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Limited time Left. 2 QUALITY HDMI's shpd for $13

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Have Monoprice HDMI long runs in the basement from my pre/pre to the projector running for several years now. Also use it for all my TVs, kitchen, living room, family room and bedroom. No issues than I recall with regards to plugs or even with handshaking. FWIW, I also tried some Ebay China ones and no issues either.
 
Macgyversite said:
Relax dude. Read my post. I am not complaining about just monoprice and Others have had Monoprice problems. Learn to Read.

Quit Bashing.
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You mentioned them by name..and you tell me to learn to read? Try reading own post..lol

Fact is all cables are made to a certain spec, saying one breaks over another is just you spewing bull shit.





Profanity is only allowed in the social forums


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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I haven't had the performance problems with less expensive cable. I have had construction problems.The only reason I don't like the cheaper cables is the quality they exhibit. Those Monoprice cables and some others (Parts Express cheapies) I have used have had the connector stay in the TV or DVD HDMI port upon unplugging.

Funny. I don't see Just Monoprice being fingered here. You need to learn to read.

Oh by the way. Stop Trolling here. This is a Hot deals forum not a bash whoever you want forum.
 
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You can get $2 HDMI cables with gold plated connectors off amazon. Is a little extra shielding really that important for some dinky 3 foot cable connecting your tv to your xbox?
 
Read back a few posts on page one. You can decide what you want from some of the posts there. I am one to spend a little more on the quality side since you only need a few HDMI's in most peoples houses. Decide what you want to spend. I would get 6 at $6each knowing the quality difference versus 6 at $2each. So it's like $12 vs $36. As always it's buyers choice.
 
How can you be around computers and not know what a pain cables can be that are made to some spec and don't actually meet that spec? Every new generation of cables that I can recall have had a few years of working out the bugs before you could grab a cheap cable and expect it to work in all circumstances.

Gold plating doesn't make a cable good, its often a sign the cable was made to be sold to those who don't understand cable specs.
 
nalc said:
Let's talk.

The signal can get really distorted. The cables need to be shielded or use twisted pair construction to reduce noise, and they all have to be the same length to avoid timing issues, as well as be the correct impedance. Any cable that meets HDMI specifications has those things, and will work equally well. A HDMI connector soldered onto some random wire you found on your workbench will not work equally well. The "It's digital, so signal quality doesn't matter" statement is untrue, but the purpose it serves (to dissuade people from choosing obscenely overpriced cables) is valid.

It's simple enough to provide many other instances where digital signal quality matters. Why do you use Cat6 for gigabit, when Cat5 has the same number of wires? The signal either gets there it it doesn't, right? Except Ethernet needs twisted pairs to reduce outside interference, the different pairs are twisted at different intervals to reduce crosstalk, and they need to be twisted right up to the connector. Again, a $1 ethernet cable has the correct construction to meet the gigabit standards, and Monster likely sells a $100 ethernet cable that is not any better. But again, crimp an ethernet connector onto a mishmash of spare wires, and it will not work right.
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EE person here. While you do have a point your comparison is of different applications for the wires, giga vs regular. Higher speed usually requires more insulation and what not to keep it shielded and clean. Distance is also another factor. This is why high speed designs is like an art, even when laying out traces 🙂

For your regular PS3, PC playing needs 99% of the common (not do it messy crimped cables) cables will work just fine. That doesn't mean one shouldn't buy more expensive ones to ease their mind (everyone does this really) and if it's for the right video/audio set up but I don't think many here are enthusiast in the video/audio department.

I think all my cables are from monoprice now. I've been shopping and replacing them for years with no issues. They do have higher grade cables if you need them as well. Well, they are thicker 🙂
 
I have some of the monoprice cables. I am not impressed with them. I get green scan lines and artifacts because they don't stay plugged in securely, and the thickness is a pain. The things are so thick that you can't snake them around anything at all. I don't know the original poster and I'm not plugging any other kind of cable, but I won't be buying anymore monoprice ones. Sometimes it's better to pay 5 or 6 bucks for something than 2 bucks, even if both serve the same purpose.
 
camerond said:
I bought a bunch of those 3ft ferrite core cables about a year ago thinking all cables were created equal... Sadly I found out my PS3 is the only device that cares what cable runs into it. Maybe someone with an 'electrical engineering degree' can explain why this is the case but it was just those cheap ferrite core cables that caused my issues. I replaced it with an even cheaper cable (not from monoprice) and have had no issues since. Hopefully this will help someone in the future and not have to buy a second set of cheap cables like I did.

