The RGB HDMI cable ISN'T as dumb as you'd think...

[nicklmg]

 

Buy RGB HDMI cable On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/rlKgZ9o

[Lurick]

So what you're saying is that if I buy this I won't be alone and it will cure all my ailments?

[GreatnessRD]

I love RGB, but its gettin' wild outchea, lol

[kirashi]

3 hours ago, nicklmg said:

 

Buy RGB HDMI cable On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/rlKgZ9o

Normally I'm not one to ever talk about anything RGB in a positive light (HA HA HA PUNS), but I respect both the acceptable pricing and honest marketing for this cable, at least when compared to some manufacturers (cough AudioQuest) on Amazon.

 

Mind you, the reviews for these cables are quite hilarious, so I guess there's that.  

https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-Braided-Cable-Audioquest/dp/B003CT2A2M/

 

Quote

4.0 out of 5 stars no improvement in terms of sound / video quality but....

 

Long story short, I didn't see or hear any improvement in terms of sound and video.

BUT, this cable is TRULY worth it! Albert Einstein, in his dying breathe tried to understand quantum “spooky action”, but he failed. Audioquest seems to have found the answer! This cable is so fast that the signal gets repeated from one end to another instantly! To test this “spooky action”, I was willing to risk $1500 by cutting this cable in half. I had my wife carried the other half to China and plug it into my grandpa’s old 480p TV. Instantly, I was able to transmit a signal from Texas to Shanghai through the two halves of the cable! The picture quality was reasonably clear, albeit not any better than what my grandpa's TV could handle. This is truly spooky! My theory is that the two halves of the cable might have been entangled at quantum level. I will try to fly the other half to Mars when Elon Musk takes me there! This could be the future of long distance communication!

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing Cable

I was planning to move out of Mom's basement with all the money I saved for the last 20 years but then I decided to buy this cable instead. Now I am not a popular guy with the ladies, but once I brought a couple of my chess club buddies home to see this new cable hooked up to my TV, they told their friends who told there friends and now I have been the talk of the neighborhood.

I quickly got the reputation of being "that guy with the cable", all the ladies on my block want to come over to watch TV and hang with me.
Dont get me wrong, most of them are toothless meth heads, but if you look like me, you take what you can get. This cable is highly recommended if you want to change your life for the better.

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!

My cats just love to chew on it. In fact, they've chewed on it so much that the diamond layer has been encrusted to their teeth. Now they each have their own tiny cat grills. Unfortunately, some of them have died in gang-related accidents.

 

 

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware: Requires additional equipment

This cable promises crystal clear audio and perfect picture quality, but it turns out you also need speakers and a TV to achieve best results. Without additional speakers, the sound was nearly inaudible unless I shoved the end of the cable three inches directly into my ear canal. This was very uncomfortable and made it impossible to see the video coming out of the cable.

 

[sub68]

somebody is probably thinking on a whole RGB setup right now  

[kirashi]

7 minutes ago, sub68 said:

somebody is probably thinking on a whole RGB setup right now  

You asked for it... I present to you, the LTT RGB Chair, lowering KPIs to increase ROI by EOD through its' Huge Ass-Lighting!

 

[sub68]

Just now, kirashi said:

You asked for it... I present to you, the LTT RGB Chair, lowering KPIs to increase ROI by EOD!

 

I think linus is think of this idea 

[Canoe]

As seen in the video, and as most people have seen, various cable products are advertised as improving the end result. Well this can be technically true (but their product claims sure stretch that), few users are in circumstances where that will be of benefit, let alone needed. Additionally, repeatedly I see largely correct counter information presented as comprehensively "True".

 

"It either works, or it cuts out" is largely correct (in that it is what most users will experience), but it is incomplete. It doesn't address the small percentage of cases where a cable works, but the image or sound is degraded. Note small. If you're not experiencing problems or a degraded image or sound, there is no need to run out and give your money away for higher quality cables, nor for those with exotic and/or questionable materials or features.

