Customer Reviews

Monster M1000 HD-8 Ultimate High Speed HDTV HDMI Cable (8 feet)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

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. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear."

Still Wikipedia, quoting Eric S. Raymond: "The idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe [...] gear rather than with competitors' equipment. 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 [...]".

HDMI is all-digital for both sound and picture. As such, it either works or it doesn't and, when it doesn't work, you will know immediately. There's really nothing in-between. 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? 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. It appears to be well built. However, it is quality not needed and, in my view, not worth paying for. 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. If they do, they all work the same, the $1 HDMI cable gives you the exact same 'performance' the $100, gold-plated cable does.

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. If it is, then the device is HDMI compliant and you will get everything that HDMI promises to deliver. 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. If they did, they'd violate the specs and would not sell very well. 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. 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

sRGB
YCbCr
8 channel LPCM/192 kHz/24-bit audio capability
Blu-ray Disc video and audio at full resolution
Consumer Electronic Control (CEC)
DVD-Audio support
Super Audio CD (DSD) support
Deep Color
xvYCC
Auto lip-sync
Dolby TrueHD bitstream capable
DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream capable
Updated 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:

I noticed a typical FUD statement that has been posted on this page in the form of a video. The presenter suggests that all signals, including 'digital' get degraded when passing through a wire because of the 'laws of physics'. The key word in his presentation is that 'IF YOU HAVE A REALLY LONG CABLE' then you may get into trouble. This is true. You can't have a 100 ft. HDMI cable or a one mile-long cable. 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'. In fact, it is REALLY SHORT and, no matter how much FUD is inserted into the discussion, on 6 ft. or 8 ft. 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. or on 8 ft. 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.

I used to work for Best Buy, and our discount at the time was to get the items for cost. We could buy these cables for less than $7 each.... bit of a markup from the companies, huh? I also found that these cables do the exact same thing as the lower end cables, just with a brand name.

Don't waste your money. During these hard economic times we all still enjoy getting some items that make us feel better, why not be able to get more of what we enjoy with less money spent.

Please! Please! Please! Don't be a total "Dumas" and believe the in-store Sales-Hole hyping these over-priced, do nothing extra cables!! These shameless in-store thieves know that you'll be spending some serious coin on your new flat-panel, so whats another hundred+ for some bogus cable if you think you'll be getting a better picture?? NOT!! It's common knowledge by those in-the-know, that measureable lab tests using an oscilloscope show ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE in signal, picture or audio quality between these cables and the ten buck or less generic brand cables on Amazon.com, [...] etc. This was both professionally measured as well as being demonstrated by an engineer on a recent expose' on FOX13 News in Tampa, FL. Keep in mind that all this cable has to do is transfer data only; (not high power, like a loud speaker) so any reasonably good conductor would work just fine just to transmit a data signal. So, either it works or doesn't work at all - there is NO middle ground!! Furthermore, if the cable really made that much of a difference, don't you think that the Manufacturer would either include the cable in the box or mention that in the set-up instructions?? I have tried several brands of HDMI cables, doing brand-blind tests and could never see or hear any difference of any kind!! EVER!! Don't be a total "Dumas" and fall for the BS!! I hope this clears up any myths regarding so called "high end" cables. Don't believe me??? Humor me; and try it yourself!! You'll be glad you did... use the money you save to buy some nice Blu-Ray movies instead!! Bob-OH! OUT!!!

Please please heed the advice of the other reviewers and do not sink your money into these worthless cables. The $7 alternative works just fine and functions identically !!

HDMI is a digital signal, this isn't the analog age and these expensive cables are not needed. As long as the cable supports the HDMI standard you need 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 then it will work. Save yourself the money and get the 10 dollar cable. IT WILL be the same quality. Digital either makes it or it doesn't, there is no distortion like analog signals. Don't be a sucker and pay the monster tax.

My concise point: You can purchase an HDMI cable from Amazon which is also category 2 certified for about $10 (including shipping which has the noticeable image quality as this one).

HDMI is a digital information transfer standard. As such, it either works or it doesn't. There are no nuances or ways to improve the transfer quality of HDMI through a massively overpriced miracle cable. If your cable is certified to adhere to at least the minimum HDMI cable level standard as required by your equipment, eg. HDMI 1.2, HDMI 1.3, HDMI 1.3a, HDMI 1.3b, HDMI 1.3b1, HDMI 1.3c, that is all you need to know. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE HERE WHO ARE CLAIMING TO HAVE NOTICED IMPROVED PICTURE QUALITY, CLARITY, DETAIL, COLOR, ETC. FROM USING THE MONSTER HDMI CABLE. [...] they are people who were using HDMI 1.0 -> 1.2 cables when they needed to use HDMI 1.3+ cables. No, not all HDMI cables are the same. Again, you need to use HDMI cables that are certified to adhere to at least the minimum HDMI cable standard required by your equipment. At the moment, the highest HDMI cable level standard is 1.3c. Purchasing a relatively inexpensive, certified 1.3b or 1.3c cable will net you the same exact picture quality as these ridiculous, maliciously overpriced Monster cables. While I'm sure that the monster cables work fine, you could purchase approximately thirty 6' HDMI 1.3b cables for the same price as this one 4' cable. Do the math.

see accurate HDMI version info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Versions

Here are Amazon links to Dayton ATC certified v1.3b Category 2 HDMI cables for transfer speeds up to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps). They support resolutions up to 1600p, refresh rates up to 120 Hz, and 48-bit Deep Color. You cannot purchase better HDMI cables than these and they are inexpensive... $4 for 3.3 feet and $6 for 6.6 feet, etc. Dayton makes some good cables.

