Quote:
Originally Posted by corporatejay
Read that gizmodo article, while I agree that monster is pure bullshart, the idea that they are just 1s and 0s seems to be slightly incorrect.
for the record i buy all my cables from monoprice.
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There is no error correction in the HDMI spec, which means that in theory, if a cable were of sufficient length, or sufficiently poor quality, you can end up with (simplified explanation) issues where the voltage doesn't rise and fall to the values required to register as accurate data bits, doesn't rise and fall quickly enough, or the edges between the transitions get rounded off. You also get signal reflections (like echos) going back down the cable too, which can interfere. HDMI cables are twisted pair, which is supposed to control reflections and such, but the quality of twisted pair can vary quite a bit.
It works 99% of the time though, because it's a lot easier to distinguish between two states (digital) than accurately transmit and measure something that is infinitely variable (analog).
I'll wait now for an EE to chime in and correct my high-school level understanding of this stuff, but the short story is that it is possible that a cable could be sufficiently bad that the HDMI signal is barely in spec.
I am NOT however, advocating spending Monster Cable levels of cash on your HDMI cables though.