 

Even on boards, as most people know, the digital signals are typically a high or low voltage: if the voltage is high enough it's treated as a One, if the voltage is low enough it's a Zero. Check a Timing Diagram or Slew Rates if you want to get into the detailed stuff. Like that, nearly all "digital" signals are not actually digital, but are Digitally Encoded analog signals. Read their various specs if you want the specifics.

 

Digital signals are great as:

1. with mild degradation of the transmission, the analog signal is almost always correctly interpreted at the receiving end and the digital input will equal the digital output,
2. with some more degradation, error correction protocols will result in the correct digital output,
3. beyond that, the received signal starts getting fixed into something that makes sense, usually a very usable value (much like a lossey format like jpg making up data to complete the image),
4. as degradation gets worse, the image and/or sound gets increasingly worse in quality (as though crazy high image/sound compression), 
5. beyond that, you get droppouts, then breakups, then scrambled images/sound,
6. finally, no usable signal.

• For the overwhelming majority of users, the EMF levels in their environment (or the quality of the cable shielding) won't result in meaningful EMI. They will fall into the 1st and 2nd conditions, with some unknowingly in the 3rd.
• Those that end up experiencing the 5th or 6th will know there's something wrong, and will investigate what's going on. Unless you're going for greater distances, this is usually solved with a product that uses a reasonable quality cable.
• If there's high noise, or you've used cheap cables (poor or no shielding), you may be in the 3rd, or possibly 4th conditions. Before spending your money on a reasonable quality cable, after ensuring your system's settings are correct (and possibly software, driver or firmware updates), borrow one and see if that solves the image or sound issues.

Few will have a degraded signal that is so close to usable that gold plated connections make a difference. Some may be in humid conditions that require gold plating to prevent corrosion over time.

 

For network cables, you see the same thing. Even where a CAT5 or CAT6 product is made with a quality cable and terminals, if the correct layout isn't used and isn't a quality termination, the final cable may not be capable of even CAT5 speeds. Used the right stuff, but did it wrong. I like that the product in the video states their certification for 4K 60 Hz 18G Deep Color. If the quality assurance is up to par, it should be good to go.

 

This cable looks great for high EMF/EMI noise environments, and for somewhat longer distances!

And I love that it flashes red when it looses the connection with the receiving end! When you loose your display, its already telling you which end has the issue, which could be saving very valuable time, sometimes critical time, in trouble shooting. Or saves you aggravation.

It's a shame it's not available in shorter lengths. Hate to have so much cable around stuffed in or behind something where it can get damaged.

I have a longer HDMI display need coming up. This cable could be a very good choice for this. Looks like it's most likely to be an install and forget.

 

With fibre optic cable being a mature product, the mode of fibre optic cable they're using is likely capable of much longer distances. We may be seeing such if there's a demand. Although I doubt the RGB could do meaningfully longer distances.

[sydh]

@nicklmg Your Amazon link is rather busted. Though in quite a funny way.

[Arika]

so what's the point of a fancy cable if it's just going to be hidden behind everything and entangled with every other basic black cable?

[idmb]

6 hours ago, Canoe said:

nearly all "digital" signals are not actually digital, but are Digitally Encoded analog signals.

Yep. Digital signals can have noise too. It's basically the same effect that causes interference / longer distances to give worse wifi connections.  

 

Also for what it's worth, there's no reason you can't make a very fancy active HDMI cable that's reversible. It's just a lot of wasted circuitry.  

[Canoe]

12 hours ago, Canoe said:

...

With fibre optic cable being a mature product, the mode of fibre optic cable they're using is likely capable of much longer distances. We may be seeing such if there's a demand. ...

 

And it is so.

The Vivify web site shows a (non-RGB) fibre-optic cable, W30, in 25', 32' and 50' lengths, also certified for HDMI 2.0b 4K 60 Hz 18G deep color.

