Are all HDMI cables the same?

[budmonster]

I went to Best Buy a few days ago and was looking for an HDMI cable for my WD TV Live box. I picked up a cheap Dynex cable and then a rep came over and told me that for Plasma TV's this Pearl HDMI cable was better for my TV. It also cost $20 more. I was at Target today and was talking about it to a rep in the Theater section and he said a $3 cable is no different than a $50 one, is that true? I'd rather pay $9 that $30.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Yes they are the same. The only exception is if your cables need to run more than 4 metres/12 feet. If not, it makes no difference whatsoever.

And if you do use a cheap cable over say 5m, and there is a problem with it, it will be VERY noticeable. As in, white snow every where, or no image at all. Its not the case that an expensive cable will be subjectively better with better picture quality, its that the expensive cable will work while the cheap one wont. But as I said, only matters over long distances.

 

[Cerb]

http://www.monoprice.com/

Stop buying cables B&M, ASAP! There is no such thing as a cheap cable from BB.

Cable quality may vary, but like was said above, that usually only applies when you're trying to run past the normal spec.

 

[Essence_of_War]

OP, I refer you to:

All HDMI Cables are the same pt 1

All HDMI Cables are the same pt2

All HDMI Cables are the same pt3

In short, with the possible exception of long runs (more than about 10-20ft) where you will likely need a more expensive active cable (and still shouldn't pay more than ~$1-2/foot!) HDMI cables are all the same, and you should buy the cheapest one you can find. Likely from Monoprice, as Cerb indicated :thumbsup:

The notion that more expensive cables are better plays on the psychology (pay more for better product!) and piggybacks on thinking from analog cable days, where more expensive cables were often better at shielding noise. Digital signals don't get signal degradation in the same way analog cables did.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I went to Best Buy a few days ago and was looking for an HDMI cable for my WD TV Live box. I picked up a cheap Dynex cable and then a rep came over and told me that for Plasma TV's this Pearl HDMI cable was better for my TV. It also cost $20 more. I was at Target today and was talking about it to a rep in the Theater section and he said a $3 cable is no different than a $50 one, is that true? I'd rather pay $9 that $30.

The Best Buy employee has been told to upsell the more expensive cables because the margins on them are huge, along with warranties and cell phone plans.

This is the sad reality of electronics stores. With the way technology is today, there's an enormous opening in the market for a place that charges a little bit more than Walmart/Amazon, but that provides meaningful consumer advice and saves the customer money by informing them which purchases are necessary and which ones aren't. Think your local hardware store. Sadly, that's not Best Buy. I'm currently far better served by little customer service (Target) or none at all (Amazon) than I am going to an electronics store, because at least those first two aren't intentionally misleading me.

The only place I've been to that successfully breaks this mold is Microcenter, but they are more for the hardcore and hobbyists than for general consumer electronics (and not everyone is so lucky to live near one). I want a place that I can send my grandmother to for a TV and know that she won't be taken for a ride.

 

[Virgorising]

Yes they are the same. The only exception is if your cables need to run more than 4 metres/12 feet. If not, it makes no difference whatsoever.

And if you do use a cheap cable over say 5m, and there is a problem with it, it will be VERY noticeable. As in, white snow every where, or no image at all. Its not the case that an expensive cable will be subjectively better with better picture quality, its that the expensive cable will work while the cheap one wont. But as I said, only matters over long distances.

I ditto this! Way back, when I needed my first HDMI cable, not for the first time, I went across the St to Staples, saw what they had and the PRICES, OMG......left, went onto eBay and got an amazing one, high end insullation, for NO MONEY.

I later did the same when I needed a much longer one.

Thing about ebay, it is the true paradigm for what Capitalism was always meant to be: the marketplace determines the real value of most items....and, monitoring that, over time, you learn a TON.

 

[piasabird]

HDMI over cat5e.

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-HDMI...hdmi+over+cat5

They claim this will work almost 200 feet.

 

[budmonster]

HDMI over cat5e.

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-HDMI...hdmi+over+cat5

They claim this will work almost 200 feet.

Why would I need an HDMI extender? Thing looks confusing, headache just looking at it lol.

And thanks everyone for the responses, I'm returning that HDMI cable tomorrow and going on Amazon

 

[CA19100]

As they said, they're all basically the same. Even the cheapest Dynex cable is about ten times more expensive than it should be.

It's a digital signal. It'll either work perfectly, or show severe dropouts; really nothing inbetween. And a $100 Monster gold-plated cable won't look any better than the $2 Monoprice one. If all the bits are making it to the TV, then that's as good as it's going to get. It'll be very obvious to you if the signal is breaking up.


