AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)

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It is a relief to find HDMI cables that are inexpensive and deliver high quality video. I paid $40 for a 4ft cable at Circuit City a year ago, and less than half that price for the 10ft cable from Amazon.

As an electrical engineer I can tell you copper is copper. Unless Monster cable has coaxial wire for each signal line, which they don't because then the cable would be 10x larger than it is, then it's just copper wire inside a shield. There's still going to be crosstalk and capacitive coupling and all that stuff. All that "gas filled" stuff doesn't matter either. If you look at the mathematical equasions for the frequency response of an unshielded wire, you'd know none of this stuff makes any major difference.

The biggest thing to avoid, if you can, are ferrite cores on a cable. Ferrite cores are those black blob things that overmold the cable near one or both of the connectors. Ferrite cores act as high frequency filters and may cause signal degradation. They are typically used to comply with FCC laws and other regulatory bodies' radiated emissions laws. They add cost to the cable and typically degrade performance.

Regarding expensive cables, HDMI or otherwise, what no one asks is the most fundamental question Why? Let's assume Monster cable isn't lying and they can provide 300 GHz bandwidth or whatever they claim. Why do you need a cable that outperforms so much? It's like owning a car that can go 1000 MPH but the speed limit is 55MPH. In my field, that's called "over-engineering" which equates to unnecessary additional cost, which is exactly the problem Amazon has solved by sourcing this simple low cost HDMI cable.

While I'm soapboxing, gold plating isn't necessary either. Silver is the best conductor, followed by Copper, and then Gold (third best). Stainless Steel isn't far behind. The only reason gold plating is "better" is Gold does not corrode (but neither does stainless steel... they actually gold plate the stainless steel, how dumb is that?). If you are using your cables in a house where the humidity & temp is relatively constant, you should never need gold. As far as I can tell, Gold is just a gimmick to charge more for cables.

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I got an email from Amazon announcing their new line of AmazonBasics cables. They said that their goal was to make a high quality cable and sell it at a very reasonable price.

They have achieved that goal.

I ordered two of the six foot HDMI cables and on nine foot cable for about eight bucks each.

The cable came in a simple cardboard box with nothing but a twist tie aside from the cable (which is a good thing, I hate the plastic blister packs that cut your hands and unnecessary stuff in the box to go in the landfill).

The cable has a solid, quality feel to it. Nothing feels cheap or chintzy.

Connecting the cable between my TV and several compontents including my brand new Samsung Blu Ray player, the connection just worked every time.

For comparison purposes, I bought a $50 super delux, high end, will solve all the problems in your life (according to the sales guy) HDMI cable at Radio Shack. Connecting the AmazonBasics cable to the same Blu Ray player as the fancy cable I saw **NO DIFFERENCE**!

Looking into it I found out that HDMI is a standard that is run by an organization. In order for anyone to make an HDMI cable and put the HDMI logo on it (which the AmazonBasics cable does), the cable must be made to the HDMI organizations standards. So the group basically tells the companies how the cable must be made in order to be given the HDMI logo. The long and short of it is that cheap cable or expensive cable, it must work to the same standards in order to have the HDMI logo.

So, super fancy $50 cable gets thrown back across the counter to Radio Shack guy for return and AmazonBasics cable gets a new home in back of my entertainment center.

I'm now going to purchase several more of these for family and friends to have as spares since they don't know any better and will get suckered by the sales guy at best buy into buying a $50 Monster Cable HDMI cable that does nothing better than this one.

Buy AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters) Now

WHO NEEDS IT?

This cable will work well with anything that supports HDMI 1.3x but it's built to comply with the higher HDMI 1.4a standard of which it is a PARTIAL implementation (no Ethernet). If what you need is a true HDMI 1.4x cable, then the one to get is that which is described as "HDMI with Internet" which adds the data channel and support for higher video resolutions.

You may consider this product if you have TWO devices that support the HDMI 1.4 standard such as TVs, receivers or Blu-ray players. For these, the cable will carry through HD images and will allow you TV to send audio data BACK to your receiver if so connected, therefore eliminating the need for one dedicated audio cable. This specific cable will probably NOT support HDMI 1.4 Ethernet feature. You may also consider this cable if you currently need an extra HDMI 1.3 cable but you are planning to to replace your existing equipment with some HDMI 1.4-ready hardware in the near future.

Unless either of the above is true, you will not need this cable and, given that the HDMI 1.4 standards aren't set in stone yet this cable complies with the recently released HDMI 1.4a specs for 3D you should be better off waiting for the dust to settle. Keep in mind that BOTH connected devices need to support the HDMI 1.4 standard for this cable to make a difference and that it is NOT possible to upgrade any existing equipment (TV, Blu-ray player) to support HDMI 1.4.

HOW GOOD IS IT?

