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Sometimes "Just a Guy" is an idiot. I bought two four meter HDMI cables and a six meter HDMI cable - all 400 series.
The signal is digital. These are really silly.
I spent a bunch of money on my home theater system and bought into the hype about Monster cables. Any cable meeting the HDMI spec will do the same thing.
This is not an analog signal that needs to be handled carefully. I should have saved my money and just purchased the cheap versions.
Learn from my mistake.
They make 8-footer HDMI cable for $7 elsewhere by the tons. Don't waste your money and fall for Monster's trick, paying $75.
In the near future (3-5 years), I anticipate many more stations to broadcast in 1080p. I am required to recommend them to customers when the customer is making a television purchase, Monster brand specifically. Currently, VERY few do. Yes, the store makes a profit from the cables, yes, you are getting what you pay for at the higher prices, yes, you will get what you pay for at the lower price. Other brands will not hold up as long as these cables because they are a high quality product, plus, Monster offers the Lifetime Guarentee. But they are not the same, not on the inside. If it's in your living room and your house is not in a high-humidity area, the gold-coating might not be necessary.
I am also required by my store to take a considerable amount of training from all manufacturers regarding the products they sell and there are differences between the Monster brand and others. I would too at face value, they looked the same. The silver conductors WILL prevent interference from outside signals, whether any of those signals are present in your location is difficult to establish. Don't care if the cables will be shot after 2-3 years of usage.
I work in an electronics store that sells these cables. The nitrogen (N2) gas-injected dielectric preserves the longevity of the cable over longer runs (+16 ft). but you will not notice this at first between the other brands and the Monster brand, this is something that will occur over time. Regarding the quality of picture, yes, 1's and 0's are 1's and 0's but most other brands are NOT capable of presenting Blu-Ray, PS3 (which is a Blu-Ray player basically), and the very few stations that broadcast in 1080p. Gold is a better conductor than aluminum, tin, etc. No PS3. Many people become upset when they see a similar cable (different brand) for a lot less money. To summarize, yes, it's a waste to buy these UNLESS you have a Blu-Ray player and a TV capable of 1080p, a Playstation 3, or just want to be ahead of the game on TV for the next 3-5 years.
The gold coating WILL indeed protect your cables from corroding in a high-humidity enviroment (finished basements, schools with lower levels, etc). but I have personally never been able to observe the signal transfer degrade from using one with a different metal. No Blu-Ray. Then save your money.
I got this while the price was lower than what it is now. One minor problem I have is that the cable is somewhat hard. I had a Philips HDMI 1.3a cable hooked up from a Blu-ray player but noticed that the contrast was off (too high) and minor artifacts around objects were visible on some of my BDs and upscaled DVD movies.
The Blu-ray video and audio playback quality on my 720p LCD display is very good. After watching the same movies at 720p using the Monster I noticed the color was slightly less vibrant than the Philips but the contrast and overall picture was more balanced with the Monster. It's a bit high but it's both audio and video in one so it's about the same as you might pay for good separate component video and digital audio cables.
The color with the Philips on good quality Blu-ray and DVD movies was very nice but on others the contrast just seemed off. DVD upscaling to 720p resolution is good as well. Not as good as the quality I see from BD but still good.
So I settled on using the Monster instead. It's a little difficult when trying to place it exactly where you want it.
And, if it does, do we REALLY care that a cable supporting a standard that may be obsolete in 5 years COULD last for 100 years.By the way, I do not challenge the claim of high quality for this cable. cables the less expensive brands loses 'bits' to the degree that the receiving device can't correct for the loss while the expensive brand does not, this is nothing but FUD.NOTE 2: All of the above applies to the 2-meter cable. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with [.]., but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment [.].". If your electronic component had an HDMI port that called for an HDMI cable that exceeded the HDMI published standards, then it would no longer be called an HDMI port but a proprietary, non-standard solution.The following are the HDMI 1.3 specs and ALL certified HDMI 1.3 cables (including the five-dollar wires and the Monster) are going to support them. As such, it either works or it doesn't and, when it doesn't work, you will know immediately. The way most of us use cables is: we plug them at the back of our electronic boxes and, if they work on 'day one' they are likely to work in the exact same fashion on day 1000 because they are not going to be subjected to any physical or thermal stress and the materials used to build them are not easily degradable. While 'quality' was important for analog cables where good quality made all the difference in the world, the digital wires either transmit the digits or they don't.
