Customer Reviews

4' Ultra 800 HDmi Video Cable

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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 [...]".

Why would someone prefer a branded wire an not a more generic product that sells for a fraction of the price? I am sure that the marketing geniuses have the answer. In this specific case I am happy to see that this brand's pricing structure is coming closer to what most of the competition charges which is in the single-digits. The brand should make absolutely no difference on such short cable lengths if the cable actually works. This specific product is still selling at an unjustified (in my view) premium but I can understand that some would prefer a branded product even if it goes at the back of the box, never to be seen by anyone.

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.

very well built cable with flexible sheathing. works great with blu-ray player. the actual cable i was sent was blue, not red. but it is the same cable regardless. if you are like me and do not trust cheap generic cables, this is an hdmi cable you should consider. why buy retail when you can buy the same exact cable online at a 70% discount.

My IT guy at work suggested this for me, and he was right. It's a great product. 4 feet isn't quite as long as I wanted, but other than that, it's good.

I will agree that Monster has a gimmick. They have a flashy website that touts all these reasons why their cable is superior to other cables. I don't really believe all that, and my husband and I have owned more than our fair share of Monster products and generic products. For the record, we own every gaming system, have our PC connected to our 1080p plasma T.V., an expensive receiver and Direct TV.

So why did I still buy 6 of these cables? 1 reason only, and it is why I am posting because I think for some people out there it might be helpful. You see, we have cats. And every now and then we try to turn on one of our gaming systems, and alas, it does not work. We check everything and eventually pull up those nice generic cables we bought, the ones that apparently have the irresistible soft rubber casing. We find little bite marks all around them and immediately know the cable is toast. So we have switched all our cables over to these particular Monster ones because they come encased in a metal (or metal like I can't be sure) mesh that the cats either can't chew though, or don't chew through. Not all Monster cables come with this mesh, so be careful before you buy. I can imagine if you have rascally pets that this may be a problem for you. If so, yo may want to invest either in these protected Monster cables, or extra generics.

It still only gets four stars though, because Monster is overcharging for this product. I understand it cost more to make a thicker cable, but come on, some of the generics are selling for less than $10 now. FYI, because the cable is so thick, it isn't particularly flexible, so you may need to buy a longer one if you need to get it around stuff.

Don't buy into the hype the sales people at Big Box stores or Monster feeds you. Folks, there is no need to spend this over inflated price on an HDMI cable.

There is an article in NY Times on June 10, 2009 about how to tweak your HDTV to make it perform at its best. The article specifically advises readers not to be tempted to spend too much on cables. It also quotes industry expert Joe Kane. His advice: "Cheap cables that cost 75 cents per foot work as well as those that cost $100 per foot," said Mr. Kane. "With the latest HDMI cables, if you see a picture and hear the sound, you know it works."

We shopped around for a Monster cable at local stores, and the prices were ridiculous. So we checked Amazon, and found a seller that sold the 4' HDMI cable we were looking for at about $25. Got it quickly, and the picture and sound on our LCD Samsung is great.

I'm going digital. The whole house, little by little, is getting 1080-ied. So after spending a bit of cash on these, i started reading more about HDMI on the net. it is actually the most complex consumer cable ever made. and while many claim that with digital you either get the signal or you dont, i foud out that this is not necesarily true. but i also found that when going short distances, some $10 hdmi cables will perform as well (or even better) than cables worth 5 or 10x that.

after reading quite a bit, i found this to be one of the most helpful articles:
[...]

in conclusion, I like this product. It is glitch-free. But if you are going 6 or 10 feet, you need not invest heavily in cable.

Not disappointed. I seen a big improvement over regular HDMI cables I purchased. Great price.

There is absolutely no difference between monster cables and the cables you get at monoprice.com. I have a PS3, HD-DVD, DirecTV and a HDMI switch box all hooked up with supposed inferior cables and I haven't had one single problem. The picture on my TV is incredible.

I have these monster cables and the cheaper non-brand ones and THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. you get what you pay for. I use these for my ps3 and blu-ray. The picture is more clear on both. The non-brand cables are cheap, flimsy and don't send the same picture quality to my plasma period. Spend the money and get monster brand.