How can I be sure that my HDMI cables will support higher speeds, deep color, and 1080p?

How can I be sure that my HDMI cables will support higher speeds, deep color, and 1080p?

HDMI cable is capable of providing the highest video resolution that is currently possible. However, an issue that can occur happens because HDMI cable is manufactured of twisted pairs of small-gauge copper conductors, instead of coaxial cable, and this can cause problems when the HDMI cable needs to be run over 50 feet. When an HDMI cable is too long several things may occur. One of these is sparklies, which are where pixels in the images drop out of the picture. Another problem with long cable runs is image degradation to the point that no image is displayed. If the cable is at the length that sparkles or image distortion occurs, then it is too long and an additional device needs to be added to boost or extend the signal. This is because with twisted pair cable it is impossible to keep tight control of any impedance, and without this tight control the signal may reflect along the cable between the signal source and the signal sink, causing interference with the original source bit stream.

Most of the interoperability or image quality issues are not related to the HDMI cable at all, however, but to the software that is used for the device communication and content protection. Quite often, these problems are caused by the HDCP handshaking software. Another common cause is the improper handling of the device capability information that is read through HDMI. It is almost never the HDMI cables that cause the compatibility problems. Non-compliant cables are very rare on the consumer market. The completeness of the HDMI specification has been verified by the fact that there has never been a compliant HDMI cable that is the root cause of HDMI playback issues with compliant devices.

Every HDMI cable is required to support a standard high definition television video signal at the minimum. They have been tested to verify that the cable meets the HDMI specification requirements. This is called a Category one test. HDMI Authorized Testing Centers, also called ATCs, have recently added the equipment to be able to test the cable’s ability to support 1080p, and higher rates, up to the maximum HDMI speeds. Category 2 testing is the name given to the testing done at these higher speeds. Because Deep Color and 1080p are becoming common market requirements, cable manufacturers want their cables verified with this Category 2 high speed test instead of the Category 1 test, so that their cables can be marketed as 1080p verified. Another HDMI testing service is Simplay Labs. They have been performing high speed cable testing for more than a year, and the logo Simplay HD is put on the cables manufactured by cable makers to convey that the cable has this level of quality. This does not mean that a Category 1 tested cable definitely will not support or pass a Category 2 test. A shorter HDMI cable, 3m or less in length, even if it does not have a specific 1080p marking, will probably pass the Category 2 test. The longer that the cable length is, the more demanding the 1080p signal is on the quality of the cable.

The quality of the HDMI receiver chip has a huge effect on the ability of the receiver to cleanly recover and display the HDMI signal. Most, if not all, of the high definition multimedia interface enabled televisions and projectors that support 1080p on the HDMI inputs are created with quality receiver chips that will cleanly recover the 1080p HDMI signal using almost any normal length cable, including those that have only passed the Category 1 test. This cable is not officially guaranteed to support these higher speeds, but in reality these cables usually work fine. This is great for consumers, especially ones who have already purchased HDMI cables before Category 2 testing was easily available. As long as the cables have been Category one tested, they should work just fine for HDMI applications involving 1080p and deep color.