HDMI Cables Quality Issues with cables being too short

[jlfirehawk]

A buddy of mine was using monoprices chat feature to ask about a certain model of their hdmi cables explaining he was hooking his equipment up to a hdmi switch and didnt want the cables to be too long and the tech then advised that you should never get cables shorter than 4' because it can cause signal issues. Now I have never heard of this before ever, but has anyone else even heard of this? They explained that in testing they could see quality issues with less than 4' cables and could take the same model etc of cable and just make it longer than 4' and everything was fine.

 

[DaveSimmons]

No, that's silly.

It isn't true for SATA or USB cables either.

Now Monster TM brand dihydrogen monoxidated HDMI cables will double your screen resolution and make Christina Hendricks take her blouse off.

 

[jlfirehawk]

Haha, yeah the whole Monster Cable deal makes me sick. Whats funnier is the explanation they gave him which was with having too short of a cable it doesnt allow the signal to reach full bandwidth, when he told me that I was like wow that is the oddest thing I have ever heard but coming from a tier 2 tech at monoprice I figured I would ask around to see if anyone else had even heard of this.

 

[sdifox]

Probably contracted out to some poor chap in India.

 

[vi edit]

Huh?

My only concern on short runs would be how much bend you could get out of them. HDMI is pretty rigid and doesn't bend well. If you go too short trying to make the angles at the connection point could put a lot of stress on the cable/component it's hook up to.

 

[Slick5150]

^^^

Yeah, my thought would be along those lines too. Monoprice's HDMI cables are pretty thick, and flexing a 2ft cable to connect it to something directly next to/underneath the originating device might be a problem.

So, that may be their policy to suggest people not buy really short cables and the CSR was confused as to why that was or something.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

Yeah, I'm going to agree with vi edit and Slick5150 on this one. Probably just a confused Indian tech who didn't understand the reason behind the policy.

 

[kalrith]

Huh?

My only concern on short runs would be how much bend you could get out of them. HDMI is pretty rigid and doesn't bend well. If you go too short trying to make the angles at the connection point could put a lot of stress on the cable/component it's hook up to.

I came here to post this. Thanks for saving me the trouble

 

[HomerSapien]

I use 2-1ft cables connecting a dvd and satellite receiver to a switch. No issues with quality on screen.

 

[jlfirehawk]

I thought BS from the moment he told me that but I just wanted some other opinions in case there was some wierd issue out there that I had never heard of or something, guess that means only buy from monoprice dont ever ask for tech support lol.

 

[MStele]

A cable can be too short, but these are physical limitations and not technical ones.

A) It creates a strain on the connectors which will cause failure over time
B) Overbending causes kinking, which can lead to greatly reduced signal strength

Something to note : The more expensive, stiffer cables are more prone to overbending than the cheaper flexable ones. Sharp angles should be avoided in any case.

 

[0roo0roo]

lol with monoprices prices what kind of expertise do you think they can hire for a "chat"?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

consumer-grade interconnects are pretty robust. i would be shocked (figuratively) if i ever saw reflections, standing waves, etc become an issue with something that wasn't obviously damaged. even spdif can tolerate plenty of microbends and contaminants without an issue. i've never had to TDR a video cable, calibrate loops, or even clean a spdif.