It could be that your video card(s) isn't so good at driving long cables. So, it might not work regardless of the cable quality. Maybe you can test your cables with a "high-end" card at a computer store? Depending on the result, you'll know whether it's the cables or your card.

Thomas

Thomas, you were right. I first called the cable maker (cables to go) and told them I was unhappy with the cable. They said they've run the same high quality shielded cable up to 100 ft with no problem, and that I should check it on another monitor. I followed their advice, and the cable it actually fine on a tube NEC.

So, it appears my monitor is not up to this task at the moment. It's a Viewsonic VP191B 19in LCD. Beautiful monitor. Cost $700, it's no slouch.

Perhaps I need an amplifier to boost the signal? I've tried changing the refresh rate, though this monitor only supports 60 and 70. Can force it to 75, but not 85.

Weird situation. LCD hell at the moment. But boy do my eyes love this screen (when it works right.)

[Wally Joe]

PROBLEM SOLVED. I had another video card lying around -- an ATI Rage 128. It works fine. Apparently, it was the card/monitor combination.

Cables to go premium shielded cables with Ferrites ain't all that bad afterall.

Thanks for all the input, folks!

Happy weekend!
WJ

How do you run fire wire driven devices from the CPU? Long firewire cabels? Any other options?