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(More customer reviews)Reviewers trash Monster HDMI cables up and down on the other HDMI product pages. The predominant complaint is that they are overpriced and you don't need them for digital communications.
That's wrong. You just might actually need them. Turns out I did.
I had a setup with a home theater sound system, game console, Blu-Ray player, etc. I had been using Mediabridge Ultra Series - High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - Category 2 Certified - Supports 3D & Audio Return Channel [Latest HDMI Version Available] - (6 Feet) cables to make all my connections. They worked beautifully for all but my computer through the sound system and I had to hook that directly to the TV through an alternate HDMI input.
But then I tried 3D signals. The TV picture would flash on and off as it would handshake, lose it, handshake, lose it. That is also the behavior the computer had with a 2D signal though the sound system. The issue here is the sound system. Apparently there are enough losses in the sound system and input selector circuitry that it put me over the edge for the 3D signals and the combined losses and reflections from source to TV were just too much for the TV to stay locked in on the HDMI signal. Until I got these cables, I had to bypass the sound system and just feed the stereo out from the TV into one of the AUX inputs on the sound system for sound. What a waste of the surround sound system.
Even though the HDMI signals are digital, it's a very high frequency signal. The Mediabridge are rated at 10.2 Gbps which from source to TV and even through a sound system are generally adequate. These Monster cables are rated at 17.8 Gbps (even though the description says 15.8, the ones that arrived today say 17.8 on the package).
What this means is that these cables can carry the digital signal from one end to the other more reliably and with less attenuation than lesser cables. Even though it is a "digital" signal, it's still an analog signal that the electronics have to be able to say is a 1 or a 0 for each bit. If the cable is not able to carry the high frequencies, the corners of the digital signal get rounded off and the electronics have a harder time deciding if a bit is really a 1 or a 0. It gets less "digital". (Google An Introduction To Fourier Series Representations Of Periodic Signals and see what happens as you lose the high frequency components) To carry a square wave you need the fundamental frequency but then also the higher frequency odd harmonics. If the cable attenuates the higher frequencies, your square wave turns more into a sine wave - that's what you can see in that article though they are going from sine to square by adding in the harmonics. It's the same deal, though. If the high frequencies are attenuated, your signal changes shape and the peaks get smaller. That's why the higher frequency rating is important in cases where you need every bit of signal you can get - when running longer cables or if you have other equipment inserted between the signal source and TV.
So when I couldn't get the 3D signal and the TV picture was flashing on and off, I upgraded the HDMI cables to these. That cut the total loses in the chain from source to sound system to TV enough to where the signal is good enough for the TV to lock on. Now the picture is stable and 3D when I use 3D sources. These let me switch back to having the sound system control all the inputs, be controlled by the TV, and be able to have the sound system provide surround sound audio.
The Mediabridge cables are great and were one third the price I have no problem recommending those as well. They can't handle the very high frequencies well enough to be able to send clean 3D in my setup, though. This is where the extra features of the Monster cables come into their own. Them being able to transmit the higher frequencies ended up being crucial.
So if you are doing straight up HDMI, you probably can use the cheaper cables. As I said, the cheaper cables worked great for a standard setup. If you are doing 1080P in 3D and the cheaper cables can't get you an image without the flashing, upgrading your cables to these could very well fix the issue. It did for me.
The Monster cables aren't a rip off as others claim. They are more expensive, but the components of the cable are more expensive. They use thicker cables with finer strands and much more attention is paid to proper termination in the connectors so signal reflections are minimized. Everything they explain about these cables is proper for high frequency signal transmission and maintaining signal integrity.
Not everyone needs these cables. If a cable with lower frequency rating gets your signal where it needs to go, to a first approximation the lower frequency cable is all you need. However, I needed the extra bandwidth and I'm glad these were available. Without these, no 3D and surround sound for me.
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