Originally Posted by danez_yoda
Don't feel bad. All HDMI cables were $100 back them. Or you could use component cables
.
Electrical Engineer here. All of the responses are correct. If I were to design such a product would only be for a long run where the two pieces of equipment are on different circuits where the ground potential could be different. I'm sure there are some IC optocouples/digital isolatiors that can accomplish the same task without the fiber.
HDMI errors are obvious and seen as blatant random garbles in the audio or video. The are not subtle analog qualities like hum, hiss, or fuzzy/grainy picture. That what I love/hate about digital. A so-so analog signal is still very watchable with a little "snow" in the picture and hiss in the audio. a so-so digital is very annoying with ugly pixilation and complete dropouts.
Awesome post
Yes, exactly, digital data errors are obvious. If the information is able to properly make the trek, whether it's a $500 or $5 cable is irrelevant.
Originally Posted by danez_yoda
If I were unscrupulous enough to make some fiberoptic HDMI cables that "make the picture better", I would add audio processing that received the original digital audio and apply some digital filtering/equalization to it to increase the bass and treble before sending it on to the TV. A-B test would show an increase in those area and folks would think its better. You can do the same thing with your TV.
I might even put BOSE on it.
The same thing could be done with the video data. slight sharpness increase or contrast boost and there it is. easy A-B comparison winner. The difference is REAL! LOL.
Nailed it! You'd be 100% on that "perceived benefit" as the result of intentionally altering the data stream, you'd have folks lauding your cable like it was the second coming!