I get confused with cable specs. From what I understand there is no such thing as a 1.4 or 2.0 hdmi cable. Only with or without Ethernet. I do get confused when manufactures label cables as high speed, I thought they were all the same. An hdmi cable bought almost 10 years ago and I don't seem to have any issues, am I missing something?
HDMI cables are an area where sellers profit and new owners of HDMI products often fall victim to upselling.
I have a number of 10 year old HDMI cables that work just fine. The upsell by a vendor is of course, "you just bought that new TV, it would be a shame to use that nasty old slow cable with it. Here's a new "high speed" cable for an extra $100 bucks." Shame works.
Direct from the Blue Jeans HDMI cable explanation:
Data Rate
Many cables will tell You the amount of data they are capable of pushing through. These will be either 4.95gbps, 10.2gbps or 18gbps. These will often determine the speed of the cable with 4.95gbps pushing 720p, 10.2gbps pushing 1080p and 18gbps pushing 4k. 10.2gbps is also capable of pushing through 4k, but only at 30hz.
(End of quote from Blue Jeans)
These numbers are also misleading a bit because the the cables are made up of (4) pairs of twisted pair wires. 1 pair carries clock signals. The other 3 pairs carry color signals and sync signals. The rating of 10.2 gbps is misleading because nothing within the cable moves at that speed. It is merely the sum of the individual twisted pair. They do it that way since it comes up with a bigger number ! The individual pairs don't do much over 2.97gbps. But salesman will take advantage of "bigger numbers" whether or not they do the same thing or not.
Length also matters as do the gauge of the wires within the cable. A skinny but really long Wal-mart special might reach across the room but not carry a full load. A short fat cable of the same vintage and rating may carry the entire rating of the cable. Its all 1's and 0's to be sure, but signals do degrade over a length of wire so there are possibilities for problems. Many 'standard' cables will carry a load up to 45 feet of length and 'high speed' cables up to 25 feet of length. Will they work at longer distances : yes.
You mentioned "with or without ethernet" as a potential issue. At HDMI 1.4 the OPTIONAL feature of ethernet came in to the picture. It did not change the cabling pattern or construction. It introduced the optional feature of assigning one of the existing pairs of wire an additional task. It is either implemented or not in your attached equipment over the very same cable. No cable changes. This would be the infamous "Audio Return Channel (or ARC)" feature of HDMI. A true pain in the ass for many HDMI users.
I have rambled on far too long, but there is a fair amount of confusion around cables. Vendors love that. It gives them a chance to explain away the confusion and that explanation almost always results in the sale of a new cable.
