# Video: HDMI cables hate me!!!



## a_ump (Jul 23, 2014)

So this is more of a general nonsense but still hardware question.  I have beaten, thrown, and taken horrible care of laptop cables, ethernet, even BNC security camera cables, and never had them break or stop working.

HDMI cables are a different story though. i've bought probably 5 cables in the last year alone.  From Vizio, to LG, to even a monster cable and they all seem to short or do that "twist it this way and then plug it in" to get it to work.  Granted the monster cable was my lady's fault by stepping on it, but the other 4 simple quit working.

Are HDMI cables just super fragile? too complex to be in simple rubber housing? How about the rest of you? what's your HDMI cable experience?


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## Jetster (Jul 23, 2014)

Never had a bad one and Ive used many. I suspect you have a bad HDMI port that's reacting to the movement of the cable


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## a_ump (Jul 23, 2014)

my tv has 3 hdmi ports, we've used each and everyone and it always seems to be the cable, we purchase a new one and walla no probelms.


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## Mussels (Jul 23, 2014)

never had one break, worst i've had is a super long cable that wouldnt work above 1680x1050


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## a_ump (Jul 23, 2014)

damn, must be me. BAD JU JU!


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## silkstone (Jul 23, 2014)

I've never had a bad one. I even have a cheap 10 m one that must be over 3 years old. It's been twisted, stepped on, curled up, but it still works fine.


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## natr0n (Jul 23, 2014)

maybe its the tv.

try those damaged hdmi on another device if you havent tested


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## hat (Jul 23, 2014)

My experience with HDMI is limited but I'm using a generic HDMI cable to go from my PC to my TV and no problems. I've also used a cable that was HDMI on one end, DVI on the other with this TV for the longest time with no issues.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 23, 2014)

a_ump said:


> So this is more of a general nonsense but still hardware question.  I have beaten, thrown, and taken horrible care of laptop cables, ethernet, even BNC security camera cables, and never had them break or stop working.
> 
> HDMI cables are a different story though. i've bought probably 5 cables in the last year alone.  From Vizio, to LG, to even a monster cable and they all seem to short or do that "twist it this way and then plug it in" to get it to work.  Granted the monster cable was my lady's fault by stepping on it, but the other 4 simple quit working.
> 
> Are HDMI cables just super fragile? too complex to be in simple rubber housing? How about the rest of you? what's your HDMI cable experience?



Hdmi is a flakey port and cable standard. If you have display port use it or component. Or dvi.


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## AsRock (Jul 23, 2014)

I have one break on me, the casing was to soft to support but no issue with any others yet haha.


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## Dent1 (Jul 23, 2014)

a_ump said:


> So this is more of a general nonsense but still hardware question.  I have beaten, thrown, and taken horrible care of laptop cables, ethernet, even BNC security camera cables, and never had them break or stop working.
> 
> HDMI cables are a different story though. i've bought probably 5 cables in the last year alone.  From Vizio, to LG, to even a monster cable and they all seem to short or do that "twist it this way and then plug it in" to get it to work.  Granted the monster cable was my lady's fault by stepping on it, but the other 4 simple quit working.
> 
> Are HDMI cables just super fragile? too complex to be in simple rubber housing? How about the rest of you? what's your HDMI cable experience?






eidairaman1 said:


> Hdmi is a flakey port and cable standard. If you have display port use it or component. Or dvi.



I've been using the same cable for 3 years. Cheap generic cable which cost less than £3 on Ebay.

a_ump, I think the physical port on your device is broken rather than the cable.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 23, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> I've been using the same cable for 3 years. Cheap generic cable which cost less than £3 on Ebay.
> 
> a_ump, I think the physical port on your device is broken rather than the cable.



Being a network ops tech for Att (Uverse) ive encountered several customers tvs that put a voltage out that sometimes affects the tv and the equipment and only way to fix that without them switching out tvs was put em on component which provides same clarity as hdmi.


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## andrewsmc (Jul 23, 2014)

About 4-5 years ago Amazon was having HDMI cables for $0.01 + Shipping ( yes, one cent) and i bought like 20. Never had a problem with one.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 23, 2014)

Amazon do make good cables or have a good oem


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## Sasqui (Jul 23, 2014)

Never a problem here, two TV's, TV #1 in livingroom has all 3 HDMI inputs being used, TV #2 in diningroom, two HDMI cables, one one crossing part of a diningroom floor connected to the second PC.



eidairaman1 said:


> Amazon do make good cables or have a good oem



Goto Monoprice.com, I've gotten ALL of my cables from them.


