Excellent Product
These cables are an excellent deal and meet all of the relevant specifications that will allow you to get maximum throughput from 1080p equipment.
Don't believe those that claim all HDMI cables are the same. They are not all the same and those that claim they are have unfortunately been misled. While I am the last person to suggest going out and overpaying for an expensive retail brand I would definitely recommend being a little careful not to use a cable that has the potential to degrade the picture on your new HD equipment. It is even more critical for PS3 gamers because of the deep color capabilities of PS3.
Fortunately for us HDMI.org has made separating the good cables from the best cables very simple.
According to the HDMI website Category 2 cables are required not only to guarantee 1080P FullHD but also for high refresh rates and deep color.
The following was cut and pasted from the HDMI.org website:
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Q. What is the difference between a "Standard" HDMI cable and a "High-Speed" HDMI cable?
Recently HDMI Licensing LLC announced that cables would be tested as Standard or High-Speed cables.
Standard (or "category 1") cables have been tested to perform at speeds of 75Mhz which is the equivalent of a 1080i signal.
High Speed (or "category 2") cables have been tested to perform at speeds of 340Mhz which is the highest bandwidth currently available over an HDMI cable and can successfully handle 1080p signals including those at increased color depths and/or increased refresh rates. High-Speed cables are also able to accommodate higher resolution displays such as WQXGA cinema monitors (resolution of 2560 x 1600).
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Q. Will my Standard cable work in High Speed applications?
Although a Standard HDMI cable may not have been tested to support the higher bandwidth requirements of cables rated to support high speeds existing cables especially ones of shorter lengths (i.e. less than 2 meters) will generally perform adequately in higher speed situations. The quality of the HDMI receiver chip (in the TV for example) has a large effect on the ability to cleanly recover and display the HDMI signal. A significant majority perhaps all of the HDMI TVs and projectors that support 1080p on the HDMI inputs are designed with quality receiver chips that may cleanly recover the 1080p HDMI signal using a Standard-rated HDMI cable. These receiver chips use technology called "cable equalization" in order to counter the signal reduction (attenuation) caused by a cable. We have seen successful demonstrations of 1080p signal runs on a >50 ft. cable and a 720p signal run on a >75 ft. cable. However the only way to guarantee that your cable will perform at higher speeds is to purchase a cable that has been tested at the higher speeds and labeled as "High-Speed."
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Q. What are the technical and branding requirements for cables?
As part of the new Trademark and Logo Usage Guidelines cables will be labeled as either Standard or High Speed.
1.Standard cables (referred to as Category 1 cables in the HDMI specification) are those tested to perform at speeds of 75Mhz which is the equivalent of an uncompressed 1080i signal.
2.High Speed cables (referred to as Category 2 cables in the HDMI specification) are those tested to perform at speeds of 340Mhz which is the highest bandwidth currently available over an HDMI cable and can successfully handle 1080p signals including those at increased color depths (e.g. greater than eight bits per color) and/or increased refresh rates (e.g. 120Hz). High Speed cables are also able to accommodate higher resolution displays such as those at the latest 1440p and WQXGA resolutions (e.g. cinema monitors with a resolution of 2560 x 1600).
While many cables that are branded as Standard cables will work at higher speeds (especially at cable lengths of less than five meters) to guarantee performance consumers should purchase a cable that is tested and rated for the specific speed required by their system.
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There you have it. Word for word from the official HDMI website.
In summary any certified HDMI cable will "generally" work fine but use Category 2 rated cables if you want guaranteed 1080p throughput.
Mediabridge is a quality cable that meets the higher standards of Category 2. And this pricing is exceptionally good for this quality cable. There are certainly other cables around that meet this standard as well. But basically Mediabridge is offering a high quality cable at a great price here.
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