HDMI Cables

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by Gio

Monster developed a special Quad Helix back-twisting process, combined with special nitrogen gas dielectrics with extremely low dielectric constants, for ultra-low loss.

so thats how 1's and 0's get turned into super duper 1's and 0's

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by Gio

EXPLAINING THE HDMI CABLE CONFUSION.
A common misconception is that all HDMI cables are the same-so just buy the cheapest cables you can find and they'll work for you. The truth is:


There are many levels of High-Definition digital video, and different standards for HDMI-enabled components. Hence, there are different levels of HDMI cables to connect them.


High-Definition (720p/1080i), as we know it today, is delivered at a 2.2 Gbps (giga-bits per second) throughput rate. Although high compared to standard DVD at .81 Gbps, it is miniscule compared to the throughput requirements that will achieve the best performance from High-Definition in the near future, which will require 10.2 Gbps and more. Previous generation HDMI cables developed to meet the original 2.2 Gbps standard are not certified for the new standard and may not pass the full bandwidth required to provide the best performance from these new products.


HDMI marks the first time that a cable connection standard has created a "superhighway" for digital content, with components yet to come. Even some of the original HDMI 1.0 cable from 2002, may not work with the latest sources and displays and sources of today (1080p, 12 bit color), and will surely strain to deliver the quality picture and sound content of tomorrow.


Unlike computer data, which is tolerant of data transmission losses, video data is not. Accurate transmission is essential. Most HDMI-compliant cables can transfer older versions of High-Definition (720p/1080i) data rate over short lengths, but have problems maintaining the same performance over longer lengths as well as higher data rates required of 1080p.




HDMI cables are very sensitive to construction variances. With HDMI's super-high data rate and microscopically tight tolerances, mishandling of cables during an install can significantly affect performance. Look for better shielded connectors, mesh jackets for durability, special winding techniques, nitrogen gas dielectrics to minimize loss, and CL 3 jacket ratings, to ensure maximum performance with every installation. These features all provide high practical use value.


A number of manufacturing factors such as cable construction, precision cable twisting, low loss dielectrics contribute to better performance in digital.


A new term has come to HDMI cables. With all of the confusing numbers of Megahertz, 60 hz refresh rates, as well as Gigabytes per second to rate cables, Silicon Image, co-founders of HDMI, has determined that speed is good way to combine all of the parameters above. Standard Speed and high speed are the two groups of cable designations, but there is a wide spread of speeds that these cover.

yeah but.......

all the above is true, and the link by crack is perfect..
BUT
If you have a bad cable, you will know it.. see above posts
A lesser expensive cable will work 99% of the time. How many of us
using HDMI see problems ??? Not me

[crackinhedz]

Id pay top dollar for a properly manufactured quality Silicon HDMI Receiver/Transmitter chip which has everything to do with picture quality.

Pay top dollar for an HDMI cable? eh...not'somuch

[Gio]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

in your teen years...

so basically before HDMI came out? ...those concepts do not apply to digital signals in the same way.


no need to copy and paste word for word what Monster has to say...why dont you search around the internet on the matter (this subject has been beat to death over for the past couple years...so theres a lot of info out there )

add to the fact that 99.9% of the people who have both cables (Monster & Monoprice) who see zero difference. Or add all the satisfied monoprice customers who have no problems getting 1080p/Lossless audio from their cheaper cable.

Not only does science laugh at Monster, but so does anyone who has bought the "cheaper" cable....why?

because 01010010 will be the same 01010010 at the end of the tunnel.

thats true ill give you that, it was before HDMI

01010010 wont matter if it doesnt arrive due to bandwith lititations
i only chose from the monster website to explain manufacturing differences

here's a good article where they tested monoprice to monster and a few others, up to 6ft not much diff

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2007/07/th...r_cable_2.html

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by Gio

thats true ill give you that, it was before HDMI

01010010 wont matter if it doesnt arrive due to bandwith lititations
i only chose from the monster website to explain manufacturing differences

here's a good article where they tested monoprice to monster and a few others, up to 6ft not much diff

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2007/07/th...r_cable_2.html

YES !!! but you know if it doesn't get there....

