There is nothing about a cable which inherently means it will break down. Even cables change with the times and new standards are released to take advantage of the ever onwards advance of technology.At least you can rely on the ones you have to not go wrong after a few years, right? Do HDMI cables go bad?Cables, especially ones of high-quality like the ones Cable Matters sells should not simply go bad, as long as you treat them well. Your phone feels sluggish after a couple of years, your laptop just isn't as snappy as it once was, and your TV doesn't have that exciting feature that all the new ones do.They feature individual insulation for each of the copper wires, followed by a foil shield around each of those. The reason cables like HDMI are so durable is because they are designed to be. If you set your cables up behind your TV, or routed around the edge of a carpet, or even through your walls, there is no reason to think your HDMI cable will go bad.This wouldn't necessarily be the case if cables were simply shipped out with raw copper wiring.But there's no denying that if a cable is treated poorly, or just exposed to above-average environmental stress, it can become damaged over time.You'd notice rather quickly if this happened, though, because you'll see frequent disconnection errors, even if the cable is plugged in, and in some cases, the image quality will degrade. Extreme wear and tear in certain environments can also lead to soldering wearing out, wires coming loose, or the header detaching from the main cable body.Cable Matters takes steps to avoid this, with sturdy cable structures, multiple shielding technologies, and gold plating on the header to protect against corrosion. There are physical damage reasons that that might happen, such as extreme force shearing the cable in two, or damaging the internal wiring. But you may need to replace them eventuallyThe one caveat to all this is that while HDMI cables don't simply go bad over time– they may need to be replaced one day.
But that's not the case with some HDMI cables. A DisplayPort cable that was bought with a first-generation device will still work today with a device that supports DisplayPort 1.4, or 2.0. But even then, there is always the possibility that new technologies will come along, encouraging you to upgrade.Typically most cable standards are intergenerationally compatible, which means they support both forward and backwards standards. Even if the damage is not visible, there is a good chance some of the internal copper wires have become loose or a soldering joint has worn off.Do HDMI cables go bad? They may eventually but you can extend their life greatly by looking after them. Workflowy app for macSome cables are sold as 8k ready or with a rating of 48Gbps. HDMI 2.1 cables, on the other hand, are entirely backwards compatible, so while you may need to upgrade your cables to make the most of your new devices, you can use those cables on any of your other HDMI devices if you so choose.So, if you're not having luck with your new HDMI 2.1 enabled devices with your old HDMI cables, the question isn't, "do HDMI cables go bad?", it's "are my old HDMI cables obsolete?" Buying HDMI 2.1? Look out for these featuresAll HDMI 2.1 cables support the new, higher-bandwidth of the standard, but if you're looking to upgrade your cables or buy a new one for a new device, you'll want to make sure you're getting the right one. HDMI 2.1 cables can support Ultra High Speed, which is what allows the greater-than-ever-before bandwidth capabilities of HDMI 2.1 and without it, you cannot take advantage of it.While older HDMI cables will work just fine with HDMI 2.1-supporting devices, they cannot enjoy the added bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 and therefore are not fit for the task of delivering some of the promises HDMI 2.1 makes. That's still true today, but there is a rather large caveat with HDMI 2.1.Like the generations of HDMI cable that came before them, HDMI 2.1 improves the overall bandwidth of the HDMI connection considerably, giving it support for much higher resolutions and refresh rates, as well as new important technologies like display stream compression (DSC), high dynamic range (HDR), and dynamic refresh rates.But where previous generations of HDMI cables didn't require any physical changes to take advantage of these advancements, the HDMI 2.1 standard does. Throughout that time the cables haven't changed much, with each generation being backwards compatible with everything else, no matter how long they are. Version 1.0 became 1.1, then 1.2, and 1.3, and so on.
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