HDMI cable versions...

[IvanC123]

I've recently bought a new monitor, BENQ GW2470H and it has 2 HDMI ports... now idk which version of hdmi cable do they support... will it work if I buy a HDMI 2.0 cable and hook it up to my gpu?

[Enderman]

No such thing as HDMI 2.0 cable.

There are CL2 rated cables that work for all HDMI versions.

[Jasun]

HDMI 2.0, which is backwards compatible with earlier versions of the HDMIspecification - Got this from a quick google search.

[cpuwaiy]

Looks like you'll need at least 1.4

 

 

http://playwares.com/dpreview/47604706

 

 

[IvanC123]

Just now, Jasun said:

HDMI 2.0, which is backwards compatible with earlier versions of the HDMIspecification - Got this from a quick google search.

Okay, thank you

 

[IvanC123]

3 minutes ago, cpuwaiy said:

Looks like you'll need at least 1.4

 

 

http://playwares.com/dpreview/47604706

 

 

It's okay, I was planning to buy 2.0 anyways so it doesnt matter..

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

No such thing as HDMI 2.0 cable.

There are CL2 rated cables that work for all HDMI versions.

well.. there is such a thing, it's just that the great majority of cables out there is grossly underrated.

but you can defenately find cables that cant handle anything above their rated spec.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

well.. there is such a thing, it's just that the great majority of cables out there is grossly underrated.

but you can defenately find cables that cant handle anything above their rated spec.

No, there are none. HDMI 2.0 is a specification of the controllers on either end.

All cables are the same, they work for all HDMI versions.

Obviously you can get low quality ones or high quality ones, but there is no need to change your HDMI cable if you already have one.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

All cables are the same, they work for all HDMI versions.

they defenately, DEFENATELY dont.

 

i have an "it had 1080p on the box" cable that gladly does 4k 30Hz (i dont have 4K60Hz to test with), i have another "it had 1080p on the box" cable from the same brand (but a different batch) that refuses to do anything beyond 1080p.

--

while yes, in most cases cables do everything just fine, we should REALLY not put that as a default, because some cheaper (not even garbage cheap) have strange secrets hiding in odd corners when you go beyond the spec they had on the box. and you better know someone on the forum is gonna listen to your recommendation, get the cheapest piece of shit they can find, plug it in, and have it not work, and then blame you

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

they defenately, DEFENATELY dont.

 

i have an "it had 1080p on the box" cable that gladly does 4k 30Hz (i dont have 4K60Hz to test with), i have another "it had 1080p on the box" cable from the same brand (but a different batch) that refuses to do anything beyond 1080p.

--

while yes, in most cases cables do everything just fine, we should REALLY not put that as a default, because some cheaper (not even garbage cheap) have strange secrets hiding in odd corners when you go beyond the spec they had on the box. and you better know someone on the forum is gonna listen to your recommendation, get the cheapest piece of shit they can find, plug it in, and have it not work, and then blame you

Then that is just because it is a crappy cable with bad shielding.

I bet you can go on ebay and get a "HDMI 2.0" cable that can't do HDMI 2.0

 

That's because they are just cables, there is nothing 1.4 or 2.0 about them.

What is important is that you buy a good quality cable from a reputable brand and not overpay for some "monster" cable that claims only their $200 option is "HDMI 2.0 certified" or other marketing BS.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

Then that is just because it is a crappy cable with bad shielding.

I bet you can go on ebay and get a "HDMI 2.0" cable that can't do HDMI 2.0

 

That's because they are just cables, there is nothing 1.4 or 2.0 about them.

What is important is that you buy a good quality cable from a reputable brand and not overpay for some "monster" cable that claims only their $200 option is "HDMI 2.0 certified" or other marketing BS.

please tell me, what is a reputable hdmi cable brand?

 

because literally every cable i have in my display cable box performs "out of spec" equally bad. i only have two cables of the same brand, and honestly, from taking apart several dead ones (my dad is a chimpanzee at times...) inside they are all exactly the same. the exceptions being those two before mentioned cables, which have thicker wires because they're longer. (i have had to do repairs to both, because they're OLD  the oldest of the pair was made before 4K existed.. and is my only HDMI cable that can do 4K.)

 

and that is also why i dont recommend to buy anything on ebay, because if a HDMI 2.0 cable cant do HDMI 2.0 that's what we call false marketing over here, and it's quite illegal

--

(PS: dont mention monoprice, they're identical to the cable that i've now gutted for bodge wires for repairs, they're on the "identical" pile.)

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

please tell me, what is a reputable hdmi cable brand?

