Why Are HDMI Cables So Expensive?

PersonalJ said:
The worst part is many of the employees at retailers are adamant there is an actual difference in image quality due to cable construction when working with digital signals.
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Thats because they're told to say there is to up sell the customer.

I tried to tell my dad to buy the cheapest HDMI he could, but he insisted there was a difference...which I found odd considering that hes the cheapest person I know.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
I go to monoprice for my cables. I get the shortest run I need with the thicket gauge they sell. That's what really won me over, was being able to get thicker gauges in shorter runs. If I had to pay more for the thicker gauge, so be it. I like the peace of mind knowing that the cable I picked out won't have any trouble sending the signal.

The only thing I can't seem to find a straight answer on, is whether or not ferrite cores are necessary.
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Ferrite cores are needed on stuff like VGA cables. Without them, you will get ghosting.

As for digital cables, they are not really needed unless you have a huge amount of interference.. for example, it your cable is very near to a high voltage line. And even then, for digital signal, I a am not convinced that it is necessary.
 
StormUP said:
It still matters with digial, it just doesn't matter as often or as obviously. I have plenty of really cheap USB cables that often don't work at all with certain high speed devices because their shielding and/or crosstalk is so bad the signal doesn't survive. When they do work data transfer rates for HDs are abysmally slow compared to using a higher quality cable. They work fine with slower devices.
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I used to do hardware QA for a firewall appliance. We tested various USB CD/DVD drives with varying lengths of cables. Anything over 7 ft on USB was pushing it. A 10 ft on one drive had no errors while the same 10 ft on another drive would have errors. The power requirements of the drive played a big part, never the actual cable quality - I would guess the same holds true for HDMI.
 
I only buy the cheap stuff, but i do see difference between some, not in quality but sometimes the picture freezes on some , or some kind of artifacts are shown on screen, or the screen turns pink .
i believe some have really poor cabling , very small gauge wires that lose signal etc.
still i rather buy 10 1$ cables and throw out 1-2 to the trash than buy one 'quality' cable for 10$
 
Cheetoz said:
I thought i read a review somewhere that determined the cost of hdmi cables do play a role in quality.... but only at large lengths.
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Since HDMI is Digital, they either work or they don't work.
As long as the signal isn't degraded below a point where you start losing bits, then the cable will work just as good as the most expensive/perfect cable available.

Short cables (10 feet or less) should never be a problem, as long as they aren't so cheap the connector falls apart.
I'd stick with high quality cables for anything longer than 25 feet, as cheap cables are more likely to degrade the signal or pick up interference.
 
T_A said:
I only buy the cheap stuff, but i do see difference between some, not in quality but sometimes the picture freezes on some , or some kind of artifacts are shown on screen, or the screen turns pink .
i believe some have really poor cabling , very small gauge wires that lose signal etc.
still i rather buy 10 1$ cables and throw out 1-2 to the trash than buy one 'quality' cable for 10$
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$1 cables are just a little too cheap. It's hard to have decent QA when they are that cheap. Might try moving up to the $2 cables.
 
TheCAD said:
I'm convinced there is price fixing in regard to accessories in retail.

Also, I don't think printer manufacturers decided to stop putting cables in the box on their own. I know how shady this shut is firsthand.
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Which cable should they put in the box? USB, Ethernet? How long of a cable? What if it's a wireless printer?

Most printer companies never put cables in the box, even back in the days of the Epson dot matrix printers and LaserJet 1's.
 
kindasmart said:
Retail stores basically told printer vendors that if you include a USB cable with your printer we won't sell it. Period. Retailers make more profit off of the "high priced" USB cable than the printer itself. And the ink jet ink. That's a goldmine for retailers. That is why printers come with a "starter" ink set. Get you hooked, then you come back for more ink.
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The not supplying a printer cable in the box goes back to before USB was invented. They never included the parallel cables either. That way they can sell you those "special gold plated" cables.

Just like with most monitors you don't get a DVI or HDMI cable, only a standard VGA. Or HiFi kit rarely includes in the interconnects.

