Mar
29
HDMI 1.3 Cables: Certified vs. Compatible
Filed Under HDMI
You may have seen “1.3 certified” used as a selling point for HDMI cables recently but there are a few things you should know before paying a premium for these certified cables. Yes HDMI 1.3 is a recent revision to the original HDMI specification which adds extended support for deep-color and higher transmission rates. 1.3 also has additional support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio over the original specifications, but unless your source and display are HDMI 1.3 capable, the cable itself won’t add anything to the equation.
What’s more, some cables that haven’t been 1.3 certified (often sold as compatible) may be perfectly capable of delivering all of the HDMI 1.3 features. In other words, the lack of certification doesn’t mean the cable couldn’t pass if tested. This isn’t a new phenomenon in the audio/video world either. Many receivers that haven’t been submitted for THX approval could easily meet or exceed the criteria for THX approval. Often times it just doesn’t make sense to pay to have lower-end models tested.
Likewise, short of buying from a well known manufacturer or reseller, simply stating that a cable is 1.3 certified doesn’t always make it so. Thus far there really hasn’t been a big push for any kind of documentation or third-party verification of test results. None of this was in anyway meant to debunk the benefits of 1.3 or cast doubt on any reseller; I just want you to keep things in perspective when purchasing new cables.
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