Monster HDMI400-6M 400 Series HDTV HDMI Cable (6 meters)
Monster HDMI400-6M 400 Series HDTV HDMI Cable (6 meters)
The Ultimate Audio/Video Interface Has Finally Arrived – in One Digital Connection Monster HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) 400 is a remarkable new high-bandwidth digital connection that offers superior digital video and multi-channel audio in a single cable, reducing the maze of home theater connections. It’s simple, user-friendly connection is backwards-compatible with DVI, and it delivers a high-definition picture that’s five times the resolution of conventional TV for the highest quality, crispest image quality available. Now you can connect HDMI-equipped devices such as DVD players, set-top boxes, AV receivers and HDTVs with a cable that helps optimize this next-generation technology: Monster HDMI 400. Advanced Design and Construction for the Best Possible Sound and Picture Monster HDMI 400’s advanced design and construction exceeds HDMI standards to transfer digital AV signals with optimal power, accuracy and clarity. 24k gold contacts resist corrosion to provide optimum signal transfer. Triple-layer shielding rejects interference for the clearest picture possible. And Monster’s gas-injected cellular dielectric helps facilitate high velocity transfer and maximum signal strength, even over long lengths. Maximize Your Connection with the Ultimate HDMI Cable: Monster HDMI 400 You’ve invested in HDMI technology so you could get superior picture and sound from your home theater. Now you can maximize the performance of this extraordinary digital interface by making the connection with the highest quality cable. For the ultimate high-definition audio and video HDMI experience, get Monster HDMI 400.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good cable for 720p
I got this while the price was lower than what it is now. It’s a bit high but it’s both audio and video in one so it’s about the same as you might pay for good separate component video and digital audio cables. The Blu-ray video and audio playback quality on my 720p LCD display is very good. DVD upscaling to 720p resolution is good as well. Not as good as the quality I see from BD but still good. I had a Philips HDMI 1.3a cable hooked up from a Blu-ray player but noticed that the contrast was off (too high) and minor artifacts around objects were visible on some of my BDs and upscaled DVD movies. The color with the Philips on good quality Blu-ray and DVD movies was very nice but on others the contrast just seemed off. After watching the same movies at 720p using the Monster I noticed the color was slightly less vibrant than the Philips but the contrast and overall picture was more balanced with the Monster. So I settled on using the Monster instead. One minor problem I have is that the cable is somewhat hard. It’s a little difficult when trying to place it exactly where you want it.
2 Stars I wasted money on these - learn from my mistake
These are really silly. The signal is digital. Any cable meeting the HDMI spec will do the same thing. This is not an analog signal that needs to be handled carefully. I spent a bunch of money on my home theater system and bought into the hype about Monster cables. I bought two four meter HDMI cables and a six meter HDMI cable - all 400 series. I should have saved my money and just purchased the cheap versions. Sometimes “Just a Guy” is an idiot. Learn from my mistake.
1 Stars FUD - a perfect example (applies to the 2-meter cable)
FUD - Fear, uncertainty, doubt.
According to Wikipedia, “the term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry and has since been used more broadly. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.”
Still Wikipedia, quoting Eric S. Raymond: “The idea, of course, was to persuade buyers to go with safe [...] gear rather than with competitors’ equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with [...], but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors’ equipment [...]“.
HDMI is all-digital for both sound and picture. As such, it either works or it doesn’t and, when it doesn’t work, you will know immediately. There’s really nothing in-between. If a claim is made that the Monster is ‘more reliable’ or that it ‘lasts longer’, I can’t see how such claim can be backed - does the hundred-dollar cable last 20 times longer than than the five-dollar cable? And, if it does, do we REALLY care that a cable supporting a standard that may be obsolete in 5 years COULD last for 100 years?
By the way, I do not challenge the claim of high quality for this cable. It appears to be well built. However, it is quality not needed and, in my view, not worth paying for. The way most of us use cables is: we plug them at the back of our electronic boxes and, if they work on ‘day one’ they are likely to work in the exact same fashion on day 1000 because they are not going to be subjected to any physical or thermal stress and the materials used to build them are not easily degradable. While ‘quality’ was important for analog cables where good quality made all the difference in the world, the digital wires either transmit the digits or they don’t. If they do, they all work the same, the $1 HDMI cable gives you the exact same ‘performance’ the $100, gold-plated cable does.
The claims that seem to suggest that these expensive wires allow more Gigabytes of data to pass through and the implied suggestion that you would get a less bright image or a less crisp sound if you used a two-dollar cable are NOT true. The HDMI is a published standard and there is a minimum data throughput that must be supported. If it is, then the device is HDMI compliant and you will get everything that HDMI promises to deliver. If some cable exceeds the specified throughput, it’s nice but it’s irrelevant because no electronic component that’s HDMI compliant would attempt to push more bytes through the wire than the standard specifies. If they did, they’d violate the specs and would not sell very well. If your electronic component had an HDMI port that called for an HDMI cable that exceeded the HDMI published standards, then it would no longer be called an HDMI port but a proprietary, non-standard solution.