The trick is also in place to catch you out once you have everything home and unpacking it. Trying to plug things together you find you are short a couple of cables. So do you wait for those cheap ones to appear from an online order? Or get stitched up by the local dealer on the high street because you want to turn it on today?
 
Well, considering EVERY SINGLE FUCKING CABLE I've bought from monoprice has failed within a few months, there's a good reason why they're so cheap. These were ipod and HDMI cables. The damn HDMI cable was plugged in once and forgotten about till a month later when it decided not to carry a signal. You don't need to spend thousands on a digital cable, but if you buy the cheapest thing you can find, you'll get what you pay for. I'd rather spend $20 on one cable that actually works until it's depreciated than buy 20 cables for $1 each that have to be replaced every other month.

A big lol @ monstercables being expensive. They may not be worth half of what they cost, but they're still very cheap in comparison to other brands.
 
Best Buy is at the top of the heap of professional rip-off artists. They have that sub $10 Dynex cable in stock, but it's virtually hidden on a shelf somewhere in a remote location. The $60 Monster cables, they are prominently displayed at the end of the isle near the register. Ask for an HDMI cable, they'll walk straight to the $60 rack.

But if you're a fat fish, they're gonna sell you that AudioQuest Diamond "High Speed" 6' cable.

$1,495.99

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/audioquest-diamond-6-6-high-speed-hdmi-cable-dark-gray-blue/2383319.p?id=1218325919542&skuId=2383319&st=categoryid$abcat0107020&cp=1&lp=1
 
Just picked up some Blue Rigger DVI cables I hope they work with my monitors with no side effects they are 10' the ones I have are 6' and too short when I clean my PC the cables are dirt tight.
 
I bought a pair of 12' from Amazon and paid a little extra for a PLENUM rating. Was still less than $20.

Digital cables fall into 2 categories:
Works
Doesn't Work
 
The article is good. I think he should have mentioned redmere cables for long runs.

Monoprice for sure.
 
blazemonkey said:
Well, considering EVERY SINGLE FUCKING CABLE I've bought from monoprice has failed within a few months, there's a good reason why they're so cheap. These were ipod and HDMI cables. The damn HDMI cable was plugged in once and forgotten about till a month later when it decided not to carry a signal. You don't need to spend thousands on a digital cable, but if you buy the cheapest thing you can find, you'll get what you pay for. I'd rather spend $20 on one cable that actually works until it's depreciated than buy 20 cables for $1 each that have to be replaced every other month.

A big lol @ monstercables being expensive. They may not be worth half of what they cost, but they're still very cheap in comparison to other brands.
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That's interesting. I've been using mono price for a long time and had one issue, but I believe that was my fault (bending a thick cable way too much). They quickly replaced the cable for free and it wasn't a small cable.
 
Would be fun to see someone hook up HDMI via coathangers like was done to prove cable didn't matter for SPDIF
 
We do a lot of home theater installs, I usually order all our cables from outdoor speaker depot, very good cables and pricing, all their cables are CL3 rated and we have never had any problems, the value line 1.4 is a great cable for long in-wall runs for around $1 pf.
Even their 4k cables are cheap, 15ft for around $10.
Many stores still try to sell those expensive cables, but the jig is up for sure. Only high-end theater installers still push and actually get away with selling over priced cables. If your biding a $100,000+ home theater room, its easy to hide those overpriced cables.
 
i get mine from the dollar store... no serious... Dollarama has them

works great, no issues or complaints

i couldn't care less about the durability, as they are touched once, and forgotten.
 
MRAB54 said:
I used to do hardware QA for a firewall appliance. We tested various USB CD/DVD drives with varying lengths of cables. Anything over 7 ft on USB was pushing it. A 10 ft on one drive had no errors while the same 10 ft on another drive would have errors. The power requirements of the drive played a big part, never the actual cable quality - I would guess the same holds true for HDMI.
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It makes sense that a higher power draw device will cause more interference as more current flowing down the wire creates a larger magnetic field. In the case I was speaking of though it was the same drive, the same cable length, simply a different higher quality cable that resulted in higher speeds. Better intractable shielding between wires or ??? other factor is one way to reduce interference. Reducing the source of interference by lowering power draw is another.
 
because at the stores it is an item that the consumer needs yesterday so they will pay 20 bucks for a 2 dollar item
 
nutzo said:
Since HDMI is Digital, they either work or they don't work.
As long as the signal isn't degraded below a point where you start losing bits
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All cables are going to have non-zero bit error rates; digital does not mean error-free. On HDMI, these errors may actually show up on the display because it is (mostly) a unidirectional link with no error correction.
 
