Long HDMI Cable Bench Tests - Monster Cable Shootout

[panzeroceania]

Thank you very much Alex! I love reading all this kind of stuff.

Like I said I don't have a ton of money but don't like to settle for second rate, I'd rather wait till I can afford the good stuff( just my method in general) and you are totally right about what you said. Those links were great, thanks so much again.

 

[hnavi]

Very Comprehensive

Great article discussing the abilities of extra long HDMI Cables. I've always been curious to see how the long vs short cables perform and if there are any pros or cons. Ive always purchased my cables at optimization-world.com and they have great deals but this review has been so helpful in seeing which cables will fit my needs best. Thanks

 

[steveroland211]

you get what you pay for

Everybody knows that you get what you pay for and this is true even with HDMI Cables, the materials that the cables are made from makes a difference on the way you will see it on your HDTV.
Simply put it this way, if you buy a $1,000+ HDTV is completely nonsense to buy a $10.00 cable! If you are going to invest on a good HDTV you better invest in as good HDMI cable that will assure you with the top quality imagine.
I’m an HDTV installer and I always recommend my customers to buy the top quality cables, but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables! I will recommend a top quality cable that is not easy to find but the quality is fantastic is called Obsidian HDMI cables by a company called Soncras.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Everybody knows that you get what you pay for and this is true even with HDMI Cables, the materials that the cables are made from makes a difference on the way you will see it on your HDTV.
Simply put it this way, if you buy a $1,000+ HDTV is completely nonsense to buy a $10.00 cable! If you are going to invest on a good HDTV you better invest in as good HDMI cable that will assure you with the top quality imagine.
I’m an HDTV installer and I always recommend my customers to buy the top quality cables, but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables! I will recommend a top quality cable that is not easy to find but the quality is fantastic is called Obsidian HDMI cables by a company called Soncras.

Well, as the testing shows, you really don't need an expensive cable for shorter runs. So, that $10 cable could very well do the job as well as one costing many times more, and it is not a nonsense. Obviously you have a financial bias towards this and cannot be objective.

 

[avliner]

... but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables...

Wise words Steve!

That's why - more than ever - I'm stuck on MP cables though

 

[its phillip]

Everybody knows that you get what you pay for and this is true even with HDMI Cables, the materials that the cables are made from makes a difference on the way you will see it on your HDTV.
Simply put it this way, if you buy a $1,000+ HDTV is completely nonsense to buy a $10.00 cable! If you are going to invest on a good HDTV you better invest in as good HDMI cable that will assure you with the top quality imagine.
I’m an HDTV installer and I always recommend my customers to buy the top quality cables, but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables! I will recommend a top quality cable that is not easy to find but the quality is fantastic is called Obsidian HDMI cables by a company called Soncras.

No thanks.

 

[Fedaykin]

Everybody knows that you get what you pay for and this is true even with HDMI Cables, the materials that the cables are made from makes a difference on the way you will see it on your HDTV.
Simply put it this way, if you buy a $1,000+ HDTV is completely nonsense to buy a $10.00 cable! If you are going to invest on a good HDTV you better invest in as good HDMI cable that will assure you with the top quality imagine.
I’m an HDTV installer and I always recommend my customers to buy the top quality cables, but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables! I will recommend a top quality cable that is not easy to find but the quality is fantastic is called Obsidian HDMI cables by a company called Soncras.

Utter bullshit. HDMI is a digital interface. It's a completely different way of transmitting data over wires.

The primary benefit of a digital connection is error detection and correction. Data is sent over an HDMI cable in packets and each packet includes additional information to detect errors. If an error is detected, that packet is resent.

For example, if you want to send a particular chunk of data, such as:

1010110111011

Then an HDMI interface will transmit that data, plus additional information that describes that data without duplicating it: In my little toy example, we might have a simple check that counts the number of 1's in the code, in this case there are 9 ones. So the HDMI interface will send the following packet:

1010110111011 1001

where the additional 1001 at the end is a binary representation of the number 9. The receiving end will inspect each packet and make sure that the data portion and the error code portion still agree. Note, this is a very very simplistic example, the actual error detection codes are far more robust (i.e. this toy example would fail if an error occurred that didn't alter the total number of 1's)

In this way the error rate in a transmission can be essentially zero (you can resend a packet as many times as necessary to get it sent correctly). The trade off how fast that cable can transmit the data. The cables need to be able to transmit data very fast to allow the error correction to work without interrupting the real time display of your movie/music.

