HDMI to DVI

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The great Monster debate continues.

My easiest analogy is the strength meter on your HD receiver. If you are getting a 60-70 strength signal, the sound and picture will lock and you will have an enjoyable viewing experience. Now if the signal was 99, that would equate to absolutely no increase in audio or video quality. This is a digital signal, either it's there or it's not.

Of course, the 99 signal will resist rain fade better than to 70 signal, but remember, the signal is travelling 50,000 miles to get to you (for satellite). The connection from the receiver to the monitor is often 4 feet or so. I would venture that 75% of all connections are certainly less than 6 feet. (I know there are exceptions, but as a general rule, this is true.) It also has never rained in my living room, certainly not between my receiver and TV. The difference between a 'generic' cable and a Moster cable for digital signals is somewhere in the magnitude of 99.0 % vs. 99.99% (being generous to Monster). There is absolutely no difference in signal at the monitor, regardless of gold connections or whatever enhancements Monster sells. (Corrosion aside, I have yet to have any signs of it on my digital equipment. If you live in an area that it is common, this is a good consideration.)

I have yet to hear of anybody being able to distinguish a difference in double-blind tests. I have tried many times with friends of mine that are absolute Monster snobs. I went so far as to take my receiver and TV to a friends house (same TVs) and it still went as I expected. The reason some makers like Monster quote technical specs is because that is the only distinction. It is not truly visible.

It somes down to; If someone is asking on a forum if it is worth spending more for Monster cables versus using the supplied cable (or a no-name cable), my answer will always be to not buy the expensive cables. This is usually a newbie question and not a real videophile (yet). If you want to find out for yourself, find a store that will allow you to return Monster items, buy a Monster there and do your own comparison. If you 'see' a better image with Monster and it's worth the price, keep it. In most cases, if you are being honest, the generic cable will be every bit as good.

If I spend a couple thousand dollars on a HD TV, that is not license to rape me for cables. If you feel good paying 5x for cables (or 15x or more) and it's not taking food off your table, go for it. I'm just not buying into it. I would rather donate that money to my favorite forum dedicated to HD, that's why I'm a Proud Supporter. For the value I have received from this board, the donation is a drop inthe bucket. [/blatant commercial]
 
The real point is that Monster's are overpriced due to advertising/marketing/distributing costs. You can get an equal quality product for $35-$50 from many other sources. I prefer to have a slightly upgraded cable so that I have peace of mind (I know the cable is not a weak link), but I will not spend $150 on a cable that is no better quality than a comparable $35 cable. Heck, my AR ProII cable has just as many "enhancements", but it was only $32 with free shipping.
 
I for one chose an HDMI-HDMI cable, with a DVI adaptor on the TV end. (I did this for future upgrade reasons, as I like to get new equiptment every couple of years)

I am one of those people who do buy the Monster Cables, and have always enjoyed the quality. I will agree, that for most things, you can not tell difference in the quality. Now, that being said, I have been slowly switching out all of my cables (older Monster 300's and 200's) to the new Monster THX 1000 series cables. One of the reasons I personally like the cables, is they hold up. My home theater has been through more reincarnations than I can count, and the cables I purchased 10 years ago, are almost all still in great shape.
 
i went into best buy last night for the xbox HD pack...the microsoft one is 19.99, the BB guy tries to tell me that it is crap and will not look as good as the $60 monster one.....come on now and he isn't even commishened. What is the motive there???
 
asousa said:
i went into best buy last night for the xbox HD pack...the microsoft one is 19.99, the BB guy tries to tell me that it is crap and will not look as good as the $60 monster one.....come on now and he isn't even commishened. What is the motive there???

Have you ever actually talked with a BB salesman in the electronics or computer dept? They are usually pretty clueless, and just repeating what their mgmt tells them to say.

I was talking to a BB salesman onetime, I bought a dishwasher from him, he was retired ARMY, he was telling me all kinds of stuff about prizes that they can win. They may not get a cash commision, but he said he has won several free vacations over the years, as well as many smaller prizes, no commision my a**.
 
I got one 6' HDMI to DVI from eBay for under $15 including shipping. I believed it's from the monoprice-com seller. Another thing you need to consider is there will be no sould to your TV speakers unless you have a receiver hook up so you can get sound via 5.1 or other mean (RCA cables).

Anyone experienced with this HDMI to DVI to get digital video and sound to TV?

Mike5119
 
billbillw said:
Not really true. Although its digital, there is no error correction built into the DVI/HDMI protocol. Poor quality cables will cause errors (or packet loss) in the digital stream that appear as speckles or noise. This is a well known problem with DVI, especially on longer cable runs.

Now, that said, in most instances with a short cable run (10 feet or less), you probably won't see a difference between an inexpensive $10 cable and the $150 Monster. For peace of mind, I prefer to spend just a little more for one of the many of the high quality (non-Monster) cables that are available in the $30-$40 range. They tend to have better connectors which is probably the most important factor.


For whatever it worth, this month's issue of PC World magazine has a very good article on cables for both analog and digital signals. It explains their tests and testing protocols.

The bottom line of the article seems to be that digital is better than analog (go figure) and that price doesn't seem to be that big a factor in performance in lengths up to about 12 feet.

Thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention!
 
tds4182 said:
The bottom line of the article seems to be that digital is better than analog (go figure) and that price doesn't seem to be that big a factor in performance in lengths up to about 12 feet.

Thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention!

Maybe they have been reading our threads... Seems they are just saying what a lot of us have been saying.
 
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