Why HDMI Brands Don't Matter

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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In tests conducted by PCMAG.com, the theory of you get what you pay for was put to the test. Different brands and different price ranges of HDMI cables were compared in a controlled blind test and the result may surprise you. Sometimes you actually get more than what you pay for. :cool:

That said, there are cases where higher quality cables and going to lengths to maintain signal quality are important. They just aren't cases that apply for most HDTV owner
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to bad the average joe blow has no idea.... if they did, monster would have gone out of business awhile ago...
 
I was in a Sony Centre and the guy behind the counter tried to persuade me that the monster HDMI lead was better than the cheap ones, but I knew better. I said to him that it wasnt worth 125 euro. He didnt like the fact that I knew what I was talking about lol.
 
PC Mag... reporting what we knew 5 years ago.
 
they are differences, my monoprice cables have started falling apart at the connectors, while my more expensive cables are fine :)
 
techrat said:
PC Mag... reporting what we knew 5 years ago.
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We as in the non technology retarded people like a large portion of this world. As already mentioned Monster Cable is still making bank on their hugely overpriced cables. Why? Because there are a lot of tech-tards out there. Haha, sucks to be them. They spend $150 on a "super high quality awesome signal!!!!" cable, and I spend $30. Win? Yes. :p
 
86 5.0L said:
they are differences, my monoprice cables have started falling apart at the connectors, while my more expensive cables are fine :)
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Well don't use your HDMI cables for hot-swapping TVs 15 times a day.

I have the $2 cables, have used them for over 2 years, no issues whatsoever.
 
Cable quality comes down to the care given during their build. The same reason why the quality of electronics built in Japan (for example) is superior to those built in China. All that is happening is assembly, yet the quality is higher based on the location of that assembly.

If two brands both sell cables assembled in China, both will have the same quality of build. If one cable is built in the US and the other in China, the US built one will most likely be of higher quality.
 
I have to get the more expensive cables on mono price but I'm running 25 foot. All my stuff is in a server rack in the basement. When you go over 10-15 feet the cables do make a difence even in HDMI. If you look on monoprice the 1.4 cables max out at 25 feet. Just have to use a powered switch to add anoughter 25 feet. What I did so I can hook my gamming rig in my office to my 3d 50inch in the living room lol
 
86 5.0L said:
they are differences, my monoprice cables have started falling apart at the connectors, while my more expensive cables are fine :)
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HDMI switches are cheap. Cheaper than replacing cables over and over. Co-worker had the same problem. I introduced him to the HDMI switches at Monoprice. He is much happier now.

450 said:
Why are you spending $30?
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I had to to get a 75ft cable.
 
IMHO, the only thing that matters with cables are the properties that Roger Russell discusses on his page.

He used to be an engineer at the audio company McIntosh. He has a good break down on this issue.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

I shake my head at the pricing of cabling at the mortar stores. I either build my own cables or buy from Mono Price.
 
My longest cord is 15 ft, from monoprice, all their shit is execellent. No problems what so ever.
Same with the ethernet cords.

Monoprice = King of Cables. (And prices)
 
BlueAqua said:
Big surprise, its a digital signal, cables matter not.
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Smart man, there's no such thing as a quality "1" or "0", digital is digital, if the signal goes through, it's identical regardless of the medium.
steve30x said:
I was in a Sony Centre and the guy behind the counter tried to persuade me that the monster HDMI lead was better than the cheap ones, but I knew better. I said to him that it wasnt worth 125 euro. He didnt like the fact that I knew what I was talking about lol.
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I used to work for Sony, my manager and other workers were convinced there was a difference in cabling. I always told them there wasn't, had to print out a data sheet to show them as well. Really hard to sell things you don't believe in.
 
86 5.0L said:
they are differences, my monoprice cables have started falling apart at the connectors, while my more expensive cables are fine :)
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I have four 10 euro HDMI leads that are four years old and they are still as good as the day I bought them.
 
I've bought 3 HDMI cables from The Dollar for dirt cheap and they all work perfectly. I can't see a visual difference between component and HDMI either, even though a store I was in had a split screen setup showing HDMI on one half and component on the other and it did show a visual difference. I can only conclude that they messed with the settings so the component side looked worse, which is deliberate and illegal hoodwinking of the gullible joe public.
 
cybrsage said:
Cable quality comes down to the care given during their build. The same reason why the quality of electronics built in Japan (for example) is superior to those built in China. All that is happening is assembly, yet the quality is higher based on the location of that assembly.

If two brands both sell cables assembled in China, both will have the same quality of build. If one cable is built in the US and the other in China, the US built one will most likely be of higher quality.
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And that warrants a $100.00 or more markup in price? Hell no!!! You also make the mistake of assuming everything in China has poor build quality which is not true. Even Cambridge Audio equipment is built in China and it is not junk build quality.
 
I look to Monoprice first when I need cables. The quality is much better than what I can find in a store. Their prices are significantly less, also.

The only time I shop elsewhere is when I absolutely must have a specific combination (but still at a reasonable price) of length, thickness, color or connector style (such as right or left angle, etc).
 
