1. What is HDMI?

HDMI utilizes digital technology, rather than analog video signals, to get a picture from its source, to your television … and from there to your eyes! The letters stand for High Definition Multimedia Interface.

2. The advantages of HDMI lots

There are tons of advantages to HDMI technology – one of the reasons that the HDMI cable you buy today will be a solid decades-long investment. The advantages include:

• Gives better picture and sound quality by eliminating the need to convert a signal from digital, to analog (in the S-Video or other cable), back to digital
• Compresses up to 8 channels of audio into a single cable.
• No data is ‘thrown away’ in order to fit an audio or visual signal into the cable – this occurs with Toslink optical and digital coax connectors.
• Upgrades to the technology don’t mean you have to replace your cables (more on that later)

3. HDMI and DVI are not the same

HDMI is capable of carrying both audio and video signals – DVI is capable of carrying video signals only. However, both DVI and HDMI cables are all-digital interfaces and have the same high definition capacity.

4. HDMI and DVI are compatible with a converter

HDMI technology is actually based on the DVI concept, and HDMI cables are fully backwards compatible with DVI. You just need a converter to make the plugs fit together. There are a couple of HDMI-specific features that you lose with this method – automatic screen size conversion and universal remote control applicability are two.

5. HDMI has different technology versions

HDMI has undergone several upgrades since 2002, when it was released. Upgrades have included adding Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support and DVD-audio support, adding Super Audio CD support, etc – basically doing away with ever more cables.

6. Upgrades do not render HDMI cables obsolete

However, an important thing to note is that future upgrades will not render your HDMI cables obsolete.

7. Different cable lengths require different thicknesses

Just as with traditional speaker cables, the longer distance you intend to run your HDMI cable over, the thicker the internal wire gauge needs to be. Joining two thinner cables together with a connector doesn’t give optimal sound or video – and in some cases gives no sound or video!

8. HDMI and HDCP go hand in hand

HDMI cables will only connect your devices provided they are compliant with the High-def Digital Content Protection (HDCP) scheme. HDMI and HDCP go hand in hand – and non-HDCP compliant devices won’t be able to ‘talk’ through HDMI cables.

So the HDMI cable couldn’t have come along at a better time, allowing us to run media directly from the computer right into the TV, without having to bother burning a bunch of CDs or DVDs to enjoy our music and flicks on something better than our laptop display.

Of course, as with any device first making its way into the homes of consumers, there’s always a learning curve. There are people who bought a VCR back in the 1980’s and who are only now figuring out how to program them. Likewise, a lot of people come home with an HDMI cable and have a tricky time figuring out how to get it to work.

When people break out their first HDMI cable, there can be some difficulties getting it to display correctly. You might get a flickering, scrolling picture, or improper aspect ratio, or any number of other problems. You can plug a coaxial cable into the back of any TV and have it perform just as it would with the next, but television sets these days are built in a variety of types, as are the sources from which you’ll be sending the information. As such, it’s actually not a “one size fits all” undertaking.

It helps if you know your TV’s maximum settings, but if you don’t, here’s what you need to do when your HDMI cable isn’t doing what you bought it to do…

1- Access the menu on your TV, box, or DVD player, and look for the HDMI settings.

2- Honestly, the rest should be self explanatory. Set video out to HDMI, set HDMI audio out to on, etcetera.

3- Set the maximum HDMI resolution that your TV will allow. You’ll know when you pass the maximum resolution because the picture will likely be scrambled or cut off. The settings should be listed something like 576, 720, 1080, etc. Most TV sets these days go up to 1080, but if you don’t know, then you won’t until you check.

And there you go, it’s as simple as that. Like most new entertainment gadgets, gear and gizmos, using an HDMI cable properly is actually quite a bit simpler than it seems to be at first, it’s just a matter of learning how it works.

Now, if you’re still having troubles after adjusting all the settings properly, then the trouble is most likely a defective product. Either your TV can’t accept HDMI for some reason, there’s an issue with your source’s HDMI port, or the cable itself is damaged. Try changing the cable out to see if that’s the problem, and then simply return the defective cable.

Well, the truth is that it doesn’t really matter what HDMI cable you’re using. If it works, it works, and no matter what a sales clerk looking for a big commission might tell you, picture quality isn’t really affected at all by using one brand or another, or by grabbing the expensive gold plated cable, or, really, by much at all.

All that matters is that you get a cable that works. That’s it. As long as you’re not buying an HDMI cable that’s been patched back together with electrical tape, then you can probably rely on it to give you as good a picture quality as any other. No matter what you might hear from some so-called experts, that really is the truth of the matter.

That’s not to say that you can invariably grab just any old cable, but if you are shopping around for a specific cable, then it should be for reasons beyond the myth of “better picture quality”.

For example, some of the more expensive cables do have a thicker gauge. Again, this has absolutely no effect whatsoever on picture quality, but it can help in other regards.

Say you’re running your HDMI cable through a wall so as not to have to worry about a big tangle of cables and wires surrounding your beautiful new HDTV. A thicker cable will, of course, be more durable, and therefore less likely to bend, break and fray. This can save you a lot of hassle regarding the inconvenience of having to replace less durable cables every time they get damaged.

But on the other hand, let’s be entirely honest: How often do you really expect an HDMI cable safely installed into a wall or ceiling to suffer enough damage to necessitate replacement? Maybe if you have a problem with rats, sure, but if that’s the case, it may actually be wiser to take the extra cash you were going to spend on a fancy HDMI cable and split it between a less expensive cable and some rat traps.

Now, again, when you’re buying HDMI cables in an electronics store, you’re probably going to meet a sales clerk from time to time trying to push you towards the more expensive products. In most electronic stores, the sales clerks work for commission rather than strictly on hourly wages, so of course, they’re hoping you’ll by the big gauge gold plated HDMI. Don’t buy into that. The idea that this or that cable will affect picture quality really is a myth. As long as all the pins are connected, as long as the cable itself is intact, you’re going to get the best picture quality available no matter the brand name printed on your HDMI cable.

To be entirely frank, the only situation where you might absolutely, positively need a more expensive, more durable HDMI cable is if you keep your TV set or HDMI source outdoors. Perhaps, for example, if you’re in charge of the audio-visual aspect of a live event. For the home user, though, we advise you just make sure the HDMI cable you’re buying is long enough to reach from your source to your TV. Beyond that, you don’t have anything to worry about.