The anarchy around the HDMI cable market did not escape HDMI Licensing LLC (the official certifying body’s) view.

Today they have taken the first steps to try and make HDMI cabling labeling more clear for the consumer.

• Cable makers may no longer use HDMI version numbers in the labeling, packaging, or promotion of any cable product. This is effective immediately for any references to the HDMI Specification Version 1.4, and cable makers have a one-year grace period for removing references to earlier versions of the HDMI specification when describing their cables.
• With the release of the HDMI Specification Version 1.4, there are five cable types, all with different capabilities and performance characteristics. To help ensure that retailers, installers, and consumers easily identify the right cable for the right application, the cable type name must be clearly marked on every cable.
• HDMI Licensing, LLC has created a set of distinctive cable type logos to be used in cable packaging, designed to provide quick visual identification of the cable type and help avoid any mix-ups. All cables must labeled as one of the five types listed below:

Rather than referencing version numbers cables should reference the defined features that the cable supports. These defined features are:

• HDMI Ethernet Channel
• Audio Return Channel
• 3D
• 4K
• Content Type
• Deep Color
• x.v.Color

I think that this is a move in the right direction and that ultimately it should prove to be simpler for the consumer to identify the right HDMI cable for their needs.

There will however be a transition period where anarchy reigns supreme. I am hoping the HDMI Licensing LLC has the tenacity to pursue recalcitrant cable makers whose main aim is to support and encourage confusion in an aim to rip off the consumer.

Sam Blacket

I have just done a fairly significant makeover for the site that not only improves the looks but makes images load faster, it is a lot easier to find stuff. I have also added a customer testamonials page now that we are getting comments back from our customers.

Tell me what you think about the new design and what you would like to see improved.

Sam Blacket

This is one of  HDMI Systems Premium Cables that has had the connector removed and I have paired back the insulation to show you what is beneath.

What’s in an HDMI Cable?

In a standard HDMI cable there are 19 different conductors. These are made up of 4 sets of twisted pairs with a drain wire. Twelve wires in total. You can see these in the photograph as the gold wrapped conductors. There are another seven conductors that surround the twisted pairs, making 19 conductors in total.

Construction of an HDMI Cable.

If you look at the photograph moving from the outside in we have:
Outer Jacket Insulation

This is the grey outer jacket in the photo. HDMI Systems uses a secret formula of PVC that has superior insulation qualities and wears remarkably well, while at the same time being flexible. Inferior cables use standard PVC that gets brittle over time and is not as resilient.

Inner Braiding

The function of the braiding is to protect the cable from external electromagnetic fields. In quality cables this braiding is made of tinned copper wire that completely encases the conductor bundles for the entire length of the cable. In inferior cables this braiding will not cover the conductor bundle completely.

Aluminium Mylar Shielding

You can see the aluminium mylar in the photo as the blue tin foil type material. This is spirally wrapped around the conductor bundle. Premium cables have a 100% coverage with a 25% overlap. The purpose of this shielding is to stop any electromagnetic fields that are produced by the cable from escaping and interfering with other electronic equipment. Sometime inferior cable makers will put a ferrite on either end of the cable. This looks a bit like a snake that has swallowed a mouse. These ferrites absorb some of the radiated electromagnetic fields. This is a tell tale sign that the cable might not be of premium quality and the maker has taken some short cuts.

Conductor Insulation

Each conductor is covered in insulation. The key thing about this is that the insulation has a common density and that the foam that is used has a consistent bubble size. First grade polyethylene is the prefered material for the insulation. Inferior cables will use second grade P.E.

Shielding Twisted Pairs

You can see the twisted pairs in this photograph as the gold colored conductors. There is actually two layers of shielding on each of these. The gold is aluminium mylar and there is a further transparent mylar layer. Both layers have a 100% coverage with a 25% overlap.  This shielding reduces cross talk between the main twisted pairs. These are the conductors that carry all of the critical data. Inferior cables will not have 100% coverage or will use inferior materials which will result in increased cross talk between the four main cables.

