First failed Monoprice HDMI

Glowrdr

So about a month ago, I had rewired and rearranged my HT system. To save a little ching, I ordered all new MP HDMI cables so I could have some cable management with correct sized cables.

Well, found out today that the 15 footer I put in the wall is bad. Not really an issue, I can just run another. It sucks, because I have a nice Monster 1000 cable, but it's about 3 feet too short.

I've read the cable debates, and I'm familiar with some of the brands. With that being said, I'm looking for a suggestion on replacement HDMI cables. I think I may just start with the 15 footer going from the receiver to the TV, since that's the "main" one that needs to work right.

Should I get an Audioquest? What type (bang for buck here, can't afford $500 HDMI's here). Thinking possibly the Forest or Cinnamon line? Is it worth stepping up or down from there?

How about companies like BJC? I know they are a step up from Monoprice, but are they a safe bet? I'm not sure how much HDMI can be tied in with speaker/interconnects so that's why I'm here asking what I think should be an easy enough answer for someone.

**Edit - forgot to even say why the cable failed. I'm getting "flashes" of color and distortion that goes away as soon as I switch cables. Changing inputs, outputs and components doesn't change it.

disneyjoe7

Some BJC HDMI cable would be really nice, and would work well in the wall.

EndersShadow

Audio quest stuff is good. IMHO I would go with Cinnamon for your source items to your AVR and then go with maybe Forest for AVR to TV to save some on cost. The cables get much more expensive the longer you go

I personally am trying to go all Cinnamon at some point but I also only need 1m for my sources and 2m for my AVR to TV connection.

mantis

EndersShadow wrote: »

Audio quest stuff is good. IMHO I would go with Cinnamon for your source items to your AVR and then go with maybe Forest for AVR to TV to save some on cost. The cables get much more expensive the longer you go

I personally am trying to go all Cinnamon at some point but I also only need 1m for my sources and 2m for my AVR to TV connection.

Agreed ,
I use all Cinnamon Series Audioquest cables in my system. I started with Binary B5 series , then tried out Key Digital Black Bull series , followed by Audioquest Forest and then Cinnamon series. They are in wall rated .

Monster Jam

Buy 2 HDMI cables from Monoprice in case one of them is bad. This course of action is still less expensive than many other brands.

Face

I've had about 4 Monoprice HDMI cables arrive non-working and gave up on them. Since then I've been using BJC HDMI's and haven't had an issue since.

BlueFox

Pangea from Audio Advisor.

Sherardp

BJC are very good cables. I have read about Monoprice HDMI cables not working over longer runs.

pearsall001

Blue Jeans Cables & call it a day.

mantis

Monster Jam wrote: »

Buy 2 HDMI cables from Monoprice in case one of them is bad. This course of action is still less expensive than many other brands.

If your buying cables in bulk due to high failure rate , no matter what the actual cost is , why would you put them in your system? Do they mean that little to you?
Screw that I'd rather spend more , get great quality and enjoy my system instead of re wiring it.
Cheap is cheap , you get exactly what you pay for and in this case you have to roll the dice to see if they are going to work? Not worth the asking price as it's a failed product.

pdxfj

I vote for the BJC cables. I have been waiting for the MP RedMere cables to show up in stock, but doesn't look like that will happen, so I'm just going to pick up the Belden Series 1 and be done with it.

See a lot about failied MP HDMI cables, where I never see anything about a failed BJC cable.

DMara

All of my HDMI 1.4 cables are from monoprice. Right now I'm using two in-wall 25' and six more ranging from 3' to 6', and I have no problem whatsoever.

heiney9

A nice alternative for superbly built HDMI cables are the Media Bridge Ultra series brand Amazon sells. Not expensive at all, more than Mono Price but less than boutique brands. So far both my brother and myself have been using them and they are solid as a rock with build quality.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mediabridge+hdmi+cable&sprefix=media+bridge%2Caps%2C162

H9

mantis

I just gotta know , what is to much for a good quality HDMI cable?

Lets break it down into lengths as this causes price to greatly change.
1) 1m
2) 2m
3) 3m
4) 10m
5) 15m

Whats your price limit and why?

cstmar01

I had a mono price in my HT that was a 25ft run that was from my AVR to projector and it failed after about a week of use.

BJC or Audioquest will get the job done easily.

heiney9

mantis wrote: »

I just gotta know , what is to much for a good quality HDMI cable?