Greetings

nutzo said:
Since HDMI is Digital, they either work or they don't work.
As long as the signal isn't degraded below a point where you start losing bits, then the cable will work just as good as the most expensive/perfect cable available.
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Correct because although its a digital signal it's transmitted in an analog fashion so as it travels along the cable the signal strengh declines and once it gets so low that a "1" is interpreted as a "0" then you start getting problems, this decline happens faster in a poor quality cable and hence becomes noticible over a much shorter distance.

jimmyb said:
All cables are going to have non-zero bit error rates; digital does not mean error-free. On HDMI, these errors may actually show up on the display because it is (mostly) a unidirectional link with no error correction.
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True, and other other thing that it is doesn't have is a re-transmission facility like when TCP notices a dropped packet and asks the transmitter to resend it. HDMI data is isochronous and has to arrive at the destination at the same time interval and be 100% correct.

nutzo said:
Short cables (10 feet or less) should never be a problem, as long as they aren't so cheap the connector falls apart.
I'd stick with high quality cables for anything longer than 25 feet, as cheap cables are more likely to degrade the signal or pick up interference.
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I agree, for short distances try a cheap cable first and see if that works OK, if it doesn't then get a more expensive one.

Cheers
 
jpm100 said:
Might not pay for "quality", but may want to spend a few dimes on avoiding defects.
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This is true. And it's why I don't buy the bargain basement 10 for $10 HDMI cables. I'll pay a little more for a better built cable. It works the same as the $1 cable with the same visual quality, but I've had cables not work or have handshake issues or whatever due to bad workmanship. Since going to a slightly more expensive (~10 for a 15' cable or $5 for 6' cables), I'm getting a better cable. Same image quality, but I've never had one fail or have any problems.
 
I buy AmazonBasics.

6.5 feet HDMI 1.4 for 6 bucks, 15 feet for 11. Solid quality connectors, PRIME eligible, and of course you get that great support if it happens to break :D

Monoprice is a *little* cheaper, but not as convenient as Amazon. At that point, you're just splitting hairs, so go with the company you prefer.
 
IGNORANT customer will get gouged. NOTHING NEW>
When color television first came about customer were told YOU HAD to get rid of you B&W TV antenna and put up this expensive color one or you couldn't get color broadcasts.
Pure lie. Color and B&W use the same band of broadcast frequencies. The customer that read up on the upcoming color television standard would have known this was BS.
 
HobartTas said:
HDMI data is isochronous and has to arrive at the destination at the same time interval and be 100% correct.
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Nope. HDMI is a synchronous interface with the pixel clock embedded into the data; the clock is recovered in the receiver and is used to deserialize the data. Lane-to-lane deskew is performed using alignment symbols which are transmitted intermittently on each lane.

It is actually fairly robust in this sense.
 
Im not saying i support hi cost HDMI cables as being superior, but it astounds me how little people on here know about DSP. Yes, shielding does matter, yes interference can cause bit flipping, especially over long distances.

Digital isnt just signal gets there or not, bit flipping in cabling absolutely does happen and happens very often. It just doesnt happen with a high enough % for it to matter in the area of TV viewing necessarily (again, except at long cable lengths).

Cheaper cables do the job in this application but dont come in here and say that digital signal is corruptible through the length of the cable, it proves your clueless
 
username00 said:
Everyone of these reviews is pure gold
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Some of these have got to be faked. Hilarious none the less!

temujin987 said:
amazon basic cables... their entire line of cables has worked fine so far
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Bigbacon said:
because at the stores it is an item that the consumer needs yesterday so they will pay 20 bucks for a 2 dollar item
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Just got my first Amazon Basic cable. I was on vacation and wanted to hook up my laptop to the TV, but forgot my HDMI cable at home. I wanted to watch a show that evening, so I looked up the only store in town (Radioshack of course) and went to take a look. The guy who came up to ask me if i needed help just kinda hovered over my shoulder after showing me to the cables... kinda creepy and annoying. But anyway, after i saw it was 20 bucks for a 6' cable I left. No way was I going to pay for that. Even if i needed it now. Having amazon prime, I looked up HDMI cables, thinking i could get it shipped next day.