For those who want to question the cables here is what I tried...
2 different TV's - Sony W5100 and LG LE5400 series
2 different receivers - Marantz sr6005 and onkyo s3400 htib
1 ps3 (i guess it could be the ps3...)
3 different video cards - e-350 integrated radeon chip (6200 i think?), some integrated intel chip and a radeon 5770
I used 6 different cables in 2 different colors but all of the 3ft flavor.


Multiple combinations of all the above were tested over several months and it always came back to the monoprice cables on the ps3. Partial and full signal drop totally at random when using it to play games, watch dvd's, br's or just browse built in content.

Sorry for the rant but be just be advised... I'm curious how many people have had the same issues.
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Obviously not many.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p..._id=1024008&p_id=3992&seq=1&format=4#feedback

I use those cables for my PS3/TV/AVR and I have only one issue that I doubt is related to the cables. During BD playback about 3-4 times during the movie I'll get a flash of green over the picture. Connecting the PS3 directly to the TV and it doesn't happen so I'm thinking it's an issue between my AVR and TV or PS3.
 
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When I see hundreds of 10/10 reviews, and not a single bad review, it makes me wonder a bit. Could be the Honda syndrome, Honda owners buy into the mystique and rarely say anything publicly that isn't positive. Could be reviews are edited.

What site doesn't have the occasional jerk complaining for no good reason?
 
mikeford said:
When I see hundreds of 10/10 reviews, and not a single bad review, it makes me wonder a bit. Could be the Honda syndrome, Honda owners buy into the mystique and rarely say anything publicly that isn't positive. Could be reviews are edited.

What site doesn't have the occasional jerk complaining for no good reason?
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They have 98.86% good reviews so there are some bad ones on there, however since there's so many reviews and no easy way to sort, it's a pain to track them down.

As for monoprice, I've ordered a lot of different things from them (cables, wiring, patch panel, etc...) and only had a problem with the patch panel which had bad internal wiring. One quick call with their tech support and it was replaced without any issues (actually the price had gone down ~$5 since I'd ordered it so I was credited the difference). There's a reason they have a resellerrating of 9.75.
 
86waterpumper said:
I have some of the monoprice cables. I am not impressed with them. I get green scan lines and artifacts because they don't stay plugged in securely, and the thickness is a pain. The things are so thick that you can't snake them around anything at all. I don't know the original poster and I'm not plugging any other kind of cable, but I won't be buying anymore monoprice ones. Sometimes it's better to pay 5 or 6 bucks for something than 2 bucks, even if both serve the same purpose.
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Watch out. You might start to get bashed here now saying that stuff. ;-)

At least there are a few that understand what I am talking about here.

I got these cables the other day and they are like WOW compared to the build quality of the Monoprice and Parts Express cables I have. I am certainly not saying anything bad about either place. I just prefer to buy a superior looking product for a little more coin.
 
modestninja said:
They have 98.86% good reviews so there are some bad ones on there, however since there's so many reviews and no easy way to sort, it's a pain to track them down.
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Made me curious so I did some more google searches and found several reliable sites where people complained that bad reviews were not posted, and reviews are sorted good to bad so you need to scroll through hundreds of reviews to see even current complaints.

OTOH the nature of the bad review was usually not the cable performance, but customer services issues like being shipped the wrong item, or delayed shipping with paid overnight shipping requested.

Independent sites gave them like a 3/5 rating.
 
Sophitia said:
You can get $2 HDMI cables with gold plated connectors off amazon. Is a little extra shielding really that important for some dinky 3 foot cable connecting your tv to your xbox?
Click to expand...

You missed the fact that these cables explicitly supports Ethernet. According to this page:
Specification version 1.4 introduced the new optional "Ethernet and Audio Return Channel." Unlike prior changes to the features and protocols supported by the spec, this change actually requires some alteration to the HDMI cable design. The connectors remain the same, and the pins still map as they did before, but two conductors have been given new additional tasks to perform, and because the bitrate to run through these conductors is rather high, the specification requires that they be run as a 100-ohm twisted pair. Prior cable designs did not run these conductors as a twisted pair, and so the impedance of the pair in a non-Ethernet cable could be almost anything, most likely unsuited for high-speed data.
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You ever try running 100/1000 Ethernet on wires that were not twisted pairs? Yeah, good luck with that.