Lets break it down into lengths as this causes price to greatly change.
1) 1m
2) 2m
3) 3m
4) 10m
5) 15m

Whats your price limit and why?

I want something built well and looks nice, in that order. HDMI cables don't need to be boutique cables, IMO.

I have found the cost vs. the durability and performance of the Media Bridge Ultra Series through Amazon to be excellent as well as a great value. No need to spend more, as beyond build/looks, there is little difference between HDMI transmission on a super boutique cable vs. a well built economy cable. I have found brands like Blue Jean to provide great cables for the money in other area's so I'm sure the same holds true here as well.

Don't foget I am a HUGE cable BELIEVER, just not as much in the case of HDMI.

H9

brgman

So you buy a great 50" 3D flat panel,a top notch Pioneer Elite AVR and decide to buy a $3 cable to connect them.
What am i missing here?!?!?!

zingo

I have my from HDMI cables from Amphenol (cablesondemand). A 5m, 16.0 Gbps cable runs $45 which I feel is pretty reasonable since they make industrial grade cables and connectors.

ViperZ

brgman wrote: »

So you buy a great 50" 3D flat panel,a top notch Pioneer Elite AVR and decide to buy a $3 cable to connect them.
What am i missing here?!?!?!

You don't need a several-hundred-dollar DIGITAL cable. As long as the cable is properly built (i.e. good design, workmanship and proper materials), that's all you need, not a fancy-shmancy gold-plated 10-kg-weight super-shielded water hose. I have monoprice cables throughtout my HT (not long ones), I think I'm down to 3 now, and never had problems with them.

EndersShadow

I know your saying that since its just digital which is 1s and 0s there shouldnt be a difference between the cables (I have read all the Cnet articles on it as well as the others), but there actually can be even if they meet the HDMI standards.

You can still have packet-loss (within "acceptable" limits) and potentially jitter even in digital cables. Now I wont say you need to spend 1k on HDMI cables, but I believe some of the more expensive cables can provide performance gains. Keep in mind when I say more expensive I am not talking MIT Shotgun Speaker cable prices, which many of us have no problem admitting make a difference. I am talking like 200 bucks or less for a 2m cable (in this case under 100 for a 2m Cinnamon cable). I also will say that if you have a really long run, and cant afford a high end cable a monoprice one will work and you will be fine. If that was my scenario I would try to move the equipment closer somehow.....

I know many folks will say I am crazy when I say this, however my opinon is based on actual experences. Mantis thread about HDMI cables got me to thinking so I contacted someone I know at a local hi-fi store and did actually go and demo the Audioquest Pearl, Forest, and Cinamon cable on their setup.

We switched just the source cable each time using the same cheap (100 dollar) blu ray player instead of their 1k+ one and I watched the same part of a film each time on their Projector so it was a totally fair test. There was no one in the room but me and the salesman (a aquaintance of mine) didnt say one thing besides telling me which cable we were using.

I personally was able to denote slight differences as we moved up in picture. I wasnt familiar with their audio setup so I didnt try and hear if there were any differences in the actual audio as Mantis mentioned. We then went from a Cinnamon source cable to one of the Vokda ones (quite expensive with dbs) and if there were any differences there I couldnt discern them with the limited time I had.

Keep in mind my specific comments relate to VIDEO only. One can assume if the video quality increase there should also be a corresponding increase in audio quality as well.

aboroth00

I've personally used the inwall rated MP cables with no problems yet... However, a buddy of mine who used their HDMI cables which had the ferrite cores fail on him once or twice and even received one DOA. HDMI, imo, works or it doesn't and BJC makes fine cables which seems to work without failure. MP however, was particularly appealing to me as it's located less than a half hour's drive away and overnight shipping could be had for cheap .

ViperZ

EndersShadow, that's why I said that the cable has to be properly built with proper materials. Cable should *not introduce* any extra noise and have as little losses as possible. It will not improve your picture over what it is supposed to be, but bad quality cable will of course deteriorate the picture. A lot of these losses/noise can/will be compensated using built-in electronics on most receivers/TVs, but of course compensation is not the same as the original. How much people are willing to spend on a properly built cable, that's a totally different story. I am a big fan of Signal Cable and BJC cables because in my opinion they offer very good products for a reasonable price. Same goes for Pangea, but I haven't tried their HDMI cables.

DMara

brgman wrote: »

So you buy a great 50" 3D flat panel,a top notch Pioneer Elite AVR and decide to buy a $3 cable to connect them.
What am i missing here?!?!?!

