What Are the Advantages of HDMI Cables?

High Definition Multimedia Interface, or HDMI, is the name for the current cable connection of choice for home entertainment systems. This cable offers crystal clear video and audio in a single cable connection, such as from a Blu-Ray player to an HDTV. 

Development of this cable began in April of 2002 as a group effort of several big names in the industry, including Sony, Toshiba RCA, and Philips; with the goal of creating a single cable solution to carry two-way high definition traffic at very high speeds. Although currently most HD-TVs are capable of 1080p, HDMI cables are capable of delivering far higher quality, ensuring their usefulness as HD-TVs exceed current limitations.

HDMI uses what’s called a “Hand Shake” technology to connect devices that allows it to help manufacturers prevent unauthorized copying of copyrighted materials. This is a feature called HDCP or High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection. A device without HDCP is not capable of receiving the HDMI content.

A high quality HDMI cable will carry a signal usually around 30 feet at max levels, before requiring an amplifier. Other solutions to go further are to convert to Cat5, Cat6, or even fiber cables.

When selecting an HDMI cable, ensure that the HDMI logo is molded into the cable’s connector, or imprinted somewhere on the cable connector itself. If it’s not there, you could have one of many cheaper knock-offs, which will make the connection but will disappoint with quality.

Two Bonuses of HDMI Connectors

1. Quality - HDMI is currently able to deliver the clearest audio and video. While other solutions may be cheaper, they deliver a far inferior level of quality. 
2. One Cable - Other audio / visual solutions not only deliver lower quality, but in cases like RCA cables it requires 3 connections. In most other cases, you’ll either get only video, as is the case with S-Video, or only video, as with DVI.

Coaxial Cables vs. HDMI

While the coaxial cable does offer both audio and visual, its limitations are nowhere near the 1080p of HDMI. Coaxial cables top out at a mere 480i. Even though it is a coaxial cable that comes from your wall and into your set top box, the signal is decoded in the set top box and must be delivered by a high quality connection.

If you were to use coaxial cable to come out of your set top box, and into your television, all of your HD channels would be limited to 480i, and you’d get those thick gray bars on the top and bottom of your screen. Also, your audio would not be digital, although the picture would.

There are some components (like the RCA, but rated for HD) that can rival the HDMI cable, however, you have to know what you’re doing with this technology, have a little money to spend and the television and other such components must be top of the line. These high-tech options tend to be more expensive than HDMI cables; they are Analog (not digital) and require three connections.

One can see there are advantages of HDMI cables including ease of use and performance. CZ Labs offers many HDMI products in our online store where we cater to the wholesale market and offer bulk discounts.

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Breakdown of Category 5, 5e, 6 and 7 Cables

Most of us have come across a network cable in our travels. It’s the cable that plugs into the computer at work, or perhaps at home that’s shaped like a telephone cable, only bigger with a wider connector. Truth be told, they’re not a whole lot different from the cables that connect our phones to the wall, with the exception of having twice the number of wires inside, and a fatter connector. 

Over the years this cable has been improved upon although you wouldn’t necessarily know it to look at one vs. another. Here, we breakdown category 5, 5e, 6 and 7 cables.

Cat5
 

The network cable you first met was likely a category 5 (Cat5). This cable was the first to be able to move data at 100MHz, and has very nearly become the standard network connection cable all over the world. Loved for its effectiveness and low cost, it’s the most readily available network cable anywhere.

This is the “go to” cable for 10/100 networks, as it easily provides data at 100Mbps. 

Cat5e
 

You may have also heard of category 5 enhanced cable, or Cat5e. The “e” (as alluded to above) stands for “Enhanced.” Slightly different than their predecessor, the Cat5e cables were created to help make gigabit networks (10/100/1000)* a reality. Essentially, these are just a better version of Cat5, offering a higher degree of reliability and throughput.

Cat6
 

Much more advanced than Cat5/5e is the Category 6 cable. This is made of up of the same elements as 5/5e, (i.e. twisted copper cables), however, these cables are separated by what’s known as a “longitudinal separator” This greatly reduces “Crosstalk.”

Think of four people sitting around a small round table. Each of these people has a cell phone to their ear, and they are holding conversations; each their own different discussion. One of these folks is on the phone with you, and you can clearly hear bits and pieces of all four conversations, making it difficult to hear the person you’re talking to.

Enter the longitudinal separator. This is little more than a partition between the four talkers, greatly diminishing the crosstalk and making it easier for you to pay attention to your conversation.

Forward thinking would suggest going with Cat6 is wise as technology marches on and the quest for a clearer, stronger signal is never ending. These cables are backward compatible, and have doubled the bandwidth of Cat5/5e, weighing in at 10 gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000/10,000). 

Cat7
 

The latest standard of Ethernet interconnections, Cat7 cables were not widely embraced. Although performance was enhanced, it was not an earth-shattering enhancement, and this cable does not use the same connectors as its predecessors, rendering its use more expensive. There are plans to make it backward compatible, but it will require a different connector, which may not be able to perform as well.

More Information
 

While Cat7 is a very recent standard, Cat8 standards are currently emerging, proving as stated above, that indeed technology marches on!

*a bit about the designation of “10/100” in an apples to apples comparison: When you purchase home Internet, and your provider tells you “You’ll get 30Mb download speed!” This is what we’re talking about. The Cat5 can support up to 100Mb. It’s seldom that your ISP will fully utilize a network speed of 100Mbps, but in a corporate environment, where files are moved from one place to another routinely, this sort of bandwidth is quickly consumed!

CZ Labs sells at the category 5, 5e & 6 cables you're looking for--and in bulk! We invite you to visit our online store and start saving and also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 

What Are the Benefits of BNC Connectors?

We’ve all see the three colored cables used to connect our DVD and Blu-ray players to our televisions. One red, one yellow, and one white. These were the popular connectors for audio visual components for many years, called RCA connectors. 

These cables are great for home audio / visual connections, and are fairly inexpensive, only recently beginning to fall to the wayside as home electronics companies began to favor HDMI cables.

In a professional setting however, the king of the audio / visual connector remains the BNC connector, or “Bayonet Neil-Concelman.” This connector crimps firmly onto the end of coaxial cable, much like what you have coming into your home for your cable TV. 

The BNC connector offers several benefits over its residential counter parts, the RCA:

Simplicity

First, it’s just one connector as opposed to three. If something doesn’t work, your troubleshooting is not as complicated, as there are few points of failure. Your problem is either in the middle of the cable somewhere or one of its two connectors. With RCA, it could be in the middle, or one of its SIX connectors! 

Firm Connection

Have you ever had your RCA cables yanked out of their jacks at some point by something falling behind the entertainment center, or some wandering pet? It doesn’t take a strong tug to pull them at least partially out. 

RCA cables also have what could be considered a bit of a flaw in their design, where the “hot” part of the connection makes contact before the “ground.”  If the connector is not plugged in all the way, your signal will be poor. If it’s an audio connection, you’ll get buzzing. If its video, your picture quality will degrade. This is sometimes a difficult thing to troubleshoot, as it doesn’t have to be pulled out very far and you may not realize it’s not plugged in all the way.

The BNC connector twists firmly and locks onto the other connector, and it’s not easily jarred loose by accident. 

Quality of Signal

The coaxial cable with the BNC connector offers far superior picture and sound than its RCA counterparts. 

Here are some instructions, complete with a visual aid on how to terminate your coaxial cable with a BNC connector.

And as always, it’s of vital importance that you have all the right connectors and the right ratchet crimp tools. The right tool, for the right job!

CZLabs carries supplies for all your BNC cabling needs and our wholesale bulk pricing can’t be beat.

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