I remember looking for a 15-foot cable to connect my laptop to the TV. I needed DVI on one end, HDMI on the other. Best Buy had one for $150. Monoprice was $7, and it works flawlessly to this day.

 

[Essence_of_War]

And thanks everyone for the responses, I'm returning that HDMI cable tomorrow and going on Amazon

Amazon has good deals. Like Cerb and CA19100, I'd go with monoprice. They've basically made their entire business on selling good cables at excellent prices.

Why would I need an HDMI extender?

For long cable runs I guess? I've never run into a situation where I needed to connect things via HDMI over distances greater than like 10ft or so, but I suppose I can imagine that someone, somewhere might. Maybe computer in different room from TV for silent HTPC duties?

 

[Cerb]

Why would I need an HDMI extender?

You don't. Consider a projector, as an example of what might need such lengths. Passive or amplified baluns, both pretty cheap, could do that work for older analog signals, and pretty cheaply; though the likes of component or VGA could go 50+ft without clear degradation just with quality cable.

 

[budmonster]

Amazon has good deals. Like Cerb and CA19100, I'd go with monoprice. They've basically made their entire business on selling good cables at excellent prices.


For long cable runs I guess? I've never run into a situation where I needed to connect things via HDMI over distances greater than like 10ft or so, but I suppose I can imagine that someone, somewhere might. Maybe computer in different room from TV for silent HTPC duties?

Could you just give me a cable from Amazon and Monoprice to purchase? I usually just throw everything on my Amazon card. Just give me one to purchase and Ill go ahead and do it.

 

[hasu]

I bet there will hardly be any difference even for long runs. You won't see more "snow" with bad cable. The signal is digital. I have a thin cheap 25 ft cable connecting my over head projector to my HTPC and the cable works just fine. I think I got that one for under $3 from Meritline. Normal price may be around $5 or $6. That being said my machines are not HDCP compatible, and I don't know if there is any difference in cable to make it HDCP compatible.

 

[Cerb]

Could you just give me a cable from Amazon and Monoprice to purchase? I usually just throw everything on my Amazon card. Just give me one to purchase and Ill go ahead and do it.

Monoprice's own brands of cables are, IME, at worst, average, though typically above average, and their shipping rates are not padded. Stores like BB, and companies like Monster and Belkin, are out for getting high retail mark-up, not just selling you cable that works . Get the color you want and length you need, and try to think of some other cables and adapters you keep needing some of but don't have around, while you're at it.
http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=102&cp_id=10240
I come up with $6.19 shipped for a 6ft male-male, so even buying a single cable, it's not bad at all.

I bet there will hardly be any difference even for long runs. The signal is digital.

Being digital doesn't mean it's either perfect or non-functional. That is a myth (most digital signals you rely on are laiden with error-checking and correction information, error-checking w/ retransmit capability, or both). It just means that once you have perfect sending and receiving of all the bits, there is nothing to improve upon, and also that losses can be tested for (though streams that rely on 'just working', or CRCs only, tend not to have a long range between fine and FUBAR, and the partial loss problem cases tend to be cables capable of Xbps just fine, but not XYbps). Marginal cables can and will sometimes give you sparklies, audio glitches, solid-color blocks, off-color blocks, black (missing) blocks, and so on; and it may just be a minor artifact every now and then, not an unusable stream.

https://web.archive.org/web/2008051...ster-cable-+-grand-finale-part-iii-282725.php
http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/long-hdmi-cable-bench-tests/hdmi-cable-testing-results
http://hdguru.com/all-hdmi-cables-are-the-same-or-are-they-full-test/

For most uses, almost all are fine. But, long runs and high bandwidth can either fail testing (which still might actually work with a device, but also might not), or plain not work. Past maybe 50ft, I'd just jump straight into using short ICs to active converters using Cat6. It wouldn't be worth the time and effort of redoing it with a different cable on a, "well, it'll probably work," when <$200 can make it a near certainty.

 

[hasu]

Being digital doesn't mean it's either perfect or non-functional. That is a myth (most digital signals you rely on are laiden with error-checking and correction information, error-checking w/ retransmit capability, or both). It just means that once you have perfect sending and receiving of all the bits, there is nothing to improve upon, and also that losses can be tested for (though streams that rely on 'just working', or CRCs only, tend not to have a long range between fine and FUBAR, and the partial loss problem cases tend to be cables capable of Xbps just fine, but not XYbps). Marginal cables can and will sometimes give you sparklies, audio glitches, solid-color blocks, off-color blocks, black (missing) blocks, and so on; and it may just be a minor artifact every now and then, not an unusable stream.