You can miss whatever you want, but my MP HDMI cables work for me :razz:

Glowrdr

I guess I was under the mistake that MP cables were a decent cable. Granted, they are very cheap - so I splurged and got the thicker ones. lol

That's why I came on here asking for all of your opinions. I've got a ton of Monster, RCA, Rocket Dog and some other randon ones I have aquired over the years. That was part of my problem. I had a 15 foot cable connecting my Oppo to my receiver that was 1 foot away. Figured I'd do some cable management and get all new cables, so I went cheap.

Lesson learned, so I think I'll probably give BJC a try. In case I end up replacing them all - I don't think I could bring myself to purchase 1k in cables at one shot (Which is why I'll probably stay away from AQ for now, unless I learn another lesson sometime down the road)

EndersShadow

Glow the AQ cables are cheap if you don't need over 2m. I can get their chocolate cable for under 200 and that's like their 4th from the bottom.

Personally I need 1m for the sources and 2m for my Tv so it's not really that much IMHO. Either way mono price cables are not some I would buy again myself

acmf74

I personally use the hdmi cables from Parts Express (Dayton). Reasonably priced and great picture/sound. I have had them for a few years no issues.

Beta

-1 for MP HDMI cables here.

I purchased their most expensive model (still super cheap). It was DOA.

I had an electrician at my house and we were installing our HT system when I discovered the MP cable was a dud. I was in a pinch because my electrician was on the clock. Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of time. I had to run out to our local Best Buy/Magnolia AV store. I picked up a AQ Cinnamon cable for in wall between our AVR and our TV. I picked up a pair of AQ Chocolate cables to run between our Blu-Ray player and our AVR and between our cable box and our AVR.

I am very happy with these AQ HDMI cables. Great build quality and no issues.

mantis

HDMI cables should be of high quality and not cheap steal or low quality copper. They are just as Important as anything else in your system.
I'm not saying go out and buy hundreds of dollar cables , I feel in HDMI once you achieve the goal correctly , your done. I have proven that many times over the years.
What I am saying is buy quality cables. Audioquest makes very affordable cables in HDMI starting at the pearl level and at short runs even in higher end system , this level of cable is perfect.
For a 1m cable length , it's not unreasonable to spend up to $49.99 for a high quality cable that will last. You can get into a quality cable for 29.99 which to me is a fantastic price and I'd pay that all day long.
If you do however decide to buy cables costing more like $100.00 and up for a 1m length , I'll question that as I personally never seen any benefits other then looking pretty. Once you achieve the goal , you can't improve on it. This is true not just for HDMI but for all cables in ones system.
Yes over the years many of us have probably over spent on cables hoping they would bring some magic to our systems. Yes some made some nice improvements over what was there before. But I have learned that once you achieve the goal , nothing more needs to be done.
Buying cables from a company that fail? Eff that. In my years in this business , one place where failure doesn't happen is in wiring. You can always count of the cables working and not causing problems in ones system. If you do have cables that fail , that means poor termination and thats exactly what you want to avoid.

pdxfj

I think the major issue with the MP cables is how the connectors are assembled. They likely can't take the stress of being pulled around, then if you get it in the wall and everything is fine the next time you disturb it, they fail. At least that's the pattern I've noticed with people who've experienced failures.

If you're going to use a heavier gauge HDMI cable, they are not very flexible and quite heavy. This can put stress on the cable connectors and the connector on what you're plugging into. Best to get a couple of port savers. They are not a lot of money and given they are usually 8-12 inches long which gives you have some room to work with.

F1nut

brgman wrote: »

So you buy a great 50" 3D flat panel,a top notch Pioneer Elite AVR and decide to buy a $3 cable to connect them.
What am i missing here?!?!?!

This!

ViperZ

pdxfj wrote: »

If you're going to use a heavier gauge HDMI cable, they are not very flexible and quite heavy. This can put stress on the cable connectors and the connector on what you're plugging into. Best to get a couple of port savers. They are not a lot of money and given they are usually 8-12 inches long which gives you have some room to work with.

I agree with this statement for sure. HDMI port construction is crappy to begin with. Thick MP HDMI cables are very heavy and put a lot of stress onto the connectors (including your TV and receiver connectors!). Main reason why I went their thinner (26 AWG? vs 22 AWG if I remember correctly) cables. I didn't need long cables and was very concerned with the amount of stress onto the connector on the back of my TV.