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181 of 187 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am not going to spend a lot for an HDMI cable :), December 12, 2008
[Anyone remembers the old "I am not going to spend a lot for this muffler" commercial?]
[NOTE: I bought TWO Premium Gold Series cables and I actually took home one Monster cable at one time so maybe I know what I am talking about :)]
Just in case someone may feel guilty for not paying a lot more for, basically the same thing, let's look at our top of the line offer, Monster HDMI 1000HD Ultra-High Speed HDMI Cable (2 meters) and do a quick comparison.
The Gold Series item supports the HDMI 1.3 standard. Any HDMI 1.3 cable can carry up to 10.2 Gbit/s. Hmmm... I suppose the Monster is much better, right? Well... it "guarantees a certified cable bandwidth of 10.2" Okay, but the Monster also supports "x.v.Color, and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD". It turns out that, all of the above, and more, are part of the HDMI 1.3 specs and they are fully supported by every cable that complies to the standard and can be had for about 95% less in the Premium Gold. The expensive brand presentation simply enumerates the HDMI 1.3 specs as if it being HDMI 1.3 compliant was a really big deal. It is not a big deal. Even a cable that costs 95% less is HDMI 1.3 compliant.
My suggestion: if you think that the proponents of the expensive brand have a point when they claim that their product is a lot more durable, buy TWO Premium Gold wires and still pay almost 90% less than you would pay for one of the expensive ones.
My personal experience: I've never paid 'a lot' for an HDMI cable because it makes no sense to pay more. I took home one of the 'expensive' ones once because the salesman promised to take it back if I wasn't amazed by the difference. It made zero difference and I returned it.
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The following are the HDMI 1.3 specs and any certified HDMI 1.3 cable is going to support them.
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)
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Comparative Results: Technically Average, Overall Value Excellent, June 22, 2009
Comparative Results: Technically Average, Overall Value Excellent (4 stars for build quality, but still the best value)
**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.
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60 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Save your money, buy this., September 15, 2008
These cables work just fine, but one problem, which might just be user-related.
I bought two of them, one for my PS3 and one for my DVR. My TV gave a "No Signal" error for both when I first plugged them in. I tried everything I could think of and almost gave up in frustration, accepting my failure in hoping $5 HDMI cables would function as well as the $50+ ones. Then I thought maybe to try reversing the cable, and putting the plugs in the opposite device. All of a sudden my TV dings and says 1080p. Both ends of the cable look exactly the same, but for some reason, each end has to be plugged into the correct system. Or maybe it's just me and this is common sense, I don't know...
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