HDMI Cables.... many questions...

[Bdogg]

Hey Everyone, I need some advice/help... I just ordered a Onkyo 606 receiver which will call form some a facelift to my setup... I want to use the HDMI from my BD30 blu-ray player, and my DVR. The TV will be about 30 feet away from the reciever using an HDMI cable. Will that work, is there a limit to how far I can go with HDMI? I've looked on Monoprice.com and they list several hdmi cables that are that length.

My next questions is, whats the difference between 1.1 and 1.3 hdmi cables? I have a 1.1 cable from last year and need to order new ones, should I replace the 1.1 or keep that and just order 1.3 for my new cables?

Finally, here are the cables that I am looking at and the price range is so different... almost $30.00 whats the difference between these cables? Thanks, sorry I am new at this part. (eventually the 30' cable will get put in a wall if that matters)

High Speed HDMI 1.3a Category 2 Certified Silver-Plated Copper CL2 Rated (For In-Wall Installation) Cable (22AWG) - 25ft (Gold Plated Connectors)
57.00 (I know this is 5ft. shorter then the rest, why is it $20 more??)

HDMI Tin-Plated Copper CL2 Rated (for In-Wall Installation) Cable (22AWG) - 30ft (Gold Plated Connectors)
36.00

HDMI CL2 Rated (In-Wall Installation) FLAT Cable (24AWG) - 35ft (Gold Plated Connectors)
38.00

HDMI Tin-Plated Copper CL2 Rated (for In-Wall Installation) Cable (24AWG) - 30ft (Gold Plated Connectors)
25.00

[crackinhedz]

the 22awg is thicker than the 24awg...also it is Silver plated copper. Whether that provides any significant benefit, that is debatable.

[aramis109]

The top is more expensive because it's silver. Honestly... I don't think that matters. What does matter is that you want to get an in-wall cable if its eventually going to go in the wall. Otherwise you're breaking code and... well, you don't want to do that.

There are lots of guys with PJ setups and long runs that can better help with picking out the right cable, but do make sure it's in-wall.

[Bdogg]

bump, please help... Thanks

[jc480]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=33168

Short answer...get some HDMI 1.3s off Monoprice...they're cheap as hell and they're good quality. They work and just about everyone here on this forum uses them.

[iGlide]

I am using a 40 ft hdmi from my lan closet to the theater and do not see any degredation in signal at all
i believe 50 ft is the recommended max lentgh to use

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Bdogg

My next questions is, whats the difference between 1.1 and 1.3 hdmi cables? I have a 1.1 cable from last year and need to order new ones, should I replace the 1.1 or keep that and just order 1.3 for my new cables?

Cables aren't "1.1" and "1.3", they're Category 1 and Category 2.
Category 1 is rated to 2.25Gbps and Category 2 is rated to 10.2Gbps.

For Blu-ray, Category 1 is all you need. If you're planning to have 120Hz sources in your home or deep color sources (highly unlikely) you'll need Category2.

With Monoprice's prices, there's very little reason to not buy Cat2 though as they're so cheap, but you don't need to upgrade from Category1.

1080p24 = 1.1Gbps

[Pelican170]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Cables aren't "1.1" and "1.3", they're Category 1 and Category 2.
Category 1 is rated to 2.25Gbps and Category 2 is rated to 10.2Gbps.

For Blu-ray, Category 1 is all you need. If you're planning to have 120Hz sources in your home or deep color sources (highly unlikely) you'll need Category2.

With Monoprice's prices, there's very little reason to not buy Cat2 though as they're so cheap, but you don't need to upgrade from Category1.

1080p24 = 1.1Gbps

Uhhh im not sure if this is correct. 120 HZ has nothing to do with the signal being sent and Deep Color is only used for like digital camera's... You should go with Category 2 to get full 1080p, since Category 1 only does 1080i, but since you will be sending the signal via PCM, it doesnt matter if its 1.1 or 1.3, but just get the 1.3 for future benefits...

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Pelican170

Uhhh im not sure if this is correct. 120 HZ has nothing to do with the signal being sent and Deep Color is only used for like digital camera's... You should go with Category 2 to get full 1080p, since Category 1 only does 1080i, but since you will be sending the signal via PCM, it doesnt matter if its 1.1 or 1.3, but just get the 1.3 for future benefits...

I think you are confused - cables aren't 1.1 and 1.3, the cable doesn't care less if you're sending dts-ma or PCM, it's all data and providing the bandwidth is within the cable's bandwidth it will pass through. The INTERFACE is what matters where audio codec is concerned.

If the source is 120Hz (like the Red camera at 1080p120) then it has everything to do with the signal being sent, as would deep colour, which is why I suggested that there are few instances that Category 1 would not suffice...but as for "full 1080p" one need only do the maths to see that Category 1, or 2.25Gbps rated HDMI cables, are more than capable of doing the trick.

Here is Blu-ray Disc:

Let's look at uncompressed 1080p24 on Blu-ray Disc with 24-bit True Colour, representing the current encodings.

1920 * 1080 = 2073600 number of pixels
2073600 * 24 = 49766400 (8-bit color)
49766400 * 24 = 1194393600 (24 frames per second)
1194393600 / 8 = 149299200 convert to bytes/sec
149299200 / 1024 = 145800 convert to KB/sec
145800 / 1024 = 142.3828 convert to MB/sec

That's 1100 Mbps you would need for uncompressed 4:2:0 1080p24, as found on Blu-ray.
Add in the maximum possible audio rate, which is uncompressed 5.1 24/192 = 27.648 Mbps
That’s 1127.648 Mbps you’d need currently for the maximum uncompressed Blu-ray feed.
That converts to 1.10121875 Gbps for uncompressed 4:2:0 1080p24 with maximum PCM audio.
That means Monster’s lowest cable is still over twice as fast as they’re claiming you need for 720p/1080i without lossless multi-channel audio and it not Cat2 certified.

Cat1 = 2.25Gbps
1080p24 is 1.10Gbps

If your player outputs (upscales) 1080p24 with 36-bit deep colour (12-bit) you're still at only 1.66Gbps for 1080p24.

All of monoprice's category 1 cables should pass 1080p24 from Blu-ray. This has been shown in tests time and time again.

Even if you set your player to output at 1080p60 you're still only at 2.78Gbps.

http://www.audioholics.com/education...ion-conclusion

I was stuck testing cables at 1.485 Gbps rates. That's practically child's play for most applications and I wasn't terribly surprised to find that even the "worst" cables passed video in real world tests. Heck, I even passed 1080p over a DVIGear 30 meter passive HDMI cable. 30 meters!!! And this coming from a company who won't sell a 10 meter cable without a cable EQ (included in the price of the cable) because it is concerned with quality.