HDMI cable test...

digitalvideo

Here's a interesting read, they test HDMI cables at 50 feet in length and above...

All HDMI Cables are the Same! Or are they? ? Full Test

March 30th, 2011:
http://hdguru.com/all-hdmi-cables-are-the-same-or-are-they-full-test/4373/

the black widow

interesting

jinjuku

I don't think it is a re-hash. I think it's a real conversation about 75 and 100 foot runs. The point is to look something like an Extron CAT 5 extender.

I get a kick out of going out on a job and seeing the converter box at each end and thinking: Why didn't they just use CAT 5 and packetize the entire protocol?

We get both Lantronix Xport and Digi Connect ME embedded ethernet solutions for ~$22. I could only imagine what a big manufacturer could get them for in bulk

jinjuku

Keiko wrote: »

The HDMI subject has been discussed more times than I care to remember. The topic is redundant.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1353949&highlight=hdmi+cable+runs#post1353949

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105628&highlight=hdmi+cable+runs

I believe that is the nature of forums.... It will be talked about today and a year from now another new thread much like this one will pop up, and the year after and ....

You don't have to post.

thuffman03

I would say go with what ever IEEE says the max length should be.

headrott

I say go with whatever works and looks best to your eyes (and ears).

Greg

disneyjoe7

Funny a cable that I feel maybe best, isn't tested. BlueJean Cable HDMI

pacificoastbear

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Funny a cable that I feel maybe best, isn't tested. BlueJean Cable HDMI

I couldn't agree more. The Belden Series 1 HDMI cable is an absolute beast.

zingo

headrott wrote: »

I say go with whatever works and looks best to your eyes (and ears).

Greg

Agreed. If it works for you great, if not, try something else. I've never felt the need to bash people who buy cheap products or expensive products. Whatever people want to spent their money on is great as long as it makes them happy.

Thatch

Keiko wrote: »

The HDMI subject has been discussed more times than I care to remember. The topic is redundant.

I just joined this forum and am just starting to get gear that has HDMI ports in them and really know nothing about other than it is another way to use cables.
Now I just looked at the search engine in this place and it is better than most forums, but typically you type in a word and get 200 pages of results you have to wade through. As a FNGuy I hope I don't catch a butt full of shrapnel when I ask about something that was talked about 6 months before I joined.

I will make a point of using the search engine before asking questions but anything that goes into usable lengths of any kind of cable is a good thread, and I want to know whether it was gone over before I got here or during a time when I am not online for a couple of weeks and a few hundred threads have happened.
It is not out of line to be nice and give some addresses to help someone, but quit whining. I want to find this stuff out.
The rest of you guys, the answers are great. I am glad to know there are pros to ask questions about specific things and not having to rely on a search engine that looks for word combinations but can't think.

Thatch

Thatch

I was thinking about wiring my small house by running cable under the floor since I live on pier and beam. Do any of you pro installers think it would be a good idea to hang conduit from where the gear is to where I want the cable to imerge so that it will make it easier to snake new cable through there in the future? Also I have some real old 6 strand copper with 6 color insulation under the outer brown covering and I imagine it was made for inside runs for telephones or something. I am betting it is close to 40 years old, the spool is all beat up and the label is worn off except at the edge. It certainly was not something sold to consumers unless they were HAMs. I guess it is an old version of CAT-5, the copper could be more like the old cable used by telephone companies but it is newer than the old stuff WE made that had celonese insulation that I have found on spools and was even used in 500 strand cables.
Back to the question, for a run of only about 25 feet should I run signal and hook up amps or should I run speaker cables and hook up the speakers for the surrounds while giving myself a port into another room at the same time. Other than measuring the resistance in the over 500' I have of this old stuff is there any easy way to test it?
How many strands are there in HDMI cables? Is anybody making their own from high quality single crystal OFC. I have about 5 lbs of that and it makes great ICs But I think trying to braid 16 strands for speaker cable would drive me nuts. Litz creates some capcitance and you can't use it for everything, but if you use tube amps you can use it for cables if it doesn't drive you crazy to braid it. Using colored spaghetti works fine although anything over 10' is a real pain.
CAT-5 is just twisted if I remember and works different than braid. How far can you run that without something to boost the signal, and do you use a different run for each signal or just use one wire per channel side and run say a stereo right and left with a wire doing nothing inside a single length of CAT-5?