Until we start seeing $2 HDMI cables that includes these optional things (which shouldn't take too long) you guys are comparing apples/oranges. Seriously, if the $2 cables had such features, they would be advertised as such.

It's like saying that a DVD ROM drive is cheaper than a DVD burner, while disregarding the fact that the more expensive product has capabilities that the cheaper one lacks.

Patrick Wolf said:
What are these cables anyway? The link in the OP shows a wireless speaker.
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Looks like it is a "deal of the day" site, so deal is long dead.
 
The0ne said:
EE person here. While you do have a point your comparison is of different applications for the wires, giga vs regular. Higher speed usually requires more insulation and what not to keep it shielded and clean. Distance is also another factor. This is why high speed designs is like an art, even when laying out traces 🙂

For your regular PS3, PC playing needs 99% of the common (not do it messy crimped cables) cables will work just fine. That doesn't mean one shouldn't buy more expensive ones to ease their mind (everyone does this really) and if it's for the right video/audio set up but I don't think many here are enthusiast in the video/audio department.

I think all my cables are from monoprice now. I've been shopping and replacing them for years with no issues. They do have higher grade cables if you need them as well. Well, they are thicker 🙂
Click to expand...

Oh, I certainly agree. I use all monoprice too, and even have a 50 foot run of their heavier gauge HDMI with no problems. I just want to dispel the notion that digital signals are absolutely immune to any noise, interference, crosstalk, etc. caused by improper cabling. They need proper shielding, twisted pairing, impedance, whatever.

The latest revision of HDMI is spec'ed for 340MHz, which is a higher frequency than gigabit ethernet over cat6. Difference is, cat6 is spec'ed for a 100m run, and HDMI is only spec'ed for a 10m run. Of course, it's possible to go farther, but then you're not officially meeting the HDMI spec.

The only time a digital signal is immune to electrical noise is with fiber, but that brings out a whole host of problems relating to dispersion, and fiber still has a limit for distance and frequency (longer distance = lower frequency).
 
Zap good read. Appreciate the link. It appears the cables that were on sale were 1.4 spec'd and therefore had twisted pair for the ethernet component of the cable. At least this is what I got out of this part of the article you linked.

Specification version 1.4 introduced the new optional "Ethernet and Audio Return Channel." Unlike prior changes to the features and protocols supported by the spec, this change actually requires some alteration to the HDMI cable design. The connectors remain the same, and the pins still map as they did before, but two conductors have been given new additional tasks to perform, and because the bitrate to run through these conductors is rather high, the specification requires that they be run as a 100-ohm twisted pair. Prior cable designs did not run these conductors as a twisted pair, and so the impedance of the pair in a non-Ethernet cable could be almost anything, most likely unsuited for high-speed data.
 
Alot of the dirt cheat cables ARE 1.3 specs that got rebranded to High Speed due to the fact that HDMI Licensing LLC prohibits number designations and are now requiring cables to be designated by bitrate speed. High Speed = 10.2Gbps = sufficient for 3D... There ARE Some true HDMI 1.4 spec cables without Ethernet that are also labeled as High Speed... but it is hard to tell unless you have a quarter million dollar machine to test it... so the only way to know for sure you have an HDMI 1.4 is if you get a High Speed HDMI with Ethernet that also supports Audio Return, but then again there is no devices that supports HDMI with Ethernet so you can't test it anyhow. I have all the necessary devices to test it, but none that can use the Ethernet feature... LOL... funny...

So anyhow only way you know for sure is getting it from a reputable brand sometimes with the proper HDMI designation logos... a true HDMI 1.4 cable uses all 19 pins... I have a friend whom works as an international purchaser for many USA HDMI cable brands ask him to tell factories to use the bare minimum copper and cheapest materials to pass 1080p and they are only using not using the full 19 pins...
 
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Macgyversite said:
I haven't had the performance problems with less expensive cable. I have had construction problems.The only reason I don't like the cheaper cables is the quality they exhibit. Those Monoprice cables and some others (Parts Express cheapies) I have used have had the connector stay in the TV or DVD HDMI port upon unplugging.

Funny. I don't see Just Monoprice being fingered here. You need to learn to read.

Oh by the way. Stop Trolling here. This is a Hot deals forum not a bash whoever you want forum.
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Yes it is the hot deals forum. 2 HDMI cables for $13 is NOT a hot deal.
 
I installed them today. DVR, BD, PC, PS3 all to a Samsung 63" PNC8000. These things ooze quality compared to other cables costing the same or less.

For those that bought these. Good for you. Heck of a deal.
 
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