Also available in custom lengths up to 328'/100 m.

They're not giving it away, but for a reliable full signal immune to EMI, it's a real problem solver.

[NickosD]

I'm wondering if the fading in the middle of the cable gets solved by connecting the usb connector too. In the video, you test the connector before actually see the fading issue towards the middle of the cable. That might solve the issue.

[Canoe]

21 hours ago, Arika S said:

so what's the point of a fancy cable if it's just going to be hidden behind everything and entangled with every other basic black cable?

• 'Cause it's more likely to keep working away, unaffected by EMI or EMI cross-talk among all those cables and devices of various quality and noise.
• When it loses connection, it's flashing red to say "here's where to start!"
• And when you have to stick your head back there, the flashing red or a colour you select makes it much easily to trace than a plain black cable. Although wiggling or pulling a plain black cable to tie all the plain black cables up into a nest of plain black cables may be a pastime you are accustomed to, and might somehow miss?
• If you need to minimize the downtime or aggro, it might just be a life saver.
• It's early, but IF it continues to work as expected over time, it's a great time & stress reliever. Install and forget.

[Thanatopsis]

From a professional live event AV perspective this isnt new but its honestly a waste to use in these cable lengths.  HDMI in its 1.4 and up standard can easily transmit up to 50 feet.  In live event and instal AV fiber optic HDMI converters and cables are used for runs 35 feet up to 1000 feet.  The cost for a high end 50 foot copper HDMI cable that can handle emi in all but the worst situations is still cheaper than the the price listed for the 50 foot cable.

 

The rgb benifit that Linus talked about can be acomplished by just putting a lable on each end of the HDMI cable.

[Canoe]

10 hours ago, Thanatopsis said:

... a high end 50 foot copper HDMI cable that can handle emi in all but the worst situations ...

At the fibre-optic based cable's "4K 60 Hz 18G Deep Color"?

 

How do we find such an HDMI cable that will actually do that, rather than those just pushing something that simply costs more?

Product links?

[Arika]

On 1/27/2020 at 2:44 PM, Canoe said:

• 'Cause it's more likely to keep working away, unaffected by EMI or EMI cross-talk among all those cables and devices of various quality and noise

never had issues with EMI in the many years i've been using computers

 

Quote

• When it loses connection, it's flashing red to say "here's where to start!"

Its a HDMI cable, it's plugged into the GPU and Monitor, not exactly hard to find both ends

 

Quote

• And when you have to stick your head back there, the flashing red or a colour you select makes it much easily to trace than a plain black cable. Although wiggling or pulling a plain black cable to tie all the plain black cables up into a nest of plain black cables may be a pastime you are accustomed to, and might somehow miss?

could be easily solved by a normal coloured cable, doesn't need to be RGB. Again, it's going to be hidden behind your monitor and computer making the RGB part of it hugely pointless

 

Quote

• If you need to minimize the downtime or aggro, it might just be a life saver.

i'm sure i can spare 2 minutes swapping a cable

 

Quote

• It's early, but IF it continues to work as expected over time, it's a great time & stress reliever. Install and forget.

I've have 1 out of god knows how many HDMI cables fail in the last 10 years

[Canoe]

2 minutes ago, Arika S said:

never had issues with EMI in the many years i've been using computers

 

Its a HDMI cable, it's plugged into the GPU and Monitor, not exactly hard to find both ends

 

could be easily solved by a normal coloured cable, doesn't need to be RGB. Again, it's going to be hidden behind your monitor and computer making the RGB part of it hugely pointless

 

i'm sure i can spare 2 minutes swapping a cable

 

I've have 1 out of god knows how many HDMI cables fail in the last 10 years

Glad for you that your environment, setup and use doesn't have such issues.

 

Some do have a use for such a cable. Which benefit(s) that apply will depend on one's environment, amount of equipment and application.

