Slaying the Cable Monster: What You Need to Know About HDMI Cables
We're solidly in the age of 4K resolution and 8K is starting to heat up (don't worry, it will be a few more years before it becomes worthwhile to most viewers). High dynamic range (HDR) content, which contains more information per pixel because of wider ranges of light and color, is also increasingly common. That's a lot of potential data to send from your media streamer, Blu-ray player, game console, or PC to your TV.
HDMI is the established standard for sending both video and sound from a home entertainment device to a TV over one cable. It's the best way to hook up DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray players, video game consoles, and streaming media devices. If you're connecting anything that's less than a decade old to your TV, HDMI is the way to do it. If you don't already have an HDMI cable (and your new device doesn't include one) or if you just want to reconfigure your home theater setup, it's time to buy a new one.
Shopping for HDMI cables should be a simple process. However, the wealth of choices, the wide range of prices, and a handful of potential holes to stumble upon can make it seem confusing and difficult. You need the right cable for the job and, ideally, you want to spend as little as possible. After all, it's just a cable. Right?
To help you navigate the HDMI waters, here's everything you should know about them, including what the different types mean, what different brands are available, and how concerned you should be about getting the most out of your TV.
A lot of the news around HDMI in the last few years has focused on the different versions of the cable standard. These are the fundamental specifications all HDMI cables and devices have to follow, based on the features they support and defined by
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