Luckily, the HDMI spec is not just really fast, it's blazing fast. A cable that actually meets the current HDMI 1.4a spec is supposed to be able to transmit at a rate of 10 billion bits per second (10gbps). How much is that? 10gbps is 1.25 Gigabytes per second (a byte is 8 bits), which is enough to transmit all the data on a double layer Blueray disc (50GB) in 40 seconds

This is roughly 500-1000x as fast as your "high speed" internet connection and 10-100 times faster than your average computer network. More importantly, this is roughly 200 times faster than necessary to transmit the Blueray data in real time allowing for plenty of time for error correction and other overhead.

This is why the HDMI cable makers are emphasizing bitrate -- it's really the only thing that matters for HDMI. Unfortunately for Monster and other fraudsters, as long as a cable actually meets the spec it's way more than is currently necessary, irregardless of price.

 

[highfigh]

sorry, I'm not trying to troll, and I have found most the info out there, except the cable's gauge. That's the only thing I can't find. I somehow doubt that it is 16 as someone here as stated because it is no more bulky or stiff than my cables from other companies that are 22, sounds like a lie to make monster sound better. So far the best deals I can find are on monoprice, the best quality DVIgear, and the best standards meeting from bluejeancable.

I'm a facts guy, and never have any intention of causing any trouble, and can't understand people getting emotional about technology. I just like to gather data.

also in response to the thread you linked to, I'm don't have bose, I have a onkyo sound system . I don't have a lot of money to spend but I don't want my cables to be the weak link. I plan to someday get a 120hz or more television that supports deep color for when video games start supporting those features and don't feel like buying accessories twice.

This isn't high current signal, so wire gauge is of little importance. Since HDMI doesn't work via HDMI cable over extreme distance, anything more than about 50' is generally running on Cat5e or Cat6, which is usually 22ga. Now, HDMI over single coax exists and it's good to more than 300'. The biggest issues with HDMI, IMO- the connector sucks from a structural standpoint, the audio or video is subject to dropouts if the "handshake" drops below 4.7V (starting at 5V and allowing .3V volt drop isn't enough of a window to be practical) and the whole reason HDMI exists is so people can't copy Hollywood's crappy movies.

However, 120Hz isn't fast enough for clear video when the motion across the screen is extremely fast, so you might want to think about buying a plasma TV or something that's 3d capable which, by design, must be able to refresh much faster than 2d video needs. A 2d plasma will be less expensive than either a 2d or 3d LCD/LED if it's larger than 42" and capable of 1080p.

 

[Pyrrho]

Everybody knows that you get what you pay for

That is the stupidest thing that people parrot back all the time. If it were true, there would be no such thing as a con or a bad deal, because you would always be getting what you paid for. No person with any sense who thinks about it even for a little while really believes it. If it were true, every ridiculous CD "demagnetizer" and other such worthless gizmos would actually work, and all of them would work in direct proportion to their cost. This is so freaking stupid it is amazing that people keep repeating it so much.

and this is true even with HDMI Cables, the materials that the cables are made from makes a difference on the way you will see it on your HDTV.
Simply put it this way, if you buy a $1,000+ HDTV is completely nonsense to buy a $10.00 cable!

You seriously need to read the article. You cannot see the difference in a short cable that costs less than $10 and an expensive one. With short distances, you can get an HDMI cable for less than a dollar a foot that will not visibly or audibly degrade the sound, and therefore spending more is a waste of money, even if you spent $10,000 on your TV. You are giving very bad advice that is total bullshit.

If you are going to invest on a good HDTV you better invest in as good HDMI cable that will assure you with the top quality imagine.
I’m an HDTV installer and I always recommend my customers to buy the top quality cables, but something is also true that should be always be keep in mind, not all the big name cables manufactures are good cables! I will recommend a top quality cable that is not easy to find but the quality is fantastic is called Obsidian HDMI cables by a company called Soncras.

