Thats the only HDMI issues we have had. Two years ago i wired a house with $25 (each) 50' (yes 50 foot) HDMI cables from Amazon. 14 rooms had TV's with surround receivers and a few sources each. The name brand HDMI cables wouldn't show up on time so i next day aired the 50' footers as a temporary solution...and they are still there with no problems reported.

One thing i will say that might make a difference is that i haven't done any retro work in 8 years aside from minor upgrades to existing systems. Everything has been new construction.

Aside from just blaming HDMI...would you say your issues have been with manufactured cables? Extenders? AVR's? Where do you think the weak link is in most cases?

Perhaps the better question is what gear YOU are using that you've had so few issues. I'm guessing a big part of it Crestron DM which apparently is the most reliable video distribution system known to man (never used it).

Hmmm. Just recently had to visit a theater that has been working perfectly for about 3 years - no video on the TV, but the AVR's volume display shows up- nothing else would come through. Reboot the AVR. Everything's fine. Thanks HDMI.

That's why I don't buy Mac's claim. If we've all seen issues with even local systems with AVRs from the major brands, there's no way he's only had 3 problems. Cable boxes are built with the worst standards possible. I've seen them screw up connected to just a TV with a 5' cable. I can't believe even DM can prevent those problems.

Mac's claims are totally within reason. Randomness of coin tosses includes 100 heads in a row, as well as any other ridiculous combination of things. We've just seen such a large percentage of failures that we can't believe it.

Except that a coin toss is exactly a 50/50 chance every time. you have two variables. One side is heads. The other side is tails. HDMI on the other hand has multiple variables. Low speed data, high speed data, HDCP, 5volts, signal loss over distance, etc etc etc (in my best Yul Brynner impression).

All distributed HDMI has been done with DM over fiber...but as i mentioned...i also did a house with 14...(15 now after a recent addition to the gym) samsung tv's that had marantz AVR's, apple tv's, samsung BD players, DirecTV boxes and one TV has video from the CCTV NVR. That project has 14 local systems with 14 50' HDMI cables that cost $25 each. I had multiple locations where the conduit was over 35' so i just next day aired 14 50 footers to get the system wired "temporarily" and here we are 2 years later and we have had zero HDMI issues. All the 1'-3' HDMI cables in the cabinet were also from Amazon.


Are you using extending products or is this all HDMI cables?

What does "Failure" mean? Has anyone thought to list what the actual failures were so that we could try and figure out why so many experience problems with HDMI?

So far i have had 3 failures. 1 was a cheap monoprice product that didn't work. The other was probably me stretching a cable while trying to fish it. I paid $80 for each of the 6' HDMI cables with that one. And the last problem seems to be with the way we wired the system.

I'm telling you the truth. Oh wait...i just thought of a 4th HDMI issue...[Link: remotecentral.com] ...it was with a moving Trak-Kit TV. When i arrived on site i found that someone got into the hidden setup menu and sent the TV spinning round and round destroying everything in its path.

Keep in mind that this is a 35' HDMI cable in a track that moved back and forth every day for over a year and it only failed when someone twisted it into a knot.

[Link: wiremunky.com]

If extenders are the primary issue...take a look at this product from Metra. [Link: metrahometheater.com]

Over 80' and works like a charm. We had a roof top swimming pool that got an outdoor motorized TV in the BBQ kitchen area. Florida so we were worried about the Crestron RMC holding up in the heat. We mounted the RMC in the attic and pulled the EHD cable through conduit out to the TV. It was just about perfect in length for our project. No issues with the cable.

These are screenshots of our service ticket board. In the first example you can see what happens if i type in "lutron" and search for everything with Lutron in it.

Note: the red rectangles are blocking client info.



Then notice here when i search for HDMI...nothing.

Well I would say that that experience is certainly not indicative of the industry as a whole. Just check the threads here and on IP from integrators large and small with many years of experience.....HDMI as a whole for the vast majority of us has been a huge time suck.

I don't remember the last time I went to a theater- most of the movies are remakes of remakes and sometimes, a fourth generation rehash of a movie that shouldn't have been remade the first time. The difference is fresh faces and new special effects. I don't like when my feet stick to the floor, I don't like people talking while I watch a movie and if I don't have a good seat, I see no reason to suffer through sitting in a corner, against a wall, under the balcony, etc.

What do you mean, "manufactured cables"? It's not as if we can make them in the field.

In my case, I have had 3' cables stop sending video, only showing a pink screen when NetFlix was selected on different Roku boxes and one was mine. I changed the cables after disconnecting and rebooting, but the only thing that fixed it was a new cable. Others were all in client systems and I have also seen a few ends break off from almost no stress. Some have been in racks with the cables laced to the rear edge of the shelves and nobody touches that equipment.

From a structural standpoint, the easiest way to cause a physical failure is by using a wide and thin end that inserts only a short distance, with no easy way to secure it and then, compound the problem by not making the cable so it's flexible. Pushing the equipment into a cabinet that isn't deep enough when there's no possibility of guiding the cables as it moves back guarantees a failure of some kind. How many times have we seen a stiff cable that causes a DVD/BD player that weighs a whopping 6 ounces (or an AppleTV, Roku, etc) slide forward when it's set in place? They could have used a round connector- that's inherently stronger than a wide, flat one. It could have been narrower and it wouldn't require any more space, but they could be staggered if the rear panel becomes too crowded. A small locking tab could be used, like the one that was on some DIN plugs or an XLR.

I haven't used many extenders because I haven't needed them in most of the work I do. The first time, I bought one from Spectrum, which is Jeff Boccaccio's company (he's one of the people in the HDMI consortium and writes a column in a trade mag). The instructions for termination showed a diagram with uneven wire ends in the RJ45 with 'Bad JuJu' and another that showed even ends with 'Good JuJu'. The wires are paired by color, rather than using 568A or B, which makes it necessary to re-terminate in the event of an extender failure and no replacement of the same type is available. I understand that the traces need to be the same length for this to work, but they could have addressed that internally. To make it worse, it didn't work, even though the cables were inserted so the ends were aligned evenly across the front edge. I re-terminated them and it did nothing to help. It has no way to adjust the level of the signal and all I could do to make the video show up consistently is reduce the resolution to 720p on a Panasonic V-series plasma TV. Set to 1080, it flashed a wide black border and rectangle of video "snow" and the sound would cut out in synch with a Denon AVR and Panasonic BD player ahead of the TV, which was 40' from the rest of the equipment (line of sight)- the path I had created with my conduit in the basement was around 65', which was too long for HDMI cables at the time without using a coupler and connecting two cables, which I was NOT going to do. Ironically, I received a "Get a free HDMI extender if you call us to talk about our products" card from SnapAV the same day I connected the extender and unfortunately, It was too late to return the Spectrum model. I called, they sent the extender, I re-terminated the cables (it uses 568B) and it worked the first time, without having to make any changes to the resolution or the control on the extender. I have done nothing to that system WRT video issues since I installed it over 5 years ago. I have changed the remote, added a DVD player for internationally-sourced videos for the local Film Festival (she's on the board) and that's all.

You remind me of the early, longer HDMI cables that were as thick as a fire house, and far less flexible. When your connection cable has the rigidity to push your AVR off the shelf, there is a problem with the design!!!

I mean packaged HDMI cable vs an extender being used.


If you see a pink screen when netflix is selected it might be that your red needs color adjustment. Did you see the netflix logo in the pink screen?