This HDMI cable is driving me crazy

[T_O_S_K]

I have a 3-4 year old Sony HD TV and an ATI video card in my PC. I have a 25’ HDMI cable that ran from the PC to TV that worked great. We needed to move the TV a few feet farther, which required a slightly longer cable.

I purchased a 35’ ver 1.4 cable on eBay that does not work. I get an “invalid format” message on the TV. The cable works fine on a recently purchased 19” Insignia HD TV.

So I purchased a 35’ ver 1.3b cable on eBay that does not work. I get an “invalid format” message on the TV. The cable works fine on the Insignia.

The old cable still works fine but can’t remain stretched across the room. When I plug in the old cable I get 16:9 1080p HD displayed on the TV for a few seconds.

How do I figure out what cable I need?

 

[A5]

Basically, your run is too long to do 1080p over cheap cables. You need to either find ways to shorten the run (moving the computer) or start looking into more expensive active cables like these: http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1025503&p_id=9431&seq=1&format=2

If you're willing to back down to 720p, your cheap cables will work fine.

The internet has done a good job of banging on and on about how for 99% of situations cheap cable is just fine, but you're running into the 1% of situations where cable quality really matters.

 

[gus6464]

Redmere cable is what you need

 

[queequeg99]

Redmere cable is what you need

Agreed. I was also having troubles with a longer run cable. I was using Monoprice's thickest gauge. In my case, every once in awhile the picture would freeze while the sound would continue. If I unplugged and replugged the cable, everything would fix itself for a little while before randomly freezing up again. With a redmere cable, I haven't had any troubles since.

 

[Number1]

I use a 25 ft HDMI cable to hook up my monitor to my PC and it works most of the time but it does have some handshake issues once in a while. SOmetime when the PC comes out of sleep I have to turn the monitor off and on before I get a picture. I think Ill order a 30 ft redmere cable, hopefully this solves the issue.
I already use 2 shorter redmere 1.4 cables and they work very well including the back audio feature. Very nice.

 

[queequeg99]

One thing about the redmere cables that was probably obvious to everyone but me: they are unidirectional. Of course, this makes perfect sense given that they are active cables. But man, talk about the words that can come out of one's mouth when they think they've received a $70 cable that doesn't work. I had my "duh" moment while holding the cable in complete exasperation when I noticed that the cable ends were slightly different (and upon closer examination, saw that one had "source" stenciled on it while the other had "display").

I think this is described somewhere on the monoprice website. But seriously, when was the last time you read the manual for a f*cking cable?

 

[purbeast0]

One thing about the redmere cables that was probably obvious to everyone but me: they are unidirectional. Of course, this makes perfect sense given that they are active cables. But man, talk about the words that can come out of one's mouth when they think they've received a $70 cable that doesn't work. I had my "duh" moment while holding the cable in complete exasperation when I noticed that the cable ends were slightly different (and upon closer examination, saw that one had "source" stenciled on it while the other had "display").

I think this is described somewhere on the monoprice website. But seriously, when was the last time you read the manual for a f*cking cable?

i've had a lot of hdmi cables before from different places, including monoprice, and i've never seen a directional cable.

i just ran my hdmi cable (ran a spare one staying behind the wall too) from my projector through the ceiling to a closet, which required cutting holes in the drywall, and i would be PISSED if i found out after the fact that the cables were directional lol.

i used the cable for a while before i ran it in the wall, but didn't remember what end was on the projector side!

 

[Aikouka]

I felt like a bit of a dummy with the RedMere-based cables that I bought from NewEgg. I was a bit surprised that I wasn't getting any video for my HTPC or 360, but I was on my PS3. Well, turns out that I didn't plug in the cables all the way! I don't think I've ever done that with a HDMI cable before. :$

Also, out of five RedMere cables, I plugged in four of them correctly (one is bi-directional though). For some reason, I completely ignored the source-destination setup for my 3D converter's output HDMI plug!

Although, now I'm trying to determine whether my random "You aren't HDCP-compliant" error in WMC is related to these cables or not!

 

[queequeg99]

i've had a lot of hdmi cables before from different places, including monoprice, and i've never seen a directional cable.