Twisted Pair Material

HDMI Systems uses 99.9995% pure oxygen free tinned copper . The fewer strands in these conductors the better. HDMI Systems uses a seven strand conductor that gives the right balance between electrical performance and physical flexibility. Inferior cables will use less pure copper, will not tin the outer surface and can use conductors that consist of up to 2,000 separate strands.

Once all of this is complete the conductors, shielding, braiding and insulation needs to be bought together to form a length of cable. It is critical in an HDMI cable that the distance between the conductors does not vary over the length of the cable. Inferior cables will have a big variance in distance over the length, this will affect the performance of the cable and result in signal drop outs and sparkles on your screen.

So you can see that a well made HDMI cable is a precision piece of equipment. We have not yet even touched on the skill that is needed to connect the cable to an HDMI connector.

I hope that I have shed some light on what makes a quality HDMI cable.

Sam Blacket

Physical space for connectors on portable mobile devices such as digital cameras, portable media players and mobile phones is often extremely limited due to the small form factors of these devices. Mobile device manufacturers generally prefer to have a single proprietary connector that accommodates AC power, USB and audio/video transfer. The standard HDMI interface would require 19 pins on this connector, which can make the standard HDMI interface difficult to implement on small devices. MHL technology reduces this pin-count requirement from 19 to five, without compromising audio/video quality or HDMI compatibility, to allow for a smaller, multi-functional connector.

It is based around MHL (Mobile High Definition Link) technology developed by Silicon Image. Small device manufacturers would embed a low cost transmitter chip into devices which would then process the video and audio signals into a standard HDMI signal.

Docking stations would be the first products supplied into the market by the original equipment manufacturers. However in time there will be the ability to connect directly to a TV if a similar receiver chip was incorporated by TV manufacturers.

Given Silicon Images success in getting HDMI to a global standard this initiative is certainly worth watching. Having Nokia and Samsung as original founders means that a major share of the global mobile phone market is likely to use this connection method.

At HDMI Systems we will be watching these developments to ensure that we bring the appropriate product to the consumer as early as possible.

Sam Blacket

So you might ask why focus on hand held devices. The graph below gives and indication.

This is an industry estimate about the growth in HDMI equipped hand held devices over the next three years. This will be the fastest growth sector of the HDMI market.

At HDMI Systems we have recognized this trend. We have spent considerable time and R&D resources developing cables specifically for digital camcorders, digital still cameras and now mobile cellular phones. Our aim is to become leaders in this sub category of HDMI cables.

Sam Blacket

Reading through the specifications of the new Samsung Instinct HD it looks like it is going to ship without an HDMI cable as standard. This is probably a good thing as they would normally ship with the cheapest most inflexible cable available. Not really suitable for use with a mobile phone.

HDMI Systems already produces an HDMI cable that has been designed specifically for mobile phones. It is only 3.2mm in diameter and is super flexible. Ideal to put into you satchel or carry bag so you can connect your mobile phone up anywhere and enjoy high definition video.

Our mobile phone HDMI cable is a fully compliant category 2 high speed cable capable of supporting 1080p resolutions and extended color spaces. Click here for more detailed specifications.

Sam Blacket

I visited my friend Charlies factory yesterday to see what he was up to. In the 30 years that I have been in the cable business I have been lucky enough to build a really great bunch of industry friends. I regard Charlie as one of my closest. He owns a very large cable making factory that specializes in category 6 data cables. He employs about 700 people and the factory churns out millions of patch cords every month. On this visit I noticed that he had a production line putting together what looked like HDMI cables. I said to Charlie, what’s going on here, I did not know you had the expertise to build HDMI cables. He said, no,no not HDMI. But this looked exactly like and HDMI cable. It was 19 conductor and had an HDMI plug at either end. Charlie went on to explain that this cable was being used by the automotive industry to connect up car engine computers with the sensor hub. These sensors monitored oil pressure, temperature and other performance characteristics.

