HDMI Cables 22 AWG
Nothing can spoil the look of an immaculately-designed home theater or family room more than an ugly black HDMI cable running along the floor. If you try tucking it under the carpet, there’s an unsightly bulge. If you try running it flush to the wall, it won’t be long before a portion of the cable pops out to ruin the room’s appearance and possibly trip someone. And if you have a long distance between components, it’s unlikely that you have enough furniture along your walls to completely hide the long run of cabling.
The obvious solution is to run longer HDMI cables through the wall so no one can see them. The problem, though, is that most cables aren’t designed for that purpose. The theoretical danger is fire; the materials used to manufacture standard cables can release large amounts of toxic gas when burning at the high temperatures created by a fire. The real danger is more pedestrian: you could end up failing a building inspection. When installed in walls, fire codes uniformly require the use of special types of cables made from materials that restrict the release of toxic gas; those cables carry a National Electrical Code rating of CL2. You should (of course) want to use in-wall rated cables because they’re safer – but you definitely need them, because a building inspector has the power to order you to rip out all of your non-CL2 rated cables and replace them.
Cmple carries a full range of 22-gauge HDMI cables for your home theater. All of them are CL2 rated for in-wall safety – and for protection against building inspectors. Naturally, there’s no requirement that you install these cables inside your walls; they’ll work just as well if you prefer to – or need to – run them behind furniture or along the floor.
Cmple’s Standard Speed HDMI 22AWG Cables
We don’t just manufacture these HDMI cables to satisfy fire standards. We specifically design them for optimal high-definition video and audio transfer between all of the components in your home theater or A/V room.
These Cmple standard speed cables are made from 22 gauge wire, rather than the much thinner 26, 28 or 30 gauge cables you often see used by other companies. The thicker 22AWG cable is capable of handling higher bandwidths with lower resistance, so it’s definitely the preferable choice. We design and build these cables from the highest-quality conductors, and then triple-shield them to protect signals against any possible interference from radio frequency or electromagnetic interference. The entire package is encased in a rugged, durable PVC (polyvinyl chloride) outer jacket which, as we’ve mentioned, is CL2 rated so it can be run inside your walls if desired.
Some companies pay attention to the inside of their cables, but just pay lip service to the connectors attached to them. At Cmple, though, we understand that the connectors are vital for optimal signal transfer. We use fully-molded construction so there’s no chance the cable will break at the point where it’s joined with the connector, even with the normal tension and jiggling often seen with component connections. And we use gold-plated connectors, which serve two purposes. First, they make sure the video and audio connections are “clean” without, for example, the pops or scratches you can hear on an audio track when a cable is shaken. Second, they’re better able to withstand humidity and moisture so they won’t corrode over time.
As you undoubtedly know, HDMI cables are capable of carrying high-quality video and audio signals together, without requiring separate connections for picture and sound. There are rigorous standards for this type of cabling, set by a consortium established by equipment manufacturers to guarantee that all signals are delivered properly. Cmple’s standard speed cables meet or exceed every one of the HDMI 1.X standards.
Let’s start with video. Our 22AWG HDMI cables support high-definition digital video transfer for the resolutions used by most people’s HDTVs, monitors and equipment: 1080p, 1080i and 720p. They’re also able to handle 480i and 480p standard definition signals, of course. These cables can handle modern refresh rates of 120/240hz and higher, and if you’re using the Cmple HDMI cables to connect to a computer monitor (which is fairly common in these days of multiple video sources and cross-platform usage), they support computer resolutions all the way up to 1920 x 1200. This cabling also supports HDCP anti-piracy protocols, which means you can transfer copy-protected content between your devices without an issue.
The audio performance of our Cmple 22AWG HDMI cables is equally impressive. They are built to handle today’s high-resolution digital audio signals with signal transfer that’s as close to perfect as any cable can deliver. They are also specifically designed to be able to work with the very latest audio standards like Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS Master Audio.
We’ve talked about HDMI standards and CL2 fire standards, but our standard speed HDMI cables meet other important standards as well. They conform to the CEC standards for energy-efficiency, as well as meeting RoHS standards ensuring that they don’t contain any potentially-hazardous substances like lead, mercury, cadmium, PBBs or PBDEs.
Which Cmple Cable To Buy
In many of our Cmple cable categories it can be difficult to choose the right cable for your needs. You don’t face any complicated decisions when purchasing one of our 22AWG HDMI cables, though. They’re all standard black in color, and all that differentiates them is their length. Measure the distance between your components (be sure to allow a little extra, particularly for in-wall installations), and you’ll know whether you need our 30, 35, 45, 50, 75 or 100 foot Cmple HDMI cable.
And don’t be concerned if you “go a little high” on your estimate, because these cables are built to avoid signal loss over their length. Using a 50-foot cable for a 30 foot run won’t lead to any signal degradation; it only means you’ve got some extra cabling to hide if you decide not to install it into your walls.
You’ll find that our Cmple 22AWG cables are surprisingly inexpensive, but don’t let that bother you. There are lots of companies that try to sell overpriced cables with promises that they’ll outperform anything on the market – but that simply isn’t true. Their high-priced cables meet the exact same HDMI standards that ours do; the only differences are that we offer ours at reasonable prices, and we manufacture every one of them to our exacting quality standards.