You probably recommend that they waste their money on expensive cables because the markup tends to be higher on cables than on other things. It is a total scam, and either you are a con artist, or you are a sucker who is now misleading others. Either way, you are as wrong as you could possibly be. People would be much better advised to spend their money on better speakers or a better TV, things that will make an audible or visible difference, rather than on something that makes no audible or visible difference.

But, of course, the markup usually isn't as good on things that actually matter, and so we may expect that unscrupulous salesmen will continue to push nonsense about magical wires on unsuspecting customers.

 

[Adam]

You cannot see the difference in a short cable that costs less than $10 and an expensive one.

Shhhhh! I'm workin' here.

Hey, steveroland211, I've got some amazing high-value HDMI cables, only $100 for a six-footer. Your digital signals will come through totally unaltered. Pure A/V magic, I tell ya. I can get them to you in about a week, and I offer several different lengths and colors. Oh, and don't mind the markings. I just put "Monoprice" on the bags to keep my source confidential.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Shhhhh! I'm workin' here.

Hey, steveroland211, I've got some amazing high-value HDMI cables, only $100 for a six-footer. Your digital signals will come through totally unaltered. Pure A/V magic, I tell ya. I can get them to you in about a week, and I offer several different lengths and colors. Oh, and don't mind the markings. I just put "Monoprice" on the bags to keep my source confidential.

You need to get the signals there faster than light speed though. Then, it might be a good price.

 

[Web Enthusiast]

depends on the level of quality

I think you may be right but I believe the cheap companies try to force the view that it doesn't count how well the cable is made... Which is bull***t of course because that always matters.
You may say there is no bigger difference between good companies such as monster, supra or connection lab. But there is a huge gap between these and entry-level equipment... That's my opinion.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I think you may be right but I believe the cheap companies try to force the view that it doesn't count how well the cable is made... Which is bull***t of course because that always matters.

This is blatantly false.

Cheap companies push (not force) the view that it doesn't count how much a cable costs.

How well a cable is made is very important. Using the proper gauge of wire for long hauls, properly testing cables, making sure they are durable. For shorter cables, we are seeing both a combination of cables that look really nice and perform well, as well as other cables which are very skinny and flexible for higher reliability when connected.

You may say there is no bigger difference between good companies such as monster, supra or connection lab. But there is a huge gap between these and entry-level equipment... That's my opinion.

It is clearly your opinion, because the facts don't support that higher priced cables deliver more than cheaper cables which are well built. That's the difference between fact and opinion and the reason why sites like Audioholics exist in the first place. They separate the fact from the fiction.

THAT SAID: There is a difference between poorly made cheap cables, and well made cheap cables. I just installed two 50' HDMI cables from a company called Blue Rigger to try them out, and neither one appears to be passing 1080p video across them. They are lightweight, and flexible... but they don't work! So, I will return them and leave comments to that fact and I am out a couple hours of work repulling different HDMI cables. Perhaps the 50' Monoprice cables instead.

For reference, I pulled out two 75' Monoprice cables which worked flawlessly because they were 25' longer than I needed, so I was disappointed that the 50' Blue Rigger cables didn't work... But now I know and I won't be buying from them ever again.

Maybe I'll try a couple of 50' Redmere cables. Still cheaper than anything Monster sells.

On shorter cables I have continually had good results with Monoprice, but recently switched to Parts Express for their ultra-thin cable which I have run through $5,000+ HDMI testing gear with perfect results.

I am not going to stop insisting that Blue Jeans Cable (BJC) is also one of the best ways to go for mid-tier pricing on a quality cable without any BS associated with it.

 

[Web Enthusiast]

Ok, I can see you got pretty irritated about it but, please, chill out. You have the right to your opinions. But I personally used various cables such as vampire cables or something else which cost me not more than 2$ and they didn't work with certain devices. So there's no sense comparing. I'm glad you're good with cheap cables. I chose Connection Lab and I'm not saying they cost as much as Monster but good enough for me.

 

[peteloo]

Flat or round HDMI cables?

That's a great article you wrote about HDMI cables.
I'm in the process of buying one to setup my home theatre, and I now know that I shouldn't go pass 10m if I wish to see 1080p resolution.
But did you find out if there is a difference between the flat and round cables?
Thanks