How big of blocks and glitches will that be? If it is anything like tuning to weak HDTV stations, you will notice that immediately. It won't be just snowy or grainy video. My point is that if you can watch the video and listen to sound without those easily recognizable digital artifacts for 5 minutes your cable is good. You don't have to keenly look at the video or listen to sound to distinguish the problems. Once I tried a 75ft cable between an HTPC and a TV and that thing just did not work.

 

[Eug]

10 random points in no particular order:

1. All HDMI cables are most definitely NOT the same.

2. For short runs, like around 3-6 feet, most cables should work fine for most usage, although a lot of the cheapest cables have really crappy build quality.

3. For long runs, ie. ~15 feet and over, you'll often come across cables that don't work consistently with some equipment.

4. Thus, don't buy cheap cables to put behind the wall. Often behind a wall you'll need 25 feet or more. If you cheap out there, you're in for potentially endless headaches in the future, and it's not easy to swap a cable behind drywall most of the time.

5. Crappy cables can give you snowy signal. In fact, it's one of the most common problems with crappy HDMI cables. Ironically, this article sets out to convince us that all cables are the same, but then shows us examples of how they are actually not:

I've seen it myself with HDMI, although most of the time the "snow" is much less abundant than what you would get with poor analog signals. The "snow" is formed by digital artifacts.

6. Other problems I've seen are flashing, half-screen flashing, complete dropouts, and of course, the cable not working at all.

7. Average Monoprice cables are average... which means some of them are better than the cheapest cables on Amazon and eBay. Some of those cables really, really suck. The cheap Amazon and eBay cables are often about the same quality as the Dollar Store cables, but then again if you get a $3 Dollar Store 3-foot cable, it will most likely still work most of the time.

8. Higher end name brand cables often are better quality but usually they're way overpriced. A cheap cable might be $5, but a good cable doesn't have to be $200. For example, Monster Cable HDMI cables aren't actually bad cables. They just cost 10X too much, meaning they're bad for the price, but I'd rather have one of those than a $3 Dollarama cable... if someone gave it to me free that is.

9. In general thicker gauge is better, but not always. Plus, the thick gauge cables are often really stiff, which makes them annoying to use and route. Some of the best quality cables are better at the same gauge than other brands of cable at the same gauge. However, the best quality cables often cost way more, and sometimes it's easier to just get a thicker gauge to compensate... up to a point, when getting too thick a gauge makes them too stiff. For example, Dollarama cables are often 30 gauge, while many cheap (and effective) cables are 28 gauge, where some of the higher end cables are 24 gauge. 24 gauge is already stiff, but you can even 22 gauge cables from Monoprice which are super stiff.

10. Just because it works on your current equipment is no guarantee the same cable will work on future equipment. Individual components vary in their tolerance to withstand crappy signals. Also, what is considered standard today may not be standard tomorrow. eg. 1080p24 was the standard for the longest time, whereas some people may want 1080p120 for 3D some time later. 1080p120 is 5X the data of 1080p24. And 1080p60 should be considered a basic standard today.

 

[hasu]

OP might want to try it for yourself. Cheap cables are so cheap that it won't hurt trying.

This is the longest HDMI cable that I have and that works just fine.
http://www.meritline.com/25-feet-hdmi-digital-cable-3d-ethernet-playstation---p-76855.aspx

As everybody else already agreed, for shorter cable (standard size) anything is fine.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I personally use the higher quality gold plated cables rated for higher throughput but to each his own.

 

[budmonster]

10 random points in no particular order:

1. All HDMI cables are most definitely NOT the same.

2. For short runs, like around 3-6 feet, most cables should work fine for most usage, although a lot of the cheapest cables have really crappy build quality.

3. For long runs, ie. ~15 feet and over, you'll often come across cables that don't work consistently with some equipment.

4. Thus, don't buy cheap cables to put behind the wall. Often behind a wall you'll need 25 feet or more. If you cheap out there, you're in for potentially endless headaches in the future, and it's not easy to swap a cable behind drywall most of the time.

5. Crappy cables can give you snowy signal. In fact, it's one of the most common problems with crappy HDMI cables. Ironically, this article sets out to convince us that all cables are the same, but then shows us examples of how they are actually not:

I've seen it myself with HDMI, although most of the time the "snow" is much less abundant than what you would get with poor analog signals. The "snow" is formed by digital artifacts.

6. Other problems I've seen are flashing, half-screen flashing, complete dropouts, and of course, the cable not working at all.