Dayton HR13C20.5 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 .5m 1.5ft
Dayton HR13C21 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 1m (3.3 ft)
Dayton HR13C22 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 2m (6.6 ft)
Dayton HR13C23 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 3m (10 ft.)
Dayton HR13C25 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 5m (16.4ft)
Dayton HR13C27 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 7m (23 ft.)
Dayton HR13C210 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 10m (33ft)

Comparative Results: Technically Average, Overall Value Poor

**Explanation**

Explanation of technique used for Review (actual results are below with accompanying title).
My first inclination when I received this cable, was to attempt to do a side-by-side comparison of various HDMI cables to determine what benefit, if any the various cables provide. To make such a test fair however, I had to find identical televisions, input devices, (cable box, blu-ray, standard dvd, etc), and a place to put them; as you may imagine this proved to be way more effort than it would be worth.
After contemplating the issue I came to the conclusion that such a test would be pretty worthless anyways. Since I (like most people) never watch identical televisions side by side the real question lies in whether one HDMI cable improves the picture enough that it is discernable without viewing the pictures simultaneously. After all, if a viewer cannot discern a difference between the two without looking at both together, then there is no justifiable reason to buy one over the other.
With this in mind I used the following equipment to test the cables:
Television: Sony Grand WEGA KDS-55A2000 55-Inch SXRD 1080p Rear Projection HDTV

Cables:
1. HDMI Cable 6ft 6 ft 1.3 1080P FOR PS3 TO DVD LCD HDTV
2. Cables To Go 98035 Premium HDMI v1.3 Digital Audio/Video Cable (8 Feet, Black/Grey)
3. Mediabridge - 6ft Ultra-High Speed HDMI Cable - 120 Hz - Version 1.3 Category 2 - 1080p - PS3 - Blu-Ray
4. Monster M Series M1000 HDTV HDMI Cable (8 ft. / 2.43 m.)
5. Sony 5mm High speed HDMI cable ver. 1.3 (White)

Inputs:
1. PlayStation 3 80GB
2. Optimum HD Cable Box/DVR (not sure of the model number)

**The Test**
To conduct the test I had my wife label each of the cables with a number, the cables were mixed then piled together behind the television. With my wife assigned as the operator. I and two friends sat on the other side of the television. We watched pieces of Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, as well as Transformers on Blu-Ray and Standard Def. In addition, we watched the same song from American Idol in both HD and SD, and portions of an NBA playoff game.
Each of us had a card numbered 1-5 with space for comments on image quality, sound, etc., for each cable. The test was, as aforementioned, blind. This was to ensure that one of my friends (one of whom provided the $200 monster cable) and I, owner of the .01 + shipping no name cable (and most of the other ones) would not be biased by knowing it was our cable. If you shell out $200 for something you really want it to outperform, which creates bias.

And now:

**The Results**
All three of us agreed that there were no conclusive differences in the test. After a lot of switching between various inputs the conclusion was that while we occasionally perceived slight differences it was never clear and would be impossible to tell if the two pictures were not side by side.
Thus I must conclude that these 5 HDMI cables are, for all practical purposes, identical. Which means that they all had average performance and the main purchase determiners are price, aesthetic quality and build quality.
So to sum up, taking into account my opinion of the different cables, the HDMI Cable 6ft 6 ft 1.3 1080P FOR PS3 TO DVD LCD HDTV is the cheapest and feels it, it will probably need to be replaced soonest as well but at .01 cent plus shipping you can afford to. The Cables To Go 98035 Premium HDMI v1.3 Digital Audio/Video Cable (8 Feet, Black/Grey) and Mediabridge - 6ft Ultra-High Speed HDMI Cable - 120 Hz - Version 1.3 Category 2 - 1080p - PS3 - Blu-Ray were pretty similar but I like the design and build quality of the Cable-to-Go a little more, it feels more solid, I feel like this one would last a while longer than the first cable but I didn't do any endurance tests. My least favorite of the bunch in terms of feel/price was the Sony 5mm High speed HDMI cable ver. 1.3 (White) which I felt, was very thin and cheap feeling considering its price tag, I wouldn't bet that it would outlast either the Cable-to-Go cable or the Mediabridge. The Monster M Series M1000 HDTV HDMI Cable (8 ft. / 2.43 m.) is well made and aesthetically pleasing and looks as if it will last you until something replaces HDMI, I cannot however recommend it because the price tag is simply preposterous, as it provides no visual or auditory improvement.

HDMI is a digital interface. Digital signals don't give a single solitary damn about the name on the cables.

The only possible reason for giving these things a five star review is that you spent the cash and you need to convince yourself that you aren't dumb as a fence post.

Buy the $2 cables, they work exactly as well. Unless it's worth $130 to you to have the name on the cable.

If you pay more than $10-15 for an HDMI cable, YOU GOT HOODWINKED!

Digital signals either work perfectly or not at all. There is no degradation like with old analog systems. Don't waste your money, don't be a sucker.