I'm not in the market for HDMI cables so I don't have brands memorized, but it is not hard to look at reviews and information to learn what brands are good or bad yourself.

Any intelligent shopper knows how to find out if a brand is good or not.

I'm not going to waste my time doing it when you can do it for yourself

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

I'm not in the market for HDMI cables so I don't have brands memorized, but it is not hard to look at reviews and information to learn what brands are good or bad yourself.

Any intelligent shopper knows how to find out if a brand is good or not.

I'm not going to waste my time doing it when you can do it for yourself

that's what i'm bringing to you.

there is no reputable hdmi cable brand

 

they..just..all..suck..

 

i push on the versions as much as i push on choosing reputable retailers, for this reason:

you get the cheapest cable that claims that it can do what you need it to do, if it doesnt work you bring it back and get something else. decent retailers will be as disgusted as you when a product isnt capable of what it says on the box.

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

that's what i'm bringing to you.

there is no reputable hdmi cable brand

 

they..just..all..suck..

 

i push on the versions as much as i push on choosing reputable retailers, for this reason:

you get the cheapest cable that claims that it can do what you need it to do, if it doesnt work you bring it back and get something else. decent retailers will be as disgusted as you when a product isnt capable of what it says on the box.

No they don't, there are plenty that are good. Monster is good, but they are overpriced.

The point is there is no such thing as an HDMI 2.0 cable because the 2.0 is a piece of electronics that encodes a video signal into HDMI and decodes it on the other end. The cable is just strands of copper with insulation.

 

You get a good quality cable, it will do 4k 60hz. You get a cheap chinese cable, it will not.

This has nothing to do whether it is advertised as 2.0 or not.

 

There are millions of cables not advertised as 2.0 that will do 4k 60Hz and there are millions that are advertised as 2.0 but will not do 4k 60Hz.

 

If you get a good quality cable it almost certainly will, but it is quite trial and error which is why I recommend looking at reviews first.

 

 

 

Again, there is NO SUCH THING as an HDMI 2.0 cable certification.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

No they don't, there are plenty that are good. Monster is good, but they are overpriced.

so they suck

 

also:

Quote

On October 5, 2015 - HDMI Licensing, LLC announced[81] the Premium HDMI Cable Certification for HDMI 2.0.

they're not called HDMI 2.0 cables, but there's a specific type of cable cert for 4K60Hz

 

and as much as i'd like to not spoil your mood, i can get those for very little more over the lower cert cables on my retailer of choice, and maybe your time isnt worth money, but mine sure is, so i'd rather pay the price of a cookie extra so i am assured that something will work, instead of potentially spending an evening troubleshooting and eventually just buying a different cable.

[Enderman]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

they're not called HDMI 2.0 cables, but there's a specific type of cable cert for 4K60Hz

No this is not true. It is a cable and it either is high quality or it is not.

The only standard certification for HDMI is the CL rating, which is nothing to do with bandwidth.

Go contact HDMI if you don't believe me, they will tell you the same thing.

There is no HDMI cable bandwith or "2.0" certification.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

No this is not true. It is a cable and it either is high quality or it is not.

The only standard certification for HDMI is the CL rating, which is nothing to do with bandwidth.

Go contact HDMI if you don't believe me, they will tell you the same thing.

There is no HDMI cable bandwith or "2.0" certification.

http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=141

 

i hate to break it to you, but i asked HDMI.

standard HDMI is 1080i or 720p

high speed hdmi is 1080p, 4k30, and some other BS.

premium high speed hdmi is 4k60

 

annnd.. wait for it.

48G hdmi cables specificly for HDMI 2.1 features.

--

 

what you're not getting is that i'm not saying the cables have a "set bandwidth".

what i'm saying is they're rated for something, which means they're "tested" for something. if you try somethig beyond that rating, it's something they arent tested for. no sane retailer in the world is gonna take back a cable that says "1080p" on the box, and you bring it back because it doesnt like your 4K TV. on the flip side no sane retailer is gonna tell you to sod off when your cable that says "4k60" on the box doesnt like your 4K tv.

[Enderman]

5 minutes ago, manikyath said:

http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=141

 

i hate to break it to you, but i asked HDMI.

standard HDMI is 1080i or 720p

high speed hdmi is 1080p, 4k30, and some other BS.

premium high speed hdmi is 4k60

 

This is exactly what the marketing people want you to think, and this is how they change $200 for an HDMI cable.

None of it is true. This "18Gbps" or whatever bitrate rating they give to cables is false.

Sure they are tested at that, but it is just a cable.

The cheaper cables they sell they just test it at a lower resolution and label it as lower so thaat you feel you need to buy the more expensive cable.