7. Average Monoprice cables are average... which means some of them are better than the cheapest cables on Amazon and eBay. Some of those cables really, really suck. The cheap Amazon and eBay cables are often about the same quality as the Dollar Store cables, but then again if you get a $3 Dollar Store 3-foot cable, it will most likely still work most of the time.

8. Higher end name brand cables often are better quality but usually they're way overpriced. A cheap cable might be $5, but a good cable doesn't have to be $200. For example, Monster Cable HDMI cables aren't actually bad cables. They just cost 10X too much, meaning they're bad for the price, but I'd rather have one of those than a $3 Dollarama cable... if someone gave it to me free that is.

9. In general thicker gauge is better, but not always. Plus, the thick gauge cables are often really stiff, which makes them annoying to use and route. Some of the best quality cables are better at the same gauge than other brands of cable at the same gauge. However, the best quality cables often cost way more, and sometimes it's easier to just get a thicker gauge to compensate... up to a point, when getting too thick a gauge makes them too stiff. For example, Dollarama cables are often 30 gauge, while many cheap (and effective) cables are 28 gauge, where some of the higher end cables are 24 gauge. 24 gauge is already stiff, but you can even 22 gauge cables from Monoprice which are super stiff.

10. Just because it works on your current equipment is no guarantee the same cable will work on future equipment. Individual components vary in their tolerance to withstand crappy signals. Also, what is considered standard today may not be standard tomorrow. eg. 1080p24 was the standard for the longest time, whereas some people may want 1080p120 for 3D some time later. 1080p120 is 5X the data of 1080p24. And 1080p60 should be considered a basic standard today.

So can I get a good HDMI cable under $15? Anything on Amazon you can point me to? I picked up a AudioQuest/Pearl HDMI cable from Best Buy for $30 but I'd like to return it for something cheaper.

 

[Virgorising]

The Best Buy employee has been told to upsell the more expensive cables because the margins on them are huge, along with warranties and cell phone plans.

This is the sad reality of electronics stores. With the way technology is today, there's an enormous opening in the market for a place that charges a little bit more than Walmart/Amazon, but that provides meaningful consumer advice and saves the customer money by informing them which purchases are necessary and which ones aren't. Think your local hardware store. Sadly, that's not Best Buy. I'm currently far better served by little customer service (Target) or none at all (Amazon) than I am going to an electronics store, because at least those first two aren't intentionally misleading me.

The only place I've been to that successfully breaks this mold is Microcenter, but they are more for the hardcore and hobbyists than for general consumer electronics (and not everyone is so lucky to live near one). I want a place that I can send my grandmother to for a TV and know that she won't be taken for a ride.

Eeeeew yes!:twisted: So obvious in my Stapes across the St!!! Why they are still in business, BOGGLES.

All opportunism....is evil. For me, no exceptions.

I LUV EBAY.()

 

[Cerb]

So can I get a good HDMI cable under $15? Anything on Amazon you can point me to? I picked up a AudioQuest/Pearl HDMI cable from Best Buy for $30 but I'd like to return it for something cheaper.

In my previous post, I linked directly to a page with plenty of value HDMI cables. Don't expect anything B&M retail.

 

[videogames101]

bluerigger HDMI cables via amazon have worked great for me. Have a 35 foot and a 50 foot cable from them, both work fine with no noticeable snow. great prices to, and prime eligible! monoprice is great, except for shipping charges ><

 

[raildogg]

Nice thread. I am looking to buy some HDMI cables. One will be a HDMI to HDMI and the other will be miniDisplay-port to HDMI.

I would like the length to be more than 12ft.

Found these on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?tag=anan06-20


I read on this thread that if the length is more than 10ft. or so then quality may deteriorate. If so, then how might these cables be? Might the quality be similar to Monoprice?

 

[raildogg]

bluerigger HDMI cables via amazon have worked great for me. Have a 35 foot and a 50 foot cable from them, both work fine with no noticeable snow. great prices to, and prime eligible! monoprice is great, except for shipping charges ><

Thank you, just bought the 15 ft. Bluerigger for $3.50 less than a comparable cable.

 

[budmonster]

bluerigger HDMI cables via amazon have worked great for me. Have a 35 foot and a 50 foot cable from them, both work fine with no noticeable snow. great prices to, and prime eligible! monoprice is great, except for shipping charges ><

I was going to purchase this: http://www.amazon.com/BlueRigger-Spe...5077173&amp;sr=1-1 or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052SCU8U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Great price for 2, but my TV is a Plasma 600hz. Those bluerigger only says up to 240hz? Here is my TV. Am I reading the description wrong? If so Im going to go a head and grab the bluerigger one above.