Don’t buy the wrong HDMI cable! | Buying HDMI 2.1 cables

Not that long ago good advice for selecting an  HDMI cable was pretty simple nowadays not so much Welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and if  I look like Homer Simpson right after he licks   a toad right now well I got my eyes dilated  today and honestly I can't see a thing I'm   not high I swear okay you got me I totally  am high on giving good HDMI cable advice   that's not funny hey at least I tried I mean  honestly talking about HDMI cables may not sound   like a riveting conversation but I'm telling  you you're going to want to hear what I have   to say here whether you're just about to set  up a next-gen game console or building a big   entertainment system if HDMI is involved then you  need to know the game has changed and if you've   already discovered that something is up because  you've been having problems getting picture   or sound on your new Gear Well then you have  definitely landed in the right spot because I'm   about to explain a little about why your new stuff  might not be working but also how to avoid running   into that problem in the first place before I dig  in if you're new to the channel welcome it's nice   to have you hopefully I meet you in the comments  section but to do that you gotta comment so let   me know how you got here and if this video was  helpful and while you're down there some clicks of   support on the appropriate buttons would be very  much appreciated and if you ring that Bell you'll   know when we come out with a new video that's  that business now let's get down to some HDMI   business so in the recent past my advice for folks  who were looking for guidance on H HDMI cables was   pretty simple your bread and butter HDMI cable it  links up to about 15 feet were almost guaranteed   to work okay and up to 25 feet you'd probably  be safe but any longer than that you'd want to   at least look at a lower gauge cable keeping  in mind the lower the gauge number the thicker   the copper in the cable basically the longer your  HDMI cable needed to be the more it would need to   resemble a fire hose as opposed to say a drinking  straw or you could step up to a different kind of   cable but more on that in a second outside of  that you wanted to do your best to make sure   you had good build quality a solid connector on  each end and then there were bonuses like high   flexibility for easier cable management and maybe  there's a color you like better than black so for   a long time I was perfectly okay with most folks  going with an Amazon basic style cable for most   practical at-home consumer uses audio files and  video files stop cringing you'll be fine because   so long as the cable wasn't complete garbage  it would usually get the job done the ones and   zeros would make it from point A to point B and  you got picture and sound and hey if you wanted   to spend insane bucks on a high-end cable hoping  you'd get slightly better video and audio quality   then knock yourself out well my friends things  are different in the world of HDMI 2.1 or more   specifically a world in which new HDMI cables are  supposed to be able to handle 40 to 48 gigabits   per second of bandwidth which by the way is way  up from the 18 gigabits per second standard we   all had before well all bets are off well not all  of them just enough to cause some problems today   if you buy a cable that's supposed to handle up  to 48 gigabits per second at lengths between two   and three meters so roughly six to nine feet then  the odds are that whatever brand of cable you buy   will work they're pretty good pretty good odds  any longer than that and actually any shorter   than that too well you're now more likely to run  into some trouble why well I'm going to try and   break it down for you but let me be clear I'm  about to brutally oversimplify matters just to   get you some baseline understanding if you want  to dive deep into the rabbit hole then I'll have   links down below to offer some deeper discussions  on the topic but also if you don't care about the   why and just want to know what to look for in an  HDMI cable you can skip ahead for my best advice   for now by clicking the what to look for Link in  the description below this video so at the heart   of the why seems to be an intersection between  the higher bandwidth or speed of information   that we're trying to shove down this series  of pipes in an HDMI cable the construction of   the cable itself and a bunch of complicated math  and physics bottom line there's a lot more going   on inside that HDMI cable than you probably  think most folks I talk to are of the opinion   that we're talking about digital signals ones and  zeros right and that since it's a digital process   it should be super simple and that there's no real  quality difference in the output of one HDMI cable   or another well to a point that's true the signal  that is being delivered is digital but the manner   in which it's delivered involves a bunch of pretty  analog factors take a look at this diagram that I   borrowed from a conversation on YouTube between  Jeff boccaccio at DPL labs and Jason dustel at   meridio link below as you can see here there's a  5 volt line a hot plug a display data Channel some   video channels and then down at the bottom a clock  I don't know about you but just that diagram shows   me there's more going on in an HDMI cable than  I thought again tragically oversimplified here   but that 5 volt Channel up top has to negotiate a  very specific milliamperage between a source like   an Xbox series X and a receiver like a TV or an  AV receiver just to get the party started if this   one little thing doesn't happen then nothing  happens and while that trigger went off fairly   successfully in the past it's now getting more  and more difficult to do I'll get to why in a   moment then on the other side of this diagram is  a clock now without getting into what the clock   actually does it's like Air Traffic Control in  a way if that clock can't do its job then forget   it party's over you could be looking at failure  which means no audio or video signal to your TV   or AV receiver there are