this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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Digital cables, like HDMI and USB. If they meet the spec, they should operate identically.
ETA: It's a digital signal: either it works or it doesn't. There's no "higher quality" version of the same image. Sure, if you have a 4K 120hz HDR signal you might need an HDMI 2.1 spec cable, but as long as it meets that spec, it'll either work or need to be returned. The signal won't be washed out, or crackly, or static-y (all the concerns we had with analog video cables back in the day); the signal might not work, or it might drop out from time to time, which means it doesn't meet spec.
Same with USB-C. If it doesn't charge your phone correctly, or have the transfer speeds you want, because you bought it at a Dollar Store and it isn't in spec, the problem isn't USB-C, it's the fact that the manufacturer sold you an out-of-spec cable.
Getting good quality cables can make a difference.
Getting gold-plated cables will not ever. I fucking see you Monster. For $40 a cable that thing better also come with a free handy and an ice cream.
"Quality" just means "in spec." It's a digital signal; it can't be of a higher or lower quality, it just either works or it doesn't.
Build quality does matter though. Especially for a cable that will be plugged in and out frequently.
That was kind of my point with the gold plated cables though; the ads for them will act like they're better in some way and that you'll get ultra high speed super definition picture or whatever. But it's the same damn spec as the Amazon Basics cable.
The specification includes the cable's capabilities, though. And sure, build quality can affect longevity, but if it doesn't meet the minimum capability at time of manufacture, it's not in spec.
But yeah, especially back in the early 2000s/2010s when we were making the jump from analog to digital cables, a lot of companies were trying to convince consumers that digital cables had to be made of premium materials like analog cables did, despite the fact that part of the point of digital cables is that the signal is binary both in composition and in nature: it's made of 1s and 0s, but it also either works or it doesn't.