On my equipment, this worked as well as any older HDMI 1.3x cable. It replaced an existing 'cheap' wire at the back of my entertainment center and, nothing unexpected happened. The picture on my TV was as beautiful as before. The cable's short length (2 meters) and its 'high speed' certification make me confident that this cable will serve me well.

Briefly, this cable:

Behaves as a HDMI 1.3x 'high speed' or 'category 2' cable. If all you need is HDMI 1.3x then go for it or go for any other cheap HDMI 1.3x wire.

As a 'high speed' HDMI 1.4 cable, it supports video resolutions of at least 1080p including in 3D.

The 'data channel' (Ethernet support) is missing but it that would only work with HDMI 1.4 ready equipment so I'm not sure if it would be missed for the next couple of years.

The advertised audio return channel is another HDMI 1.4 feature that most currently owned equipment can't take advantage of.

It should support all the HDMI 1.4 extra color palettes because those are implemented by the HDMI 1.4 compliant connected equipment NOT by the cable.

WHY 3 STARS

A 3-star rating should be fair (and I am not factoring in the price) because this cable, while working perfectly as an HDMI 1.3x, is an incomplete HDMI 1.4 implementation. Incomplete HDMI 1.4 implementations are allowed by the HDMI consortium but there I see no advantage in purchasing a feature-crippled cable when full-featured alternatives are available. 'Niche' HDMI cables make sense form a vendor's point of view because a buyer may be willing to pay more for such an item but their marketing can only confuse and annoy the buyers. It should cost a vendor about the same to manufacture a 'universal' HDMI 1.4 wire as it does to make an incomplete (niche) product. In fact there may be economies of scale in producing 'universal' HDMI 1.4 cables only so marketing seems to be the only reason we get to see these intentionally crippled products.

My recommendation would be NOT to buy this cable. Get the 'High-Speed with Ethernet' if you want/need HDMI 1.4 or get an HDMI 1.3x otherwise.

END OF REVIEW

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What follows is the byproduct of me attempting to clarify 'HDMI 1.4' for myself and understanding this specific product's features. I thought I'd share.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? (understanding this cable's features)

HDMI 1.4 is a new HDMI standard adopted in 2009, backward compatible with HDMI 1.3. This cable should work with your existing equipment.

HIGH SPEED indicates that this cable supports resolutions of 1080p or higher and 3D video (unlike the HDMI 1.4 STANDARD cables which, believe it or not, are limited to 720p/1080i why? nobody knows).

ETHERNET (NOT supported by this specific product) means that a cable supports a full-duplex 100 Mb/sec Ethernet connection if you have 2 HDMI 1.4 ready devices and they both need an network connection, this cable will carry through the Ethernet datastream to the second device, therefore saving you the need for one extra Ethernet cable.

Audio Return Channel (supported) would save you the need of a dedicated audio cable between 2 HDMI 1.4 compliant devices, usually a TV that might get content directly from a USB storage device or the Ethernet and an HDMI 1.4 compliant receiver.

HDMI 1.4a brought HDMI in line with the recently agreed upon 3D TV industry standards but, consistent with HDMI's consortium's encouraging vendors to avoid talking about the actual version their HDMI cables are implementing, we simply don't know whether this one is HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 1.4a. Since '3D' is mentioned it's probably safe to assume HDMI 1.4a.

THE HDMI 1.4x DIFFERENCE

HDMI 1.4 allows for the following new features:

Ethernet Channel allows for the 2 connected devices to communicate with each other and share one network connection.

Audio Return Channel eliminates the need of a second cable if you want to send audio from your TV back to your receiver.

3D It's supported by HDMI 1.3x but HDMI 1.4a specifically supports all the currently agreed-upon industry standards

4K resolution good to have it but there is nothing on today's market that would take advantage of this

Expanded support for new color spaces by supporting sYCC601, AdobeRGB, and AdobeYCC601 it better aligns your display with the color spaces supported by digital cameras.

Type D connector the 'Micro' connector is to be used by small, portable devices with supported resolutions of up to 1080p. Be aware that there are now THREE different HDMI connectors: standard, mini and micro.

The HDMI Consortium defines 4 broad types of HDMI 1.4 cables:

* Standard HDMI Cable

* High Speed HDMI Cable

* Standard HDMI Cable with Ethernet

* High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet

Of all of the above, only the a 'High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet' makes sense.

Standard cables are limited to lower-resolution displays up to (approx. 720p or 1080i). High Speed cables support higher-resolution display (e.g. 1080p). They can deliver all video content currently defined for the HDMI standard (i.e. more than two 1080p/60 video streams, including 3D). HDMI cables with Ethernet are capable of sending 100/mbps over the HDMI Ethernet Channel. Since it is not likely that many HDMI 1.4 'standard' cables will be made or sold, I suspect that the crippled 'standard' type exists only to allow for calling the cables that support 1080p 'high speed' which sounds good and high-end.

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>> Brush your teeth, it's the law!

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