other factors like hdcp  and edit and CEC that need to happen successfully   all before audio and video can make it to where  it needs to go so where am I going with all this   well I mentioned that the higher speed or higher  bandwidth was a factor the more you're trying to   jam down a pipe the more demand there is for that  pipe's capacity and the bottom line here is that   now that the demands have gone way up with 4K  resolution at 60 FPS or more with HDR metadata   and uncompressed Dolby Atmos audio look if the  copper in the cable isn't Stout enough and isn't   Stout enough in the right places for a given  length of cable the failure is imminent in a   way that it just wasn't before demands were lower  in the past so there was more tolerance for error   as demand has risen that tolerance has gone way  way down and now we're seeing more failures than   we used to the longer your HDMI cable is the  Better Built the cable needs to be or the more   urgency there is to go get a different kind of  cable that isn't just a bunch of thin copper   inside so Caleb you may ask if I buy a cable that  says HDMI 2.1 on it or 8K certified or 48 gigabits   per second apps a freaking lutely guaranteed then  that cable should work right it says certified   right on the package well in a perfect world yeah  it should and for shorter runs it probably will   but without commenting on the whole certification  process all I can say is that we're hearing about   a lot more failures than we used to that's the AV  World we're living in and it's not just the cables   but the source devices and receiving devices  we use those are changing too it's an evolving   situation and based on conversations I've had with  some industry folks who are in the know it's kind   of a mess and getting Messier okay so what do we  look for when shopping for HDMI cables that helps   reduce the risk that something is going to go  wrong and if it does go wrong then what do you do   well first off buy from a reputable retailer  so you can get a return or exchange for another   product and keep your receipts second when you do  get your cable or cables plug them in and stress   test them before you do anything else game in 4k  120 whatever the highest demand audio and video   thing you might do do it then before you carefully  route cables around or move hundreds of pounds of   equipment back and forth and if it works great  if it doesn't exchange it this should save you   from learning the hard way that your cable doesn't  work and you should be able to remedy the problem   relatively quickly but in terms of picking an  HDMI cable all I can do is try to point you in   the right direction I mean there's kind of a lot  of uncertainty right now and keep in mind the   following advice is for folks who are dealing  with 4K High frame rates HDR next-gen consoles   that kind of advanced stuff or if you just want to  Future proof as much as possible if you're hooking   up your PS3 or an old laptop you're going to be  fine with most decent HDMI cables on the market   today so first off you'll be safest if you don't  buy a standard copper-based HDMI cable under one   meter or six feet if you do there's a possibility  that clock I mentioned earlier won't work and the   cable could fail so even though it may be longer  than you think you need your safest at starting   at about one meter from there don't go with a  standard copper cable over two meters I'll get to   other cable types in a moment but between one and  two meters make sure that the cable is rated to   handle 48 gigabits per second and buy a cable from  a brand you trust I'm not here to specify Brands   because I can't list all the ones I personally  trust here and I'm not taking endorsement deals   but if you've never heard of the brand before  well it could be okay but are you okay taking   a chance of returning the product if it doesn't  work I'll also say don't buy the cheapest cable   and don't buy anything outrageously expensive the  good stuff is somewhere in the middle I mean the   really expensive cables are probably going to  be totally reliable but they are also probably   totally Overkill it's easy to Verge into snake oil  territory but again the notion that anything other   than the most basic inexpensive cable is snake  oil that's just not true now if you're going to   run an HDMI cable over 2 meters or 10 feet I think  you should very seriously consider stepping up to   an HDMI active optical cable or HDMI AOC you could  get away with longer runs before but now it's just   kind of too risky HDMI AOC is a hybrid that uses  fiber optics for some jobs and copper for others   and it's a much safer bet for longer runs what  I can say is that if an HDMI AOC cable doesn't   work then there's one more option that we can  look up to that would be HDMI cable power now   there are two types of utilizing the HDMI cable  power feature right now most devices don't have   HDMI cable power built in so the HDMI cable power  cables you would get come with a little separate   connector that will provide Power via like USB for  example but in the future as more devices support   HDMI cable power you'll be able to start using  HDMI cable power cables without that little   connector the power will just be baked into the  HDMI cable connector itself if HDMI AOC doesn't   work HDMI cable power should now this is all for  just general consumer use if you're talking about   in-wall use then you need to make sure that on  top of all that other stuff I just talked about   the cable is rated for in-wall use that usually  means it has a special jacket on the outside to   prevent the spread of or in some cases the cause  of fire okay I know that was a lot but I hope it   was helpful and as things evolve you can be sure  I'll be here to update you thanks as always for   watching everyone what do you think about this  deeper kind of content let me know down in the   comments don't forget to like And subscribe and  here's two other videos I think you might like

Channel: Digital Trends

Views: 260,317

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Id: rum8t32LkTQ

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 29 2022