Can you splice a DVI-D single channel cable?

YES YOU CAN. WHEE. Yep, that mishapen lump is the splice in the DVI cable I did with just twisting wires and duct tape, and yes, that's the actual cable the monitor is running of. Ill call her Frankensplice.

Well, at some point I had to face splicing a monitor cable. I was going to use VGA, but i found a old DVI-D cable lying around. I never saw the difference in image quality so it ended up in the magical box of spare cables.

However, I decided to research the difference for this project (as the video card is DVI out and the LCD supports VGA and DVI input) and found one massive surprise: While I really couldn't see the difference in quality on the LCD (as I believe newer LCD's are very good at converting the analogue VGA signal) I did notice one thing: The scaling and repositioning of the screen was gone.

Under VGA, the screen has to detect where and how to fit the screen, resulting in it flickering on and off, changing in size and sliding around to fit. This was annoying on my test runs as it happened going into each game, and sometimes (5-10%) it wouldnt get it right and slide the screen a centimeter to the left, obscuring part of the screen.

DVI DOES NOT DO THAT. It displays the image crisp and clear, no flickering and always in the right position instantly. I didnt know this beforehand!

So it had to go in. Question was, was it possible to splice the cable without signal degredation? I have to fit the cable through a loom tube (just big enough for the cables between top and bottom), I certaintly couldnt get the connector through. Downside was, this cable is sheilded with tiwsted pairs, and removing these for a splice has a risk of interupting data, much like untwisting CAT-5 can make the cable less than optimal in use.

What was more fun: Not only did it look scary enough when I opened it up (four pairs of sheilded wire, with 5 lying speerate = 13 cables), but when I got into it i found a third uninsulated wire inside each of the four shielded pairs (4 times 3 + 5 = 17 cables!)

So I had a go as a trial run before the real deal next build time, and I got it right the first time without solder or heatshrink. All I did was twist the wires and insulate with duct tape. Little help sourced from this thread: http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=44543&start=0.

Im going out tommorow to invest in some heatshrink and a small blowtorch for the real deal, which will be done with a lot more precision in care. This was just the test run, proof of concept to ensure I could actually do it.

Cable or a HL1 Headcrab? You decide.	Om Nom Nom Nom. Nearly set me back 30 mins work, thanks cat.
Halfway through, sheilded pairs done	Added some old dowel to help reduce mechanical force acting on join.