The latest and greatest on HDMI at Rapallo
Despite the proliferation of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile (GSM), there is still plenty of cable around. HDMI cables and products in general are core to our offering and with the advent of more affordable 4k TVs and (hopefully soon) 4k projectors, it is time to give you an update of where the future lies for 4K HDMI products.
At Rapallo we have about 1,500 products on our online retail store. Many of these products we source directly from the manufacturers across the world; including Europe, the States and Asia.
These days, China is no longer synonym for low quality, as Apple and many others have proven with high quality (and high value) products such as the iPhone and the MacBook pro. They are all made in China.
In order to get the best deals as well as the best available products, it’s important to meet those suppliers face-to-face to get some questions answered: What does the supplier company stand for? What are the products they offer? Do they offer the best quality available or is it time to look at alternatives? Can we negotiate a better price? Are there any new/better products available that we are unaware of?
The list goes on.
It is no secret that there is an enormous supply of product in the AV industry (some would say there is an oversupply). The amount of manufacturers and products is mind-boggling and to find your way around these is part of what we what we do at Rapallo. It is also the foundation of the know-how we have built over the last 10 years. We make it our business to know our stuff.
But things don’t magically appear on our doorstep. It takes time, research, negotiation and testing of samples to find the right products at the right price (for the best quality). This year, we decided to focus on our range of HDMI active and passive equipment (cables, matrices, switches,…) and check out out what is moving in this part of the AV world.
Our main suppliers for this are located in China. And so, off to China we went for an entire week of supplier visit after supplier visit….
Of course, it is of utter importance to ‘filter’ out the low quality products. No rubbish tolerated in our store. 🙂 But as we mentioned before, we really noticed first hand that China is now offering more and more high quality products. Not only that, we were more than pleasantly surprised to meet a few suppliers who are taking things to the next level: not only do they manufacture good quality products, they design new products and get really creative and innovative.
So, on to the HDMI. Let’s talk cables. Over the last few years HDMI has established itself firmly as the standard for anything high definition AV, with now micro and mini connectors added to the family.
As any technology, HDMI has evolved over the years, allowing for higher speeds of digital data transfer as the demands for higher bandwidth went up. From HDMI version 1.3 over 1.4 we are now at HDMI 2.0a. Without boring you with too much detail, the latest available 2.0 version of the standard is now allowing for 18Gbps data speed, allowing for 4k resolution at 4:4:4 Chroma subsampling at 60 fps. We’ll write a separate blog about that some other time, but basically this is the bee’s knees, the fastest and best you can get at this moment.
So what cables allow for this kind of speed?
There is a multitude of cheap and cheerful cables out there but as usual: “pay peanuts, get monkeys”. Once you know to be careful paying big money for fancy cable names, the message is that the more you pay, the better the quality of copper inside the cable (read: thicker/more copper, measured in American Wire Gauge or AWG). Typically, good cables are 26 AWG for short lengths, and 24 AWG for longer lengths, but really only up to 5 meters for HDMI 2.0.
Need to go even further than that? Then the answer is to buy a cable with a Redmere chip built inside the cable (either in one of the connectors or somewhere in the middle of the cable in a cylindrical housing). This chip makes sure that the HDMI signal is getting a boost to be able to make it across the copper cable. You can also buy external HDMI “repeaters” but make sure they are at least HDMI 1.4 for 4k at 30fps and we are testing a new HDMI repeater at full 4k. Don’t try to push it further than 15 meters, though.
One of our pleasant finds was new technology that we discovered during our trip to Hong Kong and China. We managed to put our hands on HDMI 2.0 cables (the real deal at 18Gbps, full 4k at 60fps 4:4:4 ) at longer distances over 15 meters, without Redmere chips. This particular manufacturer has developed a fiber cable that is “terminated” with what looks like normal HDMI connectors but has a laser built in (which is taking its power from the HDMI source). This brilliant idea allows for longer than 15 meter distance, solving a ‘now what?’ problem just like that.
So, in a nutshell, if you want to future proof your HDMI cables, remember these 3 basic rules:
1. Make sure the cable is at least HDMI 1.4, preferably 2.0 for future proofing with 4K in mind. Choose AWG 26 or AWG 24 for copper cables up to 5 meters.
2. Use copper HDMI cables with Redmere chips for anything over 5 meters for HDMI 2.0 (up to 15 meters)
3. Use HDMI 2.0 fiber cables for anything over 15 meters
As for matrices and switches, similar to the HDMI cables 2.0 is fast becoming the standard to aim for. No need to explain that we went on a hunt for newly released products that support this new standard. A whole large box of samples came home to New Zealand with us, ready to be tested in our lab.
All going well, you will find matrices and switches that support HDMI 2.0 in the next few weeks on our website.
We make it our business to be able to offer kiwis the best HDMI cables, matrices and switches at the best price. Of course, we happily invite you to talk to us if you have further questions.