Monster MC 1000HD-2M Ultra-High Speed HDTV HDMI Cable (2 meters)
by Monster
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List Price: Our Price: $64.95 You Save: $55.00 (46%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $20.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Monster MC 1000HD-2M Ultra-High Speed HDTV HDMI Cable (2 meters)
Customer Review: Fact and Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
okay.....
Fact: Nearly everything from monster is more expensive than from any other brand.
Fiction: Dirt cheap cables are "just as good or better" than this one.
Everyday, I work with A/V equipment and I've seen it all. This specific cable (the Monster 1000 series) is THE best possible HDMI you could purchase. By stating this, I'm referring to construction quality, data transfer rate, connection strength, and POTENTIAL.
Fact: Analog signals can be "iffy" and full of static if not carried through a quality cable. And with digital signals, you either have it, or you don't.
Fiction: As long as you see the clear digital picture, the data was transferred perfect, regardless of the HDMI cable used.
The HDMI cable you purchase should ONLY depend upon what you initially invested in. If you buy a new Samsung LCD (LNA650-850) or any other high quality 120Hz LCD, bundled with a sweet BluRay player, then throw a 5 dollar, cheaply constructed HDMI cable at it, you will NOT receive the same possible smooth and lossless video (or audio, if you've invested in a home theater). Sure, "digital" is a sequence of 1's and 0's. but the speed at which they are transferred and processed make up the difference. this isn't all about pictured clarity, it's also about motion and colors. For people who have not experienced much beyond standard definition, that cheap cable suits them fine, simply because they don't know any better.
In their own description, Monster tells you that this specific cable is intended for the highest quality components, and guaranteed to last for the future. This cable even comes with a guarantee that if you purchase a new piece of technology that exceeds its capabilities, they will upgrade you for free......
Simply put, if you own a cheap TV (regardless of what the spec's claim it is capable of) and/or cheap components, this cable is not for you. In or technological age, if you get something cheap, you also get low-quality. That's always been true, but it is more so today, because the gap between crappy and great is extremely broad. many reviews try to call Monster "crap" and their only reason is price. Then you read their review, and most of them bought some cheap TV or have cheap components. In those cases, this cable WON'T be any better. Don't slam the cable. Slam yourself for not understanding what you bought.
There IS a difference if your TV and components are capable of the best standards. If they're not capable, you should save the cash and buy a cable that better suits you. If they are capable and you don't care about getting the best quality, you should've saved your money in the first place and bought a cheaper TV.
Buying an expensive, top-of-the-line TV and BluRay player, and connecting it with a cheaply made cable is akin to "Pimpin' your ride" without investing any money under the hood....... dumb....
Customer Review: Do not listen to the reviewers who are claiming miracles
Summary: 1 Stars
HDMI is a digital information transfer standard. As such, it either works to spec or it doesn't. There are no nuances or ways to improve the transfer quality of HDMI through a massively overpriced miracle cable. If your cable is certified to adhere to at least the minimum HDMI cable level standard as required by your equipment, eg. HDMI 1.2, HDMI 1.3, HDMI 1.3a, HDMI 1.3b, HDMI 1.3b1, HDMI 1.3c, that is all you need to know. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE HERE WHO ARE CLAIMING TO HAVE NOTICED IMPROVED PICTURE QUALITY, CLARITY, DETAIL, COLOR, ETC. FROM USING THE MONSTER HDMI CABLE. [...] they are people who were using HDMI 1.0 -> 1.2 cables when they needed to use HDMI 1.3+ cables. No, not all HDMI cables are the same. You need to use HDMI cables that are certified to adhere to at least the minimum HDMI cable standard required by your equipment. At the moment, the highest HDMI cable level standard is 1.3c. Purchasing a relatively inexpensive, certified 1.3b or 1.3c cable will net you the same exact picture quality as these ridiculous, maliciously overpriced Monster cables. While I'm sure that the monster cables work fine, you could purchase ten or fifteen 3' high quality, certified HDMI v1.3b category 2 high speed cables for the same price as this one Monster 1-meter HDMI cable. Other lengths are comparable. Do the math.
see accurate HDMI version info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Versions
Here are Amazon links to Dayton ATC certified v1.3b Category 2 HDMI cables for transfer speeds up to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps). They support resolutions up to 1600p, refresh rates up to 120 Hz, and 48-bit Deep Color. You cannot purchase better HDMI cables than these and they are inexpensive... $4 for 3.3 feet and $6 for 6.6 feet, etc. Dayton makes some good cables.