• A red-flashing cable immediately narrows down the issue when the display(s) disappears. One doesn't even have to take time to see which colour cable goes to which monitor.
• Installing a replacement, which receptacle to plug into is indicated by the flashing red cable. Pull one, plug the replacement.
• Flashing red or selecting a colour of choice can mean you don't have to find/turn-on auxiliary lighting to see a colour code or read a label.

Personally, there are times in the day where I can't spare two minutes to swap a cable. In the past, eight second outages have cost me between $400 and $1,200. Which is why I leave a spare cable routed in place, available for immediate use, a flashlight sitting beside the rear of the box, and got a much greater capacity UPS. I also have one monitor that isn't used for the application, so it's available to take over what's displayed on a monitor that fails.

 

This is the setup from 2010. I forget the width in feet. Keyboard & headphones provide some scale.

Add another in the upper right position and a stack of 3x1 on a column to the right. There's another for monitoring GNSS & time server, but it's on its own box.

The photo on the monitors are just for amusement. They're not the application the system was built for.

 

 

I had no EMI issues for years. Then an agency took over x number of floors across the street. They put lots of antennas on their roof...

 

And a new setup being added will mean I'll have two, then later three, monitors that are 40' away from their box. They'll be running through a ceiling empty space that has steel girders and a metal sheet above that lines the underside of the floor above, which currently reflects signals from GNSS sats that are low on the horizon in a specific direction through the structure which messes with the GPS receiver of my time server.

 

[Thanatopsis]

9 hours ago, Canoe said:

At the fibre-optic based cable's "4K 60 Hz 18G Deep Color"?

 

How do we find such an HDMI cable that will actually do that, rather than those just pushing something that simply costs more?

Product links?

the HDMI standard sets the "Deep Color" standards all that matters is if the cable is actually capable of passing 18Gig of data.  
Going to Sites like Markertek or B&H Photo Video, both of which are providers of equipment to AV Professionals while not RGB this cable is from a brand I have lots of experience with and has been a major player in the install and live event AV field for longer than I have been alive.

[Thanatopsis]

To be honest the more i think about this and look at the product page the more i feel the only redeaming part of this product is the rgb lights. 

 

The 15 foot cable costs as much as a 150 foot non rgb fiberoptic cable the certification is from a no name cert lab that doesnt explain their cert in any technical significant manner.

[Derkoli]

On 1/25/2020 at 11:27 PM, kirashi said:

Normally I'm not one to ever talk about anything RGB in a positive light (HA HA HA PUNS), but I respect both the acceptable pricing and honest marketing for this cable, at least when compared to some manufacturers (cough AudioQuest) on Amazon.

 

Mind you, the reviews for these cables are quite hilarious, so I guess there's that.  

https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-Braided-Cable-Audioquest/dp/B003CT2A2M/

I'll have you know my AudioQuest HDMI cable allows me to accurately reproduce 1Hz-100,000Hz with less distortion than your peasant AmazonBasics cable, but you need one of these to reproduce up to 200,000Hz accurately:

 

[Canoe]

14 hours ago, Thanatopsis said:

...

The 15 foot cable costs as much as a 150 foot non rgb fiberoptic cable the certification is from a no name cert lab that doesnt explain their cert in any technical significant manner.

Good to know...

[Canoe]

15 hours ago, Thanatopsis said:

...  this cable is from a brand I have lots of experience with and has been a major player in the install and live event AV field for longer than I have been alive.

Nice!

Looks very well made.

I'm not familar with the HDMI spec. Do you happen to know if Best Practices are to ground the sheilding at the primary receiving end, or both ends?

[Thanatopsis]

8 hours ago, Canoe said:

Nice!

Looks very well made.

I'm not familar with the HDMI spec. Do you happen to know if Best Practices are to ground the sheilding at the primary receiving end, or both ends?

Because HDMI is normally not a directional cable only one end will be grounded but it doesnt matter if it is the reciving end or the sending end.  If both ends are grounded it can cause a ground loop and cause its own interference.