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## patrico (Jul 23, 2014)

ive never hd any probs with any hdmi cables

dont spend good money on expensive hdmi cables they are all digital so quality is- it works or it doesnt lol the phsyical cable might be stronger but the vid/audio will be the same


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 24, 2014)

I bought a Display port (plug to gpu) to vga (jack to monitor cable) adapter from Startech. Cables to go is good aswell



Sasqui said:


> Never a problem here, two TV's, TV #1 in livingroom has all 3 HDMI inputs being used, TV #2 in diningroom, two HDMI cables, one one crossing part of a diningroom floor connected to the second PC.
> 
> 
> 
> Goto Monoprice.com, I've gotten ALL of my cables from them.


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## Dent1 (Jul 24, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Amazon do make good cables or have a good oem



Amazon is a trading platform, so its lots of independent sellers, like Ebay.

The only difference is some select independent sellers ship their product to Amazon's distribution centre. Amazon then list and market it as their own, and then dispatch it centrally with their own branding if it sells. This is their "FBA programme".


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 24, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> Amazon is a trading platform, so its lots of independent sellers, like Ebay.
> 
> The only difference is some independent sellers ship their product to Amazon's distribution centre. Amazon then list and market it as their own, and then dispatch it centrally with their own branding if it sells.



Thats what im wondering who their oem is


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## Dent1 (Jul 24, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Thats what im wondering who their oem is



It won't be a specific OEM.

It will be a bunch of random sellers, most selling cheap generic cables from China or Hong Kong.  Scattered in between will be a few well known manufacturers. Regardless of whether the seller is a 1 man business or a multinational, if they qualify for the FBA programme the cables will be sent to Amazon's distribution centre and will get Amazon's branding on the box when it's dispatched.

Because Amazon don't source their own products, the risk for inconsistencies in quality is greater.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 24, 2014)

Yeah i started thinking about that. Thats why they tend to be the least expensive solution



Dent1 said:


> It won't be a specific OEM.
> 
> It will be a bunch of random sellers, most selling cheap generic cables from China or Hong Kong.  Scattered in between will be a few well known manufacturers. Regardless of whether the seller is a 1 man business or a multinational, if they qualify for the FBA programme the cables will be sent to Amazon's distribution centre and will get Amazon's branding on the box when it's dispatched.


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## FX-GMC (Jul 24, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> It won't be a specific OEM.
> 
> It will be a bunch of random sellers, most selling cheap generic cables from China or Hong Kong.  Scattered in between will be a few well known manufacturers. Regardless of whether the seller is a 1 man business or a multinational, if they qualify for the FBA programme the cables will be sent to Amazon's distribution centre and will get Amazon's branding on the box when it's dispatched.
> 
> Because Amazon don't source their own products, the risk for inconsistencies in quality is greater.



Not always.  Amazon has an OEM somewhere making these:







http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L1ZYYM/?tag=tec06d-20


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 24, 2014)

Those are it


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## bubbleawsome (Jul 24, 2014)

I dislike HDMI as a standard but I've never had one break through 5 years and 3 moves. Only cable I've ever had break was one ~10 year old DVI-D.


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## Dent1 (Jul 24, 2014)

FX-GMC said:


> Not always.  Amazon has an OEM somewhere making these:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




That is an exception. Amazon do have one or two propriety items in all categories, but the business model explained above is how Amazon work. Amazon couldn't sustain its business selling just their own brands.

Amazon Basic products are made in Taiwan and China, probably from the same factories that some of the random sellers are buying from.


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## a_ump (Jul 24, 2014)

I do have a very cheap 40" Emerson TV i bought on black friday for $200.  Maybe it can't regulate the ports right or something and that's why they're burning out? i would try the HDMI cords on something else but ironically its the only device in the house(D-SUB 1280x1024 monitor) that can use HDMI. 

Going to look up this HDMI with Ethernet stuff. I fail to see how internet travels over HDMI.

EDIT: haha silly(dumb) me. I assumed ethernet meant internet.  So ethernet is just supposed to be a faster medium.


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## Mussels (Jul 24, 2014)

a_ump said:


> I do have a very cheap 40" Emerson TV i bought on black friday for $200.  Maybe it can't regulate the ports right or something and that's why they're burning out? i would try the HDMI cords on something else but ironically its the only device in the house(D-SUB 1280x1024 monitor) that can use HDMI.
> 
> Going to look up this HDMI with Ethernet stuff. I fail to see how internet travels over HDMI.
> 
> EDIT: haha silly(dumb) me. I assumed ethernet meant internet.  So ethernet is just supposed to be a faster medium.




its just translating it to different wiring, then translating it back. nothing fancy, but any issues with low quality cables or too long a distance will still degrade it.

the idea for it, was to use ethernet in your walls to extend HDMI longer distances.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 24, 2014)

a_ump said:


> I do have a very cheap 40" Emerson TV i bought on black friday for $200.  Maybe it can't regulate the ports right or something and that's why they're burning out? i would try the HDMI cords on something else but ironically its the only device in the house(D-SUB 1280x1024 monitor) that can use HDMI.
> 
> Going to look up this HDMI with Ethernet stuff. I fail to see how internet travels over HDMI.
> 
> ...