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by Gio

here's a good article where they tested monoprice to monster and a few others, up to 6ft not much diff

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2007/07/th...r_cable_2.html

brother...no offense to you, but this has been around for quite sometime now. This would fall into the "search around the net, this subject has been beaten to death, theres plenty of info out there" category.


If you notice, to sum it all up...the 50ft Monoprice cable worked just fine.

(they did'nt even attempt a 50ft Monster)

[tommyD]

Here's my reply on the HDMI 1.3 1080P thread:

All - I'm an electrical engineer, so take that into account with the following.

The advantage of DVI and HDMI is that the image signals are transmitted completely digitally from source to display. Since the source is digital, it is transmitting all the information it can possibly send to the display, and the display will not make any mistakes in receiving what was sent. On top of the digital signal, there is error-correction-coding (BCH protocol in the case of HDMI) as well as line-coding (TMDS), where additional information and signal transitions are added to ensure that the display is synchronized properly to the digital bitstream and that if any errors are induced within the cable that the display has a chance to correct the information.

In older analog interfaces (RF, composite, S-Video, component, VGA(RGB)), the cables themselves are not lossless conductors. They distort the image due to imbalances on the cable between the source and display (imbalances being capacitance, indunctance, and resistance of the cable, and mismatches of the overall impedance of the cable versus the source impedance and the load impedance of the display). These imperfections looked like ghosting on old TV sets because the capacitance of the line would in effect "store" a weak copy of the image and play it out some small time later on the display, superimposed on the stronger image that was being displayed. Monster came in and built high-quality cabling so that the connectors and the cable itself was shielded very well, and was very closely matched to 75 Ohms throughout.

So the point is that high-quality cables have been relevant to RF/composite/S-Video/component/VGA(RGB) connections because the cable will distort and add noise to the signal being transferred. In the case of all-digital interfaces (DVI, HDMI), the picture/sound will either show a DRAMATIC amount of problems, or it will be pristine. There is no in-between, and the drop-off from good to horrendous is very sharp, so it is very unlikely that a particular length of cable (cheap or expensive) will be marginal.

To all my friends, I insist they go to monoprice or amazon and find the cheapest cables at the length they need. Monster's cables probably cost them $2 to manufacture at any length, whereas these cheap knockoffs probably cost $1. Monster has just set up a great marketing scheme such that people think there is some reason to invest in their equipment, and that the sales reps & outlets are highly compensated for pushing their product on customers who are adopting the latest & greatest and have money to spend. Look at all those in this thread who support Monster purchases - sorry to say it, but you're just the type who make their marketing strategy work. Buy Monster (or equivalent) for all your analog interfaces, but stay away for DVI & HDMI.

[crackinhedz]

good post Tommy.

Well said.

[Balquin]

So, with all the talk of HDMI versions floating around, is there much of a difference in the cables? Is that high end M1000 from Monster really gonna be better for 1.3 or will their THX Ultra line do the job just fine. Or are there other brands out there that will do the job well? I have just seen lateley a crop of 1.3a cables popping up and wanted to make sure I get something that will be fine down the road when I finally get an LCD and a receiver that handles lossless. Thanks!

[Sigmar_X]

Just got some 1.3a's from www.monoprice.com

$12 each. Works great.

[Pictor]

Originally Posted by Balquin

So, with all the talk of HDMI versions floating around, is there much of a difference in the cables? Is that high end M1000 from Monster really gonna be better for 1.3 or will their THX Ultra line do the job just fine. Or are there other brands out there that will do the job well? I have just seen lateley a crop of 1.3a cables popping up and wanted to make sure I get something that will be fine down the road when I finally get an LCD and a receiver that handles lossless. Thanks!

The difference between the Monster line and others is about $50-$100/per cable -- That's it. Goto www.monoprice.com and save yourself some money to spend on more Blu-Ray movies.

[DrasticPlastic]

yup monoprice.com or firefold.com also bluejeanscable.com for all your home theater/gaming cabling needs.

