Lone_Canis_Lupus said:
jkimball said:
akuma587 said:
HDMI cables are all more or less the same. Not even a trained professional will notice the difference between a $100 Monster cable and a $5 off brand cable (as long as the cables are both HDMI 1.3, but that only makes a difference in audio and other features that have yet to be implemented). It is a DIGITAL cable. 1's and 0's look the same no matter how you send them. You needed to worry about which component cables you bought because they were ANALOG and could be very different. A higher brand cable might last a little longer, but it would have to last 20 times as long for that cost difference to take effect, which it never will.
You don't need to go buy a Monster Cable. You are wasting your time and money that way. But believe me, people who spent $100 on a cable will try to convince you and themselves that it is better. |
This has to be the most popular internet myth ever! I hear over and over and it is quite funny to a (former) electonrics engineer like myself. I wonder how this rumour even started. Digital signals are still sent as waves - just like analog signals. In fact they are sent as square waves which is HARDER do to than an analog wave. Because the digital timing is critical theyare MORE likely to suffer degradation/signal problems. If an analog signal is distorted you get a crappy picture. if a digital signal is distorted your options range from dropped pixels - pixelation- nothing. Now because digital signals are so fragile, a lot of error correcting data is sent with the digital stream so digital *connections* rarely fail. That reliability has nothing to do with the cable - a crappy cable will generate so many erros that even the error corection can't cope and the signal will be lost. There was never a big difference between $100 Monster VGA cables and $5 VGA cables. There isn't a big difference between $100 HDMI cables and $5 HDMI cables. But a bad cable - of any type - will cause just as many problems in digial as it does in analog. I recommend the OP hook up the cable to wave generator, run it into an oscilloscope and see how the shape is. Sounds like a grounding problem - perhaps a worn inner shell? |
Though with HDMI, if there is any slight problems in transfer at all, doesn't it just not get through? I thought that's how it was with HDMI...it's either it works with perfect quality or it doesn't work at all? |
HDMI has another complicating factor - HDCP. HDCP is the Content Protection anti-piracy scheme applied to HDMI connections. It requires an encrypted connection between devices - in theory to prevent unauthorized copying. In reality if HDCP 'handshake' isn't made or fails the signal is cut off. So HDMI connections are *very* sensitive to bad data and yes, with HD material tends to be an on or off situation.
DVI, which is basically HDMI without the HDCP is also digital and it can have drop offs, pixelation, color shifts etc when bits go missing.
Whether a display shows bad data or just cuts the whole signal is up to the manufacturer. Sony XBR TV's will show just about anything no matter how poor the signal - they have enough processing power to figure out _something_ to display. Cheaper LCD's just give up and go blank at the first sign of trouble.