Thatch

mantis

The long and skinny about HDMI,

Quality cables perform and cheap ones do not. Bottom line is buy good quality cables and you will not have issues.
Ok so lets dive just a bit into what I'm trying to say here. Your HDMI cable has a job to do, that is to pass the entire Digital signal from point A to point B without losing anything. If this happens , a even higher quality cable will make absolutely no difference at all. Now if you have a HDMI cable of lesser quality , then sparkles or no picture is the result. There is no soft or sharper picture quality , there is no better audio quality , it works correctly or not.
Balun's- these are something us Professionals use on a daily basis for custom jobs. Most of the time the gear does not live inside the given room or rooms. Most of the time I'm building multible racks with Matrix HDMI switches running HDMI all over 10K square foot homes. Now 15 or even 20m HDMI cables just are not long enough to make the trip. So either Cat5e/6 dual run will be used in between these cool devices that work sometimes and others not. Again this goes back to quality. When we try to use lower quality products for HDMI , they fail. Better quality and best quality baluns are designed for RGBHV cabling instead of cat5/6.
Our company has moved away from all other brands due to failure. We have locked in on Audioquest as there HDMI track record as so far been 100%. All of their cables work and work well. But I see no need to use their highest end cables. I have found for most jobs the Pearl and Forest level cables work excellent. Not expensive and they work.

Remember people this is not Analog signals we are sending , they are digital of high bandwidth. Please do yourself a favor and just make sure you use Certified quality HDMI cables and you will never have any issues. No need to buy the cool looking ones or the highest end your wallet can afford , you will not benefit from such cables.

digitalvideo

mantis wrote: »

The long and skinny about HDMI,

Quality cables perform and cheap ones do not. Bottom line is buy good quality cables and you will not have issues.

Would you consider Monoprice good or cheap in terms of performance? Most members over at www.blu-ray.com and www.avsforum.com and some here highly recomment Monoprice for great results, the link I posted tests Monoprice with good results. I would say all HDMI cables 50 feet in length and under perform the same.

With regards to any problems with Monoprice, well I would say they are the most well known, sell the most, used and abused because of their price so the chances and odds of having any malfunctions will increase, where as most people don't spend $100+ for 5 foot long Audioquest cables to get a good gauge on reliability.

cstmar01

hmm I do have to say something. This past weekend I had a run in with a mono price inwall rated HDMI to DVI cable. Well its a 35ft cable and found out that after awhile it started to have flickering happening and then just wouldn't pass the signal. Nothing has ever happened to it besides being unplugged about a week ago when I got my new pj and then plugged back in. I switched to a new HDMI cable and now works just fine.

It had issues of flaking as well before it went all the way out and wouldn't pass anything. This was one of their top inwall rated ones that I bought. Now it just sits there.

digitalvideo

CNET has a new article on HDMI cables:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20056502-1.html?tag=cnetRiver

Beta

I recently installed a new HT system in my home. I had the LCi in-wall series installed, a new Samsung Plasma and a new AVR.

I used Monoprice 12AWG CL2 rated speaker wire and I am very pleased with the results. However, the Monoprice HDMI cable I ordered arrived dead. I was in a pinch with my electrician on the clock, so I had to run out to BB and purchase 3 Audioquest HDMI cables. No doubt I overpaid. However, I couldn't be happier with the Audioquest HDMIs. Just my experience FWIW.

ROHfan

Keiko wrote: »

The HDMI subject has been discussed more times than I care to remember. The topic is redundant.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1353949&highlight=hdmi+cable+runs#post1353949

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105628&highlight=hdmi+cable+runs

So are posts stating as such.

GoBigBlue

I personally can tell the difference in some budget vs. quality HDMI cables. A Blu-Ray player I had came with a free one and it made everything looked really bright and washed out. That's about the extent of my HDMI knowledge.

txcoastal1

I would have to totally agree with Mantis...for you Texas Polkies when I push my security camera video to the 50" plasmas in a 40-60K sq foot store like Buc-ees I have been through the ringer with low-end extenders. We use Gefen with dual cat-6 and when I display menu boards we use commercial HDMI upscalers and converters....cheap does not work....when we do the new store in New Braunfels on the I-35 cooridor pushing 2 to 5 megapixel feeds to 8-50" plasmas we are getting real high dollar....u get what u pay for

If you are content so be it ...but quality and stability is where the money is

digitalvideo

txcoastal1 wrote: »

I would have to totally agree with Mantis...for you Texas Polkies when I push my security camera video to the 50" plasmas in a 40-60K sq foot store like Buc-ees I have been through the ringer with low-end extenders. We use Gefen with dual cat-6 and when I display menu boards we use commercial HDMI upscalers and converters....cheap does not work....when we do the new store in New Braunfels on the I-35 cooridor pushing 2 to 5 megapixel feeds to 8-50" plasmas we are getting real high dollar....u get what u pay for

If you are content so be it ...but quality and stability is where the money is

Are you refering to the extenders or the actual HDMI cable? There are lots of companies out there that make extenders.