Ferrite Core

[UaVaj]

in the analog days. a ferrite core on each end of the vga cable was a necessity in maintaining quality video.

in today digital age. hdmi, dvi, and displayport. is ferrite core still a necessity? or are they just dead weight on digital cables.

what are all your thoughts?



if you have hard facts. please do site source.

 

[Elixer]

Still useful in specific circumstances, like if the cable is acting as an antenna for noise from the device... and things of that nature.

 

[therealnickdanger]

Ferrite cores were brought to the audio/video world specifically to isolate the cable's analog signal from the radio/EMI signals floating around from other sources and vice versa. Like Elixer stated, the cable itself could become an antenna for other sources, thus interfering with the output device.

HDMI cables are a shielded, twisted pair design that is much less susceptible to interference than ye olde cables. I'm sure that with a noisy (EMI) environment with many, many devices in close proximity, there may be some objective, measurably value, but there's certainly no harm done to having them.