Best HDMI Cable for Video

I have had a noticeable improvement in video quality using the Supra HDMI cable. The Perfect Wave HDMI cable provides even more improvement, but is more expensive. I notice HDMI cables have a bigger impact on audio than video performance in my setup.

HDMI uses TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling) to send data. In short, each 8bit data value is encoded into a 10bit value before it is send over the "wire".

The encoding is done to minimize the 0->1 and 1->0 transitions: The encoder chooses between XOR and XNOR by determining which will result in the fewest transitions; the ninth bit is added to show which was used. In the second stage, the first eight bits are optionally inverted to even out the balance of ones and zeros and therefore the sustained average DC level. The tenth bit is added to indicate whether this inversion took place.

In order for a cable to uniformly change a video stream that looks "better" or "worse", the random bit changes of every 10bit value would have to somehow decode to uniform changes in the resulting 8bit value. Chances of this happening - ZERO.

An HDMI cable is passive, just wires and connectors. If there is a change in video it was due to some other equipment factor or "faulty recollection".

I'm just trying to save some of you money and time so you can apply them in other areas.

larry

I can't say that I know what "the best" cable is, but Tara Labs makes a very good HDMI cable.

I have done a comparison between the Monoprice and Pangea HDMI cables I described above. As much as I wanted the Pangea to win I like the Monoprice in my system better. Colors have more texture and are less over-ripe. The blacks are a little blacker. My reference for years has been Sony XBR crt pictures.