To my surprise, i could! 5 bucks for the 6.5' cable, and another 4 for shipping next day. 10 bucks after tax, half the price of the Radioshack cable. I can wait a day and save 10 bucks.

Radioshack can suck it.
 
Have mostly used monoprice.com
In all the years I have had 1 bad cable but they would not publish my review of it so they are now my 2nd choice behind amazon.
 
chockomonkey said:
Some of these have got to be faked. Hilarious none the less!
Just got my first Amazon Basic cable. I was on vacation and wanted to hook up my laptop to the TV, but forgot my HDMI cable at home. I wanted to watch a show that evening, so I looked up the only store in town (Radioshack of course) and went to take a look. The guy who came up to ask me if i needed help just kinda hovered over my shoulder after showing me to the cables... kinda creepy and annoying. But anyway, after i saw it was 20 bucks for a 6' cable I left. No way was I going to pay for that. Even if i needed it now. Having amazon prime, I looked up HDMI cables, thinking i could get it shipped next day.

To my surprise, i could! 5 bucks for the 6.5' cable, and another 4 for shipping next day. 10 bucks after tax, half the price of the Radioshack cable. I can wait a day and save 10 bucks.

Radioshack can suck it.
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This is why Radio Shack will soon be a memory.
The quit being an electronic hobbyist store and all they do is sell outrageously priced chinese junk products.
 
Eisenblut said:
Analog cables are one thing, where the shielding and materials DO matter. Digital cables like USB, HDMI, optical, etc? No, it doesn't matter. Not the gold-plating or the shielding or whatever.
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It does actually matter, more so with digital ...
Characteristic impedance, reflections, screening....
Digital, especially high-speed digital is more fickled than your girlfrield. With lvds having a rise time of just over 1ns, incorrectly screened harnessing will cause coupling distorting the signal in the neighbouring bundle.
Poor choice of wire and/or termination into the back shell just increases the characteristic impedance and thus you get signal reflections....
Now gold termination? Viable if you have a gold connection (is match the materials... Nickel:nickel) others is the termination resistance increases (again reflection)

It really does matter.
Does this warrant paying $300 for a harness? HellNo!
Does it warrant buying the $30 over the $5 harness? Yes! HellYes!

I have seen the build quality of the cheap as harnesses.... They Dont terminate the screen or don't even have one... (Note screen actually acts as the 0v plane for the impedance).

Its probably the cheap-ass that then drive ppl to the really expensive as when it doesn't work with digi it really doesn't work.
 
I had terrible luck with long runs of Monoprice HDMI cables going to a ceiling mounted projector, had sparkles all over the screen with two different cable. The cable run was going along side some power wiring and numerous pipes, no idea what the problem was. Had to purchase a more expensive cable and it fixed the problem immediately.
 
ocellaris said:
I had terrible luck with long runs of Monoprice HDMI cables going to a ceiling mounted projector, had sparkles all over the screen with two different cable. The cable run was going along side some power wiring and numerous pipes, no idea what the problem was. Had to purchase a more expensive cable and it fixed the problem immediately.
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The problem will be noise from the mains wiring. The more expensive cable will have better shielding. Or you could just separate the mains and HDMI cables apart further.

General rule is to keep mains power leads away from any kind of data lead. Running them parallel to each other for too far will pick up noise. (Same for network cables, audio cables, etc.) As the quality of a cable is bumped up there is more money spent on shielding from potential noise.
 
I've been OK with getting Walfart HDMI cables for $15-$20 (can't remember) for a 2pak of 6 footers. Decent quality (they work) and I can walk out of the store with them in hand. I don't remember the brand but the packaging was clear and blue. Like at BB, you have to look in a different area than the other $XX priced cables.
 
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