have a run that has to leave a cabinet on left of FP, straight through cabinet to exterior of home, in conduit, wrap around FP, back into home into cabinet on right of FP. Total run probably 20-30'. would you guys use fiber? I am worried about surges hitting any Cat based extenders. Water front home. The run will also have a 14-2 speaker wire in it for center channel.

Eric,

Maybe look into the Rainbow fish stuff, or what's the name of the guys who left Rainbow fish?  Something like Celerity.>?  (somebody wil correct that)

I had their rep in a couple of weeks ago.  Might be just what the Doctor ordered.

I would run an HDMI cable at that distance. :) But you could always use the Celerity product. Since you will have conduit, pulling anything later should be fairly easy, right? Extra CATx is always good.

I ran some Cat6 outdoor in 75' of conduit, getting the shielded connector on it was a pain, gel and all.

Worked with component balun, will be switched to HDMI soon.

So the surge would still hit the 14-2 but not damage the fiber? Fiber extenders are expensive.

Use Celerity if you want the most protection, other then that just use a pre terminated cable especially at that "short of distance" you are under the 49ft cap :)

yeah, i definitely thought of celerity. the only thing i dont like is the usb power on the receive end. it shows it plugged into the TV. it seems like that could spell trouble. not syncing properly because of power timing?

the surge issues, it would be terrible to loose the tv, receiver, no telling what else due to a surge on the hdmi. i have the crestron fiber tx and rx specced. the only reason i am even hesitating is the fact i need the center speaker wire. it seems that if you have a path for strike to enter at all, why even bother with going fiber for hdmi. then again, it seems a surge through the hdmi, seems like it would do alot more damage.

you can isolate that center channel speaker wire though, you cant with HDMI :)

use this and Fiber and you wont have to worry! (as much) :) [Link: panamax.com]

You can plug the USB into a wall outlet/USB adapter. Like the ones that come with iPhone. No need to rely on the USB at the display. Although since most have it, and I am sure Celerity tested many many scenarios and decided it was 100% reliable, I would try that way first. :)

Salt water? Schedule inspections every six months and tell them it's part of the cost of living there. If fresh water, maybe every year.

Does the weather get down to freezing there?

fresh and yes

E, how did this work out?
I remembered this thread....
I just looked at a project where I have almost same situation, but shorter run of maybe 12' so I would use an HDMI cable.

If you use a straight HDMI, use this: [Link: etherealhometheater.com]
They came up with it after an issue I had with lightning on a project wipped out the HDMI on a plasma, PS3, Dish STB and an AVR. Came in off of the Dish.

Thanks