[vlad335]

I bought a pair of Monoprice premium 1.3 6' HDMI cables that I threw in the cart at the last minute while buying some interconnects and speaker wire a month or so ago. Recently upgraded my system with an Emotiva amp and Monitor Audio speakers all around and wanted to upgrade the hodgepodge speaker wire and get some decent RCA's to the amp.


Yesterday I ran across the MP HDMI's and decided to give them a try. I turned off my system and installed one from my HD cable box to the receiver and another from my receiver to the TV. Nice thick heavy duty looking cable. Turned on everything and immediately noted a degradation in HD picture quality. Everything was a tad blurry and the face tones had a yellow hue to them. On screen graphics were not as sharp or vivid. Not a huge difference but quite noticable none the less. The result was reproduceable as well by switching the cables back and forth and the wife was able to easily see the difference.


The two other cables are 1.3 and are also 6' long. One is a Vizio I bought at walmart that was placed between the tV and receiver and the other I picked up somewhere and have no idea of the brand. (I believe I got it on Amazon and it is called a Northbridge or something)


Later in switching these cables back and forth I also noted a improvement in the sound quality. SQ was more defined and had more dynamics with the non-monoprice cables.


I have always been happy with monoprice's cables and purchased a ton of stuff from them in the past but I don't understand. Isnt this supposed to be about transmitting ones and zeros? I have always been told that the brand and price of HDMI cables do not matter in short runs. Well in my experience this is not true. Unless there is something wrong with one or both of my Monoprice HDMI's there is a difference.


Believe me when I say I am not happy with this discovery. I previously took HDMI cables for granted and just bought them to length and 1.3 certification. Now I have to rethink all this and I am not liking it one bit.

 

[cavu]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vlad335 /forum/post/18225676


Everything was a tad blurry and the face tones had a yellow hue to them. On screen graphics were not as sharp or vivid.

HDMI cables CANNOT produce such problems.


HDMI cables either work or they don't or they can produce "sparkles".


But they will not cause what you say they are doing.

 

[KurtBJC]

cavu's right. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't see something; sometimes odd things happen when people are doing cable-swap comparisons. Devices get unplugged from one another, new handshakes happen, default resolutions may wind up getting reset...who knows? But the failure modes for HDMI cable are pretty much, in order from least to greatest:


(1) "sparklies" -- pixel dropouts;

(2) long horizontal "line" dropouts;

(3) sync cuts in and out, causing the picture to flash or jump;

(4) no picture.


Blurring just can't happen. To blur, you've got to take the image and reprocess it. To blur a pixel into an adjacent line, for example, you've got to identify the pixel to be blurred, find the corresponding neighboring pixels (which, for adjacent lines, are not next to the original pixel in the scan sequence), and mix the colors from the original pixel into the colors for the neighbors. This requires reencoding the color--it's just not the kind of thing that a passive article of wire and plastic can do.


Kurt
Blue Jeans Cable

 

[mwnold]

I have to agree with the OP. I went to the boards tonight to research HDMI cables because I had the exact same issue with the same cable from monoprice. Guys, I was in the camp that all cables are created equal, but even my "blind" wife could see a difference. My monoprice cable behaved exactly as the OP's.

 

[AV Doogie]

you should spend some more time with the cables and your television or reciever settings and connections. What would be even worse, is if you are making the mistake of plugging the HDMI cables into a different port on the television with different video settings?

 

[mwnold]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AV Doogie /forum/post/18268235


you should spend some more time with the cables and your television or reciever settings and connections. What would be even worse, is if you are making the mistake of plugging the HDMI cables into a different port on the television with different video settings?

I am going back again and take another look. But, I was using the same input. I just switched cables on my Pio BDP 320 to the 111FD. Like I said, there was a noticeable difference. The monoprice cable is a 3 ft cable, the other no-name cable is a 6 ft cable. The picture on the monoprice was noticeably(to a discerning eye) less bright, dull, and a loss of clarity.


Believe me, I have no dog in this fight. I have nothing against monoprice. This just means I have to go spend more money on a cable.

 

[KurtBJC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mwnold /forum/post/18268290


I have nothing against monoprice. This just means I have to go spend more money on a cable.

Well, you're always welcome to pay us a visit...only bonded-pair HDMI cable in the world, and all that...

Kurt
HDMI Cable at Blue Jeans Cable

 

[cavu]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mwnold /forum/post/18268080


I was in the camp that all cables are created equal, but even my "blind" wife could see a difference. My monoprice cable behaved exactly as the OP's.

Well you can ignore the comments of us plebes but even Kurt, the owner of Blue Jeans Cables (a manufacturer of a line of popular HDMI cables and a competitor of Monoprice), agrees that an HDMI cable cannot do what you claim it is doing !

 

[mwnold]

Today I compared the two HDMI cables again. I paused scenes and went back and forth between the cables. I saw no noticeable difference in the picture quality. Mark it up to a placebo effect.


I apologize for stirring up this debate. I will be more careful before making such public judgments again.

 

[schroedk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mwnold /forum/post/18273882


Today I compared the two HDMI cables again. I paused scenes and went back and forth between the cables. I saw no noticeable difference in the picture quality. Mark it up to a placebo effect.


I apologize for stirring up this debate. I will be more careful before making such public judgments again.

We all appreciate your honesty, especially coming back here to report this. So many convince themselves that different HDMI cables do things that are, from a physics standpoint, impossible, and will stubbornly maintain that they see a difference.


I've seen these threads pop up from time to time here, moreso 3 or 4 years ago, but they still occur. They're very entertaining.

 

[gbaby]

I normally purchase my cables from either Blue Jeans or Bettercables. But, I recently purchase a Sony xbr8 television, went to taget and purchased 6' HDMI cables by GE for $25.00, and they seem to work fine to me. They worked so good I purchased another pair. If something is wrong with my picture or sound, I cannot see or hear it.

 

[Colm]

Not surprising at all. Short cables from most manufacturers work just fine for the kind of use most of us put them to today. Don't know if that will continue to be the case as we push the capabilities with high resolution, high frame rates, and deep color in the future.


FWIW a cable from monoprice would probably work as well and be cheaper. Names like GE, RCA, etc. mean nothing today in HT because the trademarks have been licensed to other manufacturers. But the price you paid is probably worth the convenience and a lot better than paying the outrageous prices some other manufacturers' cable typically go for.