Ethernet is just a pair bond (4 wire in cat 5-7) system in telephony- hence why its called twisted pair

Mussels is right. Ps copper is copper whether in cat5 or coax

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_line

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_11801
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_twisted_pair

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet


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## Dent1 (Jul 24, 2014)

HDMI is a standard,  a £1 cable will produce the same image quality as a £100 cable. Apart from branding and packing there is usually no difference.

I think there is a big misconception that higher priced cable means better quality, or better image quality.

A lot of retail shops have been training their staff to spread this lie to make noobs buy the most expensive cables.

Watch this,


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## AsRock (Jul 24, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> HDMI is a standard,  a £1 cable will produce the same image quality as a £100 cable. Apart from branding and packing there is usually no difference.
> 
> I think there is a big misconception that higher priced cable means better quality, or better image quality.
> 
> ...




Well you know were it comes from don't you ? Analog.  Which it did make some different but then it was taken  way to far lol.


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## Aquinus (Jul 24, 2014)

AsRock said:


> Well you know were it comes from don't you ? Analog.  Which it did make some different but then it was taken  way to far lol.



Yeah, back when if your VGA signal was bad, you'd get a crappy image. If your DVI/HDMI/DP signal is crap, you don't get a picture at all. Digital signals are also better about correcting errors, so if it's bad enough to degrade the image, you're probably losing a lot of data in general over the wire.


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## a_ump (Jul 24, 2014)

True but the only reason i felt more expensive HDMI cables would last isn't that the video quality would be superior but that it would last longer and wouldn't end up with shorts and whatnot. 

Again it seems that's just me that has had those issues


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## AsRock (Jul 24, 2014)

a_ump said:


> True but the only reason i felt more expensive HDMI cables would last isn't that the video quality would be superior but that it would last longer and wouldn't end up with shorts and whatnot.
> 
> Again it seems that's just me that has had those issues



The one i had trouble with the cable was braided and the head part was a more soft case which to me allowed the metal part to move. All my other cables are more firmer and the plastic cases is solid which are those Amazon cables that were posted above except one i had from radio shack which is 10m long and double shielded and had no issue with that one either.


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## Aquinus (Jul 24, 2014)

Oh, you know, I did have a cable where a couple pins inside broke on me. It damaged the HDMI port and the cable itself and rendered the cable useless as a result. If the pins got damaged (which are fragile to begin with,) that could cause this to happen. It did to me and the port wasn't so lucky.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 25, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> HDMI is a standard,  a £1 cable will produce the same image quality as a £100 cable. Apart from branding and packing there is usually no difference.
> 
> I think there is a big misconception that higher priced cable means better quality, or better image quality.
> 
> ...



Solid wire vs stranded wire, more noise with stranded wire.


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## LightningJR (Jul 25, 2014)

Just an fyi it's voila not walla.

As for the HDMI cables, I have had many but have not had any break. I did have a super cheap china ebay cable that gave me visual artifacts but that's it.

Maybe you should look for the "in-wall" cables, they are usually very robust, I have one it's very thick and sheathed.. Make sure you don't break the HDMI port though, the cable is heavy and now the port on my TV is iffy. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...112&cm_re=HDMI_in_wall-_-82-422-112-_-Product

^this is very similar to what I have.


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## Mussels (Jul 25, 2014)

LightningJR said:


> Just an fyi it's voila not walla.
> 
> As for the HDMI cables, I have had many but have not had any break. I did have a super cheap china ebay cable that gave me visual artifacts but that's it.
> 
> ...




wala is baby speak for water in this house, because my other half forgets english when she's half asleep.

i wish my TV had display port... dunno why, but i think its cooler than HDMI for no real reason.


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## LightningJR (Jul 25, 2014)

Mussels said:


> wala is baby speak for water in this house, because my other half forgets english when she's half asleep.



? :S I'm trying to understand what this means 


But I agree with you. DP is just feels better for no reason other than it's cooler, it's like a celebrity


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## Mussels (Jul 25, 2014)

LightningJR said:


> ? :S I'm trying to understand what this means
> 
> 
> But I agree with you. DP is just feels better for no reason other than it's cooler, it's like a celebrity




my woman thinks wala is a word.

i've got DP to DVI, but i need my HDMI audio so i cant use it for anything at present.


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## Aquinus (Jul 25, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i've got DP to DVI, but i need my HDMI audio so i cant use it for anything at present.


DP supports audio over the wire. Is there no DP to HDMI adapter that will do audio too?


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## Mussels (Jul 25, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> DP supports audio over the wire. Is there no DP to HDMI adapter that will do audio too?



yeah but then i have to buy one, for a whim XD


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