Modern cable standards are a confusing mess. Whether we’re talking about the exercise in frustration that is USB Type-C, or the headache-inducing realities of power delivery, multichannel setups, and theoretical bandwidth capacities, it’s all very nebulous and hard to decipher as a regular, everyday consumer.
Then, there’s HDMI. While not quite as bad an offender as USB in terms of naming schemes and specification types, it’s still all too easy to get tangled up in a pile of audiovisual jargon. Various versions of HDMI exist, each with their own set of capabilities. Unfortunately, most HDMI cables look identical to one another from the exterior, and so it requires some digging to confirm the cable type and to understand its utility in relation to the gadget you’re plugging into your TV.
If you have no idea which variant of HDMI cable your game console, Blu-ray player, soundbar, receiver, or streaming set-top box is tethered to, you might be leaving certain features or A/V fidelity at the door without even realizing it. Thankfully, we have a handy guide on HDMI cables right here on Pocket-lint, with lots of insightful details to help you decide which cable type to drop your hard-earned cash on and which to avoid entirely.
Here are three sacrifices in particular you might be making if you aren’t using the appropriate HDMI cable for your television and home theater setup.
A decrease in audiovisual fidelity
Your picture and sound quality might be suffering
The HDMI specification is constantly evolving, with newer versions unlocking support for higher resolution video, more powerful high dynamic range (HDR) output, expanded color spaces, lower audio latency, extra audio streams, and much more. As the saying goes, you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and this same philosophy applies within the audiovisual world. If your shiny 4K UHD flat-screen TV is connected to your PS5 Pro using an old-fashioned HDMI 1.1 cable, for example, then you’ll be missing out on the true picture and acoustic fidelity these products are capable of delivering.
A negative impact on responsiveness
Frame rates may not be as smooth as they could be
Likewise, newer HDMI cables support the necessary bandwidth to allow for higher (and variable) refresh rates. This is particularly important if you’re a home console gamer or if you watch fast-action live sports, where stutters, screen tearing, and choppiness can make or break the experience in its entirety. Variable refresh rate (VRR) is another modern technology looped into newer versions of the HDMI spec, and it can massively improve responsiveness by intelligently adjusting refresh rates in real time.
A reduced home theater feature set
Some quality-of-life features rely on specific cables
Over time, HDMI has gained support for several features that have the capacity to improve a given home theater setup. For example, newer HDMI cables support the audio return channel (ARC) and the enhanced audio return channel (eARC) standards, which are useful for syncing up soundbars across all your various plugged-in HDMI players and consoles. Other niceties like dynamic HDR, the aforementioned VRR, and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) require newer HDMI cables with the capacity to facilitate these features.
It should be noted that HDMI is a digital standard, and so the quality between cables should be roughly identical so long as they match each other’s HDMI version number. A more expensive cable doesn’t always mean better quality output, and certain advertised features like gold plating are contested at best. For more on common HDMI cable myths, check out our dedicated article right here on Pocket-lint.