 

Sorry, but the marketing has worked on you, and it is all BS.

Go look at all the studies about this cable scamming marketing, you might learn something new.

[manikyath]

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

This is exactly what the marketing people want you to think, and this is how they change $200 for an HDMI cable.

None of it is true. This "18Gbps" or whatever bitrate rating they give to cables is false.

Sure they are tested at that, but it is just a cable.

The cheaper cables they sell they just test it at a lower resolution and label it as lower so thaat you feel you need to buy the more expensive cable.

 

Sorry, but the marketing has worked on you, and it is all BS.

Go look at all the studies about this cable scamming marketing, you might learn something new.

no way in the world i'd buy a $200 hdmi cable.

i would gladly buy ~10% more for a cable that has the cert my setup asks for compared to the cheapest one available tho.

 

and let me just get this straight.. you told me to ask HDMI, i link you the official article on the cert for the cables supporting HDMI 2.0 features, and now everything is suddenly a scam?

[Glenwing]

51 minutes ago, manikyath said:

http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=141

 

i hate to break it to you, but i asked HDMI.

standard HDMI is 1080i or 720p

high speed hdmi is 1080p, 4k30, and some other BS.

premium high speed hdmi is 4k60

 

annnd.. wait for it.

48G hdmi cables specificly for HDMI 2.1 features.

--

 

what you're not getting is that i'm not saying the cables have a "set bandwidth".

what i'm saying is they're rated for something, which means they're "tested" for something. if you try somethig beyond that rating, it's something they arent tested for. no sane retailer in the world is gonna take back a cable that says "1080p" on the box, and you bring it back because it doesnt like your 4K TV. on the flip side no sane retailer is gonna tell you to sod off when your cable that says "4k60" on the box doesnt like your 4K tv.

Thanks for this. I was unaware actually that they now have a certification process for this. When HDMI 2.0 was first released there was no additional certification for cables, and the HDMI consortium stated numerous times that the existing Category 2 cables (tested up to 10.2 Gbit/s) would be sufficient. Guess they have changed their mind.

 

I would also point out that no, not all HDMI cables are the same, even before this. Some cables will handle higher data rates than others, depending on the construction and length of the cable. Yes, all HDMI cables had the same official rating (before "premium high speed" testing existed), because no testing was done beyond 10.2 Gbit/s, but that does not mean they are all the same. It just means they can all do at least 10.2 Gbit/s, and anything more than that had no official validation process.

 

On the other hand I will also point out that I have tested HDMI 2.0 data rates on every HDMI cable I own (which is quite a lot, and none of them are "HDMI 2.0 cables") and I have not yet found an HDMI cable that didn't work. Even a 15-foot extra-thin cable that was less than $5 which I bought in like 2013 or something (before HDMI 2.0 was even published) worked for 4K 60 Hz RGB. So in my experience, it is quite difficult to find one that doesn't work, regardless of whether the cable advertises "HDMI 2.0" or "HDMI 1.4".

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

no way in the world i'd buy a $200 hdmi cable.

i would gladly buy ~10% more for a cable that has the cert my setup asks for compared to the cheapest one available tho.

 

and let me just get this straight.. you told me to ask HDMI, i link you the official article on the cert for the cables supporting HDMI 2.0 features, and now everything is suddenly a scam?

This is new.

For the past decades they have no had any certification like this.

Also, this certification is not "HDMI 2.0 cable" certification, it is premium high speed HDMI.

There is still no such thing as an "HDMI 2.0" cable.

[Glenwing]

10 minutes ago, Enderman said:

This is new.

For the past decades they have no had any certification like this.

Also, this certification is not "HDMI 2.0 cable" certification, it is premium high speed HDMI.

There is still no such thing as an "HDMI 2.0" cable.

That's just semantics, it's a validation process for cable operation at the data rates used by HDMI 2.0. I mean sure, there is no thing that exists that has the official name of "HDMI 2.0 cable", but there is a certification for cable operation at HDMI 2.0 spec, which I think is what is being argued, not that "there is a thing that has the name "HDMI 2.0 cable"". What it's called is really beside the point.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

This is new.

For the past decades they have no had any certification like this.

Also, this certification is not "HDMI 2.0 cable" certification, it is premium high speed HDMI.

There is still no such thing as an "HDMI 2.0" cable.

it is a cert specificly for 2.0 tho, it's not *named* a HDMI 2.0 cable, but the cable spec was essentially invented *for* HDMI 2.0.

and.. looking at dates, it seems like you've had your head in the sand for the past few years then, because they've had several different certs for cables since 2011

9 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

Thanks for this. I was unaware actually that they now have a certification process for this. When HDMI 2.0 was first released there was no additional certification for cables, and the HDMI consortium stated numerous times that the existing Category 2 cables (tested up to 10.2 Gbit/s) would be sufficient. Guess they have changed their mind.