Raymond: "The idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe [.]. FUD - Fear, uncertainty, doubt.According to Wikipedia, "the term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry and has since been used more broadly. If they did, they'd violate the specs and would not sell very well. cables, you are NOT going to get a 'better' picture just because you pay 100 times more for a wire.Unless the vendor comes up with some unbiased tests showing that, on 6 ft. If some cable exceeds the specified throughput, it's nice but it's irrelevant because no electronic component that's HDMI compliant would attempt to push more bytes through the wire than the standard specifies. Whatever 'extra' the M Series offers is useless because no HDMI-connected hardware component is going to ask for more.Maximum signal bandwidth (MHz)340 Maximum TMDS bandwidth (Gbit/s)10.2 Maximum video bandwidth (Gbit/s) 8.16 Maximum audio bandwidth (Mbit/s) 36.86 Maximum Color Depth (bit/px)48 Maximum resolution over single link at 24-bit/px 2560×1600p75 Maximum resolution over single link at 30-bit/px 2560×1600p60 Maximum resolution over single link at 36-bit/px 1920x1200p75 Maximum resolution over single link at 48-bit/px 1920×1200p60 sRGBYCbCr8 channel LPCM/192 kHz/24-bit audio capabilityBlu-ray Disc video and audio at full resolutionConsumer Electronic Control (CEC)DVD-Audio supportSuper Audio CD (DSD) supportDeep ColorxvYCCAuto lip-syncDolby TrueHD bitstream capableDTS-HD Master Audio bitstream capableUpdated list of CEC commands (only on HDMI 1.3a,b,c)My suggestion: search Amazon for "hdmi cable 1.3" and make an informed price/quality decision before you buy._____________________________________NOTE 1: I noticed a typical FUD statement that has been posted on this page in the form of a video. There's really nothing in-between. However, it is quality not needed and, in my view, not worth paying for.
If a claim is made that the Monster is 'more reliable' or that it 'lasts longer', I can't see how such claim can be backed - does the hundred-dollar cable last 20 times longer than than the five-dollar cable. gear rather than with competitors' equipment. HDMI cable or a one mile-long cable. The key word in his presentation is that 'IF YOU HAVE A REALLY LONG CABLE' then you may get into trouble. The presenter suggests that all signals, including 'digital' get degraded when passing through a wire because of the 'laws of physics'.
It appears to be well built. The claims that seem to suggest that these expensive wires allow more Gigabytes of data to pass through and the implied suggestion that you would get a less bright image or a less crisp sound if you used a two-dollar cable are NOT true. The HDMI is a published standard and there is a minimum data throughput that must be supported. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear."Still Wikipedia, quoting Eric S. You can't have a 100 ft.
This is true. Eventually, unless your signal, digital or analog, is boosted in some way, it's going to die and you won't be able to decode it at the other end.However, this is NOT the point. This HDMI cable is NOT 'really long'. or on 8 ft.
HDMI is all-digital for both sound and picture. or 8 ft. If they do, they all work the same, the $1 HDMI cable gives you the exact same 'performance' the $100, gold-plated cable does. If it is, then the device is HDMI compliant and you will get everything that HDMI promises to deliver.
In fact, it is REALLY SHORT and, no matter how much FUD is inserted into the discussion, on 6 ft. When ordering the 4-meter and especially the 6-meter lengths, I would make sure that the cable is certified as "HDMI Category 2" or "High-Speed" FOR THAT SPECIFIC LENGTH.
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