Locking in on HDMI cables

I know that many people have complained about the annoying issue with HDMI cables falling out or not fitting into components properly. Others have reported that the cables work themselves loose, especially if they are hanging off the bottom of a flat screen panel mounted on the wall. Other companies have introduced locking mechanisms that screw on, or secure the cable with some type of adapter...but these have often proved to be cumbersome to use at best.While at CEDIA this past week, I was given the opportunity to get some hands-on experience with some "novel' approaches to this HDMI conundrum.

Enter Accell cables: These guys have been marketing inexpensive cables for sometime. They have just come out with a new cable that sports a nifty lock on it. The cable simply gets pushed into a component, and "click", your in and secure. Holds up a 12 pound pull without popping off. To remove, pull back on the connectors shell and it releases. So simple a design, I wondered why no one else thought of it...until I visited another companies booth (Perfect Connections) and found out that they had a very similar product. So similar, that the lawyers are in the proccess of straightening out the matter. Anyway, the Accell cable worked just fine and I thought I would pass that on to you all.

But wait, these more! Right across the way I stumbled into a new company that is coming to the states from "down under". KORDZ was a new name to me and I could not help but notice all of the HDMI cables they had. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that they did not offer a single locking HDMI cable (GASP)! "Why is that?", I asked. There rep explained to me that they are members of the committee that set the HDMI standards that all the other manufacturers are supposed to follow. If you do not follow the standards strictly, you end up making cables that have loose connectors. To illustrate, he gave me a 2m length of their EVO (entry level) cable and had me insert the connector into a HDMI switcher. I had to push it in a bit harder than I was used to...but, by golly, it fit so snuggley and tight, that a locking mechanism became superfluous! Took a firm grip to extricate it from the device, too. The cable itself was flat and the connector shell was made of aluminum. Very good quality to the feel of the cable and the connectors. What a concept...make the cable the way the standard requires and it works the way it was made to work ! Genius, I tell you! They also presented me with their top-o-the-line EVX cable that contains 7% silver and uses a soldering technique called B.O.S.S.-read more about it on their website.
The EVO cost about $94/2m and the EVX was $269/2m. Comparable to other, high quality cables.

A quick and very unscientific follow up on how well they performed. The Accell cables worked well at locking and gave a reasonably good picture on my DLP. During fast action scenes or scenes with quick, bright moving picture sequences, I noticed some break up and macroblocking. I have always thought that these artifacts were caused by the severe compression of the signal from my cable provider(Comcast) and have often found myself muttering, "I wish I had Fios!" But not so fast....when I replaced the Accells with the KORDZ EVO cable, I saw NO artifacts. Same with the EVX cable (no surprise there, really). The cable picture remained pristine on all content that I watched (and I was looking for plenty of content that would cause artifacts).These quality cables proved to me that:
1) Good HDMI cables DO make a picture quality difference. (I know....duh?)
2) Locking mechanisms are not necessary if the cable is made to HDMI specs.
3) I must grudgingly take back most curses I applied to Comcast for poor picture quality.

Well, there you have it. I learn something new all of the time, and I had pretty much decided that cheaper cables provide pretty much the same quality when it come to delivering digital information. It is very apparent to me that that is definitely not the case. Check out KORDZ.com and see if you agree with me. My thanks to Accell and KORDZ for the sample cables they graciously provided to me. Till later....JM