Just going over my set up for discussion, since I recenty moved into the 21st century with this myself.
I got ALL of my components on Ebay, as to do it with a retailer would have been prohibitively expensive, as the cost of cable is priced into stupidland.
Since most laptops have HDMI outputs now, and most bars have flat screens, this has worked out great. The first component I got was the splitter:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1080p-HDMI-Ampl ... 5ae43255b6and two 25' cables:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-FT-PREMIUM-H ... 1e69cc0cb8Also, to help with tight places, I got this L adaptor. Very handy:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Bla ... 3a713e0a8aFinally, for some places that don't have flat screens yet, I got an RCA to HDMI converter:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-to-3RCA-AV ... 4844f1af7aThis has worked out well, and i've been able to set this up at every show I have with little fuss. The pictures are crips, clean, and very nice. The RCA are a bit color washed but still crisp.
To me, its amazing that you can't get a 25' cable at retail for less $75 to $100+ and on ebay they are less then $10. stupid. Anyway, this is how i'm running now, and thought I'd post the finds so others could buy with confidence. This stuff works great, and dependably so do let the low price keep you from pulling the trigger.