MONSTER HDMI CABLES... Are they really as good as they say? Opinions please..

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › MONSTER HDMI CABLES... Are they really as good as they say? Opinions please..

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#323838 27-Apr-2010 19:28

So some guy and his mate are going to to do some test with some Sony tv and then decree to Geekzone that Monster cable is super awesome.

The pros have already done this exercise (see all the links in this thread) and the answer is monster does 10101010 while cheap cales do 10101010 just the same.

cgrew you're wrong, you are dreaming up what you have seen, a coathanger is as awesome as some monster cable.

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craig453

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#323849 27-Apr-2010 19:51

hi everybody, i'm not up with all the tech stuff but just wanted to give you my opinion. i had one of these 1.5 monster cables the guy at the shop sold me for $300 twoish years ago when i brought my tv. i just recently brought a home threater reciever and needed two longer cables so i brought two 5m cables for $80 each from dse which i run my ps3 on at a total of 10m and there's no difference. infact mw2 looks even better cause i changed the lounge around to suit and now sit 1m back from previously. this is on a 50inch 1080p for reference.
cheers.

craig453

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#323851 27-Apr-2010 19:53

so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

johnr

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#323864 27-Apr-2010 20:37

craig453: so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

pih

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#323911 27-Apr-2010 21:44

craig453: ... one of these 1.5 monster cables the guy at the shop sold me for $300 twoish years ago ... i brought (sic) two 5m cables for $80 each from dse

You're kidding, right? Oh, wait... you're not.

Reminds me of when my parents went to buy their first flat-screen TV: the guy at the shop (DSE?) nearly sold them an HDMI cable ($60-80 or something). Trouble is, they had nothing to connect the other end of the cable to and weren't planning on getting anything else either. Good thing they called me while they were in the shop.

Dunnersfella

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#323934 27-Apr-2010 22:45

Here's a question to ask when buying cables of any variety...
What sort of solder does the manufacturer use to connect the separate components of their cable? After all, the cable will only be as good as its weakest link... and that will be the solder. The connector may be gold plated, the cable a 'pure' copper... but if the solder is tin, well, you figure it out.
I know Monster do often spec silver solder, but they don't specify the purity (to my knowledge).
Of course, you'd have to hope that the TV / Blu Ray / Receiver manufacturer hasn't put the cheapest crappiest HDMI male connector into their device...

Bung

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#323938 27-Apr-2010 22:55

Dunnersfella: Here's a question to ask when buying cables of any variety...
What sort of solder does the manufacturer use to connect the separate components of their cable? After all, the cable will only be as good as its weakest link... and that will be the solder. The connector may be gold plated, the cable a 'pure' copper... but if the solder is tin, well, you figure it out.
I know Monster do often spec silver solder, but they don't specify the purity (to my knowledge).
Of course, you'd have to hope that the TV / Blu Ray / Receiver manufacturer hasn't put the cheapest crappiest HDMI male connector into their device...

You're looking for trouble where it doesn't exist. How far do you think you'd get inside either device on the end of the cable before hitting lots of soldered connections ? Worry about how thin and pointless some gold "plating" is.

cgrew

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#324017 28-Apr-2010 08:56

mentalinc: So some guy and his mate are going to to do some test with some Sony tv and then decree to Geekzone that Monster cable is super awesome.

The pros have already done this exercise (see all the links in this thread) and the answer is monster does 10101010 while cheap cales do 10101010 just the same.

cgrew you're wrong, you are dreaming up what you have seen, a coathanger is as awesome as some monster cable.

Lol all right mate calm down we will leave it at that but secondly get ya facts right that link to the coat hanger theory they tested earlier in this thread was for speaker wire not for video..

gosh..

cgrew

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#324018 28-Apr-2010 08:57

johnr:
craig453: so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

$2

$2 is about how good the coverage is worth in NZ for Voda aint it

ScottStevensNZ

245 posts

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#324052 28-Apr-2010 09:40

bazzer:
cgrew: Yep I'm sure mate but if you want to take the p*** then by all means go ahead. I started this discussion to determine whether or not the cables were any good - not to talk about how much they got talked up. I based my theory on the physics of the cable - just like the thickness of speaker wire with good sheilding versus thin speaker, the thick stuff conducts better.

I don't mean to take the p***, but if you think that the thickness of the conductors or the thickness of the sheilding or any of that stuff that makes a monster cable look nice has made the data travel "faster" along your 1m HDMI cable and this somehow makes the picture on your TV "smoother" then you clearly have bought into the hype and don't really understand how these things work. The fact that you're lumping speaker cable with HDMI cable proves that you don't get it.

At the end of the day, data 'travelling' along the cable is limited by the speed of light. the data is going to 'travel' along the cheap cable at the same speed as the monster cable.

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buzzy

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#324142 28-Apr-2010 12:43

Blue Jeans Cable have good, understandable, write ups on the HDMI specifications here and HDMI Certifications here. Essentially, there are two certifications: category 1 and category 2. The first equates to 720p or 1080i; the second is a bit more stringent than the bandwidth required to display 1080p at 60Hz and 8-bit colour. So long as a cable passes those tests, then it'll meet your needs*

Things like "120Hz", "Ultra High Speed", and "Deep Colour Support" are not meaningful in terms of the HDMI spec. Also, it's worth noting that there's a twist in the specification requirements that allows companies to get away with all sorts of trickery:

The HDMI Adopter Agreement specifies that compliance testing is required only for a manufacturer's first product in a product category. So if one is a manufacturer of cable, all that has to be done is to meet compliance testing, once, for a single batch of cable. After that, no external compliance testing is required by the HDMI Adopter Agreement. One can build, for example, a 3-foot long 24 AWG cable with PE dielectric and bare copper conductors, have compliance testing done on it, and then go on to build a cable of a completely different length and design--say, a 25-foot long polyolefin dielectric cable with 28 AWG tinned copper conductors--and do no compliance testing at all.
(from the second of the Blue Jeans articles).

Assuming you have a 1080p source and display, and you can tell the difference between two Category-2 certified cables, then one of them is defective and should be returned to the retailer.

IMO there's no need to splash out on any brand of expensive HDMI cables. So long as the cheaper cable meets the spec, you won't see any improvement with more expensive cables.

*HDMI 1.4 Ethernet and Audio Return aside.

johnr

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#324144 28-Apr-2010 12:56

cgrew:
johnr:
craig453: so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

$2

$2 is about how good the coverage is worth in NZ for Voda aint it

Attacking the company I work for does not help you!

Why not share with us all your job back ground?

John

JAMMAN2110

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#324148 28-Apr-2010 12:59

johnr:
cgrew:
johnr:
craig453: so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

$2

$2 is about how good the coverage is worth in NZ for Voda aint it

Attacking the company I work for does not help you!

Why not share with us all your job back ground?

John

Seconded.

freitasm

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#324156 28-Apr-2010 13:11

John, if you post sarcasm you have to be prepared for the replies.

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cgrew

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#324169 28-Apr-2010 13:30

johnr:
cgrew:
johnr:
craig453: so yeah i forgot to add if anyone wants my magic cabe it's for sale, cheers.

$2

$2 is about how good the coverage is worth in NZ for Voda aint it

Attacking the company I work for does not help you!

Why not share with us all your job back ground?

John

Yes but I'm not the one with the big ego tryna show off to everbody am i?

And I work for the Department of Conservation by the way.

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