Dayton HR13C20.5 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 .5m 1.5ft
Dayton HR13C21 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 1m (3.3 ft)
Dayton HR13C22 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 2m (6.6 ft)
Dayton HR13C23 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 3m (10 ft.)
Dayton HR13C25 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 5m (16.4ft)
Dayton HR13C27 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 7m (23 ft.)
Dayton HR13C210 High-Speed HDMI Cable V1.3 C2 CL3 10m (33ft)
Customer Review: Read the reviews, did the tests, still confused
Summary: 2 Stars
I have a SONY Bravia 46Z, 120Mhz model, paired with the SONY S350 BD and a SONY 576 A/R system. I got the Monster 1000 cable from the Point of sale, but after reading all the Amazon and other reviews, also bought 2 other 1.3a $10 HDMI cables. I was very conviced that my side to side testing would reveal no difference.
Well, I hooked up the Monster 1000HD2M cable on one HDMI input of the TV and the other ($10 1.3a) HDMI cable on another HDMI input. I sat down my wife and daughter (a very scientific approach I guess) and started exchanging cables with the Dark Knight on the BD drive. I also repeated the same experiment with the Curse Of The Golden Flowers BD, to make sure I test all the color schemas - amazing film, a must see. I would run the same clip of the films - about 1-2 minutes and then also freeze the picture at the same frame for comparison.
Results: Wife: Could not tell the difference, most of the time she would actually prefer the $10 cable over the Monster cable. Got tired after 30 minutes of this and even though she was predispositioned to "get the exspensive one just to be sure" at the end she was saying - "if I cannot tell the difference, then what the.."
Daughter and myself: This is where it gets interesting. I started with the predisposition "I want to prove that there is no difference, because I hate being ripped-off by Monster or anyone else for this matter". The strange thing is that both my daughter and I noticed the same thing over and over, and COULD tell the difference, albeit exptemely subtle. We could both tell which cable was being run, by the subtle extra brightness of specific scenes and slightly, almost imperceptible, but existing, extra shine of certain objects in the frame. The sharpness, audio quality, colors and other picture attributes seemed identical. Only this slight extra brighness.
I did not expect these results, I was hoping to find no difference, even though the test is not a scientific one, it is one that does count since I am the one who will be watching the output from my couch everyday.
I also tested the connection with the two different cables over the Satellite (Dish Network HD Receiver) and the Bravia TV. In this setup, no differences could be found - what-so-ever.
I am tempted to go with the $98 dollar AMAZON priced Monster cable for the Blu-Ray connection and the $10 1.3a standard cable for everything else.
The two stars is because of the absurdly high price, even if htere is a difference - still borderline convinced.
Can somebody attempt to explain why my daugter and I have been able to spot a difference, even if subtle, between the two cables?
Customer Review: Please do some research on Google before being swindled by Monster
Summary: 1 Stars
As a EE senior at Georgia Tech, my class is required to participate in a senior design project. My friend's group did their project in transmitting HD video feeds for Tech's long-distance education program. As part of their project, they investigated about 6 different HDMI cables (ranging from the cheap cables from another seller to the pricier Monster cables), to find the best one.
