Aren't All HDMI Cables the Same?
By Jeff Boccaccio
HDMI guru explains why cable choice can make or break a system.

Calls for HDMI assistance continue to roll into DPL Labs. Lately, the majority have been audio/video receiver- and Cat 5-related.

So we investigate these issues.

Consider the receiver situation. As with cables, not all receivers are created equal. Even those that perform well on a test bench tend to make up their own rules in the real world.



So we built a custom test jig that would intentionally increase and decrease the TMDS video data integrity. With this jig we can look at video thresholds with different products to see how they react under real-world applications.

The results have been quite a bombshell. Without naming brands, we were surprised to find that there are popular receivers that performed fine under carefully controlled lab conditions but, when sending and receiving lower-quality TMDS video signals, these units just went nuts!

When you factor in a Cat 5 HDMI extender into this situation, the installer is lost. For those who think they can find an issue by selectively removing products in hope of discovering the problem, that technique won’t work in this situation.

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