The following are the HDMI 1.3 specs and ALL certified HDMI 1.3 cables (including the five-dollar wires and the Monster) are going to support them. Whatever ‘extra’ the M Series offers is useless because no HDMI-connected hardware component is going to ask for more.
Maximum signal bandwidth (MHz) 340
Maximum TMDS bandwidth (Gbit/s) 10.2
Maximum video bandwidth (Gbit/s) 8.16
Maximum audio bandwidth (Mbit/s) 36.86
Maximum Color Depth (bit/px) 48
Maximum resolution over single link at 24-bit/px 2560×1600p75
Maximum resolution over single link at 30-bit/px 2560×1600p60
Maximum resolution over single link at 36-bit/px 1920×1200p75
Maximum resolution over single link at 48-bit/px 1920×1200p60
sRGB
YCbCr
8 channel LPCM/192 kHz/24-bit audio capability
Blu-ray Disc video and audio at full resolution
Consumer Electronic Control (CEC)
DVD-Audio support
Super Audio CD (DSD) support
Deep Color
xvYCC
Auto lip-sync
Dolby TrueHD bitstream capable
DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream capable
Updated list of CEC commands (only on HDMI 1.3a,b,c)
My suggestion: search Amazon for “hdmi cable 1.3″ and make an informed price/quality decision before you buy.
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NOTE 1: I noticed a typical FUD statement that has been posted on this page in the form of a video. The presenter suggests that all signals, including ‘digital’ get degraded when passing through a wire because of the ‘laws of physics’. The key word in his presentation is that ‘IF YOU HAVE A REALLY LONG CABLE’ then you may get into trouble. This is true. You can’t have a 100 ft. HDMI cable or a one mile-long cable. Eventually, unless your signal, digital or analog, is boosted in some way, it’s going to die and you won’t be able to decode it at the other end.
However, this is NOT the point. This HDMI cable is NOT ‘really long’. In fact, it is REALLY SHORT and, no matter how much FUD is inserted into the discussion, on 6 ft. or 8 ft. cables, you are NOT going to get a ‘better’ picture just because you pay 100 times more for a wire.
Unless the vendor comes up with some unbiased tests showing that, on 6 ft. or on 8 ft. cables the less expensive brands loses ‘bits’ to the degree that the receiving device can’t correct for the loss while the expensive brand does not, this is nothing but FUD.
NOTE 2: All of the above applies to the 2-meter cable. When ordering the 4-meter and especially the 6-meter lengths, I would make sure that the cable is certified as “HDMI Category 2″ or “High-Speed” FOR THAT SPECIFIC LENGTH.
1 Stars Complete Waste!
They make 8-footer HDMI cable for $7 elsewhere by the tons! Don’t waste your money and fall for Monster’s trick, paying $75!
3 Stars Honest Opinion
I work in an electronics store that sells these cables. I am required to recommend them to customers when the customer is making a television purchase, Monster brand specifically. Yes, the store makes a profit from the cables, yes, you are getting what you pay for at the higher prices, yes, you will get what you pay for at the lower price. Many people become upset when they see a similar cable (different brand) for a lot less money. I would too at face value, they looked the same. But they are not the same, not on the inside. I am also required by my store to take a considerable amount of training from all manufacturers regarding the products they sell and there are differences between the Monster brand and others. The silver conductors WILL prevent interference from outside signals, whether any of those signals are present in your location is difficult to establish. The gold coating WILL indeed protect your cables from corroding in a high-humidity enviroment (finished basements, schools with lower levels, etc). Gold is a better conductor than aluminum, tin, etc. but I have personally never been able to observe the signal transfer degrade from using one with a different metal. If it’s in your living room and your house is not in a high-humidity area, the gold-coating might not be necessary. The nitrogen (N2) gas-injected dielectric preserves the longevity of the cable over longer runs (+16 ft.) but you will not notice this at first between the other brands and the Monster brand, this is something that will occur over time. Other brands will not hold up as long as these cables because they are a high quality product, plus, Monster offers the Lifetime Guarentee. Regarding the quality of picture, yes, 1’s and 0’s are 1’s and 0’s but most other brands are NOT capable of presenting Blu-Ray, PS3 (which is a Blu-Ray player basically), and the very few stations that broadcast in 1080p. In the near future (3-5 years), I anticipate many more stations to broadcast in 1080p. Currently, VERY few do. To summarize, yes, it’s a waste to buy these UNLESS you have a Blu-Ray player and a TV capable of 1080p, a Playstation 3, or just want to be ahead of the game on TV for the next 3-5 years. No Blu-Ray? No PS3? Don’t care if the cables will be shot after 2-3 years of usage? Then save your money.
Filed under: 1080p HDTV Plasma Reviews