This wasn't a bunch of kids watching HDTV for a while to see which cabled looked best. This was a scientific test performed with the strictest standards, under the watchful eyes of a Georgia Tech research professor. They hooked up one end of each cable to a PS3 and the other end to their lab's diagnostic tools. Blu-Ray discs of Planet Earth (among others) were used as the benchmark. In another round of testing, an HDMI test signal from a lab computer was transmitted and analyzed. After a through investigation, they reached their conclusion: there is NO difference.
Unlike analog audio/video (where poor quality conducting materials could affect quality), HDMI cables transmit digital data. These cables are literally transmitting zeros and ones. It doesn't matter if you use a five buck cable from Monoprice or a hundred buck cable from Monster, the end result will be EXACTLY the same. Please take some time and google for Monster cable reviews. Monster counts on hype and marketing to sell their products to gullible shoppers.
Please look at the Wikipedia article, it supports the following with proper references:
"Various reviews have reported that listeners and viewers are unable to tell a difference between substantially higher-priced Monster cables and inexpensive cables[2][3][4] especially for cables which carry digital signals such as HDMI cables.[5] In one experiment, audiophile listeners could not distinguish between short Monster cables and ordinary coat hangers.[6] Another reviewer concluded that "16-gauge lamp cord and Monster [speaker] cable are indistinguishable from each other with music."[7]"
Apart from the technical aspect, there are also moral issues. Monster is a bad company. They try to squeeze money out of honest mom-and-pop American companies by burying them in litigation (please refer to Wikipedia article). Most of these companies can't afford the litigation and usually give up. Is this how we want American businesses to behave?
Therefore, I urge you to do some research on Google. There are many useful articles on Blue Jeans Cable (a company that manufactures cables right here in the United States). Don't get swindled by Monster's marketing, it is nothing more than hogwash.
Customer Review: The usual Monster hype and inferior results - for a price
Summary: 1 Stars
Don't get me wrong: Not only would I dare not waste money on an HDMI cable at this price, but you'd have to pay me to watch video thru a Monster product for more than a few seconds. Some reviewers here state that "digital is digital", there's no distortion thru any digital cable. Sorry, but that's incorrect. If you think that the three digital numbers "1001100101111010", "10011 00101 111 010" and "001 10 010111 1 010" are translated as the "same number" by a DAC, you're mistaken. If you think 30AWG stranded wire delivers audio and video as cleanly as 20AWG solid-core wire, you're mistaken again. If you think a soldered HDMI cable is just as "good" as a crimp-designed HDMI connector, you're still wrong. If you think cheap-gold connectors are superior to titanium/copper alloy, you're so far behind you'll never catch up. And if the bit about silver-plating didn't ring a warning bell, you're hopeless. Anyway, this Monster atrocity came as part of a relative's purchase of an Amazon-partner vendor's HDTV deal -- "free", if you don't count the king's ransom paid for the TV. The cable has a lot of chroma noise; red is especially noisy and often bleeds all over the screen (This is a calibrated TV!); it seems incapable of displaying a clean blue or yellow. Flesh tones look weird, and in general the colors just never seem "right". I've seen tests where the video impedance in this cable doesn't meet HDMI's 100-ohm spec. That certainly explains the awful color. As usual with HDMI, there's a lot of softness compared to good component coax. Finally, the audio thru this Monster junk is atrocious; it has a depressed midrange, gooey bass, and really mushy upper mids and treble, with a flat soundstage, poor channel separation, and no dimensionality at all. I started to give this cable away, but I wouldn't do something like that to a stranger, much less to anyone I know. I replaced it with a [...] Chinese cable from Amazon I've used for a couple of years; its color, acutance and audio are superior, though by design no HDMI wire at any price can beat solid-core coax. I even have a couple of s-video wires that dance circles around HDMI's hype, especially Monster's brand of hype. You could say this product helps the environment by cleverly re-packaging industrial waste, but it's infuriating to realize that so many people are suckers for gear like this. Amazon has too many other, better HDMI cables listed, so avoid Monster but get your HMDI from Amazon's other listings. Unfortunately mediocrity like this is selling so well it's becoming the norm. [...]