 

I would also point out that no, not all HDMI cables are the same, even before this. Some cables will handle higher data rates than others, depending on the construction and length of the cable. Yes, all HDMI cables had the same official rating (before "premium high speed" testing existed), because no testing was done beyond 10.2 Gbit/s, but that does not mean they are all the same. It just means they can all do at least 10.2 Gbit/s, and anything more than that had no official validation process.

 

On the other hand I will also point out that I have tested HDMI 2.0 data rates on every HDMI cable I own (which is quite a lot, and none of them are "HDMI 2.0 cables") and I have not yet found an HDMI cable that didn't work. Even a 15-foot extra-thin cable that was less than $5 which I bought in like 2013 or something (before HDMI 2.0 was even published) worked for 4K 60 Hz RGB. So in my experience, it is quite difficult to find one that doesn't work, regardless of whether the cable advertises "HDMI 2.0" or "HDMI 1.4".

i have a huge bunch of really terrible cables, and actually cut down a few of them to look what's *really* inside.

 

funnily enough, my best cable in terms of "working" is a really old, stupidly cheap cable that was from before 4K was even a thing.

 

oh, and a fun sidenote, i went to look, @Enderman will love this one:

i went to check my "broken" bin, one of the cables i tore apart is a monster cable, it is at its core the same cable as all the other ones, with the difference they glued a thin metal shell with fake screws to the connector to make it look like a metal connector.

 

i kid you not, fake screws, they turn and everything, but they dont have threading and dont hold anything, they are just made to look like screws, that's where your (or rather, my dad's) money went compared to a €50-60 cheaper "huan hung lo" HDMI cable with the same wiring: FAKE FREAKING SCREWS.

 

since my dad tears trough hdmi cables like a chimp tears up his food (no idea if this analogy even makes sense) i've had quite my share of experience with vareous cables, if memory serves the downstairs TV is currently rocking belkin cables, and they *work* but if you covered off the label on the connector i couldnt for the life of me tell you the difference between those, and any other ones we have. i've even had my hands on a few that for all intents and purposes look like they came off the same "bulk roll" of HDMI cable.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Glenwing said:

That's just semantics, it's a validation process for cable operation at the data rates used by HDMI 2.0. I mean sure, there is no thing that exists that has the official name of "HDMI 2.0 cable", but there is a certification for cable operation at HDMI 2.0 spec, which I think is what is being argued, not that "there is a thing that has the name "HDMI 2.0 cable"".

Until now,everything has either said "HDMI 2.0" on the box or it has not.

Earlier he was arguing that this label on the box means it it HDMI 2.0 certified, and I think I made it pretty clear that there is no 2.0 or 1.4 certification or anything, it either works or it doesn't depending on quality.

 

The point of a certification is so that there is a label on the box that guarantees you get some features.

 

A box saying 2.0 on it doesn't guarantee anything. There are cables labelled as 2.0 that will not do 4k 60Hz, and there are cables not labeled which will.

Just because a cable works with HDMI 2.0 does not mean it can do 4k 60Hz because 2.0 =/= 4k 60Hz.

2.0 is just a bandwidth increase on the transmitter and receiver and has NOTHING to do with the cable.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

Earlier he was arguing that this label on the box means it it HDMI 2.0 certified

i argued that not every "cert" of cable is the exact same thing, and said the label means that if it doesnt work with "whats labeled on the box", your retailer will go shout and scream at the supplier.

 

i shop for my cables in terms of what they claim to support, i dont give a rats ass about hdmi whatever the hell certified, if the box says 4K and its the cheapest one on the shelf, and i need a 4k cable, that's gonna be the one i take home. if you can find a cheaper cable that does the thing, good for you, but i have plenty of cables that are below the spec i need, so if i need a high spec cable, i'd rather make sure i get one that does what it needs to do.

 

and if you REALLY need to see dollar amounts so you stop crying about $200 cables:

https://www.alternate.be/goobay/High-Speed-HDMI-Kabel-met-Ethernet-1m/html/product/1140023?lk=6596

cheapest HDMI cable

https://www.alternate.be/Sharkoon/HDMI-2-0-kabel-2-0-meter-Kabel/html/product/1225735?lk=6596

cheapest one that claims 4K 60hz on the box.

 

i dont care if putting "hdmi 2.0" on the box even means anything, to me it means i can return this product if it doesnt do 4k 60Hz. what does it mean to you?