Optical & Coaxial cables for AC3 -> Amp

[Vosper]

Does anyone know if there are any maximum cable lengths for digital output via optical or coaxial cable? I would like (ideally) to run my computer in another room, feeding the AC3 to the amp via long cable. Or at least not have to have my comp on a desk or something, not right next to the stereo. It occured to me that optical might require a booster for long cable distances, (kind of like fibre optic does) is this true? Which cable would be best if I wanted to feed the signal a distance of several metres or more?
Thanks :)

NB: This seems to be the best forum for this question, as a lot of discussion of AC3/SPDIF goes on :)

[MaTTeR]

Though I have no experience with long runs, I suspect coax might perform better in this area rather than looking for an optical booster.

What did you have planned for video though? Possibly S-Video cables might work out for that.

[Vosper]

An S-Video -> RCA is that what you mean? Or do most modern TV's have S-Video inputs too? I don't have either the TV or stereo equipment yet, but I'm trying to future proof my encoding and find out what to look for in my equipment :)

Is there anyone making a transmitter? Cables are ugly, if there were a way to trasnmit TV and Audio signals that would be brilliant. Someone really should be making a small Bluetooth or similar device for that :)

[MaTTeR]

Yeh, most video cards and modern TV's have S-Video inputs/outputs. This will allow for a better signal that what RCA would provide.

Wireless devices? No, not enough performance is available to go the route yet. It will be nice when it arrives though:)

[Vosper]

What do you mean by not enough performance? All the device would need to do is recieve the signal and pass it to to the TV/Amp.. no decoding required, that would be done at the PC.

Or do you mean technologies like Bluetooth don't have the bandwidth for a Video or audio signal? One of the flavours of 802.11 could be used. But yes, it would be very expensive :|

[MaTTeR]

Yes I mean the bandwidth isn't good enough for such an application. Just think of how much DD and DTS would need not even considering the video stream.