Something a lot of people forget is that all digital signals must obey analog physics, so a 1 is not always a 1 and a 0 is not always a 0 if something goes wrong. That being said, the article's author is correct. This is only going to happen if you have a long cable run which causes the signal to be subject to voltage drop or EMI. If you're running long feeds for AV presentation you're not going to be buying cables at B&M retail stores anyway. You'll be shopping a professional AV supplier, not Best Buy.
 
I had a short 3 foot HDMI cable I used for my PS3. I would get color distortion every now and then. I switched a little bit more expensive 7 foot cable and everything works fine all the time. I think I paid ten cents for my 3 foot cable on Amazon and $1 for the 7 foot on either Newegg or Amazon.
 
Cheap cables for the win, I got my last one at a local Dollar store, there is also always monoprice or dealextreme if you don't mind waiting.

The cable works or it doesn't, quality becomes more of a factor in long runs but the safety margin is so high on short 3ft or 6ft runs you are crazy to spend Th $50 to $150 they want you to in an electronics store. You could spend that money on a new Console game, hell at the high end a new console or blueray player!
 
hesho said:
to bad the average joe blow has no idea.... if they did, monster would have gone out of business awhile ago...
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hard to blame the average Joe though, because the major places you buy TVs, Best Buy, Department stores, etc, only sell the uber expensive cables.
 
Kalabalana said:
Smart man, there's no such thing as a quality "1" or "0", digital is digital, if the signal goes through, it's identical regardless of the medium.
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HDMI will display normal looking frames even with a lot of missing and incorrect 1s and 0s. A lot of people that have tried long runs of HDMI cables have seen this, you end up with "sparkly" image frames and the show goes on. Whoa, but its digital, it should be perfect or not work at all, how does that happen? :rolleyes:
 
ocellaris said:
HDMI will display normal looking frames even with a lot of missing and incorrect 1s and 0s. A lot of people that have tried long runs of HDMI cables have seen this, you end up with "sparkly" image frames and the show goes on. Whoa, but its digital, it should be perfect or not work at all, how does that happen? :rolleyes:
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there are specs, even for digital. From a certain point of view, more forgiving than analoug, however, there are still minimal signal attenuation reqs to meet.
 
GushpinBob said:
Bu...but I've gotta make sure those square waves are absolutely square, those 1's are absolutely straight, and those 0's are absolutely round.
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This gave me a good laugh :p. If only the sales people at best buys used that sales pitch, I'd die laughing.
 
Friend and I went to best buy to purchase a TV on sale a while back. I told the rep to stop grabbing me those stupid over priced cables he was picking up, he was really sad. Then I told my friend to put back the stupid overly priced cables they handed him (convinced him they were needed to get the same picture as the wall TV). The sales rep guy was standing next to the cashier and got super pissed I did that. I didn't care, stop trying to sell or assume we are just going to purchase $300 in cables, yes thats how much it woudl of rang up to with just a few HDMI and a power strip and would of been more if they used the "high end" monster strip.
 
cybrsage said:
Cable quality comes down to the care given during their build. The same reason why the quality of electronics built in Japan (for example) is superior to those built in China. All that is happening is assembly, yet the quality is higher based on the location of that assembly.

If two brands both sell cables assembled in China, both will have the same quality of build. If one cable is built in the US and the other in China, the US built one will most likely be of higher quality.
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I was unaware that the thousands of factories and millions of people employed in said factories in China all manufactured things in the exact same way.

"Made in China"=Crap may have been true thirty years ago. It has absolutely no bearing on quality today - what matters is the standards to which the product was manufactured, not the location it was manufactured.

You can buy 30 $3 HDMI cables for the price of one Monster HDMI cable. I doubt you'll go through $30 cheap HDMI cables even if you are hotswapping your stuff 15 times a day. I have a 50' HDMI cable from Bluejeanscable that I payed about $50 for (cheap for an HDMI of that length at the time I bought it, ~5 years ago), and it works great. Never any trouble.
 
Corporate Goon said:
I was unaware that the thousands of factories and millions of people employed in said factories in China all manufactured things in the exact same way.

"Made in China"=Crap may have been true thirty years ago. It has absolutely no bearing on quality today - what matters is the standards to which the product was manufactured, not the location it was manufactured.

You can buy 30 $3 HDMI cables for the price of one Monster HDMI cable. I doubt you'll go through $30 cheap HDMI cables even if you are hotswapping your stuff 15 times a day. I have a 50' HDMI cable from Bluejeanscable that I payed about $50 for (cheap for an HDMI of that length at the time I bought it, ~5 years ago), and it works great. Never any trouble.
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oh, I still remember bluejeancable's open letter against Monster, lol....
 
Ive noticed walmarts around me have started selling cheaper $10 6ft hdmi cables and they can never stay on the shelf lol. Made me mad to cause I needed one more hdmi cable for my new PVR and they were sold out for 2 weeks straight, while I can buy one cheaper online it only stays cheaper if im ordering other stuff. Otherwise shipping makes it the same price and I have to wait for shipping. For now Ive started buying my hdmi's at walmart again :p
 
450 said:
+1.

Only thing I have from monoprice that I didn't like is their basic RCA to 3.5mm y cables.
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Go for the premium version, That is my favorite cable I have ever bought; I actually it it off to people often.
 
Old news... kinda like when people buy a $400 sound card *cough*my aunt*cough* just to output a SPDIF signal to a receiver when the motherboard is perfectly capable of outputting digital sound.
 
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