The technical problem with long HDMI runs

When you subtitle your article "How the designers of the HDMI standard screwed up, and what's to be done about it", then you better bring the goods in the text itself.  Anti-DRM warriors can stand down, however, as Audioholics review is a purely technical analysis of the limitations of the physicals of HDMI cables to do the job required of them over distance. Interestingly, the increasing move to 1080p and the new HDMI 1.3 standard exacerbate the issue by increasing bitrate requirements while doing nothing to increase physical reliability of the HDMI cable itself. As Audioholics notes:

"We have found that, at 720p and 1080i, well-made cables up to around 50 feet  (~15m) will work properly with most, but not all, source/display combinations. If 1080p becomes a standard, plenty of cables which have been good enough to date will fail. And it gets worse..."

If you're interested in Home Theater setups, and particulary if you need longer HDMI runs to make your system run the way you'd like, you probably should take a peek at this one. Please note, for what it's worth, that at the end the author discloses he is involved with a commercial effort to make better HDMI cables without changing the spec.

Props to our friends at The Tech Report for the tip on this one.