Charlie went on to say that for this job he did not have to make a precision cable as the band width requirements were very low. It did not have to be well shielded and insulated.  He could use manual methods to solder the connections and to crimp the connectors. This was a simple low performance 19 connector data cable. It just looked like an HDMI cable. As it was “not and HDMI cable” he also did not have to pay a licence fee or do any tests. This made the cable very cheap to make.

I said to Charlie does he think that all these cables are going into the automotive industry? He then said that others had approached him to make these cables so they could be sold as HDMI cables, but that he had refused to take the order. “But if they tell me it is for the automotive industry what can I do?” he added.

I suspect that there are a number of companies that are getting factories to make these automotive cables and then selling them as HDMI cables. I am sure this is where the ultra cheap cables that are appearing on Amazon and Ebay are being sourced. The problem is that the consumer is not buying what they think they are. If you put these cables under bandwidth stress they are sure to fail as they were not designed for this in the beginning.

This shows the importance of buying from a reputable company and always look for the HDMI logo. The new rules that HDMI Licensing announced at the HDMI Developers Conference yesterday, regarding having to apply the HDMI logo to the physical cable and connector will go a long way towards protecting the customer from fake HDMI cables.

At HDMI Systems we only make HDMI cables. This is our only business so we endorse any move by HDMI Licensing LLC to make it harder for factories to make fake HDMI cables knowingly or unknowingly. It also ensures that customers will always get a quality product.

Sam Blacket

In his opening address Steve Venuti outlined the key features of HDMI 1.4 and also answered a couple of burning questions on developers minds.

1. The compliance test specifications for HDMI 1.4 should be released in October and that they were on track to meet this deadline.
2. There will be some significant changes to the way that HDMI Licencing allows use of the logo. Use of the term 1.4 will not be allowed in any marketing materials, including packaging for the new standard. And that all makers are to discontinue using the term 1.3 in 12 months. The newly sanctioned names are “Standard”, “High Speed”, “Standard with Ethernet” and “High Speed with Ethernet”. These names will need to be on the packaging as well as printed on the cable or HDMI connector. This move is designed to simplify communications to the consumer.

These couple of gems of information came just from the opening speech, there was another 5 hours of discussion to come. I am sure that more great information will come out that I can share. I will be posting further details over the next few days.

Sam Blacket

I have just been reading a press release put out by Monster Cables.  Monster now have five levels of cable quality.  Basic, HDMI500, HDMI700, HDMI800 and HDMI1000. Prices range from $39 to a staggering $499.

Looking at this price range, I am compelled to comment.

There is no doubt that Monster make a good cable and they have the marketing budget to tell everybody so.

As an Industry Insider I get to see a lot of component factories. So I know that a lot of HDMI cable brands use common raw materials.  A lot of the skill in making a quality HDMI cable is in the final construction, quality control and testing. If you start with quality components you are more than half way there. This is why we established HDMI Systems. Over 30 years working for others in the cable business allowed us to find the best component makers and we knew we could get talented engineers. We knew the cost of the components and how much the finished cables were selling for in retail stores. HDMI Systems knew we could deliver better value for money to our customers by adopting a factory direct model. No exhobitant marketing budgets, no costly retailer support. All these savings go into giving our customers a better price.

If you are in the market for a top quality HDMI cable, I think that HDMI Systems delivers arguably the best value on the market today.

But then I am horribly biased.

Sam Blacket

We set up HDMI Systems to be able to supply cables worldwide. Even so I am amazed at the diversity of countries that we have serviced so far.

Here is a short list:

• Japan
• Trinidad
• Latvia
• Poland
• Turkey
• Brazil
• Portugal
• Kuwait
• Canada
• Israel

There are another 100 different countries that have used the HDMI Systems website to gather together information about HDMI cables so that they can make an informed decision when they are ready to buy. I really hope that these customers see the value that HDMI Systems presents. Unlike other “big name” cable companies we do not have a huge marketing budget and we do not have to support a network of retailers. This saves HDMI Systems money which we pass back to you our valued customers.

Sam Blacket