Review: Optimized Cable Company HDMI Cables
Written on Jun 30, 2009 by Brian and filed under News, Reviews
If you have purchased a new LCD and Plasma TV recently, or even a new high definition movie player, you have probably had a sales associate try to sell you an expensive HDMI cable. Most retail stores make a lot of the money on electronics by selling accessories with heavily inflated prices, with Monster Cable products usually at the top of the list. Online retailers have seen this push and have been offering HDMI cables at discount prices, but how do they work as advertised? In this review we take a look at a standard 6’ HDMI cable from Optimized Cable Company, with a starting price listed at $12.99.
Optimzed Cable Company 6-foot HDMI cable Specifications
- Cable Type: HDMI Male to HDMI Male Cable
- Length: 6 Foot
- Most Current HDMI Version: 1.3b1
- Gauge: 28 AWG (American Wire Gauge)
- Bandwidth: 340 Mhz 10.2 Gbps / 120 Hz Refresh Rate
- Connector Finish: Gold
- Shielding level: 3x Triple
- Shielding type: EMI (Electromagnetic Interference)
- Certified HDMI: Yes
- HDCP Compliant: Yes
- CEC Compliant: Yes
- ROHS Compliant: Yes
- Backwards Compatible with HDMI Version 1.2: Yes
- Supports Blu Ray & HD DVD 1080p: Yes
- Supports 480p, 720p 1080i, 1080p, 1440p: Yes
- Supports Lossless DTS 8 Channel Audio: Yes
- Supports TrueHD & DTS-HD: Yes
- MSRP: $12.99
Features and Testing
One little known fact when it comes to digital interfaces is they either work or don’t work, where analog connections might show interference with a lower quality cable. What this means for the average consumer is even low-cost cables without the 7 layers of shielding or solid gold wire will work perfectly in almost every situation.
The quality of the cable is pretty nice, with a flexible outer coating and small strain relief near the connectors on each end. One downside to “premium” cables with tons of shielding is they are heavy and can put strain on the female HDMI jack on the back of your TV. The 6-foot HDMI cable is fairly lightweight, and adapts well to the droop of the cable after it has been plugged in. If you have a wall mount TV, the cable can be bent in a very compact radius, to handle very small clearances if needed.
To test the Optimized Cable Company HDMI cable we tried it out connecting a variety of devices, including a stereo to an LCD TV, HDMI switch to LCD TV, Sony PS3 to HDMI switch, XBOX 360 to HDMI switch, and Dish Network satellite receiver to LCD TV. In every scenario the cable worked exactly as intended, providing a clear picture with no connection problems. Even when wiggling the connector at each device the connection wasn’t interrupted.
Conclusion
The 6-foot HDMI cable from the Optimized Cable Company worked perfectly in our tests, with very good flexibility and was compatible with every device we could throw at it. The quality of the cable seemed appropriate, with a nice plastic outer coating and gold plated connectors. At $12.99 it is much less expensive than basically every retail option. If you need something in a different size, Optimized carries HDMI cables as short as 1 foot for $7.99 and as long as 50 feet for $99.99.