HDTV – The Limit of Copper Cable?

Video distribution and transmission has historically been handled by coaxial cable. No other cable design, besides coax, features the combination of impedance stability, with moderate to low capacitance, low cost, and ease of connectorization. Analog video bandwidth of 4.2 MHz was easily handled by coax. — As analog distribution gave way to digital distribution (SMPTE 259M), up to a bandwidth of 135 MHz/270 Mbps, it became obvious that cable design parameters were a significant limitation to distance. A new generation of video cables emerged, featuring gas-injected foam dielectrics, for significantly lower high-frequency loss, and high-density hard-cell foam, to approach the impedance stability of the old analog solid polyethylene core cables. — With the advent of uncompressed HDTV transmission, at 750 MHz/1.5 Gbps, cable technology was asked to accomplish yet another leap in bandwidth. This paper will explore copper coax cable performance in light of these new requirements and examine the limitations.

Published

1999-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00949

ISBN

978-1-61482-930-0