Goodbye HDMI Cable Woes? New Ranking System Clarifies Performance
July 20th, 2007David Tags: cablesHDMIhigh definitionstandards
You know the drill: You need a 60-foot HDMI cable to use for a project. So you think, hey, the package says the cable is certified for HDMI Version 1.3 Category 2 and delivers a 1080p resolution at that length. You’re safe, right? Of course not. Even if you do your due diligence — you know, comparing specs — you still can’t get the darn things to work.
But who knows what the specs mean? You simply cannot do a worthwhile comparison without bench-testing the cables yourself.
We could soon see the end of that experience.
A new testing program aims to take the pain out of HDMI cables by ranking them. It’s called the Digital Performance Level (DPL) Ranking System and is the brainchild of HDMI consulting firm InVisions Technology.
Cables are selected from a random sampling of products purchased from a variety of sources, and they are tested several times per year at the DPL lab. The lab conveys mathematically how a cable actually will perform based on all of the known electrical characteristics of HDMI cables. Performance is boiled down to a single number from 1 to 5.
ADI, the country's largest wholesaler of security and low-voltage products, is backing the program and will push all of its vendors to label their products with a DPL number. That's a lot of HDMI cable vendors!
Honeywell's cable division is committed to it, as is Ethereal Home Theater. More are soon to follow.
“The performance ranking system will clearly separate the level of integrity between the high and low quality products,” says chief operating officer Bill Fornino. “We are eager to get our products through the testing process and to show our stripes.”
At last, you can finally point fingers at the component manufacturers. If you're using a "5" rated HDMI cable, you know that's not the problem.
Get the complete details on the DPL system.
Julie Jacobson www.cepro.com Report Post
