Not long ago, good advice for selecting an HDMI cable was pretty simple: get an HDMI cable. Nowadays? Not so much. Whether you’re just about to set up a next-generation game console or building a big entertainment system, if HDMI is involved, you need to know the game has changed.
Basically, the longer your HDMI cable needed to be, the more it would need to resemble a fire hose as opposed to, say, a drinking straw. Or, you could step up to a different kind of cable — but we will get into that a bit more below. Outside of that, you wanted to do your best to make sure you had good build quality and a solid connector on each end. And then there were bonuses like high pliability for easier cable management or maybe there’s a color you like better than black.
HDMI 2.1: what has changed At the heart of the issue of why the old cables no longer are enough is an intersection between the higher bandwidth or speed of information that we are trying to shove down the series of pipes in an HDMI cable, the construction of the cable itself, and a bunch of complicated math and physics. The bottom line is there’s a lot more going on inside that HDMI cable than you probably think.
This is a major oversimplification, but that 5V channel on top has to negotiate a very specific milliamperage between a source, like an Xbox Series X, and a receiver, like a TV or an A/V receiver, just to get the party started. If this one little thing doesn’t happen, then nothing happens. And while that trigger went off fairly successfully in the past, it is now getting more difficult to do. I’ll get into why in a moment.
So, where am I going here? I mentioned that the higher speed or higher bandwidth was a factor. The more you are trying to jam down a pipe, the more demand there is for that pipe’s capacity.
And it’s not just the cables, but the source devices and receiving devices we use. Those are changing, too. It’s an evolving situation and, based on conversations I’ve had with some industry folks who are in the know … it’s kind of a mess, and getting messier. From there, don’t go with a standard copper cable longer than 2 meters. I’ll get to other cable types in a moment, but between 1 and 2 meters make sure that the cable is rated to handle 48Gbps, and buy a cable from a brand you trust. I’m not going to specify brands here, but if you’ve never heard of the brand before – well, it could be OK, but you’re taking a risk. Be sure you’re alright with taking that chance and be prepared to return it if it doesn’t work.