What's even more messed up is that in an attempt to trouble shoot, I used the cable in four separate installations on three different systems - and apparently managed to replicate my error all four times because it failed to pass any signal in all of my attempts. When I got the directional thing down, everything worked perfectly.

 

[Crow550]

With regular HDMI cable after x amount of feet some say after 25ft with some hardware as it all varies may need to use a Equalizer (amplifier) to boost the signal. If you do a search at Monoprice for "Equalizer":http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=Equalizer you will see a few solutions. Otherwise for RedMere you shouldn't need a signal booster then again it may not hurt either.

Usually with RedMere you're good to go. With regular HDMI it depends on your setup otherwise you may need something with an Equalizer. 😉

In your case just get a RedMere cable and save 20% with this coupon: INCENTIVE

You will need to subscribe to there Newsletter first. More info in my Hot Deals thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2295445 (Grab some other goodies too as you can only use that coupon once. Some items are already 25% off so with this coupon makes them 45%. Check out the thread.)

30ft Ultra Slim Series RedMere for $36.92 (after 20% off) http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10255&cs_id=1025503&p_id=9430&seq=1&format=2

40ft Ultra Slim Series RedMere for $50.15 (after 20% off) http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10255&cs_id=1025503&p_id=9431&seq=1&format=2

 

[Garry Frost]

Also you may try to use some amplifier, you may even use through Cat5|CAT6 cable, well, it depends of your budget 🙂
A lot of vendors you can find, for example I found some for "amplifiers" search here:
https://hdwise.com/home.php?cat=16

And yes, you may use equalizer, or extender, as usual, vendors combine both of them, and give them they own names (ex. Hall Research with "open eye" technology- you may use HDMI cable up to 60 ft).

 

[Crow550]

Also you may try to use some amplifier, you may even use through Cat5|CAT6 cable, well, it depends of your budget 🙂
A lot of vendors you can find, for example I found some for "amplifiers" search here:
https://hdwise.com/home.php?cat=16

And yes, you may use equalizer, or extender, as usual, vendors combine both of them, and give them they own names (ex. Hall Research with "open eye" technology- you may use HDMI cable up to 60 ft).

Powered HDMI switches with an Equalizer do amplify the signal. The OPs best bet would be an HDMI cable with RedMere technology as for most if not all setups do not require any amplifier for the signal with RedMere cables.

 

[imagoon]

I have multiple 100ft Monoprice cables with a monoprice $5 balancer and run display TV's at 1080p. I have no hate for "redmere" specially just that I had active cables decide to die at one point and spent more on the labor to pull new cables (replaced them with monoprice 100footers -> eq -> 3foot cable to the TV) than the "HQ active cables" cost.

 

[ericlp]

Hmmm I am building a new computer and it's going to be about 15-18' away from my 47" TV ... Not only do I want to run some movies @ 1080 but games as well. Do you guys think this cable is good enough or should I be looking for something else?

http://www.amazon.com/Mediabridge-Hi...owViewpoints=0

Hate to derail a thread but it got me thinking... if not can someone point me to a better cable?

Thanks!

 

[A5]

You don't need one with ethernet built-in, at least. As far as I know, no TVs use it for anything. If they have a cheaper one without it, get that instead.

I'm kinda sad that Monoprice stopped selling longer High Speed cables to push the RedMere stuff, though.

 

[purbeast0]

Hmmm I am building a new computer and it's going to be about 15-18' away from my 47" TV ... Not only do I want to run some movies @ 1080 but games as well. Do you guys think this cable is good enough or should I be looking for something else?

http://www.amazon.com/Mediabridge-Hi...owViewpoints=0

Hate to derail a thread but it got me thinking... if not can someone point me to a better cable?

Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/BlueRigger-Hig...qid=1358882565

i have 2 of those and haven't had any issues.

 

[Crow550]

You don't need one with ethernet built-in, at least. As far as I know, no TVs use it for anything. If they have a cheaper one without it, get that instead.

I'm kinda sad that Monoprice stopped selling longer High Speed cables to push the RedMere stuff, though.

What are you talking about? They still sell up to 131ft HDMI cable! I have noticed they seem to mislabel a lot of the cables. Usually if you click on the pictures you will see written on the cable high speed even though it's listed as a standard speed.

Check here: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240 and here: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10250

The organization of there website has became a little sloppy but with a little digging it's not that difficult to find this.