[thr0ttles]

Originally Posted by Balquin

So, with all the talk of HDMI versions floating around, is there much of a difference in the cables? Is that high end M1000 from Monster really gonna be better for 1.3 or will their THX Ultra line do the job just fine. Or are there other brands out there that will do the job well? I have just seen lateley a crop of 1.3a cables popping up and wanted to make sure I get something that will be fine down the road when I finally get an LCD and a receiver that handles lossless. Thanks!

you do get what you pay for...that being said, the difference for many of us, is pretty much nil...

I would only be concerned if I was running a 50ft HDMI cable around many bends, through walls, under carpet, etc...so that extra insulation and heavier gauge cable on Mon$$$ter cables should stand up to that "abuse" and not kink and break.

but if it works, it works....whether it costs $12 or $200

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Cinemaddict

So why are most HDMI cables so much more expensive? We're talking a $50 difference here for what you guys are saying is essentially the same cord. What gives?

It's just something they can easily mark up and sell at a high price to people who don't know the difference.

Since HDMI is newer technology and is as good as you can currently get for getting the best possible quality picture and sound, they can mark it up and use the quality as an excuse.

But, really, there's no difference. These websites that sell them at discounts are still making a profit off of the cables since in reality the cables don't cost that much to make (they are more or less made out of the same kinds of materials as most other kinds of cables, just shaped and set up for transmitting this particular kind of signal and for fitting in HDMI ports).

Oh, and does PS3 need a special HDMI cable, or will any cable work?

Nope. Any HDMI cable should do it. I bought a cheap one online a while ago to go with my Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-Ray player. The player, itself sucks because Samsung is slow on firmware upgrades and therefore the player hasn't been compatible with some recent movie releases (this issue has nothing to do with the HDMI cable being used), and so I recently got a PS3 to now use as my main Blu-Ray player to replace this other piece of junk, and I've been using the same HDMI cable that I picked up for that other player and it works just fine.

[Bamboo]

Have you tried mycablemart.com? They seem to have excellent deals: e.g. 6' Category 2 HDMI 1.3a certificed/gold plated CL-2 cable for $6.62. (or 25' for $70). Sure, their cables are not as thick as Monsters, but more often than not they work the same or much better and are definitely much cheaper.
Disclaimer: I am not associated with MyCableMart.com in any way, just a customer.

[bigAl924]

Originally Posted by Balquin

So, with all the talk of HDMI versions floating around, is there much of a difference in the cables? Is that high end M1000 from Monster really gonna be better for 1.3 or will their THX Ultra line do the job just fine. Or are there other brands out there that will do the job well? I have just seen lateley a crop of 1.3a cables popping up and wanted to make sure I get something that will be fine down the road when I finally get an LCD and a receiver that handles lossless. Thanks!

Go with the hdmi 1000 series monster cable. its more than what you need but you will never have to buy another cable again because of monsters cables for life.

[Firefox]

Monoprice here since I joined this wonderful forum. Oh yeah there's a very big difference...PRICE!!!

[mr peepers]

ill give monster one point for making some of their "higher end" cables stamped with the cable for life guarantee.

but since monster is lame, check the wording on the packages. some moster cables have the "cable for life," which basically means if they come up with components that are hdmi 1.4 or whatever in the future and surpasses 1.3, then they'll give you a free upgrade. That's a lot different than their "lifetime replacement" guarantee, which basically means if that cable has any defects or whatever, they'll just give you that exact same cable.

either way, monster is an extreme waste of money. I have two 6' category2 hdmi 1.3a cables running from my blu ray to my receiver and then another to my pioneer plasma, and wow. monoprice cables dont F around. These things are thick as ever, mesh jacket, gold plated contacts, the works.

monoprice is the way to go.....not to keep kicking a dead horse or anything, but monster is a waste

[DrasticPlastic]

Originally Posted by bigAl924

Go with the hdmi 1000 series monster cable. its more than what you need but you will never have to buy another cable again because of monsters cables for life.

For what you will end up paying for a monster brand cable, you will be able to afford to replace a monoprice cable and still have a whole lot of money left over, should the monoprice cable ever fail.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by bigAl924

Go with the hdmi 1000 series monster cable. its more than what you need but you will never have to buy another cable again because of monsters cables for life.

Only if you enjoy throwing your $$$ away should you buy Monster brand HDMI cables. Monoprice.com is all I need to say